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Beatnik

Recent Para-Sled Jump

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Well with all these canopy photos popping up through the threads, I thought that I better get my butt in gear.

Last Saturday, my friend jumped his Para-Sled that was once owed by the famous Bill Cole. Thought everyone would enjoy to see some color photos of the canopy.

Enjoy.

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I did my first square Cross Country under a Sled in 1975. Exited a Cessna 180, 7 miles from the DZ, and landed in the pit. My first Sled jump as well!

359
"Now I've settled down,
in a quiet little town,
and forgot about everything"

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Hi Beatnik,

From photo #2 that thing looks out of trim. Look at the bottom surface between the B & C flares.

Jerry



Maybe, but the jumper has initiated a right turn (look at the steering lines) which is probably distorting things a bit...

I have severl Sled jumps too, same color pattern.

-----------------------
Roger "Ramjet" Clark
FB# 271, SCR 3245, SCS 1519

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I had to wait for some pics from the people that took them. I just had the air shots. This is the only one I got just after he landed.

His landing was much nicer than the one I did under my dactyl. Thankfully there is no pictures of that. I got me the jelly legs and bells where ringing.

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I had to wait for some pics from the people that took them. I just had the air shots. This is the only one I got just after he landed.

His landing was much nicer than the one I did under my dactyl. Thankfully there is no pictures of that. I got me the jelly legs and bells where ringing.



So how did he say it handled ? Those ancient (pre Strato Star) squares used to be prone to sudden stalls. Good idea to jump in dense cold air, hope the snow helped, as it doesn't look like a stand up.

Good for you guys, way to go !!

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

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There is going to be more vintage gear jumps coming up soon. I got more canopies coming and there are still a lot of plans in the process.

I was watching the canopy not far away snapping the photos and it didn't look like it handled great and he said the same. It seems that it required a lot of toggle input and time before turns were initiated. The airfoil is awful compared to today's and we theorize that much of the air back there is already stalled. In the second photo you can right tail pulled down, well it didn't do much of a turn for a little while but once started it went by fairly fast.

The landing wasn't a stand up but it was into some deep snow, so even if the landing was good enough to stand up the compressing snow prevented it. He did tell me that it was worse than his paracommander but not as bad as my dactyl. Then again I am a fair bit heavier than him.

We are soon going to be doing a double para-sled jump. Now that should be interesting.

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My only jump on a Sled was only 1/2 a jump. Pete Myks just bought it with a two year out of date reserve in a Cross Bow. I couldnt see wasting a pack job to see it. I barely had the rip cord out of the housing and Wham, It broke the left lower steering at the brake loop. By the way the Tri-Con worked just fine. The split tail and same line length steering lines across the tail was unique . It remained under the counterfor years after that, a shame really.

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Its very nice to know that my old Sled ( 1 of 3 I had) is still flying. It is one very nice chute, but on severaql demos, it had a long opening, and I almost chopped it. One of those long opening jumps aws at the Canadian Football Classic, the Grey Cup in 1973.

The packing system was terrible, and it should have had a slider.

Nevertheless, a fabulous parachute.




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Bill:

Since you mentioned it, I decided to post the pic I got from Skypuppy.

The sled is going to be seeing the sky again real soon. Your name down the center cell is a little shriveled but that is being worked on and should be very clear for all to see shortly.

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So cool to see the old stuff flown again. Who will be jumping a C9 round, a Papillon, Thunderbow, or...? Love to watch these classics in the air again but glad to be watching, not riding. The good old days (for me) were filled with really hard landings under a worn out cheapo canopy. Thought I had died and gone to heaven when someone let me jump their PC.
2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

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I am glad everyone is enjoying seeing the canopies flown again. I really enjoy flying them and so does my friend. If the weather co-operates with us, we are going to be doing a delta II and paradactyl jump, double thunderbows and if I have my parasled by that time double parasleds. If the double para-sled isn't able to be done, we will most likely do a para-sled and para-plane jump. My para-plane matches the para-sled nicely. The end cells are black and the middle is yellow.

I will post the pics of these jumps as I get them.

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I "sold?" my Delta II Parawing to a guy at the Baldwin dropzone, with a Pioneer containr and harness, and a 26 foot reserve in a Pioneer container....for the cost of one jump.

I used the Delat II on many jumps, includinmg the HALO record for Canada at 36,916 ft.

It flew beautifully, and I only had 1 malfunction on it, but many great flights.

Bill Cole

PS: If anyone comes up with it, I will show them how to pack it. Its simple, and the lines are color coded . It may need a new deployment bag by now.




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same line length steering lines across the tail was unique



Aren't the lines different lengths, so that the canopy has a flat appearance across the span, instead of the normal arch?
People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

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Aren't the lines different lengths, so that the canopy has a flat appearance across the span, instead of the normal arch?



The lines are different lengths but don't very greatly because of the low aspect ratio. The thing is square like a postage stamp.

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The Para-sled is the nicest flying canopy I ever had. Stand up landings, and high manouverability, but it backs up quite large.

Some one should make them again, but out of lighter material....they'd likely sell a large number. Its very small in overall sq ft.

a great canopy

Bill Cole




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All my clouds ,baby plane and unit, comet, even my sabres had three out of the cascade one length and the line inboard longer to tuck the tail only on flares.If you look at the photos.the steering lines go all the way across to the split tail the same length. not just the outer cells. My sabre1 had a seperate line on each side for flare and was stowed like the rest of the suspension lines. Almost like the tandem system.

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