The summer I flew without a reserve.
Around 1993, I ordered a new rig. Like many companies, this one was in Florida. They were a very well known company with lots of customers.  I was ordering a Stiletto canopy with a custom colored Vector Container.  These were the days when Container's were very flashy, and not the mostly drab colors of today. I don't have a photo of that Container so I'll have to show you one that is not nearly as colorful as mine.  You see....this whole story revolves around my color choice.

Parachute Rig

This is colorful, but not nearly as colorful as the one I designed.


In 1994 I ordered a brand new rig from a well known company in Florida who made the hottest parachute rigs on the market.  I chose some pretty wild colors, and when it was finished, they liked it so much that they decided to use it in their advertising.  The rig was almost finished except for one little thing:  They had run out of Reserve canopies.  A reserve canopy is your last chance to live should something bad happen to your main canopy, like very serious line twists or knots in your lines or any number of things that might prevent the main canopy from opening properly.  If it doesn't open, then you cut it away to prevent your second canopy (the reserve) from getting all tangled up in it.  So you have just one more chance to save your life should the main fail.  This is why the Reserve is SO important.



Reserve canopy
 

So because they wanted to get their photographs,  they stuffed newspapers into the rig where the Reserve would normally go in order to fill it out and make it look normal.  After they took the photos, they set it aside waiting for the Reserve to arrive.  About that time, I called the company to inquire as to when my rig might arrive.  It had been longer than normal to ship due to lack of a Reserve canopy, but I didn't know this, and neither did the guy on the phone as he looked around and saw my rig sitting on a table. He said "Oh, it's right here ready to ship now. I'll get it out today".

He checked the rig and noticed that it didn't have a lead safety seal on the Reserve flap which is required by the FAA.  This seal means that the Reserve is packed properly and it up to date.  As I recall, Reserves had to be repacked every 90 days for safety reasons and a seal installed.  Anyway, he notices that there is no seal, but he figures that someone had just forgot to add one.  So what does he do? He adds one and ships it to me.


Reserve safety seal

This is the standard Seal on a Reserve parachute flap.



The Rig arrives and I cant wait to jump it. This I do the next weekend, and every weekend after that for the next 3 months. If my Main canopy had failed during the next 3 months, and the 120 or so jumps that I made in that time, I would not be telling you this right now. I would have died.  Simple as that.


Under Canopy





So the 3 months pass without incident, and now it's time for a repack on the Reserve.  When the Rigger popped open the Reserve flap like they always do, and the Reserve jumps out by a strong spring as they always do.... it didn't.
Reserve Pull

What it's SUPPOSED to do.


Needless to say, no one was more surprised than the two of us!  We couldn't believe what we were seeing!  I called the
manufacture that following Monday and told them what happened.  You could hear them sweating over the phone as they went through their files and discovered that they shipped the Rig without a Reserve.

They immediately sent the Reserve and continued to apologize for their mistake. Looking back on it now, I'm sure I could have gotten MORE than just an apology if I had asked.


I've always said that there have been many times in your life that you came just seconds from dying, but never knew it.  In a case like mine, I came seconds from death 120 times and didn't know it. But unlike others, I finally KNEW it, and it gives you an awful lot to think about for the rest of your life.








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