NancyJ

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content

    64

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Feedback

    0%

Posts posted by NancyJ

  4. Hi Greg,
    Yes, we are still making Racers (the 2K3 and the Classic Racer), with lots of new updates. The Racer is available with single or dual side RSL. It is still the strongest, most comfortable harness and most importantly, the the fastest deploying reserve with or without RSL.

    The fellow in the video that was referred to executed incorrect emergency procedures. Incorrect response to any malfunction is going to bite you. Skydivers need to educate themselves about their equipment and be taught proper procedures. I have had one actual cutaway using the dual side RSL and 40 intentional cutaways (test jumping), using the dual side RSL. Every reserve deployment clean and within 2 seconds or better. My email is [email protected]. Contact me if you would like more detailed information about Racers or our line of canopies. Blue Skies,
    Nancy

  7. Typical openings are 300 – 400 feet to a fully opened canopy. The FireBolt is tuned for soft, comfortable openings. That is why it's a "cameraman's dream". Front riser pressure is relatively easy. The flare is terrific, and what I mean by that is, it’ll “pop you up” if you come in with a lot of speed and apply brakes all at once; or it will give you a sustained surf if you give it a little bit of brake as you enter ground effect. It’s a very effective flare. If you land conservatively (no front riser or hook turn), you’ll still get tremendous lift and consequently a good flare with the FireBolt.

    The current production FireBolt patterns and line trims has been refined since it was first introduced and since we started using Ultrasil 0-Porosity canopy fabric, FireBolts are wearing much better. The best thing to do is demo one to see how the NEW FireBolt performs.

  8. Yes.
    I love packing Racers, as I find them to be the easiest.
    I also love to teach other riggers how to pack them. After one of my lessons, riggers usually say things like, “Wow, I had no idea it was that easy to pack a Racer!” Every rig has its idiosyncrasies. It helps learn “the tricks”. All you must do, is ask someone who knows, then all rigs become easier. If a rigger tells you that this rig or that is hard to pack, it is evidence that he/she hasn’t bothered to learn.

    The adjustable closing loop means you don’t have to guess at the loop length. You adjust it after the loops are pinned, while kneeling on the pilotchute. If you have done a good job maintaining the division of the molar pack job, it is easy to get a good seal around the edges, and you will have a low pull force.

    The only time you will find a pilotchute standing up too high, is when too much canopy fabric is allowed in the middle of the bag. Rigger education is the best solution to this problem. There is the occasional problem of a rig being overstuffed. Put the correct sized reserve in your container. Overstuffing is unacceptable for all brands of containers, for a variety of obvious reasons.
    I can state categorically that there has never been a fatality or a delay in reserve deployment due to the SpeedBag. I personally have 41 intentional cutaways over the years, testing Racer components and canopies. Fourteen of these cutaways were on the SpeedBag. They were all sub-terminal deployments, probably the most severe test for any system. Any reserve can open quickly when the pilot chute has the advantage of high speed. Producing a 2-second reserve deployment at low speed is remarkable and is typical for a Racer.

    The SpeedBag does not slow reserve deployment. It ensures an orderly line deployment before the canopy hits the air. The SpeedBag performs the same function as a full stow diaper, for those of you who know round parachutes. Line dump is real, and yes, it has broken people’s necks, and destroyed parachutes. The SpeedBag is not just for the “head-down” community. Belly flyers have hard openings too. Not all manufacturers are still using the bungee stow method of locking the bag. At least one other manufacturer has gone away from the bungee and pouch to a bag with flutes to prevent line dump.
    The SpeedBag has never “locked up” as some believe (incorrectly). When you fall away from your reserve pilotchute starting at 18 feet per second – especially a high drag pilotchute with large hole mesh, like a Racer pilotchute – you are creating a huge amount of force. Think about your weight, plus gear, traveling 18 feet in one second, away from your air anchor (pilotchute dragging about 200 pounds). For me, that’s about 155 pounds running at 12.3 MPH pulling the lines off my reserve bag. Additionally, that bag is yawing and pitching slightly, and the velocity of the mass is increasing. The bag effectively controls the line dump, until the last stow, but will get snatched away from the canopy as the canopy exits through the path of least resistance. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UahzuoTzBl8
    As for the AAD cutter failure argument. Whether you have a 2-pin rig or a 1-pin rig, if a cutter is missing or fails you have no activation in either case.

    Once again, every time I teach a new young rigger how to pack a Racer they say, “Well that wasn’t so hard.” That’s especially true of student riggers, with no preconceived notions. Do drop in to Parachute Labs the next time you’re in DeLand, Florida. We’d be glad to share the knowledge!

  9. I PDF'd our Canopy Volume Chart, and our Dimension Control and Compatibility Charts. From them, if you're chart savvy, you should be able to determine what canopies fit in a given container. But the easiest solution is to give us a call and ask!
    (386)734-5867.

  10. I will be giving an updated version of "Everything You Need To Know About Ripcord Pins - But Were Afraid To Ask" class at the 2015 PIA Symposium. History, materials, design considerations, proper test procedures... It's pretty interesting and informative if I do say so myself.

  11. In 2000. It was called a Firecracker, and was the forerunner to the FireBolt. The canopies previously thought of as elliptical were actually tapered tip. In an elliptical design, every skin, every rib (from 0 out to tip), is a different pattern, and every line is a different length (1 - 5).

  13. Actually, John Sherman invented the Dacron/Spectra main and reserve ripcord with bungee core, for retractability in '78-'79. North American tried it for a short while on the Condor. Para Flite and Jump Shack both rejected it due to wear concerns. John also invented the Pull-out, the first integrated piggy back harness container system, Pro-Packing, first bag on a square parachute, Teflon cutaway cables, the first true (fully) elliptical parachute... it goes on. Not to mention the first 3-D skydives, and early ten-way speed star exit techniques. The list goes on...

  14. We're in the process of building a new website. Go to www.plabsinc.com . The jumpshack.com url will eventually be redirected to the new website once we've transferred the files that need to be moved over.

    Marcelo Garcia of the FreeFall shop can be reached at Marcelo@the freefallshop.com for service in your area.

  15. Poland, as it turns out, was not one of the alleged incidents. Look at the attached pages containing pictures from that investigation. The loop is completely cut, and there is/was line stretch with the canopy partially out of the bag. There would not have been complete line stretch had the container been locked shut. Additionally it looks as if there MAY have been a bag bridle involvement/entanglement issue. Poland has apparently "reinstated" use of the Argus there. Just FYI.

  16. Fred, your comments are not entirely accurate and a bit unfair. 99% of the time when we ship a Racer to a customer the fit is right. Rarely, we get it wrong for various reasons. Sometimes a measurement can be inaccurate or a customer may have an atypical body type.

    Half twist of cutaway cables? This is not an issue and has no effect on anything. In fact having a half twist in one direction or the opposite allows for the cutaway handle to sit more forward or closer to the body, depending on your preference.

    If the RSL “ripped your helmet off” as you say, then it is the fault of the snaggable helmet, and not the RSL. The RSL did its job and saved your life! Besides, you’re supposed to keep your head forward when you cut away (eyes looking down at your reserve handle).

    I’ll give you that we should have anticipated the handles bumping up against the hip junction when the MLW was shortened by an inch. We usually provide our 3” Mini Helwedge handle in the instance of a short MLW on a ringed harness, rather than the standard 4” length handle.

    When your rig was shipped back to us, we repacked the reserve, I put two jumps on it myself, freeflying, back-tracking and sitflying. The riser covers stayed closed in freefall.
    When properly packed and maintained the Racer is more than suitable for all types of flying.

    We did not put “metal rods” on your Racer. We embedded some wafer thin magnets along a portion of the reserve side wall, and then bound in a flexible plasti-coated SS cable correspondingly in the riser covers, which attracts to the magnets. We always avoid stiffeners whenever possible as they are wear points and invite half hitching of lines. It’s my understanding that you have not even seen the improvements to your rig, and that it is still in the hands of your rigger. You really should wait to see and evaluate the change before you make such a mis-statement.

    Yes, the Racer is unique among harness/container systems. The Racer still has the best safety record of any H/C system to date. It’s the only one that is guaranteed to release its reserve within 100 feet after AAD fire or ripcord pull with the main still packed. That is still a huge issue with the so-called popular rigs. While other manufacturers are scrambling to fix the problem of jammed reserve bags that we anticipated nearly 25 years ago - and avoided, we are satisfied that Sherman did it right the first time.

  20. We have a DVD Packing (video) manual that will guide you step-by-step. Call for the $5 DVD and make rigging FUN again!

    BTW, I use T-Bodkins and our AAD Cutter Threader Tool. The tool is made using a 4 inch long piece of Type 4 (square weave), and (approx.) 16" long piece of 500 lb spectra (Cypres loop material), finger trapped into itself and zigged to the Type 4. See attachment for How To diagram.

  21. I have transitioned dozens of student jumpers from spring-loaded ripcord deployment to pull-out. I like to have my students pull and repack the pull-out 5 to 10 times on the ground. As a result I’ve never failed to have a student land and say, “That was easy… that was fun.” Once they’ve done it correctly once, they always retain the skill.

    The first lesson to remember is, you don’t throw a pull-out. You PUT the pilotchute where there is no burble, in the fast air beside your head (slightly bent arm, relaxed grip). EASY.

    I have over 5000 jumps on a pull-out and I‘ve never had a floating handle or any other difficulty with it. Of course I was trained by the best – the inventor of the pull-out, John Sherman.

    Having made about 100 (springloaded pilotchute) ripcord jumps and over 1200 throw-out jumps I can say without a doubt that the pull-out is easier to use and faster and easier to pack.

    In the training video “Breakaway”, I was asked to simulate what might happen if the pull-out handle were to somehow get out of its dual end pocket. So in freefall I plucked the handle out of its pocket and let it go. The pull-out handle is attached to a short lanyard that is tucked up under the side flap. When I let go of the pull-out handle, it simply sat there on my butt, sort of leaning against the bottom of the rig. It didn’t float, it didn’t move; it just sat there in my burble. A few moments later I reached back and felt the handle right where I dropped it. From there it was a routine pull and deployment. Upon viewing the footage, the films’ producer and editor dismayed, “That’s not very exciting.”

    “No, it isn’t”, I said.

    They were disappointed that the worst scenario malfunction mode of the pull-out was quite benign.

    The pull-out is so much safer that the throw-out in a number of ways. Neither the pull-out pilotchute or handle are vulnerable, the way the throw-out handle and pilotchute are. The pull-out pilotchute is safely tucked away, inside the container, “where god intended it to be!”

    The Pull-out is supremely secure for freeflying, sitflying, speed diving, speed style, actually every discipline of skydiving. It effectively makes your rig 2 inches shorter because you don’t have the pouch on the bottom of the container (which is not very attractive to begin with). And you don’t have to replace the BOC pouch when it gets worn and “piccky”.

    If your container opens prematurely, say from a broken loop, the pilotchute is already out there ahead of the bag.

    Pull-outs don't sneak their way out of a pouch the way a throw-out can, causing unexpected openings (in the doorway of an aircraft or in freefall). It was a throw-out pilotchute that killed Tom Piras, in just such an accident.

    It takes about the same force in pounds (if not less), to pull a pull-out pin than it does to pull a throw-out out of its pouch, So there really is no advantage to a throw-out in that regard.

    With regard to packing, you don’t fold the pc; just flop the pilotchute on top of the bag, stuffing it somewhat into the depression formed by the loop over the top of the bag. Hopefully you’ve packed properly – soft in the middle, firm on the outsides -so that you have a soft area to stuff the pilotchute into.

    "Why is the throw-out more prevalent than the pull-out?" you may ask. Very simply, aggressive marketing of the throw-out when it first came out. One very prominent instructor from DeLand told me years ago that he thought the pull-out was eminently better (safer), than the throw-out but that in his opinion it was easier to teach the throw-out. He admittedly, was lazy.

  23. You need to go to the North America Cup Meets.
    Visit http://styleandaccuracy.wordpress.com/2009-parachute-accuracy-meets/ Contact Cheryl Stearns, Jim Hayhurst, Marius Ivascu for info on more training camps. There's one going on in Lodi, CA right now.
    Also, Andre Cup Meet at Connecticut Parachutists Inc. Contact Billy Beaudreau.

  25. Hi Tim et all,

    The FireBolt can be a great first purchase if you choose your wing loading wisely. We've had several novice jumpers "jump right into" FireBolts shortly off instruction. Reccommended wing loading for novices is .60 - .90 pounds per sq ft.

    The FireBolt is a relatively flat trimmed canopy - not a lawn dart. It gets it's long glide, tremendous flare and efficient flight characteristics from the elliptical wing. When lightly loaded the FireBolt is quite docile and forgiving. When heavily loaded, the FireBolt becomes a high performance swooping machine.
    It is not designed for rear riser landings. It's trimmed rather flat for that to be effective. We're working on a different canopy with that kind of flying in mind...

    With regard to the dual lower control lines, the brake setting and the concept are really quite simple. There is one brake eye (per side) leading to the outside, upper control lines. Set that brake and stow the excess in the usual fashion according to your riser/toggle setup. On Racer risers we provide a dedicated type III loop on the front of the rear risers through which to route the excess LCL. The excess then loops around the nose of the toggle before it is stowed in the nose keeper. The inside LCL is pushed up to the tail. Only the wingtips are braked. The center of the canopy spills air, softening the opening.

    The FireBolt is probably the only canopy out there that is truly scaled. From 75 sq ft up to 396 sq ft(Tandem), it is essentially the same canopy. That is what is so ingenious about the FireBolt. Flight characteristics are similar from size to size as long as the wing loading ratio remains the same.