FrogNog

The wind speed you feel does not change depending on whether the canopy is flying into or against the wind. But the rest of your story was interesting

I think that price is in the ballpark of reasonable, but I would keep in mind that as soon as you get it you will have to pay to have the Cypres 4-year inspection done. As I recall, that costs an additional $200 or $300 after shipping and insurance. The way I supposed this price was reasonable was by assuming everything was in great condition due to it having low jump numbers, and then estimating the new prices. If you buy a new harness, however, you can expect it to fit you very, very well. A used harness may not; you have to try it on and even if you think it fits well, it still might fit inferior to a custom-done rig. I have seen Tempo 210s listed for $600 in the classifieds here and I sold mine for $500. Personally, I expect a new rig with main, reserve, and AAD (some components of which may be lightly used or new lower-price-brands equipment) to be in the ballpark of $4,000. (As an exercise to the reader, make a price list and check it yourself.) So based on that, getting the same thing with 100 jumps on it for a little less sounds like you'd be paying for what you get - if all the equipment is actually sound. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I was originally recommended a Singer 20U as my first machine by someone knowledgeable. (He sews canopies every once in awhile and brought airlocks to ram-airs, or something crazy like that. ) When I called around to see who had one for sale, I got a sales guy who knew a little about clients who used machines for various skydiving rigging tasks, and he seemed to think the 20U didn't have anything going for it - its only recommendation being that it could do zig-zag and straight, but the zig-zag ability would make it a lighter-duty machine than a comparable straight-stitch-only and of course he didn't know anywhere zig-zag was used other than bartacks - and he didn't know bartacks were used other than canopy creation or repair, where he figured the 20U's modest speed would be a grave hindrance. Hearing one of y'all say you actually use a Singer 20U and do a lot of stuff on it has reinforced my faith in the original recommendation. (Which, based on the person who gave it to me, I feel sort of ashamed I questioned. But a second rigger's opinion isn't a bad thing.) -=-=-=-=- Pull.

After I have my talkie I'll add back summaries of anything I don't see on here. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Background: I have sewn a lot of denim over the years using "home" sewing machines. Always single-needle, and I never used any attachments. I've also done an amount I would call "experimental" in serging and sewing with F-111. So I can sew, but I basically have zero experience with industrial machines or skydiving sewing. I did some forum searching and got some answers, so now I'm driving into areas that I didn't find in the searches. Doubtless I could get some of this info elsewhere, and I will have to consult a number of other sources to learn in this direction, but in learning every answer helps. Questions: * What makes a good canopy sewing machine good? It's obviously not the ability to drive a big needle through a lot of heavy fabric. Is it how well and the technique by which it feeds thin, slippery fabric? Is it how far forward the feed grippers are, making it easy to start work on light material at precise locations? Is it a large throat to give lots of working space? * Zig-zag vs. bar-tacker: I assume one use of a zigzag-capable machine is imitating a bar-tack, and I assume that in some situations a bar-tack machine is superior for speed, ease of use, quality, and appearance. Ignoring speed, ease, and appearance, does a bar-tack machine always produce a superior quality bar-tack than using a zig-zag? Are there some bar-tacks for which there are drawbacks to using a bar-tack machine (other than the drawbacks of having to have one more machine) such as odd sizes? * Other than ersatz bar-tacks, what is zig-zag used for in skydiving? I think I've seen it in the thick reinforcement tapes in the nose of my Sabre2, but I can't remember anywhere else - and I might be wrong about even that. * Is there such a thing as a Singer 31-15 that doesn't look old enough to have sewn the thirteenth star on Old Glory? I hear the 31-15 is a good straight-stitch machine by some method of accounting; what's so good about it? Is it that it gets most basic jobs done well for a good price? (And, presumably, stops any stray bullets headed your direction without needing to be retimed afterward?) Does it feed well? (Does it feed automatically at all? I thought I saw one for sale that did no feeding. ) Are there alternate-brand versions that are newer and/or better for similar money, or a little more? * Is a walking foot good, bad, or "depends on what you're doing"? * Binding tape folders: my guess is there are two ways to attach them: the right way (bolting) and the crappy way (tape), and some machines will allow folders to bolt to them. I further guess that different brands and even models accept different folders, and that folders come in unexpectedly large price ranges, and therefore that you should actually know which folder you want to use before you buy a machine on which you will use it. Can anyone tell me I'm being way too paranoid about binding tape folders? * Double-need work: besides binding tape and some canopy seams, where is double-needle stitching usually used? (I've always gotten away with single-needle stitching in my denim work - even on lap folds, where I sew three times to get a decent two-row stitch.) For someone starting out who wants to do both single- and double-needle stitching, would it be smart or not to get a machine that can do true double-needle stitching and use it as a single-needle machine most of the time? (I'm guessing that when starting out, I might do so little double-stitch sewing that I'll be permitted to use that machine in my local loft by the time it's an issue.) * Back to tape binding: is this ever done, and can it be done, on a single-needle machine? -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I would guess a miracle pet urine stink removal fluid would be fine for skydiving gear because, for the ones I have looked at, the active ingredient is an enzyme that breaks apart the stuff that stinks. Theoretically, it is very unlikely that enzyme will break down nylon. However, because nylon resists dyeing, I would bet the urine has not gotten inside the fibers and therefore a standard thorough unpack-and-Woolite wash would remove the smell. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

You could let his instructors know that you think he's gung-ho and they should watch him. If he pulls something and they were already warned to keep an eye on him, he could get some talking-tos as he progresses through his student status. (The purpose of warning the instructors is to increase the chance that they'll catch him trying something _before_ he actually leaves the plane.) You could show him some swoop videos that include the crashes. The risk there is he might think it's really cool. I think showing him actual skydiving / base gore videos may be over the top, but I don't know. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Sounds like a cottage industry opportunity. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Or does it pop a round right before landing and just "sink" in, like the other (wicked) videos we've seen? -=-=-=-=- Pull.

The problem this creates for people with multiple rigs is that each of their rigs becomes more expensive to buy and maintain. Skydiving is expensive. Having multiple rigs is taking it to a slightly higher level. Adding AADs into that raises the cost further, but I personally don't see it as a big deal - it's always been "pay to play" and AADs are actually cheap life insurance. I think improvements in design, testing, manufacturing, quality control, and testing of AADs, with the goal of bringing the cost down, is a better direction to try to go. I expect time and competition will do this. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I'd get a second doctor's opinion on how your shoulder is. Perhaps they could do some diagnostics to tell you whether you really need some work on it. A doctor offering to upsell an extra limb of surgery "since you'll be out anyway" seems iffy to me. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Do any manufacturers suggest, as a method to get a small main and a large reserve, using a rig with a large reserve container and a main container as small as is normally constructed with that reserve size, then adding a pillow into the main container? It seems to me that is someone would be willing to jump with a rig that holds a 210 reserve and 170 main, they shouldn't have a problem with jumping the same size rig but putting a pillow in the main container so their 120 main fits. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I vote for used canopies and a new, custom harness-container (i.e. rig) that is sized to your body for comfort. I have about 250 jumps and 1.5 years on my first harness-container, a dizzying purple/yellow Infinity I-55, and I love it. I've had 3 main canopy size-steps in it (190, 170, 150) and never thought about ditching it. Regarding sizes of canopies that will fit in your container: you should ask the manufacturers you are considering getting a harness-container from. They are the ones who should know better than anyone else how many sizes smaller a canopy you can put in your main container and how tight the original one will fit in order to do that. They should also be able to tell you what kind of wrinkles, container softness, and potential pin-looseness you are or are not looking at. And they should be able to tell you if they could or at their recommendation a rigger could sew in a pillow to help take up some of the space in the main container to keep it full with a very small canopy. Another way to look at how long you'll have the rig is how long before you downsize out of it. Will it really be that soon? Should it really be that soon? -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I heard all of Mike Mullins' customers enjoy this. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Another couple of good exits are the dog paddle poised exit and the windmilling arms sitfly exit. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Is there a difference between finger-trapping tools that are loops of wire vs. finger-trapping tools that are fat needles with threads in their hollow tails? Perhaps the latter is correctly referred to as a fid, and since the former is commonly used in rigging to achieve the same result, we use the same name. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

It's my understanding Sonys have an image stabilization system that is more capable for skydiving than any other brand. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I guess these would be the details about Aramid (from [URL]http://www.fibersource.com/f-tutor/aramid.htm[/URL]): And, from other sources, I gather that the modulus spoken of here is resistance to stretching when under strain. The higher a fiber's modulus, the more it resists stretching under strain. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

HMA means High Modulus Aramid. I don't know what modulus in particular is being referred to, and I think but don't know that the term Aramid is a class of fibers which includes Kevlar(tm), among others. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Carry someone's lunch tray for them while they're on crutches and can't do it themselves. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

A lot of the difference you saw between how the Triathlon you flew and the Hornet you flew is probably because the Hornet is a 9-cell tapered rectangular and the Triathlon is a 7-cell, I believe non-tapered rectangular. When I was near the end of my studenthood, I switched jumped a Triathlon 190 and a Hornet 190 back and forth a lot. The difference between the Hornet and other 9-cell canopies should be smaller than the difference between the Triathlon and the Hornet. That said, I have to agree with some people that the Hornet is not the "best" tapered 9-cell canopy available. And I have to agree that it can be had cheap and it is fun to fly, and therefore can provide good bang for buck. (Unless you pay too much for one. ) The way I would compare a Hornet to a like-size Sabre2 is I call the Hornet "an inferior copy of a Sabre2". Now, I admit that's insulting and technically impossible (as I understand the Hornet came out before the Sabre2) but that's how it seems to behave in my opinion: decent flare but not as good as a Sabre2, and more resistant to flying in front risers than a Sabre2. On the other hand, comparisons like that aren't all that great, because the best front-riser-flying canopy I've flown and the most powerful flaring canopy I've landed are both an original Sabre! -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Some components of these rigs are very different between Racers and Icons. You may want to ask your local knowledgeable rigger for education about them. Some people have preferences about how their RSL works (if they use one), how they close their main container, how main riser protection works, whether the pilot chute is hidden or exposed, whether reserve pin is hidden or exposed, single or double reserve pin, etc.. Your local rigger may have similar values and concerns as you; that is why talking to him/her could help. Trying the rigs on is educational also because some people find Racers super comfortable. The only advice I can give, being so far away, is you will have your harness/container for a long time and it is not cheap, so exerting extra effort now to make sure you will be happy with what you get will pay off in the long run. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

You should see if that earplug is satisfactory against continuous medium-level noise of medium and high frequency - that's what I notice sitting in the plane. (Medium frequency engine / prop noise and high-frequency wind noise.) -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Be warned that when you walk in off the street to a shop and ask for a couple feet of piano wire, they may ask questions. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Sounds like the thread should be "Cordura + carpet ScotchGuard = Bad Idea". -=-=-=-=- Pull.