KevinMcGuire

The nice thing about the Soarcoat material (AKA zero P) used by PD on their products is that it retains it's ZP qualitys for a very long time. I have seen canopies jumped here in AZ that had more than 3000 jumps on them. For the avarege jumper, that's a few years worth of jumping. If the canopy is free of damage ie..holes and line burns ect... then all it may need is a new line set to make it fly just like a new canopy. It's just like putting new shocks on your car after driving it for years. You don't notice the loss in handeling because it happens gradually but once you've put new shocks on it, you'll notice a huge difference in how it handles. New line sets run about $135.00 including shipping and usually around $75.00- $80.00 to install. You can send your canopy back to the manufacture and have them do it if you lack riggers in your aera qualified to do the work, but that usually means a few weeks of down time and shipping your canopy to FL while you wait for the work to be done. Concider this. If youre thinking of buying a new peice of equipment, we often work as a impartial third party who inspects gear being bought or sold and we then give a fair unbiased opinion of the gear and it's worth in wrtting. We will also hold all gear for the seller untill the buyer has paid for it. You may have some one in your aera that can do this for you but if not let us know. Hope this helps

As I mentioned before, The rigger in question has been injured to the point that he can no longer rig or do much of any thing else for that matter.

If you really want to learn how to sew, I may be able to help. We do alot of production work here. If you'd like to come down for a week or two and be emersed in sewing maybe we can work somthing out. Thats really the best way to learn and we could use the help. If your interested, contact me at [email protected]

this rig had been packed for a year and a half. According to the offending riggers log book, he had packed only 3 more reserves after this one due to a serious injury that has left him unable to rig. He has assured me that he will make every effort to contact each of his customers who jump javelins to check and see that their gear has been repacked since then.

I popped this rig this morning and found somthing potentially deadly. When I pulled the handel, the res P/C traveled about 2.5-3 feet then stopped and just swung there. If the user had deployed the reserve in a face to earth position, or even in a low speed head high position this P/C would have most likley would have stayed in the burble. Ever seen that video of the spring loaded P/C comming off the students back and just dancing around? Not cool! For any of you out there who are packing this way...STOP! If, when following the instructions, you still are having trouble making this or any other container look good then PLEASE ask for advice from some one with more experience. I'm not posting this to start a witch hunt against the rigger who packed this rig. I will not mention his name here or any where else so don't ask. I have already talked to the rigger. This person understands the error and assures me that it will never happen again.

It's attached to the cap of the P/C using white super tack. Doing a good job usually involves removing the spring completely. Then you must carefully unpick the F111 from the cap, separate the mesh from the F111 (so you can gain access with a sewing machine), and then you can begin to deal with the hole. Once the hole has been fixed you can reinstall the spring using a curved needel. In my opinion this repair falls into master rigger territory. You will be taking the P/C allmost all the way apart and that will make it a major repair. I first attempted the repair just to see if I could do it using a P/C that had already been grounded. Not a bad idea if you have on lying around. Good luck

Actually yes. most of my experience in this matter is on base canopys. However I have been unfortunate enough to have suffered one opeinig with the brakes unstowed while skydiving and got my clock cleaned. As you can imagine, I've been reluctant to experiment further with this and no one has offered to be a test dummy.

I was talking about the fabric

It has been my experience that if you put the brake setting further up the brake line, the canopy will tend to open slower and when it does open, it may be in a stall causing what could be a very funky opening. On the other hand if you put the setting closer to the toggle, the canopy may open faster ie.. harder. not only that, the canopy will have more forward speed sooner, reducing the time you may need should you open to close to some one and need to take evasive action. I don't wish to imply that what I have said will hold true for all canopys. Your best bet will be to call the manufacture and ask their opinion about this

We can repair them but it takes bit of work and often times it is easier to buy a new one. when we do repair them, it's beacuse the color of the cap is specific to the rig and there may be some question as to weather or not that color is still in stock at the manufacture. We'll also do it when the customer wants or needs to get back in the air quick.

Food for thought. I have spent some time inside Sun Path and I can tell you that they are anything but slow. They actually have a very nice production line and they crank out a seamingly unbeleivable number of rigs a day. One possible reason they have such long delay times at the moment is perhaps because they are building the most popular rig in the world. and for good reason.This fact will only help you when it comes time to sell your gear. Thats probobly the last thing on your mind right now, but it is somthing to think about. concider the resale value of say..... a dolphin. I'll bet you could get one of those pretty damn quick. I know that this dosn't help when you want your new toy, but if you can be patent I think you'll be happy when it arrives. P.S. No I'm not sponsored by Sun Path

If any one in AZ is interested in going to the turkey boogie and would like a ride, the Bomb Proof crusing vessel will be heading up and there are still slots on available. The Crusing vessle is a 15 pasenger van equiped with a DVD/CD player. Not only is the DVD used to pass the time between sight's with over 100 movies to choose from, it's also used for video debreif. If we get enough people, the cost per person will be about $25.00 per person round trip. If interested, please contact us at [email protected]

I'd have to ask the other guys because 260' is my hard deck. I'm jumping 300+ square foot canopys. The bigger the canopy, the more it weighs ie.. the more force required to get it to line stretch. I'm sure that the extra time is very small and mostly in my head but for me, I prefer to freefall for more than a milisecond anyway. To over come the "extra time" to line stretch on this peticualr tower, I use 48" PCs where some are using 42"s. Concider this. We have taken lots of video from a crows nest that is located about half way up the tower. Using pins, we are getting bottom skin inflations right at the crows nest while the velcro rigs typically are getting bottom skin inflation conciderably lower. It makes for very cool video.

We have a 260" antena not too far away that we jump on a regular basis. Many around here are using the NEO 2 pin harness container system and to my knowledge everyone is keeping their pin protector flaps closed. We have found that we are getting much faster deployments with our 2 pins and the pin flaps being closed than velcro rigs even without "priming the pins". This has been proven true over and over again by reveiwing video of the jumps. We have seen where higher pull forces had been possible when the closing loops where way too short. What is the proper legnth closing loop? That all depends on the make and size of the rig you use rig and the canopies you're jumping. When in doubt call the manufacture of the gear you're jumping

One possibility is that the canopys are out of trim. The RWS recomends new line sets for tandem mains at around 300 jumps. The biggest indicator is that these mals have just recently started happing. I As I'm sure your'e aware, the further out of trim a canopy gets the more aberant the openings can become. Another possiblity is that the canopys are getting tension knots. These mals can often look just like line overs as they tend to pull on other lines caught in the nots. As the lines become older, the loose the slikness they once had when they were new and the potential for tension knots increase Here at skydive AZ we began having a rash of mals just like you have described and when we replaced the line sets, the problem went away. It must be noted that skydive AZ does not employ any 6 grommet sliders on their tandem mains and therefore the solution I have suggested may not actually fit. With out actually inspecting these canopys I'm really just offering an educated guess. When in doubt call the manufacture. Good luck. I hope this helps

Heres a better idea. Try using another piece of hook velcro. just scrape it on the clogged peice of hook and all the crap thats stuck on the peice of hook you want cleaned comes right out.Works great

I have put about 75 jumps on large flicks (292) and I have to say that I like them very much. I have yet to jump a +300 flick but I'd like to. I weigh 255 naked. The openings are a bit more to my taste ie.. a bit more melow and they definatley land me much better than the older foxs. I believe that the difference in aspect ratio from the fox, and the extra brake line dramaticly improve the canopys flight as well as the landing. I have about 550 jumps on foxs of varying sizes and for my money, I'm going with the flicks here on out.

Hey Kathy, give a call and we'll talk about it

I would not worry about the T-17 chest strap unless it has been installed incorrectly. The loading on the chest strap during opening shock is not high enough to cause the webbing to fail. T-17 has been in used in skydiving as well as BASE jumping for a many years with out incedent. We have built rigs for years using T-17 for the chest straps when the customer has requested it, and we have not had any cases where the webbing or the juction between the main lift web and the chest strap has failed. The difference between 1" T-17 and 2" T-8 is really a matter of comfort and preference.

Man, I thought I said it well. Nicely said

I understand completely with what your going through. I have been in this sport for 11 years and I too have experienced the dwindeling flame. I have had long periods of inactivity compared to my newer friends in the sport and I have often felt guilty in not going on every load that is offered. Presently, I'm on the up swing again. Why does this happen? any number of reasons. Perhaps we had one too many good friends end up dead or in some cases worse. Perhaps spending time with our family has become more improtant, Or mabey we feel that in the realm of BASE there are no more worlds to conquere. I think that this is a natuarl progression in life and one that will happen to us many more times before we die. However the transformation from "young and imortal" to "mear mortal" is often a difficult journey to make and one that most of those who have gone before us lament greatly about. I have some suggesions that may help. Ask your self if this is truly what you want at this point in your life. If the answer is yes, then you'll need to make it freash again. How to do this is up to you. Perhaps you can find a nitch that appeals the adrenalin junky in you such as aerials or what ever. Or perhaps you can enter the more technical world of design and build your own gear as I have done. What ever it is, making it freash again is the only way to rekindle the spark and keep your self current and safe. In the end if that doesn't work, then move on but always remember the fun you've had, but enjoy the fun your having more. Good luck

When you are narowwing up your canopy, make sure that you have narrowed it up to fit into the rig properly. If you take a look inside your container, you'll notice 2 stitch rows running up the sides of the pack tray. these stitch rows connects to container to the back pad. If your narrowed canopy extends way beyond these stitch rows when you lay your canopy in the container, then you are more likley to distort te pack job when you close the side flaps. A method I use when narrowing up my canopy is to make it as narrow as the tail pocket. I can't speak for all the rigs out there but I designed the pack tray of the NEO to be as wide as the tail pockets in common use. I think that if you check out your rig you'll notice that the tail pocket is the determining width of your rig as well. Hope this helps