My First Skydiving Rig Reserve Repack with Rigger
Recently my reserve repack was due. I visit one of the few Singapore riggers, Jane, to repack my reserve canopy.
When I passed her my rig, she told me she wouldn’t repack it because I didn’t bring my slider replacement. Previously, she was the one who helped to transfer the Saber 3 main canopy from my friend’s rig to mine and discovered that it had a minor defect in the slider. Her process is to inspect everything, not just repack the reserve canopy.
This is unexpected because I intended only to repack my reserve canopy, I wasn’t planning to repack my main canopy, original plan is to let the dropzone packer do that.
So I wasted another back-and-forth trip on the same day to pass her the replacement slider.
She asked me to practice my skydiving cutaway procedure, I did it as the procedure correctly.
I left my luggage and rig with her.
A few days later, I collected the rig. She shared with me the things to look out for on my rig.
Lessons learned:
- Always bring EVERYTHING, just in case
- Slider is unique to canopy brand and model
- Check and ensure that the slider size is correct, don’t assume the replacement from the manufacturer is correct
- She says VSE infinity workmanship is not very good because of the slider defect, the handle doesn’t look solid, the bad safety stow loop, and the reserve closing loop
- Always clean the rig’s stain, it will degrade the rig’s integrity
- It is not easy to fit a main canopy one size up of the rig even though it is possible