My little project

[Quagmirian 40]

Thought this thread could do with an update.

In July I qualified for my BPA advanced packing certificate. Basic rigging is next.

I've built an evolution of the not so successful orange 7 cell from 2 years back. It has a thinner foil and steeper trim. I'd like to use it to investigate deployments from paragliders and other slow aircraft. I don't have any pictures of it finished yet, but it looks alright.

[Quagmirian 40]

Can anybody suggest somewhere for me to go test jumping for a week or so in the spring? Budget is not massive so that kind of rules out USA unless I can get some very cheap flights. And also a DZ that is cool with this kind of stuff.

[degeneration 5]

Where does that other guy that's posted on here about building his own canopy jump? Go there?!

Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

[Lukasz_Se 2]

Finland, I doubt they jump much during winter time.
I would contact some dropzones in southern Spain/Portugal if I were you

[DHemer 0]

I want to say come to South Africa but I am not sure if we have any rules against home built canopies. i think not as long as container and reserve are TSO'd.

Also most DZ's are not 7 days a week though.

Flights are going to be your main expense. More expensive than a European trip.
16 pounds for a jump ticket

[Quagmirian 40]

Just to let you all know I'm not dead. I went on the BR course in December, so I have until the end of this year to do all the work and prepare for the exam, so I'll be focusing on that primarily. But I haven't forgotten about jumping my most recent canopy.

[inline 28216998_10215906276199504_1940731695_o.jpg]

[accumack 14]

Looks good Quagmiran.

[Quagmirian 40]

Jumped it at Vectorfest

[inline white_canopy.jpg]

[inline white_canopy1.jpg]

First impressions are that it is definitely an improvement on the orange canopy. The control range is still a touch shorter than I had hoped for, but the toggle turns are nice and smooth and the landing flare is beautiful. Lovely landing in nil winds.

If I work out how to edit the video I will upload it and link it here.

[cosmicgypsy 5]

I'd be interested in getting a copy if the offer is still good.

[Quagmirian 40]

A copy of what?

[Beatnik 2]

I believe he is looking for a copy of the Lone Star Parachute Assembly Manual that mentioned early on in this thread. The manual, along with the audio tapes, was used to assemble the precut pieces that they sold with it at additional cost. The parachute did a few things that aren't conventional with modern parachute manufacturing.

The manual used to be available online, I believe at the UKskydiver.co.uk site. I have two versions of it scanned in pdf form and a couple of years ago I digitized the audio tapes.

I will make it a point sometime this year to upload them somewhere as I don't want to field individual requests for it. If someone has a suggestion of a repository where they could be stored and accessed by anyone it could be helpful. I don't want to put it on a private server or where someone could try and turn a profit from it. The information at this point isn't that fantastic.

[Quagmirian 40]

Oh that. I have a copy on my dropbox and my friend has all the audio tapes too. If I knew how to share them I would.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/d9x1sy0m426pdy8/Lone%20Star.pdf?dl=0

[Beatnik 2]

He probably got the tapes and book from me. I gave it to a couple of people across the pond once I digitized all them.

The audio tapes aren't anything special.

[JTH 0]

Quagmirian. Bravo. Seriously bravo! It's awesome to read this thread. Especially the negative comments from the people saying you'd never make a jumpable canopy.. look at you now with several of them!
Awesome!

[Quagmirian 40]

Sorry for the lack of updates in the last year everyone. I finally got my rigger rating in December and made another ZP canopy. Here's the video from earlier this year.

https://youtu.be/fpTBNnXoY9U

It actually flies alright. Unfortunately, despite spending several years and really big chunks of my own money getting my rating, I've still found it difficult jumping homemades at a few dropzones. That, a long with a few other factors, means I'll probably be winding up my jumping for now.

It's been an amazing journey, and I've met some great people ( a lot of them are in this thread). I've made some great experiences and I'm happy to be moving on in a relatively positive way.

[pchapman 278]

You STILL have difficulty jumping homemade parachutes?   Still jerks out there trying to restrict peoples' canopy choice, beyond just wing loading and similar... Are they worried about liability? Plenty of people under normal parachutes hurt themselves. I recall the rigger rating thing was an issue of the BPA, an organization that is always fun to make fun of for its conservative stupidity, but it sounds like the current problem is more local.

 I guess I should re-read all 21 pages of this thread before commenting on the problems you face, but anyway.

You've had tons of dedication to go through the whole process of designing and building your own canopies. Sorry to hear you aren't that enthused about regular jumping but you've put more time into the sport than some who come and go. There are other parachutes out there that are fun to learn to fly or rig up too, whether getting into swooping or putting vintage gear back in the air, but you've had your own thing going.

(For example, I've had fun with weird canopies, whether jumping rounds or Rogallo wings or doing intentional cutaways or using belly mount reserves or modifying a canopy to make a tiny cutaway-only canopy. All these activities are enough to scare some DZ owners too!)

By the way, what do you do in 'real life'? 

[Quagmirian 40]

I've spoken to all the chief instructors of the DZs that I frequent, and at this point, with my rigger rating and years of experience I actually have a pretty good image in the sport. However, a lot of the CIs are still in the mindset of "I'd rather you did that somewhere else", or "ooh, I'd like to get someone else to sign you off to do that". Shoutout to Rich at Langar for just being really chill and mellow and letting me get on with things.

I think the real problem is that there has never really been a BPA system in place for odd cases like me, and I thought becoming a rigger would fix it.

As for the sport, I was never that interested in it that much. I think my mistake was to fall in love with the idea of jumping rather than jumping itself. I think I've seen and done enough to get a fair view of it. Never say never though, I can always come back. I haven't even sold my rig yet. However, I have to realistic about the number of jumps I can do and the level of skill I can ever attain on my budget. I promised myself I wouldn't bitch about skydiving here.

I don't work at the moment. I was looking at getting into rigging full time but who knows now. Maybe a sailmaker or a kayaking/paragliding instructor.

[JerryBaumchen 1,333]

1 hour ago, Quagmirian said:

I promised myself I wouldn't bitch about skydiving here.

Hi Quag,

IMO you are not doing that.  You're just commenting on how you feel & your current situation.

Eventually, everyone makes their last jump.  The reasons why vary across the board.

I have really loved reading about your DIY canopy building; having done one myself.

Wherever, the world takes you, the best of luck to you.

Jerry Baumchen

[RiggerLee 61]

You know there are a lot of facets to the sport. I've found my self drifting from one to the next over the years. skysurfing, freestyle, CRW, base jumping, rigging, manufacturing, now I'm working on rockets and it looks like we are going to get the money to expand it into an orbital system. I don't think I could have done any one of those things for thirty years. Life is really more about growth. Some time that means turning in a new direction but in the end you may find that all of these things are interconnected. What you do is informed by all that you have done before. Every thing you have learned will carry over into what ever you do next. Maybe you'll build a container next. Maybe a pilot rig. One with low pack volume fabric. A better smaller canopy for them. Don't want to deal with a TSO? Maybe build a base rig. Want to do some thing new? Maybe build a modern version of a Sorcerer for the wing suiters. They jump slider up all the time. Maybe it's time they started carring a reserve? Or if you want to stick with canopies, how about doing some thing commercial. High percesion cargo is a thing. Militaries are investing large amounts of money in it in all sizes. There is a contract for a powered one to extend cross range. How about a high altitude eye in the sky, an air deployed aero stat. High altitude balloon. You can shoot down a drone even a big one at 30,000 ft but it's a lot harder to hit some thing at 80,000 feet. Who know were life will take you.

 

Right now I'm actually taking an on line course. Fundamentals of space vehicle guidance, control, and astrodynamics. It's been a while since I stretched my brain cells this hard. Loving it. Getting into math I'd never dived into before. The only real secret in life is to not allow your self to become stagnant. 

 

And I still say the solution to all of your problems is to take out an ad in Parachutest or what ever you have over there selling canopies. You are now "Manufacturer" and blow a big fat raspberry at them. They don't want to run your ad, fine put it in parachutist and sell them here. Let me know and I'll renew just to have a copy of your ad to frame. 

 

Lee

[RiggerLee 61]

I hope you got that fabric for free. It totally saturated my screen and caused strange artifacts around the edges. Hideous.

 

Lee

[IJskonijn 44]

On ‎10‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 8:45 PM, RiggerLee said:

I hope you got that fabric for free. It totally saturated my screen and caused strange artifacts around the edges. Hideous.

 

Lee

That's why he was wearing sunglasses!