Military Surplus Parachute Supply....

[Unstable 8]

This may be an odd question and thread, but some folks here who are into older gear or surplus parachutes may be able to help me..

As I finished my Chest Rating, I acquired a small collection of Chest Parachutes. Strong, Kaizer, Air Force C-12, and of course a T-10R. I make a habbit of parrousing through Army Surplus stores when I'm in a new town with time to kill.

The folks In the surplus business say that they haven't been able to get any parachute stuff in about 15 years.... Does anybody know what the Military does with the crates and cratesa and crates of parachutes they cycle through each year?

=========Shaun ==========

[LouDiamond 1]

DRMO is where most of it goes. I'd expect to see an astronomical amount of surplus static line systems out there somewhere eventually with the T-11 and MC-6 being fielded to the masses now.

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[mjosparky 3]

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DRMO is where most of it goes. I'd expect to see an astronomical amount of surplus static line systems out there somewhere eventually with the T-11 and MC-6 being fielded to the masses now.

About time. The alpha quals were done 8 or 9 years ago.

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[piisfish 135]

Dear Mister Moderator,

In case you see any "interesting" chests, please note that I would need some of that stuff.

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[councilman24 36]

It's all available. Google goverment liquidators and search parachute.

But they now demil all of it by cutting the lines off. Thats why most of what's on ebay doesn't have lines. So they haven't been able to get airworthy stuff. And the ebay types probably buy it all to sell there.

I'd be dangerous if I had a warehouse.

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[Unstable 8]

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Dear Mister Moderator,

In case you see any "interesting" chests, please note that I would need some of that stuff

I just secured my 4th complete chest rig, an old Starmaster with an 'instrument' panel (stopwatch, aircraft altimeter). I don't know why, but for some reason I love collecting Complete chest rigs.

=========Shaun ==========

[Unstable 8]

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But they now demil all of it by cutting the lines off. Thats why most of what's on ebay doesn't have lines. So they haven't been able to get airworthy stuff. And the ebay types probably buy it all to sell there.

Quite a few folks here with the Commemorative airforce have some sort of back channel ~ they keep getting late-90's surplus equipment for pennies, fit them with a Pilot Chute deployment system, and jump the hell out of them.

=========Shaun ==========

[piisfish 135]

one of my collegue riggers here is trying to complete a rig, but impossible to get hold of airworty chest reserves orders should be made by the Swiss Army only

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[Unstable 8]

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one of my collegue riggers here is trying to complete a rig, but impossible to get hold of airworty chest reserves

Really? Can't you call up Strong Enterprises and get those SET-10 systems for not an unreasonable price... ($2500 or so... don't quote me on that)???

=========Shaun ==========

[piisfish 135]

only if ordered by the Swiss Army, not for foreign civilians apparently...

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[riggerrob 558]

I asked a Para-Gear - about surplus parachutes - during the PIA Symposium, and he said that the U.S. military cut up all their old harnesses, before selling them to surplus dealers.
And I have seen almost complete HALO rigs - in California surplus stores - but I would have had to do more than $300 worth of sewing to make them airworthy.
The last complete, airworthy, (North American) military-surplus parachute was sold circa 1980.
Any more modern parachutes were either snuck out the back door, or returned to North America via foreign military sales ... another back door.

The bottom line is that the Canadian and American governments are afraid that skydivers will hurt themselves while jumping military-surplus parachutes and try to sue the gov't.

[skyh2omedic 0]

Shaun,
If you run accross one i'm looking for a complete airworty/jumpable MC1-1B with reserve. Hoping to jump one again someday.

"You can't teach what you don't know and you can't lead where you won't go"

[Unstable 8]

Quote

I asked a Para-Gear - about surplus parachutes - during the PIA Symposium, and he said that the U.S. military cut up all their old harnesses, before selling them to surplus dealers.
And I have seen almost complete HALO rigs - in California surplus stores - but I would have had to do more than $300 worth of sewing to make them airworthy.
The last complete, airworthy, (North American) military-surplus parachute was sold circa 1980.
Any more modern parachutes were either snuck out the back door, or returned to North America via foreign military sales ... another back door.

The bottom line is that the Canadian and American governments are afraid that skydivers will hurt themselves while jumping military-surplus parachutes and try to sue the gov't.

That really is such a shame. You're right ~ the only places I ever find "treasurers" are old Army Surplus stores that have hardly and customers and throughput. There is a rack of BA-22's on a warehouse shelf in Wichita, complete with Mid 80's C-9s, et cetera, but of course they want an arm and a leg.

Again, the Commemorative Airborne guys have some real methods ~ I guess they have enough Backdoors to keep their stocks up and real.

=========Shaun ==========

[riggerrob 558]

A lot of US Army surplus parachutes get "sold" to friendly foreign nations, like Afghanistan, Argentina, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Panama, Turkey, etc.

This ensures that puppet states operate "last week's" technology, making any invasion easier (e.g. Panama).

Since it gets "sold" for "pennies on the dollar" it is impossible for civilian parachute dealers to compete.

[Unstable 8]

There are a few things I just don't understand ~ I was bidding on a 1963 Military Chest container on ebay that was modified for sport jumping, and I bid $150 thinking it would be a good training tool for if I supervise any riggers on earning a chest rating. In the last 3 minutes, two surplus dealers got in a bidding war and the winner ended up spending $320 for the thing.

What surplus dealer in the right mind would BUY an old junker chest for $320? I mean, how do they stay in business? I thought $150 was pretty generous..... $320?!?!

A few days ago I saw a surplus store in KC has a completely ratted out harness for $200. Harness only. Nothing else ~ no parachutes. Most the hardware was already stripped off.

I have come to the conclusion that Surplus dealers are usually high on crack cocaine.

=========Shaun ==========

[demoknite 0]

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DRMO is where most of it goes. I'd expect to see an astronomical amount of surplus static line systems out there somewhere eventually with the T-11 and MC-6 being fielded to the masses now.

A lot of the T10s and T10 reserves are being converted to be used on cargo loads to save money.