Reserve Ripcord Placement

Keep An Eye Out

While opening a container to start a reserve repack, a Federal Aviation Administration Senior Rigger found that the reserve ripcord was positioned on the top-reserve-flap grommet, pressed between the pin and the top of the grommet. (For the photo, he removed the rigger seal for clarity.) When the rigger tested the rig, he found that it required a 15-pound pull force to move the reserve ripcord across the grommet so that it could begin pulling the reserve closing pin. While this was within the 22-pound maximum allowable pull force for emergency handles, the end of the ripcord was still in the wrong place on the closing pin. It should have been located above the grommet not below the edge of the grommet. While it is unlikely that this error would have prevented reserve deployment, the additional pull force could have delayed reserve activation or caused other unforeseen problems.