Beatnik

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Everything posted by Beatnik

  1. It is a little more than one man's opinion. I don't want to start a CSPA discussion thread because I don't care enough about it to. There is a reason why I am USPA and have USPA ratings. I was merely adding to what was one thought on the subject I replied to.
  2. There are two dropzones in Ontario that are only USPA. CSPA is being run by a bunch of people that shouldn't be in those positions. Right now their focus is on things that don't really matter and stuff that doesn't benefit the members. This is a way to try and force people to conform to their rules instead of having the country slowly convert to USPA which is happening.
  3. They should last a lot longer than that. I have used one for over 200 jumps without it needing to be charged. But that was a busy time. Even then, it should be able to go for a couple of weeks without needing to be charged every weekend.
  4. I agree that getting a TSO is not cheap or there would probably be a lot more products out there if it was. But I am not sure the original figure is for AC time only. It doesn't stipulate that only AC time and if someone is calculating the overall costs of each drop, they wouldn't leave out factors such as employee wages, time, fuel, etc. Otherwise it wouldn't be a cost for each test drop. A small note on the time factor, I worked for a company where we did more than 4 test drops in a day. Not saying that 25 is an inaccurate assumption but it doesn't necessarily require at least 25 days to perform.
  5. I am assuming the issues that you have run into are similar to those of chest mount deployments and the body folding. I have never had a problem with either on my design. Proper staging will reduce the forces to bearable levels even if the attachment points are lower down on a harness. I like my harnesses really balanced, very low hang points. But you are correct, if you get the deployment speeds down it it no big deal. I can understand low hang points to drag reduction. A few inches above the hips or around the stomach area. The deployment speeds have some factor in it but if the design is staged correctly to spread out the deployment forces, the deployment speeds become less of an issue. The system I designed, built, tested and continuing to develop, I can launch at any speed I have thrown at it out of a plane or taken it to and not create any damage to the glider itself. At least so far no damage has been done, not even a line breaking.
  6. I am assuming the issues that you have run into are similar to those of chest mount deployments and the body folding. I have never had a problem with either on my design. Proper staging will reduce the forces to bearable levels even if the attachment points are lower down on a harness.
  7. Sure those are the right figures? There is no way $42000 in 1994 would equate to $600000 in 2011 dollars. Even at 100 drops at $800 per, equaling $80000, that wouldn't give anywhere close to that final figure.
  8. If the prevention of fatalities is the case, he should allow any/all manufacturers use the Skyhook free of charge. It sure seems to be marketed as a safety device that could prevent fatalities. I am not saying that he is not trying to prevent fatalities but it is hard to play that card when you are trying to turn a profit with this safety device. What Bill has asked for is near free. $5 a Rig is what I was told. Since he would now be added to another companies lawsuit (if some thing happened) he would put this in the legal defense fund at UPT. Matt Near free and free are still different. If you look at some of the other MARDs out there, they are being marketed for free because they believe that it will beneficial. Charging money for the reason you gave doesn't justify the position was given earlier. If people really wanted to tie UPT in with lawsuits they could since every sport rig out there right now uses the 3-ring release. Plus if there is no lawsuit, will the money go back to the companies? I think not and it will come back as profit. I am sorry but given the information I have doubt that the interest is in only with the safety of the jumpers. This is just my opinion on this and that in itself doesn't make it true or not true.
  9. If the prevention of fatalities is the case, he should allow any/all manufacturers use the Skyhook free of charge. It sure seems to be marketed as a safety device that could prevent fatalities. I am not saying that he is not trying to prevent fatalities but it is hard to play that card when you are trying to turn a profit with this safety device.
  10. You're forgetting about the Falcon. It has a bridle attachment point. But you don't see many people use them as reserve even though they are TSO'd.
  11. Was the intent to beat Steve Sutton's record--by 2 jumps--forty years later? Were Steve's jumps made under squares? I'm not sure whether square canopies existed in 1969 although Domina Jalbert definitely had the patent by then. I'm afraid my own maximum is just five jumps in a day, although I hope to exceed that soon. I am surprised that you know about Steve's record. The intent wasn't to beat Steve's by two jumps. The intent was to bring awareness and raise money for the charity I was doing it for and that is why I am planning on doing it again. I know I haven't done my all time best but that was the best I could do that day. I learn so much every time I do this. A bonus of doing this many jumps was that my friend Steve called me up afterwards and welcomed me to the 200 jump club. That is something I really appreciated and enjoyed more than anything else. Anyways Steve didn't hold the record, there were two Canadians that beat his record a few years he set it. they were George Sarson and Jean-Pierre (Pedro) Blanchette. So his record was broken long before I came around. The record categories where split into rounds and squares a while ago. Even if I wanted to I can't break their records. I can only break my own unless someone comes around and breaks it before I do.
  12. You got it. I should have defined it better originally. It was between landing and getting in for another ride up.
  13. Umm, I call Bull Shit. Call bullshit on someone else. Scroll down to the bottom of attached link and check out the name. It was also witnessed by people in this thread. http://www.cspa.ca/en/competition/canadian-records
  14. It took 16.5 hours with 40 minutes of breaks. There was about 30 seconds or less between jumps. I don't remember the specific time I ended. It was dark out.
  15. 202 in one day all hop and pops. Next best for me is 150, again all hop and pops. I didn't pack for myself.
  16. I know what I am talking about in regards to my previous post. And I think that you are not grasping it. It is a product comparison and not directly talking about vigil misfires even though that is indirectly being discussed. I know of a few personally that had misfires with vigils but all of that doesn't matter the math doesn't lie about it. However, personal believes and biases can sure make people believe what they want. Quite frankly I am not going to get in a drawn out argument with you cause I can already tell that you have your mind made up regardless of the facts or how to analyze them correctly.
  17. Not true. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4115858;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread http://www.cypres.cc/images/stories/storypictures/service_bulletin_april_2008_e.pdf I don't see how a few cases of this completely nullifies the argument. There is not an AAD out there that has not misfired at one point or another. If you look at the overall number of units compared to misfires that you hear about, I am sure there are a lot more that we don't hear about but those are hard to judge, CYPRES by far tends to have less of them. Citing a few examples doesn't discredit the argument towards the quality of the AAD. If you do not take into account that in one example, affected 800 Cypres . The possibility of affecting 800 and 800 being affected, i.e. 800 actual misfires, are entirely different things. You could build an equation for the possibility of them all being affected but it would be very low with the number using probabilities. Now, it would be entirely different if there actually were 800 misfires. But applying it as a one of situation and accounting them as if they did is completely inaccurate and biases the argument. Overall, proven, as in actually happened, CYPRES has a better track record for reducing misfires. That is taking in the one example of the possibility of 800 units being affected and possibly misfiring.
  18. Not true. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4115858;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread http://www.cypres.cc/images/stories/storypictures/service_bulletin_april_2008_e.pdf I don't see how a few cases of this completely nullifies the argument. There is not an AAD out there that has not misfired at one point or another. If you look at the overall number of units compared to misfires that you hear about, I am sure there are a lot more that we don't hear about but those are hard to judge, CYPRES by far tends to have less of them. Citing a few examples doesn't discredit the argument towards the quality of the AAD.
  19. There are several walking foot zigs out there. They aren't as common as a standard drop feed zig. The Consew 146rb comes to mind as an example of a walking foot zig from the same company.
  20. If the rig was a Racer the rubber bands could get hard but there are no metal grommets on the freebag to react with. It is not an ideal storage location and I feel he should have it checked.
  21. I am not suggesting in anyway that suicide isn't a possibility but could you explain how straps undone automatically indicates suicide? They may have be undone from complacency and missed with no gear check. There have already been a few examples in this thread of such and in one case even more serve with missing a rig entirely. Furthermore it seems like a complicated method to commit suicide to me. Wouldn't it have been easier to turn off the AAD and not pull? Maybe I am missing something but I don't see the logical jump to that when there are many possibilities that hold equal weight.
  22. I have a very brisk opening that made the webbing slip and myself hanging from my armpits and the back of my knees in the harness. Not exactly the funnest skydive. I can't explain the chest strap unless it wasn't done up to begin with. The legstraps could have loosened because of the sudden deceleration from head down to canopy opening. Without the chest strap holding him in he probably fell out. With a parachute open, it could have flown and landed the half mile away. I don't necessarily believe suicide at this point.
  23. They make a very nice product and Terry is great to deal with. I have a suit from them that I used while doing 200+ jumps in 24 hours and it was tough. It went through a lot of abuse and hardly showed it. I know of a few others that have bought a suit from them and no one was disappointed.
  24. I've got one of those sitting in the next room. So do I. But it doesn't usually sit their for long, it gets jumped regularly.