Parachute Service Life Limits and the FAA

Agreed that many riggers have set a "line in the sand" of 20 years, mine did. I am guessing that this is driven by liability concerns, or not wanting to be pressured into packing "old" chutes, and I firmly believe that this is not a ploy to sell more parachutes. Case in point is that I owned an older Strong 305 and I spoke with the manufacturer at EAA Oshkosh and they are happy to (at least attempt to) repack any age chute (which is more costly than a local rigger plus shipping) and you would think that a manufacturer would be the FIRST to want to sell you a new chute. Kudos to them. I assume that Para-phenalia (Softie) is the same way - does anyone know?

On Tuesday, April 19, 2016 at 5:29:37 AM UTC-7, John DeRosa OHM Ω http://aviation.derosaweb.net wrote:
Agreed that many riggers have set a "line in the sand" of 20 years, mine did. I am guessing that this is driven by liability concerns, or not wanting to be pressured into packing "old" chutes, and I firmly believe that this is not a ploy to sell more parachutes. Case in point is that I owned an older Strong 305 and I spoke with the manufacturer at EAA Oshkosh and they are happy to (at least attempt to) repack any age chute (which is more costly than a local rigger plus shipping) and you would think that a manufacturer would be the FIRST to want to sell you a new chute. Kudos to them. I assume that Para-phenalia (Softie) is the same way - does anyone know?

mfg that put a 20 year life limit on parachutes will not service them after they have expired, strong and summit parachutes do not have a life limit on them.