tt473

More than enough for owning gear to make sense financially. It's an average £13 for rental at my DZs. Reserve repacks are £40 (so £80 per year, say, assuming I jump through winter as well). Assuming I have no other maintenance costs, I only need to make 7 jumps to be in "profit" from owning instead of renting - and every jump above and beyond that is £13 saved. Assuming no other rigging costs! Which hasn't been the case this year :/

Hi. I don't really jump very often and I have a perfectly good rig with a forgiving 210 main that I know a lot of the other newer club jumpers at my DZ would love to use if they could, rather than waiting for rental/student rigs when available. I might jump on one more occasion this year, or maybe not even that, so my rig is just sitting there doing nothing. I've heard before that people do loan their rigs to people for the short- or medium-term and I'd be interested in doing this, to get a bit of money back for myself and seriously cut costs for the other guy as well. Firstly, is this actually done or am I mistaken? What do I need to think about, and should I draw up a little contract in case of problems? I'm thinking of things like who is responsible for repacking costs in case of a reserve opening (definitely the guy jumping it, IMO), and what if he loses the main, or damages it or the some other part of the rig? Wear and tear should be accounted for in the fee he pays me to use the rig, but large-scale damage is another matter. Do you have any suggestions or is this a fairly simple thing really? Thanks,

The main reason I've "nearly quit" and just do about a dozen jumps per season: > I think my DZ has about the most friendly atmosphere possible, but I lack the social skills and energy to integrate properly and make friends so as to get into two-ways and beyond. This is made worse by the fact that I don't go to the DZ very often (not every month, by any means) and so am not a regular face there. Solo jumps got boring by about my third one and I just have no interest in them at all, but most times I go I end up doing three solos and am completely sick of jumping by the end of the day. > I don't have my own transport and I rely on lifts from instructors or other jumpers, and I'm a bit uncomfortable with that arrangement. Also, my availability/motivation often doesn't match theirs, so if I miss the one week in six that I feel like a day at the DZ, because I can't get a lift, then the opportunity has passed. > Cost... to some extent. But it's not a huge problem. I could afford a great deal more skydiving than I actually do... but I guess I just don't like it enough to want to spend more on it. >... I just don't like it that much! I rarely check this forum any more, and don't think about jumping when I'm not there or about to visit the DZ. Maybe I'm "doing it wrong" etc. but ultimately I don't find much pleasure in it and the whole act is fairly boring to me. I get a lot more pleasure from other hobbies which most people would think are extremely tame and uninteresting - because I can engage with them more, more often, and for longer at a time. Skydiving is physically limited in this regard. On a nice sunny day there are several places I'd rather be than at the DZ. This is also no doubt related to some of the other points above, and they all feed into each other. *shrug* It's not for everyone.

This has been an interesting discussion, thanks for the replies. In my case, I decided to accept the work done and not complain, because to do so would have seriously harmed my "DZ experience" and damaged my relationship with the rigger. After he went through it with me, some of the work seems to have been necessary (as in, he wouldn't have completed the repack without it), and some was pretty much cosmetic external stuff (or loosely preventative, perhaps - to be generous). In future I will just make sure to specify that he please contact me if the agreed work and agreed cost looks set to change in any way at all. As mentioned - people aren't all that hard to reach these days, and I, for one (as I will clarify to him) am never in so much of a rush for my rig to be airworthy again.

There was no agreement - it never occurred to me that he'd do things to the rig without me asking him to. I just dropped it off for a standard repack, at the usual $40 cost that was confirmed and agreed, and then it turned out that a bunch of other stuff was done, costing about 20% of the rig's whole value. Money I can't really afford and would not have spent by choice...

Hi. I'm wondering what the convention is for work done on a rig without the owner's consent? Like, if during an inspection or repack a rigger identifies an issue that needs attention, will he go ahead and make repairs and then charge the owner, or first ask if he should do the work and if the charge is agreed? Even if the work is essential for the airworthiness of the rig, it occurs to me that the owner might choose just to retire or sell the rig rather than fund repairs, right? And since most rigs have a near endless list of repairs/improvements that could be made, but aren't essential, a rigger could otherwise go ahead and do $100s worth of work on pretty much any rig that comes his way. What's the deal here? If "essential" (if there is such a thing) work was done without asking me first, how am I supposed to proceed? I don't want to piss off the riggers but if I didn't ask for it, and didn't approve it, it seems a bit unreasonable to be charged for it without my go-ahead.