flat pack or pro pack

[guest]

what do you prefer and why?
thanks for the input.

[feral]

I flat pack because i am not a pro......

bsbd feral:-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-(

[Mike]

I'm assuming that by "flat pack" you mean packing with your canopy on the ground, and by "pro pack" you mean packing standing up with the canopy over your shoulder.

This is all about personal preference. I always pro-pack, simply because my back bothers me when I'm hunched over the canopy on the ground. I also do it because it's faster for me. Whether you pack on the ground or pack standing up, the end result should be a clean, symetrical pack job with the lines in the center and the canopy flaked to the outside. It doesn't really matter how you get there.

[yexotay]

I disagree, the pro-pack is not as clean. I am a pro packer and whenever I look over and see how clean a flat pack done right looks I want to become a flatpacker. I have good openings and stuff, but what is the answer to this?

[Mike]

The pro-pack is as clean as you want it to be. The biggest problem I've seen with other jumpers' pro-pack is when they lay it down. A lot of jumpers just drop it on the floor, which totally messes it up. In addition to laying the canopy down very slowly and carefully, I like to dress it up a little before I wrap the tail and stow the lines. Like I said in my earlier post, when I'm finished it looks exactly the same as a flat pack. I just find it faster and easier to do the initial bottom-surface flaking standing up.

[guest]

I agree with mike ,the end result should be the same as long as you clean it up on the ground.
there is one huge drawback for my group. at one of our favorite sights we take turns packing in a really super tiny motel room and there just is'nt any floor room for a flat pack, there is barely enough room for a pro pack.so the option for a flat one just is'nt there. other than that it's just what your used to.
c-ya BASE 516:P

[guest]

I don't know how Mike F#*$ing does it but it is beautiful after he lays it down. Even better than mine after I've dressed it. My lines are straight but it never looks as good as anyone else's and I've had lots of practice trying to fix that...

698

[crwper]

Flat packing with clamps, I'm able to pack in about the same area one would use for pro packing. I just leave whatever I'm not working with stacked on the side, rather than spread all over the place.

Michael

[guest]

So do I. I agree with Michael. Whenever I am in the constraint to have only a narrow space where to pack my canopy with my clamps, I do it. Once I have done safety checks to lines, I carefully lay over the narrow space the canopy part I am working on and leave "piled" up the rest to be packed.
Andrea

[guest]

Smack + Pack is the only way!!!!:7 :7 :7 :7 :7 }> }>

[guest]

I switched to using a pro pack last year. I jumped a stack or flat pack for about four years and never had any problems with the opening headings (had about the same amount of off headings as most and fewer than some who pro packed).
I switched after I started taking delays to terminal on a regular basis. I was having some brutal openings. My camera was broken on one, and I had truamatized my neck on another. My friends said the openings looked like slider down openings. Any thing over 5-6 seconds was bad. While looking at a video in slow motion of one of my openings from the ground, I noticed the slider came down immediately as one side inflated before the other. Frame by frame, there was no frame where you could see the slider coming down. One frame it's up and the next it is down with a slightly asymetrical opening.
My thought is that the slider did not inhibit the canopy from opening as it came down prematurely with pressure from only two riser groups. No problem at 3-5 secs. But after a dozen or so at 7++ secs, I realized it was time to change.
With a symetrical pro pack, standing up or laying it down, the slider has even pressure on the four riser groups and the opening is staged better. I also double wrap the first stow/bite before figure eighting the lines for terminal (or near terminal) openings. And I use a small rubber band(halved) hitched to a C line to stow the "apex" of the slider up inside the pack job to further stage the opening.
Tonight I took about a 12 sec delay, and the opening was quick, but it was smooth and not hard.
I have jumped low objects with a flat pack, and I don't see any problems, except that with a symetrical pack job the tailgate stow appears cleaner. But if you are going to take more than 6 seconds or so, I would recommend a pro pack.

Jerrod

[imported_Tom Aiello]

Hi Jerrod:

Did you change anything else about your pack job? Are you still using the same canopy? What canopy is it?

It's extremely unusual to hear of one type of packing style giving harder openings.

I use a pro-stack (flat) pack job 90% of the time, and have made approximately 100 terminal jumps on it with none of the symptoms you describe.

Also, can you elaborate on how the slider has "even pressure" on the "riser groups" with one packing style but not another? Are you talking about some kind of retention of the lines by the slider grommets? Or are you referring to contact between the slider grommets and slider stops sewn into the canopy? Or am I misunderstaning entirely?

Can you give us some more info about the setup you were using?

Thanks,

--Tom Aiello
tbaiello@ucdavis.edu