nitrochute

i believe you are thinking of the twin beech that crashed at lakewood,which is not ripcord.that was "ferd's" d18(from SHA-WAN-GA n.y).it crashed and burned on the lakewood golf course after everyone had jumped.interesting story. seems that they would have made the runway but had to abort their landing when some dipstick instructor and his student started their takeoff roll in front of him.put it down in the golf course instead with a passenger on board.after landing the aircraft exploded.both passenger and pilot made it out by the skin of their teeth.

AND COUNT YOUR TOOLS!!!

i dont believe it was. we never had a crash at ripcord.jon baker ,i'm thinking, took the beech to florida in 1982 and was running it at haines city (ripcord south) i think.

i once opened a reserve and found an ounce of pot in it!(years and years ago)COUNT YOUR TOOLS!!.

ok heres another one... susie joerns.

yeah i remember that. lew brooks now lives in las vegas ,e mailed him about ayear ago.do you keep in touch with bobby freit? i also fondly remember bill"lucky" hammill.

looks like a rig that was made by tom cook's masters of the sky shop in canada.i believe it was a rough knock off of a strong enterprises stylemaster(circa early to mid 70s).they went out of business in the late 70s owing 10s of 1000s of dollars to most of the major manufacturers.

i remember the d-18.we flew in it from ripcord to the nationals in richmond indiana in july of 1979.and you are correct. its Jon Baker,not Don.lost his leg when he was riding his harley and got hit by a drunk driver on fathers day 1976.i'd love to hear from him. i havent seen him or jan since 1983!

LOL.all joking aside,it is imperative that whoever does the job,that it is done correctly.incorrectly installed pin could come off the bridle leaving you with a pilotchute in tow.make sure your rigger is a good one. i'm a rigger myself(over 25 years) and i will tell you,there are riggers out there that i wouldnt let pack my lunch,let alone my rig.make sure you work with a COMPETANT rigger.

try textile commission company in philadelphia.

strapwells?they look like the r&j releases that r&j parachutes of vallejo california came up with in 1978 or 79 ..

.i think hes reffering to the piggyback rig(single harness dual parachute 1 person) as a tandem rig.it used to be a common term back in the day.i dont think he is talking about tandem rig in todays sense( dual harness ,dual parachute,2 people strapped together)

wasnt martha huddleston from there?

"another soluton would be to make every rib a load bearing rib" .already been done para flite did it 15 or so years ago. they hold the patent.2 problems tho,with aru rigging(All Ribs Utilized) the bulk is not distribuyed as well so thecanopy is real short nfat. makes it harder to get in a d abag. 2nd problem is that for some reason when an aru canopy stalls, it takes upwards of 500 feet to recover.and nothig you do can make it recover. i know a friend who worked in R&D at pfi and he stated at the time pfi would never release it as skydiving canopy because of this.but they did.

add a centerline and pull the apex in. it reduces filling volume,as well as spreads the inflated diameter out more.

the second riser was sewn to the back of the original riser,thus making the original riser the front one.

back in 1978 when para flite invented and then started selling the safety flyer(which for the un knowing was the first square reserve ever made)most rigs only had a single reserve riser on eack side. all the manufacturers at the time either modified or allowed a master rigger to modify the risers by adding a rear riser to the existing one.

oh does this bring back memories(bad ones).some years ago, a local skygod sold his old used delapidated wonderhog(first version )and strato star to an unsuspecting newbie with like 20 jumps.the purchase was done withoput consulting a rigger. what this guy gotwas definitely unairworty.the container was falling apart, and the canopy was so porous you could see thru it. .turns out it had over 1000 jumps and the seller had washed everything to give the appearance that it was still relatively new.we condemned it on the spot as it was un airwothy.

paraflite used swivels about 30 years ago to keeptheir reefing lines from getting twisted up. i can tell you that they went thru 2 or more designs and each of them broke occasionallly ,not as big a problem today since no one uses a pilot chute controlled reefing system,but still expensive whaen you consider what it would cost to replace your pc and bag.

anyone on here ever jump at ripcord paracenter in lumberton new jersey? just looking for some of the old crowd i used to hang with .

heres one for you.years ago (1977) a local jumper bought a26 navy conical from a navy jumper who had been using it for a main. he then had a master rigger (with a shaky background) install it as a reserve in his sst.. master riogger never pull tested or anything to ensure the canopy was safe. it was broght to me when the pack job expired. i took it to the loft at para flite(i worked there at the time) and prceeded to destroy the canopy with apull of less than 6 pounds. first panel i pullede ripped. in all the canopy had 28 seperate panels that failed EASILY. i condemmed it on the spot and informed my customer .he was in shock. at his exit weight of 225 he would have died .

hypothetical question here. anyone know the weight rating of a block constructed security 26 foot lo po reserve?i realize they were built before pia et al started the max weight ratings.i also realize thet were tso'd in the low speed catagory(3000lb shock load)

try csr in hilltop(or hillside) pa.thats where most of it comes from

dont know. definitely a case of loss of altitude awareness..doug selix was quoted afterwards as saying " i thought i was gonna die."after obrien cutaway, selix's main reinflated. ironically, both could have landed under the one canopy although, someone may have busted some bones,but far prefferable to dying,dont ya think? he was quite an agressive person tho as i recall.interestingly enough, shortly after this para flite ran some zero airspeed deployment tests from a hot air balloon and discovered that a square reserve "could " have opened in as little as 125 feet.

you are talking about Jim o'Brien. he had a canopy collision with another jumper at something like 4 or 500 feet. o'briens canopy was still inflated but after a short exchange of words ,he cutaway at about 200 feet.delayed a short period then pulled his square reserve at about 100 feet.the date was sept. 23 1983 at the old united parachute club in new hanover pa.