FAA Changes Rule on Main Parachutes.

[3331 137]

From the USPA Website today.

On June 3, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a final rule amendment to Part 65 of the Federal Aviation Regulations, which addresses certification of parachute riggers. The change to Section 65.111(b) removed the authority of a non-certificated person (including a rig owner or packer) to “maintain or alter” a main parachute when not under the supervision of a current parachute rigger. 

A person may still pack a main parachute “when that person will be the next jumper to use the parachute” or, in the case of packers, for instance, “when under the supervision of a current certificated parachute rigger.” The FAA says the amendment corrects an unintended change to the rule when it was last revised in 2001. 

I Jumped with the guys who invented Skydiving.

[IanHarrop 42]

Noted here:
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3882376

which tells people to look here for more discussion
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3876375#3876375

"Where troubles melt like lemon drops, away above the chimney tops, that's where you'll find me" Dorothy

[ChrisL 2]

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Noted here:
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3882376

which tells people to look here for more discussion
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3876375#3876375

Unfortunately, even though the questions were asked very directly several times, there were no direct answers give to them. Just a lot of back and forth about what it means to riggers.

Nobody had much of an answer for what it means for us non-riggers in either thread that I could see.

I'm not any kind of rigger at all. Can I legally replace broken rubber bands on my own d-bag? Can I legally replace my own closing loop?

I didnt see a single straight answer to the effect this will have on guys like me

__

My mighty steed

[mark 107]

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I'm not any kind of rigger at all. Can I legally replace broken rubber bands on my own d-bag? Can I legally replace my own closing loop?

I didn't see a single straight answer to the effect this will have on guys like me.

All the change did was return to the regulation as written before 2001. There was no legal basis for the change made in 2001, so the FAA felt legally obligated to fix it.

If you keep asking whether it is legal to replace rubber bands and closing loops, you will get an answer. Consider whether you want an answer, or whether you would like to keep it ambiguous the way it is now.

Mark

[Andy9o8 2]

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I'm not any kind of rigger at all. Can I legally replace broken rubber bands on my own d-bag? Can I legally replace my own closing loop?

I didn't see a single straight answer to the effect this will have on guys like me.

All the change did was return to the regulation as written before 2001. There was no legal basis for the change made in 2001, so the FAA felt legally obligated to fix it.

If you keep asking whether it is legal to replace rubber bands and closing loops, you will get an answer. Consider whether you want an answer, or whether you would like to keep it ambiguous the way it is now.

Good point. Arguably might also apply to stuff like 3-ring maintenance, cleaning your cutaway cable, etc. Yeh, vague is OK.

[jakee 1,500]

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I'm not any kind of rigger at all. Can I legally replace broken rubber bands on my own d-bag? Can I legally replace my own closing loop?

I didn't see a single straight answer to the effect this will have on guys like me.

All the change did was return to the regulation as written before 2001. There was no legal basis for the change made in 2001, so the FAA felt legally obligated to fix it.

If you keep asking whether it is legal to replace rubber bands and closing loops, you will get an answer. Consider whether you want an answer, or whether you would like to keep it ambiguous the way it is now.

Good point. Arguably might also apply to stuff like 3-ring maintenance, cleaning your cutaway cable, etc. Yeh, vague is OK.

Arguably how?

D-bags, closing loops, 3-rings, cables... none of these are part of a main parachute, they're part of a container system. Since the FAA provide TSO's to container systems, they probably know this already.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[Andy9o8 2]

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D-bags, closing loops, 3-rings, cables... none of these are part of a main parachute, they're part of a container system.

[French accent]
You zkydivers are always trying to pull a fast one on us at ze FAA. Well, I, Inspector Clousseau, am on ze case, and I am nobody's fool!

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Now look what you've gone and done.

[riggerrob 643]

This just clears up an accidental ambiguity in an earlier version (circa 2000) of the FAR.

Since very few non-riggers know how to operate sewing machines, the latest version of the FAR returns the responsibility for "repairs or alterations" to riggers.

[ChrisL 2]

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If you keep asking whether it is legal to replace rubber bands and closing loops, you will get an answer. Consider whether you want an answer, or whether you would like to keep it ambiguous the way it is now.

Mark

I currently have a life insurance policy that will pay my
wife if I'm killed in a skydiving accident.

I guess whether I want an answer or not depends on whether some insurance company would use this to as an excuse to deny death benefits if it turned out I had changed my own rubber bands.

__

My mighty steed

[councilman24 37]

None of those parts listed are part of the items certified under TSO testing and approval. They are not certified parts. Whether they are part of the 'main' or container is irrelevant. A rigger need not maintain records on work done on them. The PIA Parachute Certification Standards Committee considered adding the main release system to the TSO'd parts until I pointed out that then a rigger would be needed to assemble it.

The FAA didn't get the paragraphs right in the 2001 revision. They never intended to change the rule then and so didn't consider it changed. They did acknowledge that the language was wrong and this editorial change corrects it.

And I agree. Nobody wants to know whether it is legal to change a rubber band or loop. It IS usual for a non-rigger owner to do it. If it was illegal in 1995 it was illegal in 2005 and is illegal now. But, since no records are required for this it is as a pratical matter unenforcable. Unless the FAA inspector is standing over you.

Some time in the future the FAA intends to move parachute maintenance to part 43 where aircraft maintenance is. No one (outside the FAA and perhaps inside) has a clue what that may look like. Considering this was an 'emergency' change initiated in early 2007 I wouldn't hold my breath for that change. But I may be surprised.

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[Andy9o8 2]

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If you keep asking whether it is legal to replace rubber bands and closing loops, you will get an answer. Consider whether you want an answer, or whether you would like to keep it ambiguous the way it is now.

I currently have a life insurance policy that will pay my wife if I'm killed in a skydiving accident. I guess whether I want an answer or not depends on whether some insurance company would use this to as an excuse to deny death benefits if it turned out I had changed my own rubber bands.

Having been on both sides of the insurance claims process for quite a long time now, I can tell you that the insurance carrier's claims department will probably conduct an investigation to see whether your accident might fall either outside the scope of a covered event, or within the scope of a policy exclusion. Part of that investigation might include interviewing people at the DZ, and possibly even doing a search for your online posting history. FWIW.