nitrochute

you would be doing a great public service to tell us who this individual is ,so that those of us who have had contact with this asshole can properly reward his dumbass behavior.

i hope that asshole isnt a rigger.and if he is he should have his ticket pulled .this is a bout the most bonehead thing i have heard of in my 40+ years in parachuting.

does anyone have a farmer mc nasty story to tell? my favorite is about a farmer who lived near steve snyders dz in new jersey.one of steves para flite test jumpers had his canopy land in farmer mc nasty's barnyard.when said jumper went to retreive his canopy, farmer made said jumper pay him something like $50 to get it back.sometime later farmer mc nasty's tractor took a turn for the worse.seems said jumper and some freinds dismantled the thing in the middle of the nite.

as far as the equipment division goes, i already know the answer....i worked for para flite in the 70s and 80s. steve snyder absolutely refused to sell strato stars and strato clouds or any other para flite product to p.i.(there was bad blood betwixt snydly and istel).this was at a time when para flite had a waiting list for product that was something like 6 months(strato star).the day we heard that p.i. s equipment division went under, snydly came back into the shop and boasted about it.he then took the rubber p.i. address stamp that shipping had used and burned it.

do any of you older jumpers have any insite as to why p.i went tits up years ago. it would seem that such a giant in the parachute community should still be with us. anyone?

here is a question that inquiring minds really want to know. how many of us riggers have been handsomely rewarded(i.e a tip or a case of beer or something) when that pack job they did was actually used sucessfully.

yes. ray was kinda an over the top kinda guy,had been a test jumper for para flite,and so had lots of experience dealing with malfuntions.unfortunately on march 12 1978 he just got too focused on trying to get his direct deployed streamering strato flyer to open.and lost track of altitude.a shame really.

i lost a good freind to this type of deployment(1978)he had been having problems with the deployments w/o a pc ultimately augered in under a streamer and loss of altitude awareness.fired his reserve off at 2-300 feet(no cutaway)aparently had enough time to realize his reserve entangled as they found him with 1 of his R3s released. R.I.P. Ray and as i recall all this was in an effort to reduce weight and bulk.

well irvin became irvin aerospace,owned by wardle stories(the same company that bought paraflite). switlik is still around altho no longer making parachutes,just inflateable life vests and life rafts.

interesting,but i would not want to be on the ground under that thing after you jettison it.ouch.

anyone remember the smoke bracket that SSE used to make?(later the rites were sold to para gear). i still have one.

lets not forget unobtainium!

last one i saw was at the herd boogie at united. mid to late 70's

agreed.luckily it didnt deploy between his legs.OUCH

the ripcord is visible in his right hand(the cable appears as a dark line pointing at 11 o clock.a little hard to tell on the computer screen but it is there.i have seen the actual centerfold of skydiver magazine ,where you can not only see the cable,but the handle as well.this was an intentional deployment.

the one in the picture does. but that may have been after snyder threatened to enforce his patent.he(snyder) had a picture of the bede wing that did not use flares and he really had a case of the ass over it.

basically the bede wing violated snyders patent for direct line attachment.

personally, i prefer the 96-10. or the singer 241 series tho that is a faster machine.

ironically, steve snyders drop zone (the inventor of the sentinel series of aad's and the altimaster altimeter,para flite ,etc) did not use pilot chutes in the reserve .that is untill their first student fatality.jumper did not execute a proper exit and ended up on her back.the deploying main started coming up between her legs and she closed her legs on it.(first jump student) she continued falling on her back with the main trapped btween her legs until about 800 feet when the aad fired.because she was on her back the reserve stayed there pretty much until impact.after this steve felt it was appropriate to install pilot chutes on all his student reserves in case of an aad fire.it was thought that students could control the pilotchute enough if they were aware of the malfunction. only other student fatality at his dz ,jumper was making his last drcp(dummy rip cord pull) and the main pilotchute snagged the top left pack opening band,resulting in a horseshoe. student exercised his emergency procedures and the reserve made it to nearly full deployment,but the main was whipping around pretty good and wrapped itself into a perfect half hitch 3 feet from the skirtof the reserve.impacted in some guys yard while the homeowner was outsidemowing his grass.

the old chute shop pacemaker!! love the way that chain driven mecanism hangs up!

congrats! hear any new dave de wolf jokes?

ummmm ............actually the para plane clouds came with aluminum toggles that must have weighed a pound or so each.

i actually have acopy of the original paraplane owners manual,circa 1970. i took the cover photo of dick morgan stomping the disc labor day 1970.

that apears to be the 230 ft para plane cloud.

"back in the day"(1968 or so) when steve snyder was working with the irvin deltaII, they tried steel cables ,ted strong i believe jumped it and promptly tore off some line attchment points(l.a.p.s)