Packing a Direct Bag

[piercewhat 0]

I just reveived my Direct Bag from Apex, but have no idea how to pack it. Does anyone have any instructions. I emailed Apex but wanted to see if there were multiple ways to pack it. Also what is the lowest you have taken a Direct Bag jump?

Thanks for your help

[TomAiello 26]

You can find a .pdf file entitled "Dbag.pdf" which covers "use of CR direct bag" in the Consolidated Rigging Document Library.

Several years ago I bought one and made a number of jumps on it, more as a novelty than anything else. The lowest I've taken a direct bag is about 170 feet, but the lowest I've seen on video is under 70 feet. Definitely practice with yours somewhere safe, and sort out how low you are willing to go while you still have plenty of altitude underneath you.

-- Tom Aiello

Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[nicknitro71 0]

Go here:

http://www.simsphotos.com/images/base-jump-gallery/index.html

Toward the middle there is a series of shots of me experimenting with a home-made d-bag.

The deployment is incredibly fast, faster then a well executed PCA.

Look at the difference in deployment from my wife's PCA (the pics before my jump).

I pretty much pack BASE "normally" and then s-fold the canopy like I would do to bag a skydiving main.

Memento Audere Semper

903

[piercewhat 0]

Thanks for the help Nick. The DBag from Apex is as long as a base container so I was a little confused. I will post pictures in the morning. I didn't know if I should just slide it in like it would look in a standard container.

[460 0]

The Dbag: invented by Mark Hewitt, BASE 46. It results in the most on-heading, reliable, and quickest opening possible, aka, instant parachute, just add air, provided your bag holder doesn't screw anything up. Choose your bag holder well. Tie your bag to something in case your bag holder drops it. Better yet, tie each handle to something on each side in case your bag holder drops one side, which would result in a bad off-heading opening.

Looks like a death sandwich without the bread - Steve Deadman Morrell, BASE 174

[Lonnie 0]

Good advice!

ALWAYS tie it off!
It's happened before, that the holder has dropped the d-bag.

NEVER GIVE UP!

[magot 0]

Nitro also put a rubber band at the top of the d-bag to ensure a good deployment sequence. Much the same way a primary stowe works u just loop it around the bridal attachment point. and yes its agood idea to have the bag clipped to the person holding it or something fixed.

TOSS MY SALAD
I'm an invincible re-tarded ninja
derka derka bakala bakala muhammad jihad
1072

[piercewhat 0]

Thanks for the help. I will have to give it a try soon.

[cornishe 0]

pack it as you would your base rig. the pack job should fit in the bag. there should be line stows like your skydiving system. place the bag inside your container and close the container so you can get to your exit point. have your bag holder remove the bag and attached the saftey line(s) then 321cya. think about the way you slide the packjob into the bag and the way it will be held and how it will come out. very easy to pack a 180 if your a shmuck.

-am

Abbie Mashaal
Skydive Idaho
Snake River Skydiving
TandemBASE

[460 0]

It's very critical in the direct bag system that the holder not let the bag fall through the lines or twist the bag during extraction. The system is very good but it requires some attention to detail, as Cornishe describes. Simulate with your bag holder the removal of the bag from the container and everything else while on the ground so you are not haunted on the exit point by either fear, uncertainty, or anything else while you are on the ground.

Looks like a death sandwich without the bread - Steve Deadman Morrell, BASE 174

[gharendza 0]

Hi,

As Mr. Chris, BASE #460 posted.
Mark Hewitt BASE #46 Invented the "Direct Bag".
Along with many other Early BASE Inventions,
Including the Line Release Modifaction (LRM).

When Mark Hewitt Designed the "Direct Bag"',
Most BASE Jumpers were Jumping Skydiving Rigs, the two Container System.

Thus, it was Very easy to Machine Sew two handles on a Skydiving Deployment Bag, then pack Your Main parachute and Close your rig just like a Skydiving Rig, (Without for a Pilot Chute and Bridle).

Note: I've used a #8 penny nail to use as a closing pin.

Also it's a Very Strong Idea to mark the Top of The "Direct Bag" ...TOP !

Everything Else Mr. Chris BASE # 460 is Correct !

Gerald Harendza
BASE # 75
New York

[RayLosli 11]

Wasn't there something from years back of Tracy in a pinch. Using a pair of Levis to D-Bag ? Off a Water Tower of something ?
Tying the legs of the Levi's off to anchor.
.

[TowerTopper 0]

I didn't really care for the Direct Bag deployment. I tried one jump with a D-Bag in TF and it seemed to take forever to open, 2+ seconds. First time we put it in the bag (packed as normal but S-folded in the bag) we had the handles marked Left and Right backwards, so we re S-folded it right so we wouldn't get mixed up at the exit pulling it out of the back of the container. We had the PC off and I can't remember if we hooked the PC to the bag or if we hooked the bag to the bridge as a back up, Tom do you remember?. I figured it would snap right open, it didn't, must of not like being folded in the bag twice, but boy it seemed like a lifetime in 2 seconds knowing I was without that PC when I was all ready for that instant opening and it didn't happen. Most people I've talk with about D Bag Deployments have had no problems with them. Try yours up high first. Did you buy a D-Bag or a Sleeve from Apex? I was wondering how much different they where from each other.

[cornishe 0]

the d-bag will always be a soft opening, just like a SL. there is not much airspeed which is even build up during a go and throw. this may be why it felt like a lifetime; no snapping opening. in those 2 seconds though, from jump to flying canopy, i´ll bet you only fell 100 feet. maybe 80.

what will i bet you ask? collin´s life.

-am

Abbie Mashaal
Skydive Idaho
Snake River Skydiving
TandemBASE

[TomAiello 26]

Quote

We had the PC off and I can't remember if we hooked the PC to the bag or if we hooked the bag to the bridge as a back up, Tom do you remember?

The bag was attached to the bridge.

-- Tom Aiello

Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[lifewithoutanet 0]

Quote

what will i bet you ask? collin´s life.

That's me. "Stunt Russel / Test Splatula".

Pains me to say it, but...Abbie's right. It was most likely the relative airspeed that had you thinking it took longer. D-bags be fast.

-C.

[piercewhat 0]

Here is the D-bag.

[NickDG 23]

Since I've been working at Apex BASE almost six months now I can compare it to the early 90s when I worked here doing the same thing but we were called Basic Research.

Sure, I know we are drawing in new BASE jumpers much earlier in their skydiving careers. But, frankly, I’m pretty astounded at the lack of gear knowledge so many prospective BASE jumpers now display. It wasn’t that prevalent before.

There’s always been a certain amount of hand holding in this sport, but back in the day a customer would call me and tell me what they wanted; now they ask me what they should get. There is confusion in even the little things like the difference between 0-3 and ZP fabric. “Oh yeah I get now, 0-3 is that stuff reserves are built from.”

That's a real sea change in BASE jumping.

For instance this direct bag thing. Okay, yes, they are somewhat out of favor nowadays, but some of the “wisdom” this fellow with his new direct bag is getting is really out there. One guy wrote him privately to say, "That's not a direct bag, it's a POD." And up-board there’s someone saying direct bags make for slow deployments like it's a fact of life.

In this time when many jumpers are so gear/rigging handicapped we probably should embrace the simplicity of things like direct bags. While some here act like they wouldn’t touch one with a ten foot pole the fact is direct bag deployments are tried and proven. In fact the major argument against them became not about reliability but more about the increased “freefall” time one could get off a low object by using static line or even PCA.

There’s been just one direct bag fatality (the holder dropped the bag) and it amazes me that when static line came into favor (two things imported by the Brits, the Beatles and static line BASE, and they should have quit after the Beatles) direct bag fell from favor but look at how many static line failures have since occurred. Aside from the fact you need an assistant everyone is forgetting Mark’s idea for the direct bag was just a better and safer way of static lining very low stuff.

Then a funny thing happened. Almost every BASE jumper who started in the mid-80s started on direct bag. It became the “tool” for teaching new BASE jumpers. “You can blow your launch, you can flail like your at an ethic funeral, you can even cover your eyes and scream like a baby, but I’ve got your bag, man, and everything’s gonna be cool.”

In fact none of us thought twice about putting a first time BASE jumper off a tower with a direct bag simply because direct bag was so reliable it negated the other factors. We would never put someone off a solid object for the first time any other way.

I’ll caveat the above by also saying the average new BASE jumper in the mid-1980s was more experienced, gear-wise, air-wise, and canopy control-wise than today’s new BASE jumper. That fact alone means mentors need to be a step above where they were twenty years ago. I know most of the professional and established first BASE courses are doing a great job, but I do worry more about the part-timers who maybe shouldn’t be a mentors at all. But that’s the price we’ve always paid for our freedom.

There is one thing that hasn’t changed and it's still good advice for all beginners – it’s not the drop zone, so be careful who you hang with.

Oh, wait a minute there’s the phone . . .

“Apex BASE, this is Nick.”

“Hey man, I need some of that breakable shoelace stuff cause I found this building and I want to static line it. Where do I tie it to?”

Gee, it’s going to be a long day . . .

NickD BASE 194

[avenfoto 0]

....

[460 0]

Nick, good to see you posting again.

Have you thought about one of those automated answering machines for Apex to alleviate you from answering the same frustrating questions over and over? Something like "Press 1 for direct bags. Press 2 for pin rigs. Press 3 for expeditions. [beep 1]. Direct bags. Listen carefully for some things in this menu have changed. Press 1 for basic direct bag information. Press 2 for direct bag packing instructions. Press 3 for directions on how to ..."

Looks like a death sandwich without the bread - Steve Deadman Morrell, BASE 174

[swooper120 0]

I was the holder of the EVIL BASE RIGGING D-BAG Mod, and was quite impressed. As I was holding the d-bag I expected much more pull, and there was basically none. The Vintage Fury opened madfast for a ragged out pink piece of Sh$t, but the concept was a good one.

The lines were even stowed with stows, and the opening was on heading. Also, Evil utilizes a tail-gate slash tail pocket stow idea, which is EVIL Rigging at its best.

Check it out, PM nicknitro71, its all good.

No Doubt
-LIL Buddy

MAGGOT IS MY MENTOR...future site coming soon!

[nicknitro71 0]

Yo, ease out on the '87 Fury.

It might be a ragged-out-vintage-pink 'n' burgandy-piece-of-shit but it has its place in this world and it's a swoop monster

Memento Audere Semper

903