Are there any con's to having colour coded lines?

[Newbie 0]

It makes packing a doddle. Just wondering why more canopies don't seem to have colour coded lines?

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

[Zoter 0]

Not if you are colourblind...

[Newbie 0]

Good point

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

[Peej 0]

That's why i was SO glad i bought a Hornet as my first canopy.
I remember a mate trying to teach me to pack with a canopy with un-colour coded lines and i was like: "huh?"

Then i bought my hornet and it all made sense. Now i can pack quite comfortably without them though.

Advertisio Rodriguez / Sky

[JohnRich 4]

Yes. You'll have to respond thousands of times to the question: "How come you got dem dere colored lines?"

[phoenixlpr 0]

Yes of course .

They are too easy to propack form a newbie.

I have a Pilot with those, I feel sad seeing students packing Navigators without those.

[Phillbo 11]

what is a 'doddle'

[cpoxon 0]

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Are there any con's to having colour coded lines

Yeah, you look like a student! :-P

Just to clarify, the lines have coloured tabs, not actually coloured lines right?

Have you got packing tabs as well? ;-P

Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

[Cloudi 0]

That's what colored Sharpies are for!!

Kim
Watch as I attempt, with no slight of hand, to apply logic and reason.

[kelpdiver 2]

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That's what colored Sharpies are for!!

Is that total humor, or do some people do that?

I'm afraid to apply anything to my lines. It would be helpful to mark my 8 D lines though, to distinguish from the Cs (one is tricky) and the steering line cascade.

[Cloudi 0]

No, it's not total humor, just me making fun of myself because I had to color code my line attachement tabs (or whatever they're called--not the lines themselves) so that I could learn how to pack again. It's completely safe to mark the tabs and really helped me. It helps me even more now that my canopy is badly in need of a reline and nothing is really "even." Gotta get that fixed! Damn, I'm lazy.

Kim
Watch as I attempt, with no slight of hand, to apply logic and reason.

[Squeak 17]

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No, it's not total humor, just me making fun of myself because I had to color code my line attachement tabs (or whatever they're called--not the lines themselves) so that I could learn how to pack again. It's completely safe to mark the tabs and really helped me. It helps me even more now that my canopy is badly in need of a reline and nothing is really "even." Gotta get that fixed! Damn, I'm lazy.

Are you certain it's completely safe?
I for one would not be putting solvents on my synthetic parachute equipment

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[TomAiello 25]

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I for one would not be putting solvents on my synthetic parachute equipment

If you're worried about it, you can use a rope marker (a pen with special ink, designed for marking climbing ropes), which has no solvents or other chemicals that can hard your lines.

-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[masher 1]

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what is a 'doddle'

easy
simple
piece of piss
...

--
Arching is overrated - Marlies

[DexterBase 0]

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If you're worried about it, you can use a rope marker (a pen with special ink, designed for marking climbing ropes), which has no solvents or other chemicals that can hard your lines.

Sterling ropes released information that the rope pens actually do cause damage to the ropes. The level of damage was small enough that they decided to make the possibilty known, but encourage climbers to make their own educated decisions.

I believe the only time the mark would affect the actual strength of the rope, was if the rope caught the fall precisely at the location where the mark would line up with the caribiner that caught the fall.

Just some useless knowledge for ya.

[IanHarrop 37]

more detail:

--
Notification concerning Rope Marking issued: April 2002

Tests done by the UIAA Safety Commission and by some rope manufacturers have shown that rope
marking with liquids such as those provided by felt-tipped pens can be dangerous, even with those
markers, sold specifically for marking ropes. The test results showed a decrease up to approximately
50% of the rope strength, more correctly: of the energy absorption capacity of the rope (expressed
by the number of falls in the standard test method in accordance with the European Standard EN
892) Therefore the UIAA Safety Commission warns against marking a rope with any substance that
has not been specifically approved by the rope manufacturer of that rope. It is not possible for the
UIAA Safety Commission to test all markers that are commercially available and can be used for
marking ropes. Furthermore it would be impossible for the UIAA Safety Commission to keep such
information up-to-date. In addition, the effect of any rope marker seems to vary with the make of
rope. Hence, all the UIAA Safety Commission can do at the moment is to warn mountaineers and
climbers. The UIAA Safety Commission will carry out further research into this problem to provide
practical advice to climbers. Sterling Rope stands with the UIAA in this stance and therefore recommends
that you do not mark your rope with a permanent marker. That said, Pit Shubert, President of
the UIAA, has also published this notice: “…A damaged rope by marking is not a big problem,
because such a marked rope can not break in practice (only when tested on the test machine
according to the standards, UIAA and EN (CEN)), such a marked rope can only break in practice
when the two or three centimeters (about one inch), which are marked, are placed over a sharp rock
edge when the rope is loaded by a fall. The probability that this will happen is nearly zero…There is
only one danger, when during mountain rescue one or two people are lowered down and the rope is
running over a sharp rock edge, then the two or three centimeters will run over this edge, and then
there is a danger.” So again and as usual, you are the best judge of your own comfort level. If you
have been marking your rope for years with a pen and have never had a problem, then use your
own judgment to decide if the new UIAA stance is going to alter your opinion.
--

"Where troubles melt like lemon drops, away above the chimney tops, that's where you'll find me" Dorothy

[phoenixlpr 0]

Ah. You don't have to go so far. I don't think that you have to paint the whole line attachment to that color. I have seen a navigator having color codings: it has a 2-4 mm^2 dots on the side made with a soft pen. I think that is safe and it helps to recognize which line group that line belongs to.

[bch7773 0]

if you are worried about colors damaging the lines, couldn't you instead mark the line attachment points? The tape stuff that tacks the lines to the canopy. Surely a small dot of marker there couldn't hurt much.

MB 3528, RB 1182

[Newbie 0]

Quote

Quote

Are there any con's to having colour coded lines

Yeah, you look like a student! :-P

Just to clarify, the lines have coloured tabs, not actually coloured lines right?

Have you got packing tabs as well? ;-P

Hi Craig, yeah they are coloured tabs at the end of the lines. What the heck are packing tabs?

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

[phoenixlpr 0]

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What the heck are packing tabs?

There are 2x7 or 2x9 packing tab on the top surface of the canopies, one tab per cell/tunnel. Its for flat packing.

[Newbie 0]

Ahhh ok thanks.

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

[HydroGuy 0]

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Hi Craig, yeah they are coloured tabs at the end of the lines. What the heck are packing tabs?

If you have colored line connectors, you are jumping an Aerodyne probably? I don't know if Aerodyne puts packing tabs on any of its canopies. I've never seen packing tabs on any of the Pilots I have flown.

So don't search to hard for them.

Get in - Get off - Get away....repeat as neccessary

[riggerrob 558]

Skydivers have been writing phone numbers on freebag bridles for close to 30 years now.
How many freebag bridles have failed?

[mjosparky 3]

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Skydivers have been writing phone numbers on freebag bridles for close to 30 years now.
How many freebag bridles have failed?

I give up, how many?

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[AMax 0]

What a great idea! It was worth logging to DZ.com - I learned something new today