Jumpers and riggers

[cedsall]

Originally Posted by twistedsquid

Does one know who packed their chute? Researching Dad's 1964 malfunction. He says he never knew his rigger. What's the relationship? Curious.

As others have mentioned, there is a logbook on both the main and reserve that contains the name of the rigger who packed the chute.

As far as relationship, luck of the draw. Twenty years ago (I assume it's still about the same today) you walk up to the back of a truck, a guy hands you a parachute and reserve. You can look in the logbook and you may know the rigger who packed your chute, maybe not. In some units I knew most of the riggers by name, in others, it's just a name in the logbook.

BTW, that's the process for static line. I believe HALO jumpers pack their own (full time dope on a rope here...)

[miclo18d]

Originally Posted by cedsall

BTW, that's the process for static line. I believe HALO jumpers pack their own (full time dope on a rope here...)

HALO chutes are packed at the rigger shed by riggers. After the first jump you pack your own until you're done jumping then your chute goes to the rigger shed unpacked and will be inspected and packed by a rigger.

There is always a rigger at a HALO jump and you also have to have checks intermittently at certain stages before closing the chute just like the state line chutes would be checked.

[glebo]

Well, as long as I didn't see "Mickey Mouse" on the log, I though it'd be ok.

When I was in the 1/509th in the late 70's, the riggers and cooks were the most ones busted for ..."recreational drugs"... Heroin, Coke, Hash, etc, etc...

[Last hard class]

As I recall, there was a rigger on Bragg in the eighties who was inserting a wire in with the 85 Lb test so the chutes wouldn't open. I believe 2 or 3 made it past some jumpmasters before he was caught.




LHC

[Oldrotorhead]

delete

[cedsall]

Originally Posted by Last hard class

As I recall, there was a rigger on Bragg in the eighties who was inserting a wire in with the 85 Lb test so the chutes wouldn't open. I believe 2 or 3 made it past some jumpmasters before he was caught.
LHC

In 1980 there was a jump in the 82d where a CPT had a total malfunction caused by a cut static line. As I recall, the story was the static line was cut through the inner folds with just a bit of cloth left on the outside so it wouldn't stand out during the JMPI. The CPT was fresh out of jump school and didn't have the SA to deploy his reserve.

That event shut down jumping for a couple of weeks while the riggers checked every parachute on FT Bragg. I recall the division started placing packed chutes into a sealed cloth bag that was opened by the jumper.

I think they charged a rigger but weren't able to convict him because of the random method used to issue the parachutes.

Here's a link to a thread over at armyparatrooper.org from a fellow who says he was a JM on that jump:

http://www.armyparatrooper.org/dropz...is-static-line

[2018commo]

Alvin Williams