Good news for parachute users

[Mike S]

From AOPA. Parachute re-packing costs=33% savings.

http://download.aopa.org/epilot/2007...0parachute.pdf

[mbell]

That's good news. According to Allen Silver it's actually better on parachutes to be packed at the longer interval.

[Ron Lee]

Watch the packing cost go up accordingly.

[1:1 Scale]

Here's a link to a discussion on the subject of riggers raising thier prices. I haven't read through it yet. FWIW, I've jumped a reserve parachute that had been packed for 6 years and it worked perfectly

[Jamie]

I'm not a parachute guru, but can someone explain why chutes need to be repacked anyway? Is it just so it can be inspected? Is the chute experiencing some sort of damage by sitting too long?

[Ironflight]

Originally Posted by Jamie

I'm not a parachute guru, but can someone explain why chutes need to be repacked anyway? Is it just so it can be inspected? Is the chute experiencing some sort of damage by sitting too long?

I talked with both my rigger, and the folks at National Parachute at their Oshkosh booth about this, and both agreed that if you're not using the chute, it can be stored for years, then repacked to make it legal before you use it, and no harm is done. (Of course, store in cool, dry place, out of sunlight - all those good things. )My rigger said that four years of storage was OK.

Of course, I have none of this in writing, so consider it anecdotal.

Paul

[RVAddict]

Originally Posted by Ron Lee

Watch the packing cost go up accordingly.

I'm sure it will. There's no free lunch, but at least you'll only have to take it twice and not three times. For me, that would be about 1.5 hrs round trip to drop it off and 1.5 hrs round trip to pick it up. (if i had to leave it overnight or something)