Beatnik

Not missing the point at all. But thanks for your concern.

You are missing points in the timeline. One of which is the Jalbert Para-Sled was out before before the Para-Foil and worked on several different aspects of the design and others in ram-air parachutes. And there is a significant bit incorrect information with your MARD timeline/statement but an NDA prevents me from correcting you on it at the moment. Most of the history timelines are far more complex than a couple of points you can read in a book or simply try to slap together without a great deal of research.

I am planning on making copies of the manual and tapes most likely in May. Work is tying me up a lot these days and don't have the time I used to. If this is for the archives with the BPA don't worry. I am friends with Andrew and we have discussed this previously. He will be one of the first to get a digital copy of the manual and tapes. Send me a PM if you want to talk about this more outside an open forum.

I believe he is on here as Gene03. He helped me a few years ago when I was restoring a Para-Plane and the deployment bag. He was incredibly useful with some details I couldn't figure out.

Glad to hear there is steady progress on that project. Sandy has my red with black ribs Strato-Star down there that he was using as a reference. It was converted to a slider years ago but he offered to put it back to rings and ropes. I will have to send him an email and see how things are going after all this Strato-Star talk.

I would agree with checking with Sandy. I know Para-Flite doesn't really have any information on the canopies anymore. Sandy is currently restoring two Strato-Stars and should have that information. The progress is slow on the restoration as he is doing it during spare time but progress is being made. Last I talked with him he got the information on the reefing system.

I use a pair of MSR dirt bike pants. They are made with Kevlar and are bullet proof and cheap. If I remember correctly they cost $60. I have used them for about 500 tandems and they don't have any holes and no signs of wear yet.

That is correct. No D lines and all the lines are non-cascaded. Originally, the lines were made from TYPE IV line. Yeah that is the canopy I was supplying info for restoration. I can't remember how many years ago now that was but Henny put me in touch with this rigger restoring a Para-Sled for him. Glad to see that the info helped him get that parachute back in the air. I recently ripped out all the parachute scenes from the Six Million Dollar man and the very first episode has some great video of a Para-Sled being jumped. Whoever jumped that chute has got a landing that is infinitely better than any landing I have got under one. I am most likely a lot heavier than that jumper but I have a Para-Sled with 9 jumps, so it is pretty much brand new and it is one really rough landing chute.

The red parachute is a Jalbert Para-Sled. It was a unique one in which the outlines are longer than the inside lines so it could fly completely flat. It also had that split tail. The one pictured was modified for a slider. The original reefing system was top skin rings and ropes. I wonder if it happens to be the one that I got the line lengths for a few years ago. I currently have two of them in my collection. They were not the greatest of canopies and other early squares of the same era where much better opening, flying and landing than they were.

I thought I would mention that I just came in possession of a Lone Star Parachutes Builder's Assembly Manual with the four audio cassettes. I know this is something that many people currently want to see and in time I will scan the manual. I will also convert the tapes to mp3 format. Unfortunately, this will not happen for a few months because of some work commitments that will take up my time and make it impossible for me to do this before that.

Bill was a good friend and will be missed. I am really disappointed that I couldn't attend his service. But I have spoke with Crystal and she understand. She is having a really hard time as they were extremely close and this came much faster than they could prepare for. I saw Bill earlier this year and we had a long chat about many things. While this came too quick for him and his family, he was preparing for this day the best he could. I currently own his Delta II, Para-Sled, Reserve and an old H/C. Both the Delta II and Para-Sled have been autographed by him. It gave him great joy to see his Delta II back in the air earlier this year. I still need to do some work on his Para-Sled to get his name back on the centre cell more permanently than the original ripstop tape. I will restore it and pay tribute to my friend. Blue skies my friend, you will be missed but not forgotten. https://youtu.be/lVvMGLJ0xww https://youtu.be/D1lQGXI_SN0

Check with the guys here: https://parachutemobile.wordpress.com They use some telemetry equipment that does what you are asking for. They would be able to put you in the right direction.

I just don't like information being passed off as fact when it is inaccurate. I have spent many years piecing together the history of skydiving in Canada and when people start throwing out information out there it damages much of the work that I have done and further adds to the misinformation out there. People are quick to throw out their opinion as fact from things they have very little evidence of. If you are going to put something out there as a piece of history, make it accurate. If you don't understand that then I don't know what to say.

A lot of the go pro mounts are also held on by adhesive and will rip off if snagged by a line. I had it happen to myself doing test jumps for a company in Florida. While disappointing that I lost a brand new go pro and footage of the test, the adhesive mount did exactly what it was supposed to do. Why this TI did it is beyond me but the poster above has a plausible explanation. I still wouldn't recommend it as a TIE.

That is part of the reason CAPS was formed. There are other reasons that was more directly related to CSPA that happened long before any CARS regarding skydiving was considered. It had a lot to do with CSPA bashing certain operators which ended up costing CSPA lots of money. CAPS itself is still around but it in any capacity. I have done much research in this area as the history guy in Canada to find the accurate story and even went so far to contact the people running CAPS. Also there are a few USPA examiners that are Canadian in the country that train people regularly. There is no need to hire Americans to train jumpers in Canada for USPA ratings. Most of the Canadian drop ones that are affiliated with USPA are also CSPA. To my knowledge there are three that are solely USPA (one in BC, Manitoba and Quebec). Many jumpers are double hated so they are able to go south and work at USPA drop ones. There will be at least one examiner that will be double hated in Canada offering both USPA and CSPA courses. This only strengthens skydiving in Canada as there are advantages to both. This is off topic from the original post. Last time for me.

What Rob is saying is inaccurate to the actual events that occurred. The removal of round mains from school were people trying to strong arm Lloyd to change his operation, which at the time was one of if not the largest operation in Canada. It was essentially a strong arm tactic from a couple of individuals within CSPA. It wasn't something that was really on their radar. I would have the exact dates of all of this if I had access to my archives where I am. The point of it was that the old boys club forced the change and it cost CSPA. It wasn't about safety from their point of view. Lloyd wasn't using much surplus gear. Most of it was sport gear from yesteryear. The idea that people weren't playing by CSPA's rules so they left is ridiculous. Some people were criticized regardless of what they did because of the old boys club. For instance the procedure of IADs hanging under the strut rather than dynamic exits from the door. It was bashed for years and then later became the established norm in Canada even though it was started from a non-CSPA skydiver that had enough. What is now the CSPA came about from the eventual merging of two skydiving associations in Canada, the Western Canadian Sport Parachute Association and the Parachute Clubs of Canada. They were at odds for some time because each believed that they were better than each other. There has always been a divide between skydiving associations in Canada and most likely always will. Lloyd's refusal to change had more to do with his believes than his pocket book. His involvement with CAPS was minor compared to the several players in the west. Lloyd had much more to do with CSPA than CAPS and oddly enough it was that association that pushed him out. It is bad enough that some people believe that CAPS was formed because people didn't want to play be CSPA's rules. When it was much more involved than that. The decisions that CSPA made at the time ended up costing a great deal of money. Getting the facts straight is what is important. If someone is going to pass information off as historical fact it should be accurate. This is how information starts becoming one side and real facts becoming obscured because people start taking what some people say as fact.

I don't know where you get your history facts as I have never been able to ever find some of the things you have mentioned as fact. In the 1980's there was a motion from the floor at an AGM making it mandatory that student mains had to be squares. This was to try and force Lloyd to switch over to squares. Lloyd always believed that rounds were safer than squares and refused to switch over after a long speech at the AGM. He continued for some time afterwards dropping students under rounds. That is coming from first hand witnesses at the AGM, AGM minutes and talking with Lloyd himself. I am not going to get into the other inaccuracies at this time.

Are you looking for a Micron or will a Vector 3 do? I think you would be better off with a V328. Which would be standard fitting main and loose fitting reserve or a v340 with a full fitting main and loose reserve. There are other options available but they are more limited when it comes to the Micron series.

If you grab the riser risers and time it right you can cause the parachute to oscillate and if you do it right you can land on the up part of it. I have done a fair bit of stand ups under rounds and I am coming in at 220 lbs. The stand ups put a fair bit of stress on the joints if you are heavy and I just gave up with them do PLFs. Overall they are much easier on someone of my size.

Looking at the sizing chart. http://www.unitedparachutetechnologies.com/PDF/CHART_00037___Rig_Sizing_Chart.pdf I think it would be one tight rig. Send Tara an email: Tara@uptvector.com She will be able to tell you best combination for what you are looking for.

The direction with CSPA once they actually found out what the regulations where was to get FAA recognition. They though that Transport Canada regulating CSPA riggers would accomplish this which is why the TSC approach TC without the BoD's approval and asked for regulation. Last year I provided the relevant information to CSPA and their stance has been different now. They believe that their program is superior to the FAA rigger rating. I heard they wanted to try and get recognition for their program but considering that their program is quite a bit different for the criteria I doubt that their will be an equivalency. Even if there is at some point, people will start to realize that the FAA rigger courses are far cheaper and are offend more than the CSPA courses. When people have more options and for cheaper prices, what do you think they will do? It is a no brainer. The new CSPA rigging program is designed to make the rigger instructors money and they have been trying to sell it repeatedly to the military but there isn't a lot of support for it and I doubt there will be for a variety of reasons.

I believe this is probably more geared towards aircraft parts than anything this, at least from the Canadian side of things. In Canada there are no Canadian TSO's for equipment. There was one manufacturer that was producing gear that had a TSO up until recently. The reset of the people that make gear are very small operations that are mainly do it for themselves. There is no worry on any part for parachute equipment at this point to be sold with CAN-TSO. That is not to say that won't change in the future but I doubt it would come anytime soon since a whole program would have to be put in place at Transport Canada. That being said, the FAA rules about FAA riggers packing TSO'd gear being jumped in the US, even if a Canadian is jumping it, would still apply. But considering that CSPA is the authority of Canadian rigger tickets and while knowing that this is the situation is continuing to push their programme as they have not had reports of USPA dropzones or the FAA checking and enforcing FAA regulations. This information is coming from the CSPA BoD.

You are incorrect on this. Very few flights will refuel at Alert. Most flights will refuel in Greenland. Fuel is essential for life in Alert and taking fuel out of there requires special permission and is only done when no other options are available. Most flights will bypass Alert altogether if going to the North Pole. I have spent a lot of time in the arctic close to the North Pole and never heard of or seen flights got to Alert to travel north. All were going through Greenland.

What kind of rig are you taking about? I do many restoration jobs on vintage gear. Share some details on the rig and some pictures of it would be of great help to see what really needs to be done.

Nylon was first manufactured by DuPont and revealed at the 1939 World's Fair but it was actually first produced in 1935. Later in 1942 the Pioneer Parachute Company, in Connecticut, was the first to produce and test nylon parachutes. Originally tested with dead weights then Adeline Gray volunteered to test the parachute and made the first jump. At the beginning of WWII, the silk supply was cut off and the search for new a new material took place, in 1942 the search was pretty much over. Parachutes were still made of silk during WWII because there was still stock of the material. Nylon was tested and was found to be superior to silk.