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AHoyThere

Tandem harness and the y-strap

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Legs high enough, a little loosness on the side straps, and maybe a nice hard opening to boot. Add a large rear end that gets your c.g. back pretty far in the harness, behind the leg straps. Not all our passengers in this country are the ideal athletic type. Like I said, when I get a passenger with an ample rear end, I look for the Y strap harness.

Is this the most dangerous thing in skydiving? No. Is it a possibility. I guard against it.

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I always tell all my TI to have complete controls of their passenger legs on opening. Very easy to do, doesn't hurt the passenger at all and doesn't take any freedom away from anybody, it's only a safety routine. Can you imagine, on the picture, the instructor having to cut away an high speed mal?
He will end up going for a back loop with the RSL pulling the reserve at the same time. As an instructor and/or a passenger, this is not a situation I want to be for sure.
That's the main reason behing Bill Booth skyhook. He want a system to be as idiot proofe as possible.
On the other hand only the Sigma's have that safety system!
So that's why TI should be better train and all DZ owner should have a way to keep up with them to make sure they still follow what they lurn and the DZ standards and policies.
The reason why Bill and others are making idiot free tandems rigs ...is probably because there is too many idiot tandem instructors!!

Richard
When you think you're good...this is when you become dangerous.

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Can you tell from your video/stills whether they tilted head-low between drogue release and this opening? I think that's usually the cause of such wild antics involving students legs rotating way the hell up in front of them.

Blues,
Dave
"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

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You can work your way out of even a properly adjusted harness if enough things go wrong.



Would you elaborate on the last part of that statement?



......................................................................

Most flying/skydiving accidents are found at the end of a chain of mistakes.
Stop any mistake ... and you stop the accident.

That puts pressure on every professional (manifest, mechanic, rigger, pilot, instructor, etc.) to stop small mistakes.

IOW If you take care of the details, the big picture will take care of itself.

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I'm hesitant to get into this discussion cuz we all have our own opinions. But I'll share some of my experiences.
One year I got a job in Eloy. I thought that was big time cuz they had Sigma rigs (and it was Eloy after all). One of the guys nearly had a tandem student fall through the harness. At the time he had only about 10,000 tandems. I'm not sure but I think that's a lot. By shear muscle he kept his student in that harness.
I get there and Greg hits me up and tells met that I'm putting these harnesses on my students wrong. He takes the time to explane it to me. Demonstrates it.
This is an example of how it should work. Knowledge should pass freely from one to another. All to often we get caught up in our own egos, and forget about the bigger picture. I've done this a bunch of times. So have you. I like to think that some of the conversations that I've had with Bill helped to keep him alive when his reserve pc jumped out in the caravan.
Discussion, my friends, is good.
“God Damn Mountain Dew MotherFuckers!”

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tells met that I'm putting these harnesses on my students wrong.

What was being done wrong? What needed to be done differently? Was it also a case of a less-than-optimal body type? Yes, 10000 tandems is a lot. :D I often have my passengers suited up by someone else, but I always find time to check the harness myself. Is that part of Eloy's procedures? Having the TM look over the harness would have prevented the woman from falling from her too loose harness. [:/]

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What needs to be done is laid out clearly in the UPT harness adjustment guide.

Harnessing people is not hard. There is one right way to do it. Too many instructors take personal liberties in harnessing their students, most likely to make themselves feel better, not their students.

When in doubt, consult the manufacturer. Also why they need to be in charge of the ratings, to reference another post.

Johnny
--"This ain't no book club, we're all gonna die!"
Mike Rome

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From what Bll Nooth told me he would not put a Y-strap on sigma harnesses until the faa forced him too, and his design would not load until a student had left the harness

Did he offer an explanation for this ? Sounds odd....
smile, be nice, enjoy life
FB # - 1083

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like he feels with most skydiving innovations, the better the gear, the more chances people take. He wants to force people to do the harness properly. I think. The only people to fall out so far have been harnessing errors, not design faults, so why change the design to now give bad harnessers more leway. Again, I think.

Johnny
--"This ain't no book club, we're all gonna die!"
Mike Rome

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so why change the design to now give bad harnessers more leway.



true that! and the Y straps are F'ugly.

Strong has not yet (with various different design changes) made a great passenger harness, Sigma passenger harnesses are great harnesses.
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

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