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jonstark

Canopy mfgr trivia

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OK folks...

Who made the BOGY, LASER, RASCAL and RANGER canopies?

Where and when?

Remember any of their sales reps?

Is the company still in bidness? As Who?

Jon



I remember jumping the Laser canopies as a S/L student. Not sure who the manufacturer was, but I thought I remembered the company being based in Texas and it went out of business somehow... But my memory is kinda fuzzy on this...

Blue Skies
Billy
"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

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Advanced Para Systems in Commerce, Texas was the company the original name of the company that built the Rascal, Bogey, etc. and Bob Chaffin was the guy that owned the company originally who designed and built the canopies.
The older I get the less I care who I piss off.

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Laser and Rascal were made by FTS, no longer in business, sold to Advanced Para Systems.

Django morphed into Glidepath as a result of Steve Snyder's patent infringement lawsuit. Glidepath was later sold to the folks who run it now as Flight Concepts.

George Galloway worked for Django for a while, which explains the similarities between a Pegasus and a Raven.

Mark

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very good Mark.

I just gave away my old Bogy which was an experimental model of the type. It was no fun to land straight in, could be swooped nicely but had a very narrow band of good performance. Somebody is pulling wheeled sleds across the desert floor and dry lakebeds with it now.

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Hi Jon,
I had one of the FTS Rascal 9's. Only chopped it once when a bunch (7 out of 10) of front lines broke all at once!! Whoever made the line set forgot to angle cut the bitter ends of the inserted fingertrapped lines!!!
SCR-2034, SCS-680

III%,
Deli-out

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Actually, the the company was known as something else even before it was renamed FTS (when Dave moved the business to Alpharetta, GA). The company was founded by Dave Davenport; a (then) Army guy from Fort Benning. He got out and stayed in the area, jumping primarily at Buddy Blue's dropzone in Opelika, AL. Many of the original canopies were cut out and sewn in Buddy's (my dad) shop. The great majority of testing on "FTS" canopies was done at my dad's grass strip. I put the first jumps on everything too small for him to jump, all the way down to 150's (the smallest thing they made then). Dave made a lot of pretty odd stuff by today's standards. You could get a Rascal, Bogy or Laser in seven, eight, or nine cells. The "Ranger" was an 11 cell. The Air Bears (US 4-way team from Deland....Piras, Jeffries, etc.) jumped eight cell FTS canopies in the world meet one year.

Bob Chafin came along and took the company over, changing the name to APS, when Dave "went on vacation" for about ten years. He didn't really make many changes and never really advertised much when he moved the company to Texas. His key addition was the Apache and the Shark. Apaches were weird alternating ZP/F-111 topskin canopies; Sharks were a sort of Sabre, then Stilletto copy. My last APS canopy was a Shark 110; the first one they ever built.

FTS/APS canopies were very, very popular in Alabama and Georgia in the 80's and early 90's. The Laser 250 was/is probably my favorite demo canopy and I flew one into many a bowl stadium back in the day (20th Group Parachute Team and Green Beret Parachute Team).

Dave Davenport got done with his "vacation" several years ago and is now working for Eagle Enterprises designing body armor, holsters, and other tactical equipment. Rumor has it that he may be taking another design/engineering position within the parachute equipment field. He and my dad are still best friends and you can generally find him with The Alabama Gang at the WFFC.

Peace,
Chuck Blue, D-12501

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When I first came across a Laser reserve, it freaked me out a little: No rib tapes!
(On the loaded ribs, leading from the line attachments to the top skin.)

But in its place one could see heavy tapes inside the bottom skin seams, from nose to tail through the line attach points.

Nothing necessarily wrong with the design. Just different from how most other canopies are built.

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Chuck, do you know Wayne Keese?
I was only familiar with the Texas chapter of the story. Bob Chaffin is still around and doing well, although getting pretty up there in his years. He just recently sold his place and moved 'into town' I think it was pretty hard for him, but it was time.

One of my first student canopies was a Rascal 202. This came about from a significant portion of the DZ crew being associated with Chaffin. Wayne Keese used to do test jumps for Chaffin, and I believe broke his arm trying to land an Apache the first time. Bob Necessary used to work for McCalfish in the loft back in the day, and a pretty wild I hear though would not have guessed. I work with Wayne who is chasing firearms more than jumping these days, and Necessary is still rigging in the USAF. There are still frequent trips to see Chaffin out in Commerce.
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All the flaming and trolls of wreck dot with a pretty GUI.

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When I first came across a Laser reserve, it freaked me out a little: No rib tapes!
(On the loaded ribs, leading from the line attachments to the top skin.)

But in its place one could see heavy tapes inside the bottom skin seams, from nose to tail through the line attach points.

Nothing necessarily wrong with the design. Just different from how most other canopies are built.



>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Yes.
I suspect that the lack of "V" tapes was an attempt to reduce manufacturing cost and bulk.
Either that or he was trying to avoid paying license fees to Steve Snyder.
Hee!
Hee!

As for tapes running nose to tail along the load-bearing ribs, several other manufacturers (Parachutes de France, Strong Ent., etc.) use them on canopies loaded more the 1 pound per square foot.

Back in 1987, I bought a stack of Laser 9-cell, 290 canopies (from Dave Davenport) for the Black Forest Parachute Club, to replace their student Para-Commanders. The club reported a dramatic increase in the number of students landing in the bowl and an equally dramatic decrease in landing injuries.

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Dave made a lot of pretty odd stuff by today's standards. You could get a Rascal, Bogy or Laser in seven, eight, or nine cells. The "Ranger" was an 11 cell.



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Too Cool!

I remember those canopies, they were popular 'up'
in Illinois too...

A buddy on leave, brought a Laser 250 up from Bragg
one summer...

We all jumped it, B|
and 4-5 of the gang ordered up a few days later.

Like nothin' we'd ever SEEN before...:o

Didn't know the background story,
we just knew the guy making them was~

BRILLIANT!:ph34r:












~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

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Advanced Para Systems in Commerce, Texas was the company the original name of the company that built the Rascal, Bogey, etc. and Bob Chaffin was the guy that owned the company originally who designed and built the canopies.



Dammit you beat me to it!! Ole Granpa BOB!! God I miss him. Hey Jerry I have had a few drinks with Dennis Dorris the last few weeks. Remember he and Bob owned the Up N Down Shop together?



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OK folks...

Who made the BOGY, LASER, RASCAL and RANGER canopies?

Where and when?

Remember any of their sales reps?

Is the company still in bidness? As Who?

Jon



The whole line was total crap. Sluggish flight and thumpy landings, even for the era.
Chuck Akers
D-10855
Houston, TX

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OK folks...

Who made the BOGY, LASER, RASCAL and RANGER canopies?

Where and when?

Remember any of their sales reps?

Is the company still in bidness? As Who?

Jon



The whole line was total crap. Sluggish flight and thumpy landings, even for the era.



Humm now chuckie, I had 169 jumps on mine and never had any problems landing it, nice and soft. Now I wont argue that sometimes quality control became an issue, and I do agree that they werent the best canopies but the price was right.



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OK folks...

Who made the BOGY, LASER, RASCAL and RANGER canopies?

Where and when?

Remember any of their sales reps?

Is the company still in bidness? As Who?

Jon



The whole line was total crap. Sluggish flight and thumpy landings, even for the era.



Humm now chuckie, I had 169 jumps on mine and never had any problems landing it, nice and soft. Now I wont argue that sometimes quality control became an issue, and I do agree that they werent the best canopies but the price was right.



Ok, ok, ya gotta point. I don't remember the price hurting the wallet too badly. Oh, those were the daze...
Chuck Akers
D-10855
Houston, TX

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