nitrochute

so does anyone have a definitive answer to the question, "is it still flying?". i would hope that it has been restored and is indeed back in the air.i love those old Howards!!!

one word...EGO

depends on what you mean by famous. i jumped with steve snyder ,elek puskas and dick morgan.famous to us older jumpers.when i was rigging at taft in 1993 i met mark paul gossalaar(Zack on Saved by the bell)he was a student at the time.also met jerry gross and mark stevens (The Dovells)when they jumped in new jersey.

actually for canopies it is 1/4 "gauge

could it possibly be an RW Model?(the one they constructed out of F111?)

i've used a singer 112w115 for 30 years for binding and a singer 112w116 with puller for building canopies for 20 years. ive had no problems.

if i remember correctly from my days at para flite, there are a total of 3 lines attached to the tail on each side.the outboard and inboard ones are only used during deployment. (brake lines).once the brakes are released, these "deadlines" as they were called ,are no longer used.they are finger trapped into the remaining one line ,so it is not as if they fly away.this arrangement came about because the swift reserve needed all that tail pulled down for deployment but would turn too quickly if the extra lines were used for steering as well.thus the deadlines are so long that you would have to reel in several feet of steering line to put tension on them once released.(i once saw the late "fang "fenimore actually do this once,pulling the finger trap junction thru the guide ring.when he released the toggle ,the junction jammed in the ring.too low to cut awy he rode it in pulling the opposite toggle to counter the spin.but it was just so much input the canopy was pretty much in a constant stall.he landed in trees and had so much momemntum he and the canopy just came rite on thru to the ground.(uninjured).
biggest problem as far as packing,is the dead lines must be able to blow back behind without wrapping around the 3rd steering line.i have seen several that were not properly set up when installed on a rig.

ok,except we're talking about bodkins not fids

ok no one got it. a bodkin is device that looks alot like a slim jim (for opening car doors).it was used "back in the day" to fish pack opening bands back thru their channel on a container . im surprised with all the old timers guessing about fids and packing paddles that no one got it.

ok.reading about "what is a fid" , i have decided to throw out a trivia question here .does anyone know what a bodkin is?i'll let you know when we have a winner.

high speed dirt!

i actually built a transparent ram air for steve snyder in sept of 1992 for some govt project.i could tell you what we used but then i'd have to kill you.

DANG! looks like someone wiped their ass with it.

one thing to consider in addition to whether a particular cleaner will harm nylon is what it will do to the fluorocarbon finish,that is, the u.v. inhibitor.

if you can find it there is dry cleaning product called everblum.it is what george harris (the inventor of f111)recommended when i worked at para flite.

yeah that rigger ought to be shot at the least. when you are dealing with a tandem reserve(or any tandem gear) the responsibilty is doubled.anyone who would put a used main in service as a reserve should have their license yanked.

the hand mount for the original altIII was designed to be used on the middle and ring finger(circa 1976).i know. i worked for SSE INC at the time and built the first several years worth of hand mounts.original hand mounts used a lengnth of 1/4 '' shock cord. using an "O" ring was my idea(we used the ones that paraflite use to use on free bags before they invented and released the safety stow to the industry in 1982.

try handsome dave dewolf at paraloft.com if anyone can help he should be able to.
cm

that mite work on a square canopy but , i know of 1 fatality where it was actually done to a round reserve and the last part of the daisy chain did not come out. unfortunately it was near the skirt .in fact "back in the day"(early 70's) somebody tried to patent daisy chaining the lines as a reefing system for squares.

if the pc and bag come over the nose then you you have too much d brakes.

YES by all means lets make things more complicated than they need to be(LOL)!!

check with warren eichhorn at parachute equip corp(www.paraequip.com)he used to have some of the old stuff hangin around

there were at least 3 ways to do it.first and most common was to simply attach the 2nd p.c on the same bridle as the first(using the same loop).drawback is the pcs tend to fight each other as neither one is exactly vertical.the 2 nd way was to attach a second pc and bridle to the same point on the top of the sleeve or dbag.3rd way is to use something like an nb 8 pc with the grommet in the top and run a bridle through the lower pc to the second pc.there are some pics in poynters parachute manuals.

ANY canopy that is diving forward ,has d brakes that are are not set deep enough for the suspended weight.

the 1 k line was really the only thing available. even the early generation of ram airs used it.developement of dacron line occured in the early 1970s.your delta II is from around 1968 or therabouts.