Soft Cutaway Housings???

[Ducky 0]

So now that I got the beer rig I have one question/comcern about it.

It has soft cutaway housings on it still. How how important is it to update these. Also curious to know what is invloved with updating, cost?, time? etc.

kwak

Sometimes your the bug, sometimes your the windshield. Sometimes your the hammer sometimes your the nail. Question is Hun, Do you wanna get hammered or do you wanna get nailed?????

[AggieDave 6]

Quote

It has soft cutaway housings on it still

Are they partially soft housings or totally soft housings. Some of the rigs from a few years back had half and half, hard housings coming from handles into the container then soft housings from there to the 3-rings/reserve pin. My understanding is that the 1/2 & 1/2 rigs aren't too bad, but the rigs with totally soft housings aren't too good. IMHO I'd get a rigger or the manufacture to update the rig with hard housings, this protects your cables and helps prevent hard pulls on either of the systems (cutaway/reserve).

This, once again, is my opinion from my limited knowledge, check with your rigger and the really knowledgable guys/gals around here.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[RTB 0]

I would change them to hard housing.
It's easy to do on a Javelin, not too expensive either. Maybe US$ 35-45.

René

[councilman24 36]

Best I can figure out, nobody is offering them anymore. Hmmmm? Take a cue, change them.

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[PhreeZone 15]

One of the guys at my DZ will not jump hard housings after hard housings were linked as a casue of death in one of his friends. Sunpath is the only company, other then Jumpshack but he does'nt want that, to even still think aobut offering soft houseings still. Hard housings have proven their usefulness, so swap them at the next repack.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[Sonic 0]

One of the guys at my dz has a jav with soft housings on, and he said it can be a real pain to get the cable to go through them when connecting risers back up. Something else to think about if you're doing your monthly "chop, clean, and flex"

-----------------------------------
It's like something out of that twilighty show about that zone

[councilman24 36]

I'm curious what is being blamed on hard housings that wouldn't apply to soft ones. Any more info?

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[PhreeZone 15]

There was material lodged in the hard housing that got jamed in. Soft housings are smaller and more likely to be more snug to the cable. This helps to keep debris out of the houseing. A simple test pull of the cutaway handle would have revieled a stone lodged in the housing.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[riggerrob 563]

Sometimes soft housings will result in a difficult cutaway. Most people have already replaced their soft housings with hard housings. It costs less than US$100 and can be done by any Senior Rigger.
This whole problem surfaced when I was working at Rigging Innovations 1994-1997. R.I. was the second company to introduce soft housings, while Sun Path/Javelin was the first.
The problem first arose with Javelins. After listening to anecdotal reports and doing a bunch of suspended harness tests, I concluded that most of the difficult cutaways were caused by mis-routed cables, specifically the left cable where it goes around the back of the neck. Installing the left cable in a Javelin required 5 steps, 6 steps on a Flexon, which was more than the average skydiver could figure out without a manual. In comparison, there are only one or two steps to installing a cable in a hard housing.
Since the average skydiver ignores manuals (and early Javelin and Flexon manuals were !@#$%!), we were building rigs that were not skydiver-proof. By mis-routing the left cable on a Javelin, I was able to increase the pull force from 5 pounds to 25 pounds!
While at R.I. I retro-fitted hard housings to hundreds of Flexons and '94 Talons. We mailed out hundreds more retro-fit kits.
The Talon 2 was introduced (in 1997) with partial hard housings, but now all R.I. rigs are built with full hard housings.
The short term solution is to install your cables "in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions" and limit your jumping to lightly-loaded canopies.
The long-term solution is to order a new set of hard housings from Sun Path and have your rigger install them as soon as they arrive. The hard housing retro-fit can be done without opening the reserve.

[Ducky 0]

Thanks Rob,

Nice thorough answer, cleared it all up for me.

kwak

Sometimes your the bug, sometimes your the windshield. Sometimes your the hammer sometimes your the nail. Question is Hun, Do you wanna get hammered or do you wanna get nailed?????