Basejumper.com - archive

Lost a tailgate, no idea how...but until I get a new one is there temporary replacement that I could use that would work? Shoe lace or something...

Do a search for Masking Tape.

I'm using masking tape, wondering if the actual "red" tailgate can be replaced with something else.

Nope, has to be an actual mil-spec red tailgate.

Try the black rubber bands. Their super solid for a TG. Girth hitch it around the center C line and use it as normal

Ur Gonna DIE!!!

I actually asked this question to a well experienced jumper. What if (for some reason..some weird reason) the tailgate does not come off on opening? As in all the lines still tied even after 'complete' inflation. Will I die? .
From what I feel, the canopy would still be somewhat stable and fly straight with no control on the turns at all. Has anyone tried this tailgate mal?


I saw this guy using a frail piece of some line (was as thick as a brake line and with the ends coming apart) as a tailgate. He had somehow fixed it to one of the lines to not lose it. Certainly not suggesting but just what I saw.

Ok... this potentially could be a very stupid and naive question. Heck... I got it..I need an answer. Allow me

Why aren't the tailgates sewn to the line it passes through? Why is it kept lose?

Why not just build one? It's less than a minute of work.

If you don't have any old 900 dacron laying around, I'd just use masking tape until you get some. I've got a spool of the stuff here and about 30 tailgates if you want one.

b/c you dont use it on slider up jumps, my guess would be if you have it sewn into the system it may cause a complication getting caught up on something like the slider and not allowing it to go down. just a thought.

It would suck if you had to unpick threads and tear up your line every time you wanted to take the tailgate out for slider up.

I would also think there's some inherent safety built in to the current tailgate system in the fact that if there's any kind of hangup it would pull/slide out of it's channel instead of holding everything in place. No?

seen it happen...but it was someone taping a tailgate shut (bad idea) on a wing suit jump (even worse idea, imho). From the top of the high nose it looked to us to be a reallllllly bad line-over. But when we landed next to him (he was ok, miraculously, shooken up to say the least), we inspected his canopy to find the tape that he had used to close his tailgate shut had failed to break...it just folded over itself making it stronger.
His canopy was inflated, just completely uncontrollable. He's lucky he didn't hit one of the barns, the pig hut, or power lines (flew left down the high nose)

Exactly.

twizzler

 

this is why evolution of the sport is hopeless...

whew! Glad to hear he was ok (albeit it looked messy from your point and he shaken at after the landing)


so he used a tailgate on a slider-up?

am postponing my comments to others who replied to my 'stupid' question. got to recollect some stuff I did :-)

Do I know you??? haha...kidding, I used an old piece of 900 lb dacron I found tying some weights together at the DZ. This worked just great as I used my lighter to burn the frayed ends before I packed up my rig...probably got about 5 or 6 jumps out of that before I got actual tailgates made up.

That would have been an actual tailgate had you just finger trapped the ends instead of burning them.

yes...also (in my opinion) a bad idea. Especially when used in this way. But what the hell do I know.

ah..ok.

I could actually imagine the tape rolling and making a strong 'string' wrap. I always play with printer/toilet paper by rolling it up and trying to break them. It's quite harder than the actual single layer paper. I reckon it must be harder with tapes

After confirming what I thought I did......here is something am presenting that is contrary to what majority, in fact ALL, here have said. And suggested NOT to do. And am liking the difference I see. Differences stimulate learning.

I did use my tailgate on all the 3 jumps I made at the Bridge Day this year. ALL slider-up. Honest. From the "Malfunction" page of the BridgeDay website, I did miss the point of "slower openings" but now as I read the second point, I was pretty convinced about this ONLY other point AGAINST using tailgate on sliderup - getting the tailgate snagged into the slider and eventually getting a slider hangup. I am sure that the tailgate will never get into the mesh holes no matter how hard I try. I actually tried to push the tailgate through the mesh. The mesh holes are too small for the tailgate ends to get through.

Could be I did something really different(wrong? unsafe?) but I feel it was not downright bad (at least from my opening experiences that day). As I said, I like it that there is something different to what is said. With the reprimands or neutral reactions I might get after this, I will surely learn something. Clearing misconceptions or confirming what I understand about tailgates.


Note: during packing I would keep the slider down, put the tailgate and then bring the slider upand reef it (the slider). I could even be wrong in this. Please correct if you get frowned eyebrows reading the packing sequence.

Lets hear you!

if you referring yourself to the guy I saw.... may be not. You from Canada and he is from Chicago.

He was a madass at the bridge.

figuring out configuration from BD's website? huh?
who are you relying on for guidance?

have a mentor?
take a FJC?
jump with a crew?
(credible people you know, and know you, tend to be the best sources.)
read and study all that is written here?

or are you just re-inventing the wheel as you go along?

I've also been shown and tested using a medium sized broken rubberband from skydiving. Just wrap it around the Cs, Ds and Brake lines and tie a half-knot. Then cinch it down to where it binds itself. Its a single use taligate with an acceptable marigin for error/black death.

oops.... guess am giving a wrong impression by citing BridgeDay website in my earlier post.

-am not using the website as a guide.
-been through a course.
-don't have a mentor now.
-not reinventing the wheel.
-I could be wrong in using the tailgate. am open for correction. :-)

got to go but thought before anyone else bashes out at me I should add the above.

later!

PS. I could be wrong in using it for some reason and am open for correction.

I've used the same method at TF a few times when I lost my tailgait, except I tied a square knot. I was using the small brown rubberbands cut in half, then broken.

Large or small mesh slider?

A large mesh slider is usually large enough that the tailgate can get stuck through the mesh. This is not a potential problem with a small mesh (marquisette) slider.

It was a smally.

For a reason I did not consider the large hole slider so didn't see the possibility of slider hangup because of the tailgate. The small hole one I used absolutely had no chance to get the tailgate pass through. I take your points now. Thanks for that !

I second that, I have been doing that for years now. I too lost my tailgate and a rigger / basejumper taught me that way. You can use it on SL-up jumps as well. One knot only, not double. Like that, it will allways come off.
I also keep the packing mat in my DZ more free of broken rubberbands.