OnyxSkyDV

Was manufactured in 99, I bought it at least a year after it was made, though I understand the point you are making. Skybands are just rubberbands, and I do not recall the manual stating specifically which rubberbands to use, so that is a moot point. Constructive input is appreciated, if you are unable to do so, move on. You are complaining about a canopy 6 (or more) years old tearing? When you bought the canopy, you must have seen the warning that said there is no warranty. Even if there was a warranty, it would have long expired because of time. Try this: buy a brand new car, only drive it once a month to the corner store. When it is six years old, try and get the manufacturer to warranty a broken part. They will laugh you out of the dealership, and that is with something that was barely used, and did have a warranty, since expired. Also, I am certain they never approved the canopy to be packed with skybands, so you were not packing properly according to the manual. Get over it.

Well, I may not be the best packer in the world, but I am far from a poor packer. Working on my riggers ticket, and in fact packed my own 1st save (I owed myself a bottle of my favorite, plus the drink of choice to my most excellent mentor), so I am not terrible inclined to think it was an out and out bollux of a packjob, though it's always a possibility. As far as the lineset goes, I am far more inclined to look down that path, but is seems unlikely that the lines would be that far out of trim in just 150 jumps. Again, always a possibility, and seems the most likely explaination of the issue so far. Onyx On a similar note, we recently had a Diablo 170 in our loft to replace three broken lines after a brutally hard opening. The owner is not a very good packer. Hint! Hint! The new Aerodyne still sells line kits etc. for "orphaned" canopies (Wildfire, Diablo, etc.), but they are painfully slow on delivery. Hint!

Based on the date of manufacture (not the date I bought it) they are unwilling to provide me any type of incentive to move towards a new product of theirs. Onyx Maybe they'll give a discount toward a new Pilot canopy; have you queried them?

Nothing has changed recently in materials or methods. This is the same packing method I always use, and I have been on skybands for the last 100 jumps at least. I have the large bands for the first 2 stows, and the smaller bands on the last 4 stows. This gives me a nice containment of all stows, without needing to double wrap any, nor being loose enough to make me worry about line dump. Any input is valuable though, I am still trying to come to grasp at what could have caused this. OnyxSkyDV

If it was a part of that batch, I have to assume the whole canopy is of that same flawed fabric. And I concur with your assessment. Also, I am informed that they can not mix fabrics. OnyxSkyDV

Fair enough, I asked for opinions, and I am glad for the responses I got. I realize it's hard for me to be objective as I have very few jumps on this canopy before it blew up, and that cost is maybe a third of a used canopy. (Seen Stillettos for 500-750 on a regular basis) All it would take is one more blow up, and I would be in a bind all over again. May just get another used canopy, one that can be repaired more easily. OnyxSkyDV

Part of what bothers me is that the person I talked to indicated that in fact there was a batch of fabric that they had problems with, and originally I was quoted only $60 to replace the panel, but after they found it was the old fabric the price changed. Well thank you for your input, I think I am going to be voting with my wallet, and taking my next purchase to a manufacturer that has been around for a while, who stands behind their product, and is not changing material so that if there is a problem they can fix it easily. OnyxSkyDV

I packed it myself, the same way I had for the previous 150 jumps. OnyxSkyDV

Am I getting screwed here? Let me set the history for you. I bought a brand new Diablo 170 about 3-4 years ago. Kept indoors, jumped at Eloy over the last few years, only put about 150 jumps on it, and everything was just fine. Soft openings for the most part, nothing that I would call “hard”, easy to pack. Got me down safe everytime. 3 jumps ago I had the most brutal opening of my life. I was flat, and slowed down from our sitfly (I know I have deployed at higher speeds), and when I threw it out, I was yanked into an upright position so hard my biceps were bruised where they were thrown into the main lift webs of my J4 container. The canopy was fine, but it was very disconcerting to have a normally soft opening canopy abuse me like that. 1 week later, 2 more jumps with no issue, and then on my last jump I again had a brutal opening. It felt like it was fully open within half a second, and again I was bruised on my still sore arms. This time it appeared that my right end cell would not open. A control check showed that the tail of the entire right side endcell was ripped open mostly along the seam, but ripping into the cell about 4 inches (maybe a 1.75 foot long rip total) Which I was able to test flare several times, and fly in for a safe PLF landing. (probably could have stood it up, but wanted to be ready if it did something funny at the last part of the flare) Now the part where I want to know if I am getting screwed, or just plain S.O.L….. Aerodyne was bought by a new company, and this Diablo, manufactured in 1999 (I bought stock colors, so it was there for a while before I got it) was from a prior batch of fabric (which I believe that they had problems with) and the new company does not have the same fabric with which to replace the whole panel Since they don’t make it, they are basically saying “Sorry it only has 150 jumps, but we really are not going to do anything for you”…. They did offer to try and replace the last quarter of the panel with some left over material, but then quoted about $250 for it all, including shipping. As I do not know why I had the hard openings, I am hard pressed to justify that money, with that chance that it may blow up again, and I will be in the same boat I am now. So I am basically left with a 6.1 cell canopy that I paid $10 per jump to jump infrequently for a few years. What do you guys think, am I just a victim of bad luck, you rolled the dice and this is what you get, or am I getting fairly poor treatment by the company that is responsible for the quality of my canopy? Thanks for your input. OnyxSkyDV