JPDECHENE

Nice and very informative article, Damian !! Jean-Pierre at Skydive Spa

Here are line trims for different sizes. I only have them in metrics, sorry.

The problem of ripping the reserve loops is known at least with the Next Tandems. At Skydive Spa (Belgium) in 2007/2008, we decided to change our Tandem equipment supplier from Performance Variable / Firebird to Paratec. We then bought 4 complete rigs (Next Tandem harness/container assembly, 370 Tandem Speed reserves and Icarus 365 main canopies. First rig, delivered by the end of 2007, was fitted with a Cypres II Tandem AAD; the other three, delivered early 2008, were fitted with Vigil II AAD’s. At the occasion of the first periodic reserve repack, I was surprised enough finding a quite severely damaged reserve loop. I immediately opened the other 3 rigs and found the loops also, more or less, severely damaged. At the occasion, shortly after, of a visit at Paratec premises with the Belgian Parachute Riggers Association, I mentioned my concern to Paratec, who incriminated the length of the reserve loops (they were 155 mm long) and also the Vigil cutters. They did not insisted much on the cutters when I mentioned that the first (and the most) damaged loop was coming from a rig fitted with a Cypres 2. Back home, I decided to open again the 4 reserves to adjust the loop length to the recommended value (145 mm) and also to have a closer look to the construction details of the rig. I was rather surprised with what I discovered: Normally, on a reserve pack tray, the grommets on all flaps are all oriented the same way, i.e. with the long shank located on the top face of the flap and the crown side located on the bottom face. But on the Next, the grommet located on flap 3 (left side flap – the one holding the cutter on its bottom face) is oriented upside down, i.e. with the long shank installed on the bottom face of the flap and the crown on the top face; all the other grommets are installed the normal way. Now back to our problem : why did Paratec changed the orientation of the flap 3 grommet ? The reason is as follows : When grommet is installed, the long shank is rolled by the press creating a kind of a protruding lip half a mm high and 0.7 mm wide around the hole, this lip appearing on the crown side of the grommet. That means that this lip should, be the grommet installed the normal way, be in contact with the AAD cutter and as the grommet is made of stainless steel, the lip is “eating” the soft brass Cypres cutter. See 1. Damaged Airtec cutter They have then turned the grommet upside down, presenting by the way to the cutter the shank face that is a lot smoother than the lipped face and then does not damage the cutter anymore. See 2. Next cutter But now, for flaps 3 and 4 (the two lateral flaps), crown sides with the lip are now facing each other, creating two small contact points as grommets are not exactly on top of each other and vibrations created by the drogue free fall increase the friction on those small points creating very small burrs that damage, with time, the loop. See 3. Slightly damaged grommet. but after a longer time, damages can increase and grommets may look that way : See 4. Heavily damaged grommet. Paratec finally admitted the reality of the problem (as it had been also mentioned in UK by BPA Rigger Paul Stockwell , in Luxemburg and most probably in other countries) and in December 2012, they issued a mandatory Service Bulletin (Ref. 2012-11-NT- Reserve loop) requesting the installation of type 12 webbing buffers to be installed on the inside and outside of reserve flap 3 and inside of reserve flap 4. They however limited the problem to the Tandem rigs but it could be possible that your rig has the same problem maybe is your reserve loop a little bit long.

I have one original issue of the Stratostar flight manual I received when I bought mine. As I have no use of it, I will be more than happy sending it to you. Just PM me your postal address and it will be soon on its way.

I have also got some rigs with paper seals for repack coming from Russian jumpers being now in Germany or Belgium. There is also a tendency in Europe to use - and that is what I now do - instead of lead seals, nylon ones (just same diameter and shape than the lead seals). They have in my opinion some advantages : no pollution when thrown away after opening, a better printing capability - the symbol is more easily readable and remains so all the time, it allows me to change the color of the seal each year, making possible, at first glance, to see that the rig has been packed in the right interval of time and finally, they are cheaper to buy and more easily available than the lead seals.

I had 37 (including 7 tandems). It looks very much but I am the only rigger - on a drop zone making more than 30.000 jumps (from which over 4.500 are tandems). No need to say that it is a real full time job (over 600 repacks per year ).

Tape and webbings come from either DJ Associates or Para Gear. Threads were coming from the Belgian BST Company. They most probably had the best Type E available but they have unfortunately closed by the end of last year. I will now buy Nylbond from Coates in the UK. Hardware also come from Para Gear but some specific items can be bought in France from Wichard. Fabrics also mostly come from Para Gear. The only problem with what comes from the USA is that it takes usually 3 x more time to travel through the Customs offices in Brussels and do the 110 km from Brussels to my loft at Skydive Center Spa than it takes for Para Gear to receive the order, prepare and ship it and for the goods to travel across the Atlantic.

To make my BOC pockets, I use a doublelayer elastic fabric that I buy at Raibow Jumpsuits in Germany. It is made of two layers of a strong kind of Spandex, sticked back to back (the shiny side facing out). Those pockets are very durable, elastic in both directions and do not get loose after time. In addition they are easy to sew in and for installing binding tape. JPD

I found this picture in my old files. Location : Spa (Belgium) Date : August 1967 for the Challenge Pitz Competition. First row : Team I (left to right) : Dal Pagetto, Gutshall, Bob Donahue & Claude Callahan. Second row : Team II (l. to r.) :John Womack, Thornsberry, Blackshere, Baguette. Nice guys against whom I had the privilege to compete at several occasions in the late 60ies. JPD

Most probably not, even if you send it to the manufacturer, I am not sure that they will give you the information. If you want that sort of information, buy a Vigil, it is possible to download your last 16 jumps, giving both speed and altitude diagrams. All you need for that is to plug the Vigil download box on your computer and have the download program installed. Most of the Vigil dealers Worldwide have that device. JPD

Many years ago (1993 if I remember well), we had a Cypres Student fire when the pilot of our Cessna 206 lowered the flaps in final approach before landing. The parachute was on the back of a passenger and the pilot chute exited the cargo door and pulled the passenger out at a (very) low altitude. Fortunately enough, she was just slightly injured (broken clavicle bdue to the contact with the door frame) as the reserve opened quickly without interfering with the plane tail. In that time the warning instruction asking to shut off the Cypres Students before landing with the plane was written in small letters in the Cypres booklet. Later on, when similar firings occured, happily most of the time without injuries, the writing in the following editions of the Cypres Instruction booklet appeared in bold than in bold bigger and bigger, with additional Caution marks. I only know about one firing in Germany where the passenger was also pulled out but unfortunately the reserve get caught in the Pilatus tail and the plane went in killing the pilot and the passenger wearing the parachute. On an other opportunity, we had a plane with 6 students on board (Cessan Caravan with a roll door) that had to land on an other airfield due to the bad weather. The jumpmaser did not switched off the Student Cypres' and it resulted in 6 reserve popping out at the same time within the plane, with no problem as, as said, the door was closed. The only one who was more than embarrassed was the jumpmaster when they came back to the drop zone, who had to explain to me (the rigger) why I had to repack 6 reserves . As far as Student modern AAD's firing due to spiraling under an open main, I only have seen it once, but the jumper had already quite a few jumps and was jumping again after a stop (and that is why he was using a student gear). When FXC's were used more extensively, I have seen quite a few firing under spiraling canopies, often with jumping having some paragliding experience, and it hapened more often withe the European version of the FXC that was activating at slightly lower descending speed than the original FXC. To come back to the modern AAD's in Student configuration, all manufacturers precise clearly in their instruction manuals that they must be switched off if it is intendended to land with the airplane (but it is for sure still a good practice warning the pilot to avoid high descending speed under 2500 ft) but they also recommend that the control unit for student gears should be easily reachable without removing the equipment (on front main lift web or on the ouside of the yoke).

Older Decelerator had the tendency to stall pretty quick when flaring. Later on, they have extended the lower brake length. Now, according to their trim chart, the length BL-Tog (Brake loop to toggle) is, for the Decelerator 120, 620 mm. Last week, I have had one of the very first Decelerator to pack (SN : 044 from 1996) and the BL-T length was only 500 mm. When I asked to the owner, he said that it is the way it came from Parachute Shop. We find more and more Decelerator's in Europe as that is the reserve normally supplied with the Vortex system so if you have one Decelerator to pack, check on Parachute Systems website at products/decelerator for the correct brake length and adjust if needed. JP

I have it, Enclosed is the form I use for checking line trims according to PD recommendations. I have one specific form for each type of the most current canopies. It took me a little bit of time to prepare them but as I prefer to use mm than inches (I am Belgian) it finally saves me a lot of time. JP

As far as Belgium is concerned, if your equipment is approved in your country,you may jump it. The reserve repack cycle in your country is also accepted The only limitation is that an AAD is mandatory to jump in Belgium. We look forward to seeing you JP

Here is the whole story : By the end of February, Airtec, the Cypres Manufacturer has written to several equipment manufacturer, requesting, due to possible packing errors (loop too long and/or unsufficiently siliconized) to change the positionof the cutter from a flap under the reserve pilot chute to the first one above the pilot chute on their new production as well as on their existing equipments. They added that, as it were just an additional safety measure, for the existing equipments it could wait until the next repack /service - wich incidentally in some European countries can last up to one year -. First Paratec, then Firebird/performance Variable and more recently Parachutes de France had no other choice than issuing Bulletins with the necessary guidelines to proceed with the modification. In my opinion, rather than a real Safety issue, we are assisting at an other episode of the commercial war between AAD producers. I suspect that Airtec request was made in the hope that the modification would have led the Manufacturers to ban the old style Vigil cutters with the plastic inserts, forcing Vigil to replace in a short time several thousands of cutters. What confirms me in my opinion is that, as soon as the Paratec Bulletin has been issued, Eric Fradet who is known to be anti-Vigil has dubbed has issued in the frame of the Federation Française de Parachutisme the Circulaire de Securité n° 129, reproducing the Paratec SB but adding on his own initiative the banning of the Vigil old style cutters just as it were part of the original Paratec SB. I would be sorry if Service Bulletins which are normally made to improve safety were rather used to support commercial strategy, thazt would make them loose credibility. JPD

Ok, They shut down but , in the plane, did you knew that they had shut down ? And, the plane being depressurized what if you had jumped thinking that you were still "covered" by your AAD when in fact you were not anymore ? Let's imagine the worse : If in Thailand the Vigil's hadn't fired, maybe a lot of people would have jumped with a Cypres I down or Cypres II maybe re-calibrated on a far lower altitude - To be honest, regarding the Cypres II reaction, I do not know if the devices just ignored the pressurization and kept the same setting, considering the occurance as fully abnormal or if the pressurization modified the setting of the activation altitude. - What would have been the reaction in case of an accident ? That makes me think that it was most probably a good thing, even if that frustrated people, that the Vigils "rang the bell" the way they did. I would be stupid saying that Cypres is a bad product, I have jumped - and wouldn't have jumped without - for the last twelve years. They have the real merit of having invented and developped a great device but they must face the fact that competition can be there and develop products that can be at least as good and maybe better in some aspects. JPD

I normally use the Spandex material from Rainbow. This company is manufacturing jumpsuits in Germany and that is the material they use for the forearms of their high speed FS jumpsuits. That material is made of two layers of Spandex sticked back to back (with the shining side facing outside). It is elastic in both directions and by the way controls very efficiently the pilot chute, is VERY durable and does not permanently deform. That material is more expensive compared with the Spandex sold by e.g. Para Gear but, as it must not be replaced as often than normal pockets, that is still a good buy. I would add that it is easy to sew and bind. Form and size of pockets differ from rig to rig and with the type (and size) of pilot chute used. JP

I would never pack a reserve with an expired AAd or with expired batteries but , if the deadline is still relatively long due (we have 180 days repack cycle here) I will notify the customer and if it is shortly due, I will call him before repack. Anyway a factor on which I have no control is the number of jumps made with the batteries set : how can I be sure that the jumper will cross the 500 jumps mark before the legal expiration date ? So if ever I only accept to pack reserves when I am 100 % sure that at the expiration dates all the conditions will be fulfilled, I have no other solution than looking for another job as I will never be sure that the rig, in 6 months time will not have made the 500 jumps. JPD

What they call "No life-saving fires" are when the device fires while the main is in opening sequence in case of a low main pull. That can happen with every brand of AAD. I remember we had a few years ago a quadruple Cypres activation during main opening on the same jump when the base went too low at pull time. All those activation occur when the jumper starts to be in stand up position but still at high speed during the beginning of the opening process; at that moment the AAD is not any more exposed to the depression (corresponding to circa 80 meters - 250 ft) on the back of the jumper and then it reads the true altitude and if that altitude is within the activation range (below for Cypres : 225 m + 80 m or Vigil : 256 m + 80 m) then the device fires. JPD

Anyway, I prefer an AAD that fires in my back sitting in the plane in such unusual circumstances and refrains me from jumping than an AAD that just shuts off and let me jump without realizing that I have no AAD anymore. Imagine what had happen at the World Record if Vigil's had not fired : it seems that everybody would have jumped and those with Cypres 1 on their back would have done it without the back-up of the AAD. What would have be the issue in case of an accident ? MPO is that I prefer a device that tells me, even that radical way, not to jump than one that does not warn me when getting not operational and let me jump. JPD

I have jumped a Vulcan for quite a long time so I should have the manual somewhere. I'll try to find it and send it. Anyway, the reserve closes exactly like a Vector 2 (in fact, the Vulcan was a quite exact copy of the Vector 2 except for a few details). As far as I know, there was no safety notice on the Vulacn harness. JPD

Besides safety for the 3 of us (Student, TM and myself) that is for sure the top priority, we must keep in mind that the one who pays for our jump is the customer and we are there to give him what he expects : to be the STAR OF THE DAY and what he wants is seeing his face, right in the middle of the screen, as long as possible. A few tips to make him even happier : A video does not start with the exit and finish with the opening, film as much as you can on the ground, do not forget the family and the kids if they are there – farewell and welcome back kisses are most appreciated – make them talk, let them give their thoughts. Do not forget to congratulate them after landing telling them how good a jump it was (and make sure that it is clear on the video sound track). Ask them also what kind of music they would like to have as background, and if they have no special preference, use your good sense to select it but keep in mind that YOUR favourite music sometimes can not match the student preferences. Make sure that you have a routine with the TM, so you both will be prepared for what will happen and, if you do not edit yourself the video, that will be easier for the one who will do it as he will know almost exactly what will be on the tape. Something I also consider as very important : never show on a video what the student would not like to show his girl friend e.g. if a student persistently looks at the ground, I just make a sign to the TM and he makes half a turn, lifts the head of the student and then turns back to the camera, that usually ends with a large smile and as a nice picture. When TM waves off, backslide, shot the whole opening sequence, finishing either standing or on your back, then roll back face to earth, track away from the tandem vertical, stop your track and pull. Usually after opening, I screw it down, 5 to 10 turns depending on the spot then shut off my camera and put it on again around 600 or 700 ft to film while I am landing. Make sure to have fixed a landing zone with the TM to make sure that you will have the landing, both on video and on stills, as said earlier, do not forget to congratulate the student, ask him his first-hand impressions and be ready to go back, as a team (student, TM and videoman) to the public area. Take a few more shots when arriving to the family; I usually end the video with a pause shot of the welcome back kiss. To say it short, we are there to please the customer and not to please ourselves, our satisfaction must be the one of a well accomplished, professional job. Let's not forget also that a good video is the best promotional tool for a tandem operation, (and the more tandem jumps there is, the more video jumps we will do). Stay safe, JPD

My suggestion : Give your rig to a nice looking girl and ask her to start packing giving a desperate look around and you will be surprised by the short time needed and by the number of male skydivers really willing to give her a hand I am sure it will work, at least for the first time. JPD

You can contact Pierre Van Mensel in Berchem Antwerp who, as a Rigger, does a lot of work on glider pilots parachutes. If you are on the french speaking part, you can get in touch with me at Spa anytime ([email: [email protected]] safe flying, JPD