PD Sabre2 Pro Pack by Nick Grillet - Part 3 of 3

Nick Grillet of Performance Designs packing a Sabre2 135 - Part 3. If you have any questions about the content in this video, please contact PD via email at [e-mail]

I'm gonna remove my knee - again putting my hand in place,

to make sure that this first S-fold that I did doesn't move.

I'm just gonna roll what I've just done on top of it.

Once there's some pressure here I can remove this hand.

Again, I'm not struggling with this pack job right now.

This is a pretty new canopy - I think it only has ten jumps on it maybe.

So, it's brand new. What I'm gonna do is, I put my knee here...

[coughing] excuse me.

for a little bit of support. I think it also allows me to keep that fold from sliding out:

that first S-fold.

Now we can clearly see that the canopy is close to the size of the bag.

I'm just going to slide the bag over it.

I'm gonna slowly lift each side of the bag, and pull this flap underneath.

Like so.

With lots of practice, and a good shape to work with, that parachute goes right into that bag.

Going to hop onto the other side here. We take a look down those lines.

Even after working with that pack job and doing the double S-fold and getting it into the bag,

the lines still look good. There's no slack in those lines.

I know that because there's no slack in those lines, everything that I've done in that pack job

during the flaking, during getting the air out of it and everything else, and putting it into the bag,

nothing's changed.

So once that canopy's in the bag, I like to set it up on its end.

I bring this flap over.

Instead of stretching the rubber band to the grommet,

I really make sure that this grommet comes all the way down to that piece of tape, or the base of that rubber band.

So, pushing that down here.

Getting that rubber band through.

I use large rubber bands, not any tube stows or anything like that.

And I put two wraps on it - and I'll show you what I do.

You see something that I just did that really helps me out:

I reach as far down as I can, comfortably without stretching myself.

And I bring all of that - any extra slack - out right now.

And I make my stow, and I put two wraps on there.

Because I have two wraps on my stows - whether they're through the grommets "locking stows"...

or on the rubber bands on the side - I don't need to have really really long stows.

Inch and a half to two inches long is what we would recommend.

Because we have proper tension on those stows, we don't need to have a lot.

Some people put the bag in between their knees like this. I'm going to do it like this.

Whatever it is, I just don't like dragging my rig that much.

So I walk my canopy or my bag to my canopy.

Making nice even stows all the way down.

There's no spaghetti in between there.

There's a little bit right there. That's gonna come mainly from the cascades of those lines.

Now there comes another rubber band on there. I'm gonna finish this up.

Put this last little bit of line in there.

I recommend anywhere from twelve to eighteen inches from the top of these lines here to this stow.

A little more is OK. Much less than that is going to be some problems.

We could if we wanted to put a single wrap here, but I really wouldn't. I would leave about this much excess.

Twelve inches isn't necessarily enough if you're packing a tandem rig.

But eighteen inches might be a little too much if you're packing a normal sport rig.

So it kind of depends on the size of the parachute; the size of the container...

but, general rule of thumb that we all pretty much go by

is twelve to eighteen inches from that last stow to the top of those risers.

There's a lot of variables that go into that, like the risers and everything else,

so if you shoot and aim for twelve to eighteen inches that's good.

If there was ever a stow that we could afford to have looser it would be the very last stow.

The one that's going to be pulled out first during the deployment.

The reason behind that ... basically allows that bag to get out off your back,

out of that pack tray, and into clean air

without holding tight, if we wrap it super tight we can experience the bag rotating.

which can give us off-heading openings; possibly even line twist.

Basically, openings that nobody wants. So.

So if there was one that we could do, it would be... like if I were to stow these lines right here...

I would probably just put them in this large rubber band as a beauty stow or something of the sort,

which doesn't do anything except for keep it nice and neat when I put my canopy in the bag.

So that's pretty much the pack job that we went over.

A few of the things that we need to remember for the pack job:

Proper line tension:

We achieve that by getting something on our rig to weigh it down, whether it's a sand bag or a bowling ball...

if you're packing outside and you put a stake in the grass and you wrap your leg straps around there...

something like that, allows us to give good line tension during the pack job.

Making sure that that slider is down on the stops and quartered equally on all parts.

Don't pull it forward to the nose; don't pull it back to the tail.

The tip of putting your finger in the centre of that slider and pushing down:

that pretty much gives us the slider position that we're looking to achieve.

I don't do anything with the nose in my canopies, and I don't roll my tail really hard.

The mindset that I think of when I put the parachute in the bag is getting the parachute

to the approximate size of the bag, and then sliding that bag over that parachute.

You don't have to struggle with it. You saw that it was pretty easy even though it's a brand new canopy.

We could still get it in there.

And then double wrapping large rubber bands gives us the most consistent openings.

Because we have two wraps on those rubber bands, or on those stows,

we know the line stow is secured; we don't need to have really long stows.

So, an inch and a half to two inches from the rubber band to the end of the stow.

Eliminating any sort of spaghetti that goes on in there,

and twelve to eighteen inches from that last stow to the top of those risers.

If we can achieve those things, we're going to get the most consistent openings on our parachutes.

Which are going to give us the best skydives, and the most enjoyable skydives,

that we can get. So, good luck guys.

Hopefully you can practice this, and find a technique that works well for you.

And blue skies.