From when I was looking at everything dactyl related in Poynters, I noticed that the Jim Handbury design shows up under not just Advanced Air, but Guardian, and Pioneer too.
From a personal contact, I was told that Handbury made a trip east in '76 to Pioneer and Parachutes Incorporated, to negotiate with them and/or show them how to build Paradactyl's under license.
To what degree Pioneer actually built dactyls, I have no idea.
All this suggests that it is possible that you have a Pioneer dactyl.
From a personal contact, I was told that Handbury made a trip east in '76 to Pioneer and Parachutes Incorporated, to negotiate with them and/or show them how to build Paradactyl's under license.
I seem to remember it that way too. The OP's has a '77 DOM (or did he say '78) so the dates would be right.
The guy that put the test jumps on the Paradactyl might still be in your backyard at Elsinore, Eric.
Several years back we had a guy show up to do some packing for the school and he overheard a few of us talking about the Paradactyl and he says rather quietly...."I did the test jumps for that canopy". No shit, turns out he was the real deal and knew everything there was to know about it. A really interesting guy....he was working for one of the local wineries. Check with Lob, he'll probably remember.
Howdy, Thanx! to David Hersey, I have a PI custom paradactyl by Jim Handbury & owners manual. The manual is Copyright: Parachutes Incorporated 1976 - Orange, MA 01364. I'll scan the manual and post a copy of the manual next week. Blueskys!!! P. Smurf (and no, I'm not currently interested in selling the canopy & manual except to a museum).
Before you take the time to scan, check out the two different versions on parachutemanuals.com.
Both can be found under the Main Canopy section, one labelled "DactylManual" and another "Paradactyl - shorter Guardian manual" (That one I scanned & uploaded)
If your manual is different, it would be interesting to see!
The manual I have is similar to the scan titled "DactylManual", but mine is complete. The file "Dactlyl Manual" is missing pages including "Brief History And Development of Parawing (Paradactyl)" and "Interesting Facts about the Paradactyl "- page 2; and "Easy Steps to closing your Razzor-Back" (pages 19 & 20). Also it's missing the back inside cover whch lists all the dactyl dealers in 1976 and the back cover picture of Jim Handbury and his 4-man team over Tahlequah
If anyone wants a complete high-res (300 dpi) scan, I have it available in two e-mails, one 10 mb, the other 13mb.
Blueskys !!! P. Smurf
p.s. Krip, I 'm looking for photos of David Hersey under the canopy. I don't have any of me flying it...yet
(This post was edited by PapaSmurf on Sep 30, 2012, 12:52 PM)
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