Pilot Chute Packing and Bridals in the wind.

[Zoter]

Following on from Macs recent ressurection of some excellent pilot chute /AV pilot chutes thinkings....I'd thought I'd see what your current state of play is.

What do you do during packing, to keep you bridal deployment 'staged' through the PC grab and throw.

On a regular mushroom pc packjob my bridal is usually carefully S folded into the mesh ( using even length S folds) and the mesh wrapped fairly tight over the bridal creating the bridal/mesh wad...with the thinking that a compressed wad allows the S folded bridal to 'control' its extension as the PC moves further away from the jumper....rather than just release as soon as it gets free from the BOC and the ( loosely) wrapped mesh unfolds.

However Ive seen a few times how this still leads to some near misses ..in terms of S folded bridal releasing early, with no tension on it ....resulting in it flailing around the PC and flying higher than the still inflating PC ( giving rising to a potential PC choke situation)

Ive tried recently to decrement the S fold length so that the S fold length closer to the PC attachment is smaller than the length of the 'final' S fold ....with the thinking that this helps 'control' the bridal deployment even further and attempts to reduce the chances of too much bridal 'getting free' as it pays out during the PC throw.
It seems to work fine but I have nothing to say its better or worse...

Are there any tricks YOU do in packing the PC ( or stowing the bridal within the mesh or a pocket in the BOC) that you swear by....and if so why ?

[hamsandwich]

For years now I've gone back to using a spring loaded pilot chute. HAR HAR HAR!

Ok, seriously. I put a mini tail-pocket on the PC and stow the bridle in there. The tricky part is figuring out where the tail is on a circle. BWAHAHA!

Ok ok ok, really seriously- This isn't much of a trick, it's just inherent of my jumping style. I make a conscious effort not to go stowed at low airspeeds. It's not black death to do so and I don't advocate everyone adopt my style, but it works for me.

It works for me because I'm not an aerialist nor do I have much of a desire to be one still. Watching other rock phat aerials and loving every minute of it is awesome but I love being flat dumb & stable and the ground rush associated. Having a PC in my hand doesn't really cause an issue in my jumps. I also like the safety it affords me since there's no such this as missing the PC on reach, and I get to through right in front of me where I can watch the pc begin to inflate and fire up. The times i do go stowed on low airspeed are multi-ways and when the exit point is a mother-jamie to negotiate. Of course on higher speed jumps where tracking is involved I also go stowed. When I do stow, I do exactly what you described: wrapping the mesh around the bridle and also off and on paying attention to shortening the length of S-fold though I think that's just a peace of mind thing.