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Does anyone fold the "ears" down, between the two folds?

I started doing so for the last ~10 jumps and find the heading performance great. The nose is fully exposed (covering the whole packjob, essentially). It's this second, solid, flat fold that hits the container flaps on extraction and it's the nose that sees air first, vs. disparate ears hitting flaps independently and even catching on the bridle momentarily and potentially spinning the packjob.

While a few jumps don't prove anything, it would be interesting to hear experiences of others.

I roll them up and put them in the bottom of the container. My on headings did improve with this packing method.

there have been lots of variations and tweaks of what is essentially the same pack job , but what you mention is the way one of the developers of 'nose down ' packing origionally intended it. To my knowlage,(but could be wrong) it was first jumped freepacked, free stowed lines,slider down this way in the winter of 1981 from a 245 ft span in the SW of the UK after a few drop tests with a dead weight of a 80 ft building. I have always packed like this and only had 2, 90 deg. off headings in many many jumps. Back in the 80's and early 90's jumpers were still side packing , in a deployment bag, free stowed lines , slider down. Scary stuff. Thankfully we evolve by keeping what works.

Andy B#229

hey yuri is it correct that when you say ears, you mean the last s fold where the bridle is connected? so you fold the last s fold between the first s fold? whats with the bridle? Did I get it wrong?
cheers
Lucas

can you post an image?

I don't have a photo, here's a quick sketch.

The sketch is intersesting. I just opened my rig and tried to recreate your pack job with the ears down and my bridle / pins do not reach out far enough to close my rig without pulling the bridle out to stretch and distorting the pack job. What kind of container do you have? I have a DP where the bridle comes out the top to close and then runs down the center to the bottom pin. I know that my friend closes his Neo with the bridal out the center between the top and bottom pins.

I attached a sketch of how I pack. My first S-fold is at the top of the tail pocket. I then close the bottom pin. The ears then fold back on top of the packjob and then I close the top pin. This keeps the bulk of the pack job at the bottom and allows for the remainder of the pack job to be symetrical with the least amount of fabric up top. The only off-headings I have had is due to cross winds. Does anyone see anything wrong with this method? Also, would folding the ears down create issues instead of the ears up method that I currently use?

I have a DP, too. I pre-stretch the packjob as I pack (pull on bridle hard to minimize distortion during extraction) and put the bridle attachment point in the middle of packjob, on top of the fully exposed nose.

Alright. So I just talked to Jimmy at APEX and he said that your packjob is good because you are not obstructing the nose at all. He did say that if I folded the ears down with my pack job, that I would distort the nose. However, with the way that I pack ears up is the proper way.

     Yuri, Any chance you could post a pic of that last step or two ? According to your sketch I don't see how the bridle attachment point could ever end up in the middle of the packjob.
I pack about the same cleaning the center cell from the layers and pre-stretching it as well and after my first fold the bridle attachment point is well below the bottom of the container so that it does end up in the middle, after the last fold. Interested in your technique. Thanks

Here you go.

Thanks so much. That clears it up.

  I like the idea and will test it out to see if it works for me. Thanks for posting it.

How would this packjob work with a Multi?

What kind of headings were you having prior ?

From your pics, how are you dressing the 3 nose cells on either side ? Are they included in the layer folds ?

I just shove the ears down to fill up the upper portion of the pack tray. My heading performance is fine.

figured i would raise this post from the dead. crossfire - are you still packing like this?

yuri - are you packing the same way?

currently, i have a helium container. the problem i keep facing is that when i do traditional s-folds (one up at the top of the yoke towards the BOC, then one fold over the tailpocket for the ears back towards the top), it seems that the bulk of my packjob is up towards the top of the container, and theres barely anything down towards the BOC when i close the bottom. i dont like it.

i was considering either folding the tailpocket under and shoving the entire canopy down, but i saw the pic you posted crossfire, and figured that may be the key to what im looking for.

any tips? anyone experimented with folding the actual tailpocket under and shoving the whole canopy down to the bottom of the packtray, then s-folding as normal?

i hope im making sense but its the damned internet.............i will talk to an experienced friend this weekend but wanted to pick anyones brain on here

I still do pack this way and still think that for WS jumps folding ears down is better because canopy is extracted almost horizontally and "sags" between PC and shoulders due to weight and so folding ears down helps with keeping center of gravity of packjob low as it's being extracted, so it's more stable. But this conclusion is by no means scientific. It's simply a matter of what I think makes sense, and sticking to it.