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crotalus01

can one of you old-timers explain....

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I believe (?) that the first FS at a Nat'ls was in '69; 4-way. Begin with a star/backloop/etc.

Anyone?

Jerry



'69 may have been the year, but I was thinking 70. The backloop didn't come until later though I think. I'm in China now, and don't have access to my old parachutists. I think the first RW at Nats was just a series of non-contact formations...

-- Jeff
My Skydiving History

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Hi Jeff,

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'69 may have been the year, but I was thinking 70. The backloop didn't come until later though I think. I'm in China now, and don't have access to my old parachutists. I think the first RW at Nats was just a series of non-contact formations...



Well, where the h*^* is old Roy Starbird when we need him?

Anyone else got's any memories of how things were?

Jerry

PS) I think I am correct, though.

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I always wondered about the Para Dactyl, which was funky enough as a main, but which was used for a while as a reserve. The smallest, lightest assembly ever was the Para Dactyl main and reserve, called "Double-Dactyl Death". :S I'd be interested to know the TSO status of that thing. ;)

Kevin



AFAIK the russian CRW guys are still jumping them!

Or a copy:S

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AFAIK the russian CRW guys are still jumping them!

Or a copy:S



I'm not sure what you have seen to make you think that is the case, but as far as I know, the Russkie CRWDogs jump conventional ram-airs.

Kevin
_____________________________________
Dude, you are so awesome...
Can I be on your ash jump ?

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My wrap DVD though shows em cutting away their mains and having Dactyl reserves..

W



Oh. I misunderstood. I thought he meant Paradactyl Mains.

Dactyl reserves, eh ? Those fucking Russkies are nuttier than I thought. :o:S

Kevin
_____________________________________
Dude, you are so awesome...
Can I be on your ash jump ?

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The reason the anti windblast handle killed people is the manufacturers didn't use all the components that the military did. I put several hundred jumps on my Stylemaster type copy I made myself. It had standard military housing, The blast handle did not have the internal post drilled out and it had the most important part of the system which was tubular aluminum "sleeve" which was secured to the end of the housing with one or two flush set screws.
It didn't matter which direction you pulled it it always worked.

I'll pull that puppy out of the box and take a picture in a few weeks. Stay tuned.
“The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him.

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec quotes (Polish writer, poet and satirist 1906-1966)

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Sorry that I just now ran across this post. What I remember about the blast handle is that we were trying to move away from D handle ripcords to lesson the possibility of a snag danger.

I loved my blast handle because there was little chance of getting it caught by something on exit. It was very easy to find. After I modified mine, by removing the sheath that held it in place, you could pull it in any direction and it came out easily. Had two cutaways with it and never even had to look for it.

After being out of the sport for 23 years I was shocked to see that D handle ripcords, tight jumpsuits and AAD's were back! :o


~Paul Creel SCS-5015

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Was the stylemaster belly reserve the first rig to have the reserve ripcord mounted in the center of the belly wart rather than the right side, like all the military surplus crap;)

We remember seeing pic's in parachutist of a center pull reserve handle with bent pins from at least one jumper pulling their reserve handle to the right side.:o

Anyone know the story behind when the pins got bent? Hanging harness or :o:o:o.

R.I.P.
reply]
........................................................
If I remember right the cones on a center pull reserve would rotate left and right, so I'm not sure how those pins could have gotten bent by pulling it to the right. Even if you pulled straight out and away from your chest, the rip-cord pocket should have pulled the short ripcord in an upward direction. It's been so darn many years since I've seen a center pull that I'm having trouble visualizing things, but I don't think there would be any more trouble with bent pins than a side pull.

About the mid 70's there was a cut away system that would pull your chest mount reserve ripcord for you. I think it was the Steven's cut-away system. On it the side pull ripcord was pulled straight up by a lanyard tied to the handle. It functioned okay because the pocket of the ripcord allowed the pins to be pulled to the side.

At any rate, I'm trying to visualize all this in my mind, and I may be wrong on some of this. So correct me if I'm all wet on this. I never owned a center pull, but I packed some back in the day. And what a long time ago it was![:/]...Steve1

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Hi steve1,

The first center pull chest packs that I know of (mid '60's) were where a ripcord was mounted on the rear of the chest pack and used a ripcord housing going around to the pins which were side pull. However, I think you are thinking of the 'real' center pull rigs.

Strong's StyleMaster had rotating pins so that you could use a side or center pull ripcord. His first center pull ripcords used two pins, two cables & two balls and the cables went outside of the elastic ripcord pocket. This resulted in some bent pins. He then changed the design to where it used a single cable, going through two holes in the handle (the cable was in a 'U' shape) and with two pins. This allowed/req'd the cable & pins to go through the ripcord pocket therefore preventing a bent pin situation.

Also, the PopTop preceded the StyleMaster as a center pull but it had the pins on the back side of the container, just like a Racer does to this day.

Does that answer it for you?

Jerry

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