Leaderboard

To add to my answer above, that answer, as with most of my gear descriptions in this thread, is with Cooper era gear in mind. Back mains that pair with front reserves. Modern era piggyback rigs, with the main and reserve both incorporated into the same rig, those all do have packing cards, the card being pertinent to the reserve. The rigs that do not have cards are Cooper era back mains, which that McCoy rig is. Bailout rigs of all eras and types do have cards.

This gets asked every so often. This is what I wrote a couple years ago.

No. Reserves and bailout rigs are considered 'life-saving' devices. They are designed primarily for reliability, and have to pass testing standards. They are required to be inspected and packed by a licensed rigger within certain time periods. They have seals and packing cards. One of the purposes of the packing card is so that the user, the pilot, or other interested party (such as a drop zone owner or incident investigator) can check to make sure it is 'in date', and legal to use. Mains are considered 'sporting equipment', and do not have to meet those standards. Manufacturers can design them more for flight performance, which might affect their reliability. They don't require seals or cards. In the sport environment, mains might be used several times a day, or week, or however busy the jumper is. A card would be superfluous and impossible to keep up with. A main is supposed to be packed by either the user, a rigger, or someone 'under the supervision' of a rigger, which means someone a rigger approves. Military might be different. I'm not a rigger, so I'm not sure. Some military mains might have cards, but I've never heard of it, I don't think so. The idea would be that if there was an incident, they would want to know who packed it. But in any military operation, they would know which military loft the gear came from, and the loft would keep such records.

He should be posting in the "body count" thread in Bonfire.

Well, it's been a while... but mentioning pulling off pieces at low altitudes.... Back "in the Day" at Scare-Us-Valley in the early mornings with the cloud ceiling around 3 to 3,5K and no holes.. Bob Webb would get on the Mike and say he'd take a load to the cloud base f anyone wanted... Well "GOOD FUN" we called them TORPEDO RUN'S!!! the Otter throttles Ballz2Dwall and above the DZ we'd Launch.. Donuts, Diamonds, Rounds .. trying to "Frisby launch" the piece!! We'd get a good 10 to 15 seconds and a couple of points!!! Did I say "GOOD FUN!!!" .. The Best of times!!! foto: anybody remember this place?? Note!!: no Rock Crushing plant in the background and YOU may be in the foto .. if yer' old enough!!!! skybill

It may not have been as safe, but those of us who survived do have better stories... Wendy P.