Chloe just got her learner's permit and she and I went on a short road trip so she could practice her skills. She did a great job on the 350 mile drive from the Flying Goat Ranch to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge and back. She also took these pictures.
That's me packing my Spectre after jump #233 at Skydive New Mexico last weekend. Mad Mac lurks in the shadows.
Yesterday afternoon, after I got home from the drop zone, I packed my Mojo. I hadn't packed it in weeks, and I was feeling a little out of practice, so I was slow and methodical. I had a really good feeling about the quality of the packjob as I closed the container.
I spent the rest of the day working with the goats and, like all good ranchers, I went to bed early. I fell asleep and started dreaming, and in my dream I realized that I'd forgotten to make the primary line stow when I packed the Mojo. I dreamt that I should try and remember to check the packjob in the morning, and sure enough, it was the first thing I thought of when I woke up.
As soon as I was caffeinated I opened my rig. The flaking and folding looked great, and the lines were perfectly arranged, but guess what? I hadn't made the primary stow. Forgetting that step in the packing process won't kill you in and of itself, but the lack of a primary stow could lead to a hard, or maybe out of sequence opening, and might also make it easier to develop a tension knot malfunction during deployment. Of course, it probably would have opened just fine, since that's what huge 7 cell parachutes tend to do.
I repacked, this time stowing a bight of lines in the primary stow pocket before S-folding the rest of the lines into the tailpocket. I had a really good feeling about the quality of the packjob as I closed the container.
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