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Reading some recentley ressurected posts on BLinc got me thinking absout some things again...

What do you do during packing, to keep you bridal deployment 'staged' through the PC grab and throw.

On a regular mushroom pc packjob my bridal is usually carefully S folded into the mesh ( using even length S folds) and the mesh wrapped fairly tight over the bidal creating the bridal/mesh wad...with the thinking that a compressed wad allows the S folded bridal to 'control' its extension as the PC moves further away from the jumper....rather than just release as soon as it gets free from the BOC and the ( loosely) wrapped mesh unfolds.

However Ive seen a few times how this still leads to some near misses ..in terms of S folded bridal releasing early, with no tension on it ....resulting in it flailing around the PC and flying higher than the still inflating PC ( giving rising to a potential PC choke situation)

Ive tried recently to decrement the S fold length so that the S fold length closer to the PC attachment is smaller than the length of the final S fold in the PC....with the thinking to 'control' the bridal deployment even further and attempt to reduce the chances of too much bridal getting free as it pays out during the PC throw.
It seems to work fine but I have nothing to say its better or worse...

Are there any tricks YOU do in packing the PC ( or stowing the bridal within the mesh or a pocket in the BOC) that you swear by....and if so why ?

The best "trick" is simply to throw the PC in such a manner that it remains in the same orientation from the time of release to bridle stretch. It's very easy to practice this (I do it with every FJC I teach, when we go stowed). Get a friend to "catch" the PC, bring it back, and hold it on top of the BOC, and you can practice the pitch every 20 seconds or so. Use some kind of retainer to keep the PC in a bundle (be very sure to collect this after the practice--I always repack every student PC myself after we do this), and you can easily see if you are spinning it at all, or if it is progressing cleanly to bridle extension.

Another option is the Morpheus bridle stowage pouch, or some kind of similar bridle management technology. Personally, I think that technique trumps gear 9 times in 10.

just a quick question...i thought that morpeus bridle pocket was for stowing the ecess bridle when using a wingsuit with legpouch/shrivel flap?
don't know where i got that from but that is what i thought.
do an of you really put all the bridle in there?
if so how?
any observations of the process?

Do you mean pitching it 'behind and up' rather than out to the side ?
Even with this if the bridal is not 'stowed' well....it can prematurely come out of the bundle and do the spaghetti thing until bridal stretch is reached.
My thoughts here were on what people are currently doing to 'keep' their bridal deployment uniform until bridal stretch.

No. I mean keeping the PC and bridle in the correct order (PC -> Bridle -> Rig). Basically this means throwing the PC so that the apex (where the handle or cap is located on some PC's) leads all the way to bridle extension. Many new BASE jumpers carry the skydiving habit of flicking their wrist, which rotates the PC end over end as it travels. This can put the spaghetti in front of the PC's path of travel, and create a potential for interaction between them (in the worst case, resulting in an entanglement).



Yes, but if the bridle is in the correct position relative to the PC, the spaghetti mess is just floating between the rig and the PC, and has no chance to interact with either of them.

I think the danger to be aware of (and to work to avoid) is the PC interacting with the bridle (i.e. potentially getting entangled in it), or, of course, the jumper or rig.

The flailing wad of bridle isn't the most dangerous thing going on here. If the wad can be kept away from the PC (and the jumper), it poses very few hazards to the deployment.

just do static lines

I fold my bidal noal s folds

but make sure thee all the way up into the pud ive made. so when i pitch
i get it all out . and I throw like my life depends on it.

Hmm....see what you are saying...but beyond a go and throw..and before the PC has started inflating the bridal can be 'blown' upwards above the the PC ( as its lighter than the PC bundle)

My reason for starting this post was to investigate any specific techniques people are using in stowing the bridal to effect a staged release of it ( or seen another way what people are doing currently to stop the bridal thats not under tension from having an 'unstaged' deployment)

The weaker you pitch the higer an arc any loose bridle can create and the greater your chances of a "bridle-over". Pack your pc neatly and pitch firmly and you'll mitigate against most of the risk.
I've got a little pocket inside the boc of my ws-xtreme's but I'm not 100% sure what it's for. When doing ws jumps with the leg pouch I tuck the tiny bit of excess in there but that's it.

Edit: Also, if you make sure you pack your pc in such as way as when you grab the pc to pitch you're also grabbing the bridle inside it then you should ensure that the folded bridle goes with the pc and pays out from the pc, rather than getting stripped out of the pc and becoming a big mess.

Gus

Sounds like my packjob is similar to yours, except I wrap the bridle in two halves. Here's how it goes:

1. Lay the PC out with the bridle attachment toward you, then mesh, and fabric furthest from you.
2. S-fold half the bridle on the nearest half of the mesh.
3. Wrap the bottom half of the mesh around the s-folded bridle.
4. Fold the wrapped mesh upward so that the attachment point is at the top of the mesh.
5. S-fold the remainder of the bridle on top of the "roll" containing the first half.
6. Wrap the top half of the mesh around the whole thing.
7. Holding the wrapped bridle near the top, wrap the PC fabric around in the usual way.

My feeling is that this helps stage the deployment of the bridle without restricting it too much. It also ensures that a little more mass (half the bridle) stays with the advancing PC as long as possible, so it has a little more momentum. As to whether or not this has ever actually helped me--I can't say. It's possible this is just one more example of packing voodoo.

Michael

Still, provided the PC isn't doing flippy-do's, I imagine everything should stay generally friendly, as in the attached diagram. Not that I have any evidence to support this...