Deyan

My first reaction was "You've gotta be kidding me" "My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

After this thread: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4468708;page=unread#unread I knew that the guy is a troll with behavior problems. He can't change. The only thing we can do is ignore him and he will go away....like many before him! "My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

Nope. It loads white loop way beyond its breaking strength. Broken loop= riser release. "My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

Look at the attached photo! It happens really often with the standard 3 ring risers. Mainly on tandems, but I've seen it on student rigs as well. When I worked as a packer I had to "fix" several risers every day. All you have to do to prevent the riser from breaking is to push it back to normal position. To have a broken riser from lockdown, all you need is a) lazy packer(or a packer who doesn't care) and b) tandem master who doesn't check his gear before jump. cheers edited to correct some typos "My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

If you don't have a MARD (Skyhook) you have a chance of your reserve p/c clearing the trailing main. If you have a MARD, your p/c will be directly dragged into the mess. Of course you are assuming that the MARD will stay connected to the bridle, which may or may not be the case. We know that the Skyhook sometimes disconnects from the bridle, before the freebag being extracted. Many of those occasions happen at higher speed. When a riser break, the speed will still be high, so there's a chance that there won't be any difference between broken riser with a RSL and a MARD without Collins Lanyard. To be honest I don't believe anyone has ever tested that scenario. Or if I'm wrong and the guys at UPT(or anyone else) have done that, I hope to see the video or the data someday. Until then the answer of that question will be pure speculation IMO. "My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

Good you came up with this one yourself. So how is the Collins Lanyard going to work, when a jumper fail to route the yellow cable through it after cleaning the release cables once a month? I've seen this not once, but twice. What about the negative side of the Collins Lanyard that forced you to release a product update and a PSB? I think it's also worth mentioning when you give an general overview of a product. Happy new year everyone Stay safe out there! "My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

Hi Rob, Are you sure about that one? ....and they are still working to get it right. "My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

It's a bit late for that Jerry! Santa has a "flat tire" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX7BJaptphA "My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

from 2004, can be extended to 20 years depending of state of gear True, but those rigs are 5-6 years away from the need to be re certified "My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

Just remember that they have 15 years lifetime. Sometimes looking at their label is all I do "My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

THIS... I can't believe how easy riggers start blaming other riggers for a mistake or for overlooking something. It's like they never make any mistakes. If you do rigging, you gonna make a mistake. Period. If you think you won't, you are BSing yourself and your costumers..... and nobody said anything about UPT's QC! They were the people who should've stopped from getting out of the door, but guess what, they are humans and they do make mistakes as well. "My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

Was the packjob so bad? "My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

Hi Jerry, I'm looking at an Odyssey ripcord right now and it's with ball and shank. Cheers "My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

Another one bites the dust. While the cause of the previous damage remains a mystery, this one was easy to spot. A cracked plastic on the pin cover. Bill said something about 1000's deployments for the drogue release without any damage to the shock cord or the spectra line. I had to think about that for a moment. To be honest I've never seen a broken bungee on a Sigma drogue release....ever. And that's the same material. The big difference is that the shock cord on the ripcord is sewn with a bartack and the one on the drogue release is sewn with 2 rows of 301 stitch. Big difference. The bartack just kills the bungee. You can find a broken elastic even on a brand new ripcord. All you have to do to inspect it, is put some slack on the spectra line in the area right next to the bartack so you can feel only the bungee and squeeze it between your fingers. After all, this spectra ripcord might end up as a bad idea. I've never seen a steel ripcord damaged by a cracked plastic. "My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

I tried to determine this effort with the RAX system, but could not get even a one ounce load measured. Unless there is a LOT of tension on the loop, the load forces to pull the pin simply are insignificant. JerryBaumchen Hi Jerry, That's true! But if you try to pull in the opposite direction, you will get a pound or two. Remember that there's no extra flap on the "boost" to keep it orientated and the bridle goes beneath the left side flap. If you pull downwards, you'll have some resistance. Mainly because of the side flaps. The 26lbs for the Skyhook were also in the worst possible direction. That's the fair way to compare "My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

I never said that it's better (or worse)! All I said is that it take much less force to disconnect! Yes "My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

Your assumption is wrong. The highest force I ever measured is 26 lbs. ( 16-18 average) If that's not much, I don't know what it is! Now most people will tell you that this is not much, and they will probably be right until you will have to bail out of a hot air balloon. Much easier. 1-2 lbs at max. It's your last chance. KISS principle works best

This RPC has both, mesh and F111 If you take a close look at the first picture, you will see the black mesh. "My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

Thanks for joining the discussion Bill, but nothing you said gave the answer to my question. I'll think out loud for a moment. Let say, I do a repack with the ripcord from the picture. My knowledge is good enough to know that this ripcord is far from breaking. But I also know that 6 months ago this wear wasn't there. And now I have to think, well if this is the wear I get in 6 months off season, how bad it will look after another 6 months in the busy season? Do I really want to find out? What about the broken elastic? I know it has nothing to do with the strength, but it keeps the ripcord inside the housing. Without it, there's a nasty loop forming between the handle and the housing. Now I have to think, how bad that could be?! Well, really bad. Let say a TM just had an unexpected reserve ride because the zipper slider on his sleeve got snagged there. It all goes well and nobody send a report to you. What's gonna happen if things don't go well? I bet you guys will say:" But that ripcord should've been replaced! Bad maintenance"...case closed! Give me a number I ( and the riggers around the world) can work with. What is the acceptable wear? 5%, 10%, 50%, 66%. Is it OK to use a ripcord with a broken elastic even if there's no wear on the Spectra line? Is replacing of the broken elastic authorized? Unless there's a written document saying what is the acceptable wear, any wear should be unacceptable IMO. In one of the SB's from Sunpath, there's a really good explanation with pictures what's New, Worn out but still OK and Bad MLW. We don't have to guess, We just have to look at the pictures and compare.....Beside, I'm not really good in guessing. I've been buying lottery tickets for 10 years without winning anything. I don't want to guess that something is good/strong enough. I want to be sure! That affects my sleep in a positive way! We don't accept stainless reserve ripcord cables with any damage, although they are probably still way stronger than what the TSO requires. Why should we accept the damaged Spectra ones? Make sense, doesn't it? I hope you don't take it personal. It's just a discussion! P.S. I don't have that ripcord. Was given back to the owner. That's why I took the pictures. "My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

It's smooth, the cause of the wear should be something else. "My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

So my question is: "How much is too much"? Have you grounded any and how bad did they look? We have Because of wear, and because of broken elastic. "My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

If my memory is correct, it's not FAA TSO certified. E-mail Paratec and find out. Stefan and Jupp are awesome in answering questions, but you'll have to wait till Monday (maybe exactly the reason you are asking here) "My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

Exactly in the order you posted them?! The first one is with a long MLW so it's probably the V319, and the last one is way too ugly to be any different than the V340 Or non of the pictures, matches any of the listed sizes..... "My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

Probably a C-4U. Let me know if you still need the manual.....in English P.S. I really like this system. I've packed some good hundreds of them back in the army. And based on the drop tests we did, I can assure you that the spring less pilot chute works like a dream "My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

Actually I believe the main test they do is a porosity permeability test. "My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen