lt9144

Well, here's how I make sense of it. Early round reserves like the belly mounts and early piggybacks had the lines stowed in the pack tray of the reserve container by rubber bands, and the canopy was flaked and "S" folded from bottom to top, with the closing loop or loops thru one of the folds. Canopy left, then the lines. The best of the round reserves had a diaper, or piece of fabric with rubber bands on one side and grommets on the other that held the skirt closed until line stretch pulled out the couple stows that fixed the diaper around the skirt (this was to minimize the chance of a lineover). The problem was that if you were tumbling on deployment, the lines were mostly "with you" as the canopy snaked out, and therefore the chances of a line getting hooked on your canopy release, altimeter, helmet, or something else was a real problem. The modern freebag arrangement gets canopy and lines all off your back in one bag assembly so that if you tumble, only the risers and the very bottom of the lines are involved, and the rest of the lines can unstow out of the bag and the canopy will probably inflate normally. The newer bag designs are much less prone to bag lock, to such an extent that it now makes sense to bag reserves. If you coil the lines in the bottom of your container, you run the same risk from an unstable deployment as you had with those older reserve designs.

Really not much need to discuss past Tombuch's post. Many of us have jumped squares with variations of diapers or raepers that only used 3 or 4 short stows, hence the lines had to be coiled in the container. It wasn't a big deal until circumstances caused a deployment from an unstable body position, and then things could get weird fast. That's one reason why modern reserves are designed so that all the lines leave the pack tray stowed in a reserve free bag.

This is a 9 Sep 1979 2 stack over Moberly Missouri, a Cruiseair over a Cruiselite. By then there were occasional 4 and 8 stacks at the big dz's but this was in the first 18 months of CRW at our one Cessna dz.

I was out 18 years 254 days, got back in about 2 1/2 years ago. Great experience as I was previously and instructor, rigger, and D license holder with about 400 jumps before 1982. Some things, like basic stability and canopy control, were no problem at all, much like riding a bicycle. Other things, especially judging altitude, were completely gone and had to be rebuilt one jump at a time. Many things, like zero p, freeflying, dytters, collapsible pilot chutes, were all new. My advice to those getting back in after a layoff is be CONSERVATIVE and DELIBERATE about rebuilding your skills, especially with the first few jumps. It's worth some time with an AFF instructor and coach. Be HUMBLE about canopy selection and passing up those head down bigways! It took me at least 75 jumps to get back to where I was before I left the sport the first time, and like all skydivers I'm learning every day. Blue skies,

Ink your closing loop before you take it to a rigger for repack, and insist that during each repack the CYPRES loop is replaced (happens to be a rule in our loft). The best way to make it easy to insert the pin is to finger trap line inside the pull up chord at the halfway point to make it a little thicker, hence the loop a bit more open. Don't substitute gutted suspension line or anything else as a closing loop. Unquestionably replace the frayed loop in the photos before the rig is jumped. Blue skies . . .

The US Military Academy (West Point) team jumps mostly Talons and have for years, their riggers have packed and maintained dozens of them on a six day per week training schedule. No issues. I have been very impressed with their customer service and the organization of technical bulletins on the Rigging Innovations website.

I did my first two stack in April 78 over Moberly MO with a guy named Greg Henry. It was probably the first stack in Missouri, unless the KCMO guys got something together. Two Stratostars. I seem to recall it being suggested that we leave the airport--it took a while for new ideas to move into the heartland from California or Florida. TAK 4stack1190

Very impressed with the suit, and I've jumped it for a year. Gave them a tough challenge, build a suit tight enough for recreational RW and RW coaching, but that had some extra wing for me to do video on 4 way belly fliers--and I'm a fast falling 5'8", 185. The computational process they use to determine wing size and amount of material in the suit was dead on. Fit was perfect. I go from camera to coach dives with the same gear. 150 jumps on the suit with no visible wear. Washed it several times and I still have people ask, "is that a new jumpsuit?" Delivery time was exactly as advertised. Their staff thought one of my measurements was off and called me about it (there was no problem, I just have small wrists). This suit was worth every dime I spent on it.