Product Description
CLOSING LOOPS ( WHITE) FIVE PACK
It’s always fun to watch the blood drain from a rigger’s face when a jumper walks up with a broken main closing loop and asks for a replacement. A closing loop that breaks on a skydive can cause a number of dangerous situations including a horseshoe malfunction, in which the main bag trails out of the container but is still attached by the pilot chute pouch and risers, creating a whipping mess of suspension lines, bridle and bagged canopy above the jumper’s back. Using a closing loop until it breaks is the skydiving equivalent to flying an airplane until it runs out of gas.
Category C students in USPA’s Integrated Student Program learn to inspect the main closing loop before each jump to see that it’s “worn no more than 10 percent.” Nobody has ever formally disagreed with “10 percent” since USPA first published that advice in the 2001 Skydiver’s Information Manual, based on advice from Virginia rigger Harry Schoelpple. There’s no telling where he got it, but it seems sound.
A closing pin is a curved piece of stainless steel metal used in the sport of skydiving. The pin is sewn onto the bridle which is a 7 to 10-foot long piece of nylon webbing connected to the pilot chute. The closing pin passes through the closing loop and in doing so, secures the main container of a skydiving rig, keeping the parachute from deploying prematurely. When the pilot chute is thrown out by the skydiver and catches air, it pulls the closing pin from the closing loop and allows the main parachute to be released from the container and inflate.
