bigway

well my turn now....i put this up so i better answer it. First i dont think it is a case by case basis at all. I think it is cheaper on the pocket and less hassle here in new zealand as we do it every 6 months........but i do like the 120day cycle as i enjoy my life and like to be safe. i have never had a reserve repacked every 120 days as i guess in nz i have not needed to. I would welcome the 120day cycle just cause i know that i am not going to have it checked until the mandatory date has come. I would rather have it checked every 3-4 months as i want to myself doing 200 jumps in this period as a camera flyer. I really dont care how often i have to buy a reserve as to me this is semi life insurance and it is not easy to get life insurance travelling around the world and jumping out of planes. However where i come from our riggers charge around the 25u.s. dollar mark for a repack. Someone paid a comment about it costing 100u.s.dolaar to for a repack, well i think that is an outrageous price and is taking the piss. I guess though if that is the price over there for the service well so be it but you would think the skydivers in the states would not let it get any higher. With that sort of price, getting your riggers ticket would be an essential part of your kit bag. thanks for the respones everyone, my comments are just from my view and i have only been jumping for three years. blue skies and few clouds .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

yeah dont go giving up smoking, you need something to do while you are waititng for the plane.....you are always waiting for a plane or a person to pack or the clouds to piss off. Some people think skydiving is action, half the time it is waiting. even instead of a tandem go and do a static line jump so you can start learning your canopy control. enjoy. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

does it cost you guys $100 u.s. for a repack?? far out, our riggers back home charge $25 u.s but it takes forever for my rigger to get the job done. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

scotland....all blacks are playing oz in about 7 hours. i run a pub here so opening up early. i wish i still had my pub down in oxford during those last english matches. i hate skydiving here, my closest dz is one hour away, it is only open in the weekends and it rains every weeken. i am waiting for lynley and gareth in aucks to send over my new gear and the heading to austria and hopefully meet up with jamie cardow at the world champs in croatia. yeah i was at mercer. i was one of those graduates from the chch diploma course, but dont get me started on that course. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

whhooo. no mate i aint trying to talk about bounce rate death rate or anything of the sort. I am just asking why the re pack is different for different countries. in skydiving we all seem to stick to the same rules(most of them anyway) i am just trying to see why this law in our sport is different. All the comments about taupo and things just come into it and if it was mentioned first by me was because i was trying to explain where my question is coming from. I am pretty sure that i never started comparing death rates i was merley saying that wigh 2 fatalities that this can not be the reason why the states does not have the law of repacks every 6 months. i never said that reserve repacks were relevant to fatalities i was trying to show that it is not. as we do it six months and they do it 4 months. you got a bit of spark in you havent ya mate? .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

guys, i have just had an agent in new zealand have a rig made for me as well as canopies. they are due to send it over from NZ to the uk where i am now. even though she is a master rigger should i have my reserve repacked when it arrives here after being in transit, i imagine with customs and things throwing stuff around? .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

im sorry, i am not trying to compare the incidents at all. i understand that there is a shit load more jumping in the states. i was just trying to say that we repack our gear evey 6 months and it seems to do the trick. Those fatalities were 1 being a hook turn and the other, i am not sure but if i remember correctly it was a suicide(no disrespect to the family, sorry if i am wrong). my point is our reserve canopies get touched a minimum of twice a year. The canopies in the states get opened and touched a minimum of 3 thimes a year thats 5 times more than us in five years. in my opinon which is not one of an expert but a jumper, i am just trying to understand why it is neccesary for your reserve pack to be opened that one extra time a year. someone posted that after 20 repacks you need a new reserve. that means at a minimum the life of your reserve is 6 years and 8 months. where as in new zealand the minimum life is 10 years. do i sound like an idiot ramblin on about this or do i have a point? respect to the states though, i would love to be able to live in the states as that is where my sport peaks. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

i really dont like seatbelts on take off in certain aircrafts. we had them put in our porter, that was fine but in the 185, well too many people were trying to step out with their belt still attatched to them. this is not a rule in new zealand but it is advised after a plane came down at 150ft. i have just had a new rig, canopy and reserve made for me, i have not rceived it yet but after the first jump i know how safe i am going to feel knowing that my reserve has only been packed once. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

why is it not though? maybe because different manufactures have different opinions. and we also mix and match gear. i am happy with it the way it is over here but i amtrying to figure out how others like it. there is 2 ways to look at it. you can have your parachute checked as often as possible but then will the risk be higher because it is being worked on too much? .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

he bounced and only got concusion. damn he needs a lotto ticket. cant comment on the downplane as i have no clue but dead man walking needs a lotto ticket .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

jim, one other thing, when i was talking about a record of the most tandems i was not reffering to 30 tandem masters attempting to break a world record by doing 8 jumps each. i was however talking about a COMMERCIAL dropzone on a normal working day doing 140 jumps from customers who have booked tandem skydives. not a big event but a normal day at the dz. this like 7 tandem master doing 20 jumps each in a day with no media or official ladedaded. another comment you made about reserve packs not affecting fatalities well if we have only had 2 fatalities in 8 years or so i would say our repacks do work as all the other people that have had mals obviously used their reserve to survive. Hence their reserve repacks must have saved their lives. I am pretty sure, well not that i know of anyway but pretty certain that they did not throw up their breakfast thinking it could act as a reserve parachute. so this makes me wonder what is safer? a/ a regular 6 month repack/inspection or.. b/ eating your breakfast in the morning. i have done by the sounds of it the same amount of jumps as yourself. i have not eaten breakfast in many years but have had 7 repacks on my rigs and 2 malfunctions. the repack option seems to work for me. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

what is nonsense? the only 2 fatalities? or the it seems to be working? you seem to disagree with everything i write. i am curious if you have bothered to look anything up about skydiving in new zealand? or do you just get off on disagreeing? .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

the last was a student on his 8th jump he thought he was pretty good and tried to do a stupid hook turn on a student rig/canopy. the other one was another student, i cant remember what happened but it closed a drop zone for many years. we have had our incidents over here but only a couple that were serious enough for hospital. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

alright, maybe i stand correct. this dz is very busy, they charge 100 us dollars to 12,000ft. people come from all over the world for this place but anyway i was just trying to talk about repacks. cheers all .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

thats 140 jumps on a normal buissness day with all 140 tandem jumps from 10k-16k. you show me a place that has done more that is not just hop n pops. taupo tandems was the dropzone and that has been recognised for being the buisiest commercial dropzone in the world. they do at least a minmum of 100 tandems a day on a full good weather day. i am not from this dropzone and have never jumped there but you can always look it up or prove me wrong. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

just curious to see what people from other counties think and how they do things. thanks for answering. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

thank you riggerrob....i have been much anticipating your response to this and yet again you have made all very clear and very detailed. thank you for your insight.......everyone. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

what are you on about? they both hold the blame. if they planned for a 2 way from 5,000ft with 2 novice/inter jumpers with one in freefly and the other in belly. that is fuct up full stop. how dangerous can you get?????!!! he did well to get out of it but he should blame himself for letting him put himself in that position. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

i am not soley saying it was set to provide riggers with an income. I think they could have pushed for it to be as often as it is but that is not what i am trying to ask here. we do it here in new zealand every 6 months, this proven to work as we have only 2 fatalities in 8 years!! the states do it every 4 months so i am now told. Why do they do it every 4 months? nz has the record for tandem skydives at any commercial drop zone. why when our country is known as a place to do a skydive or a bunjee jump do we do it only every 6 months when you guys in the states do it every 4 months. I think that our tandem rigs get used just as much as the states if not more. and the whole thing about the riggers income is me saying that if we did it every 4 months our few riggers would be able to live from skydiving like all the rest of us that do it as a proffession. I also suggest that on the flip side if you the states was to change from 4 months to 6 months there would be a big up roar from all the riggers because at the bust dropzones their incomes would drop. I know it is primarily a safety reason but it is the skydivers that make the safety reasons that are in place. we do it every 6 months and most guys in the industry are doing 1000+ jumps a year. why do the states do a mandatory re pack every 4 months? and what the hell is up with you guys in deutchland being able to pack your own reserve when you have an a locense.? .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

we only have about 400 skydivers in new zealand...if that. so our riggers have other jobs and also do glider rigs. But you may know that one of our dz's holds the world record for commercial tandems in one day. Something like 140. So this dz ..like most of our dz's are doing around 80-120 tandems a day. Ok so these tandem rigs only need to be aired and checked once every 6 months. I belive these rigs should be checked once a month because of the high volumes of jumps they are doing. this here would give riggers full time work. So i guess what i am saying is that i think tandems and sport rigs and comercial camera rigs should have different times for repacks. i.e. tandems once a month camera rigs every three months and sport rigs as they are every 6 months or maybe every 4 months.. we charge about 25u.s. dollars(50nzdollars) for a repack. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

i understand that in the states you must have reserve air and checks every three months. In new zealand we only have to have them every 6 months. As of this our riggers can not make a living from this. In the states do you think you have these checks of course for safety but do you think it is also a way for your riggers to make a living at the busy dz's. I am only wondering what you all think. I am not rubbishing your ways. I think it is a very good thing to always keep your gear well looked after but also think it must be quite expensive. Some people...i.e. workers on dz's would think it is worth it as they are doing so many jumps but what about the people who jump once or twice a week. This must be a huge cost for them. We in new zealand have not had a fatality in years, i think only 2 in 8 years, so the six months seems to be working. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

stop using your cellphone!!!! do you see cellphones involved with skydiving? get rid of the things that you do not need. this sport is well worth it. you have alot to pay for, alot of gear to buy, alot of jumps to do, and as a student you are going to be bying a shit load of beer! i belive to get into jumping you need to put everything into it. especially your wallet. good luck, enjoy this shit cause you only live once. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

i am happy for you, i can see that you have great awarness and the ability to get out of sticky situations. The thing is even in your defence you are not mentioning what is important. You must talk your jump through before you get in the plane.!!! this will stop you from having to get out of bad situations. You must realise this. you must talk your jump through. I have been reading through your posts in the forums and you sound like a chain of events happening. you need to start planning your jumps. Skydiving is easy, but it is not as easy to be safe skydiving. You can not just get in a plane without saying anything and jumping. that is just lazy unsafe skydiving. speak to your dzso or someone that can tell you more on what i am saying, you will realise i am not judging but merly trying to help .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

yesz, thank you for backing that up. I hope this bloke for his own sake....not mine cause aint from lithuania...but his sake that he learns how to jump safe not just jump with no clue. If you are unsure there are lots of people on a dz that will assist you, i mean whats this guy doing while everyone is dirt diving and talking over there jumps....i am betting this bloke is always last with his kit on and always moving in the plane. .Karnage Krew Gear Store .

mate i respect a lot of your posts and look up to your experience but here i think you are missing something. a junior an a interm. went for a skydive. This guy par, good on him for the awarness of his surroundings. and getting out of a sticky situation. The thing is though all this would have been avoided or could have been avoided if they did one of the first things they are taught in aff. VISUALISE YOUR JUMP. Now how can you visualise your jumps if you do not talk about what is going to happen after exit? They should have practised their exit. then they should have talked if it was going to be a sitfly or belly fly. To tell you the truth they just should not have been in the sky togethor. One guy sit flying, obviously no control in the sit fly cause he was all over the belly flier, same fall rate, above him , tacking with him...damn it sounds like a bloke trying to learn how to sit fly and just jumps with anyone and does what he wants. I think it takes a guy with a head on him at 75 jumps to talk to this guy that he has never jumped with before and dirt dive. otr at least talk about flying style, breakaway height, pull height...none of this was done. They are both at fault here and the more experienced jumpers sounds like a dick head if he has 300 jumps and puts the other bloke in this bad situation. But the junior jumper needs to have the balls to look up to this more experienced jumper and do a dirt dive or talk it through so he has something to visualise. These 2 fools went in to a plane up to 5000ft and just jumped and broke every fucking rule in the book. Now he needs to speak up and make sure his dzso has a word to him before he kills himself and as for the junior jumper he needs to speak to an instructor about safe skydiving before getting in the plane. Sorry to sound so harsh but these guys have no respect for each other or their jump, and to me this sounds dangerous for anyone else on that load that might have jumped out before them at the very least. I am lightening up, this guy needs to know that they are both in the wron and both need to sit down and learn their safety skills. Blue skies .Karnage Krew Gear Store .