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dgw

Jumping a Strato Flyer - Hints please..

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one end cell was closed, (no cross ports)



That might be a reason why an earlier comment about not being so great in turbulence makes sense.



Back when the Flyer was state of the art it was standard procedure to fly any square in half brakes when encountering turbulence. That way there was less likelihood of induced stall. If things got shakey you could speed up to recover smooth flight then slow down again. Worked for me.

jon

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DON'T jump it if there's much turbulence in the air, those canopies are somewhat sensitive to turbulent air and will sometimes collapse and drop you in from 60 feet or so.



I never heard that before; in fact I believe the Strato-Flyer became the first square reserve. They were d-bag deployed originally, but of course a lot of people got into the free packing thing (not me). I have a hand full of jumps on one and stood it up every time (135lbs) though not as easily as my Strato-Star.



Sorry for the delay, I've been on the road for a week.

You may be right. Truthfully, I had forgottenb about the Strato Star. I tend to think in terms of Strato-5 cell and Strato-7 cell.
I'm a jumper. Even though I don't always have money for jumps, and may not ever own a rig again, I'll always be a jumper.

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i had one -- forget whether it was 1978 or 1979 when i bought it -- log books are somewhere stored now. Continued to jump it through 1983.

anyway after having the stabilizers added it was a great canopy -- i even enjoyed the comments that it was the first ram air pilot chute -- amusing considering how technology has been incorporated into even smaller ones today. never any problems with turbulence.

I weighed 145 when i bought it but somehow put on a few pounds in college -- 185. Never had any hard landing just ones where it didnt seem to slow down much in a flare -- great green knees on my white jumpsuit.

It does bounce around a bit on opening -- just had to get the brakes down -- and be careful how you stow the steering lines -- i had a steering line hang up on that huge ass cascade knot and only had one toggle active.

Used the old S fold -- nose tucked in made easy openings but if one was planning to need a faster opening i just turned the nose down -- really snapped open.

still have it but i doubt it is still flyable.

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I had one; free packed it for many hundreds of quick, reliable openings. Even made BASE jumps with it (Look at some of Phil Smith's early BASE jumps; you'll see him on one).

I would recommend not landing conservative, it needs speed for a good flare. I liked to hook a low turn with the front riser from a downwind run to pick up speed coming into landing. The canopy is very responsive to front riser corrections, but will lose altitude accordingly. I weighed about 165 in that lifetime...

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I'd suggest putting a couple jumps on a StratoStar, vice the Flyer....... the 'Star is a bit more forgiving than is the Flyer......... consider it "downsizing practice....."

My "star was the "Freedom 76" R/W/B pattern, my flyer was solid white.......

Did 2 demos into the Washington Monument in DC on the 'Star"

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Hi Roger,

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in fact I believe the Strato-Flyer became the first square reserve.



Yes, it did.

Personally, I will never forgive Para-Flite for using the jumping public as their test dummies for the development of the square reserve. IMO they never had any intention of the 'Flyer being a sport canopy for the masses. It was just a test project & we were the dummies. B|

JerryBaumchen


They did that with the Para Plane as well. IIRC You got a free call to the factory on Monday morning to report the efforts of the weekend.
GUNFIRE, The sound of Freedom!

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Hi. I made a jump with Safety-Flyer recently, long story short here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dn0w2OG3OQ

Canopy was first drop-tested with a 32 kg kettlebell from a 45-meters pipe.

It was an intentional cutaway (I put on an additional harness (Soviet PO-16) under my rig and put SF on UT-15 risers). Also used static line and PO-16 d-bag. Used self-made soft-links. I did not set the brakes. :)

We later found the canopy in the field.

Landing it would be a challenge for my legs and feet: its cells close for no reason, as there are no crossports. Descend rate is about 7 to 9 meters per second.

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First off the deployment brakes were not set, the slider is on upside down and it appears to be a copy not the real Safety Flyer as the stamp is wrong. I put
over 500 jumps on the original Strato Flyer and many on the Safety Flyer prototypes. If you have any questions you can message me here. I ran the manufacturing facility for several years until we trained someone to take over.

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Thanks for the reply. I knew and wrote in the original message about the brakes, I think it is one of reasons why it got line twists (the other is no tension on static line during deployment). Did not notice the incorrect slider settings.

Stamp has at least DOM corrected with sharpie to state DOM somewhere in 90s (haha!), but manufacturer is stated to be Para-Flite...

Do you know about anyone producing counterfeit copies of Safety-Flyers? That would be a bit strange… Can this (not being a genuine thing) be the reason for end cells closing randomly during flight?

I can make some pictures of stamp and canopy later today.

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We heard about some counterfeit Safety Flyer and Safety Star canopies even saw a few. We were not able to track down the manufacturer. Para-Flite was part of the canopy stamp not a second stamp. Also manufactured under F.A.A. TSO C23Bb was part of the stamp. Serial numbers for the Safety Flyer started with R1- Safety Star R2-. if you have any more questions let me know.

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Yes, they will. My one and only major injury was from a stall at about 35 feet due, as far as I can tell, to turbulence around the buildings surrounding the landing area for the demo I was doing at the Oakland Army Terminal. I was flying a StratoStar and was on approach when I reached down to drop the smoke bracket. When I looked up I was at eyeball level with the low voltage lines and must have gone beyond half brakes too high. Dropped like a stone and broke my right foot in seven places including putting the navicular onto the other side of the foot, under the skin. Nine days in Letterman Army Hospital and several months of a cast to my knee. Not fun. But I did go back to jumping the Strat because it had been the best canopy I had ever had.
If you know how many guns you have - you don't have enough!

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Hooodogies!!!  "Strat's!!!!"  "Stars an' 'Fryer's!!"   (Pun intened)  As for the "Fryer'" I mean "Flyer"    the only person who I know of that jumped one successfully as a young lady at old Elsinore named I think  "Darleen"   she was a singer that went by the stage name of "Danny!!"  She weighed about 98 lbs.  dripping wet with her clothes on!!  She'd come in for a landing, do a "normal" flare and dead stop a foot above ground and take one step!!  Note!! I said she weighed 98 lbs.!!!!!!!!!!!  Major operating factor!! PS the pictures of "Dean Westgard" landing the flyer were taken when he was a bout a foot or so off the ground....  ya' had ta' see the crater and cloud of dust not to mention the seismic after recordings "ONE FOOT LATER!!"  I had a "Star!!!"  Long story!!  back when I tipped the scale at the 160-165 lb range!!  If ya' have enough BEER I can tell ya' some stories..... All in all I liked my STAR!!....  As for "Flyer's"  my now late friend "Red Beard" came over one night and "GAVE" me this red and white Flyer he got from someone  ... I didn't want it but ended up with it anyway... Some time later Matt McKillowatt... aka  "Sparky" was over for some rigging work and I got him drunk and got him to haul off the Flyer!! Finally got rid of it!!  He was going on some "Spooky" base jump and I told him.. "It's the perfect rig  (Fortunately I think he weighed about 145 lbs. so that was good!!"  If ya need to ditch it .. no loss!!    

"5 RIGHT ... an' ... CUT!!!!!!,"

skybill-out

PS...and then there was "GENO!!!!".. aka Walton Eugene Johnson!!! A "Ghetto Rat" Jumping what he could find!!  His last "Good Canopy" took a dive and he found a "Flyer"  .. He weighed in at the 170 +/- 5 lb range... (net.) would fly in at 2000 mph, flare like there was no tomorrow and "ATTACK" the hard pan at Scare-us-valley with great gusto!!  I would "Cringe" when I watched his landings!!  .......  My "Hi-Ball" is gettin' kinda low... need to do a mid-air refuel... Later Troops... Drop me a line if ya' want to hear more .......

 

Edited by skybill

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I remember the Strato Flyer was popular with little guys and little women. It was notoriously hard to flare. Also, it was released so the jumping public could do the test jumping for the Safety Flyer reserve version, only Para Flite never told anybody about that part. Safety Flyer was the first TSO'd square reserve, released in 1978.

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