gowlerk

I wouldn't go betting against the US dollar as a business strategy. It may decline in the long run against already too low Chinese and other emerging currencies, but the competition is selling in Euros, and I wouldn't want to be holding these now. No one has ever made money betting against the US economy long term. And it's just getting in gear for an energy boom that is going to radically alter the current picture. The US remains as the most vibrant, diverse, and leading economy in the world. I would love to see more AAD competition. I've been waiting two years now for the M2 here in North America. But yes, the development costs for such a small market item must be very challenging. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

My personal take on it is that Airtec is making such a good product that you could only succeed by giving people a reason to switch. Their weakness in the marketplace is price, the need for service, and life limit. You need to beat them on at least two of those points, plus be nearly completely reliable to compete. I am a Canadian, but I'd say you would have as much success by attempting flag waving as GM and Ford do. If you have a good product at a good price and a well run reputable organization, there will be a place for you. The nature of your questions seem to indicate that you are wondering if being US made would give you an advantage. The answer is no. Ken Gowler Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

Two weeks and no answer from Ralph. I interpret this as " if you phone me, I'll tell you it's a PD 210, even though it is not. But if you want me to write it down, I'll just ignore you." Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

I finally heard from the seller. He claims that he contacted Western about the canopy and that they told him it was a PD 210. I haven't heard from them yet, but I sent the email on Friday night. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

Thanks, I couldn't find that. But I just sent him an email. Ken Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

Ha! I'm thinking it is near Maverick sized. Here's another clue. The slider doesn't use the usual 3" white tape. Instead it's constructed with what appears to be black 3" type IV webbing. It also has a piece of 2" velcro sewn to it for collapsing the slider. I do remember seeing that on PD mains before they figured out draw strings. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

What? you don't think I'm little enough? Only 6' 2" and 195. No sweat. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

Sorry Terry, I hate to trouble your brain like that. No other panel and I couldn't see any stitch line either. I sent the seller a message asking why he described it as pd210, but no answer yet I was assuming it was a 9 cell because I know that's the only 210 they made. I am suspecting it's a 7 cell 193, but who knows? At the price I paid I'm going to keep it. I've already hooked it up to a rig I have here as a rental, but I'll need to do a couple test jumps first. If I get a good answer from the seller I may just not leave feedback, but if he doesn't have a good explanation it will hurt his record. But I haven't left anyone bad feedback before. It's made in three shades of blue. And it has non cascaded center A-B lines. With the flat braided dacron it reminds me of my old Cruiselite, but it's not big enough for that. LSTs are heavier dacron. Bartacks don't look like PD to me, but I'm not that good at IDing them. Ken Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

The info from my post came from the data panel, which is the only marking on it. Yes, I will get my rigger to install it correctly, easily done because I am he. And I only paid $165 with risers ,d-bag, and pc, so I'm ok there. Call Ralph sold lots of stuff out west back then. I'm hoping one of the western riggers who have been around a while will know something about it. Ken Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

I bought another Ebay item. Just can't help myself. It was advertised as a PD 210. When it arrived I got a "Western Parachute Sales" Model 210, PN P1150 00, Ser# 1393 90,DOM 01-03-93. 7 cell f-111 type, lined with flat braided dacron. The bottom skin measures about 19 ft by 9.75. The line lengths don't match up with any PD 7 cell I can find. It's low mileage for sure. It came with risers and was misrigged. On one end all the lines were attached to the rear riser. I'm not sure what effect that would have on flight, but I'm guessing it would cause a significant turn. Maybe that's why it wasn't used much. I've heard that Ralph relabeled stuff all the time. Anybody know what this canopy is? Thanks Ken Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

This is exactly why I don't like to use those Icarus/Precision type canopies. They open in full fight with no brakes on. It's very difficult to get rid of line twists on a canopy in this flight mode. Line twists like this are no problem to fix on a canopy with deployment brakes. Ken Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

If you need an idea, that means you don't know what you are doing. The only correct idea as far as I'm concerned is to return the harness to UPT or repair. I rather hope you are joking. I don't see any rigger rating in your profile. This is a harness repair and needs to be done by a master rigger at the least. Ken Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

I know of a jumper here who had a mal caused by this. Same symptom, on one side the riser cover failed to open. It was packed by a dz packer who had never seen a Wings rig before and admitted his mistake. As far as I'm concerned this is a design flaw. It's pretty obvious that people will repeatedly make this error. Tucking the riser under appears naturally to be the thing to do. The warning label helps, but won't eliminate the problem. Ken Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

Now that's funny! FWIW that line twist was after a cutaway from a spinning mal, with an RSL. But then again maybe it's because of a messy slider! Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

Wow. Are riggers ever an anal bunch. Maybe we could all try simply doing what the manual, (PD in this case) says. 13. Pull up the slider by grabbing the tapes around its center and walking from the connector links to the base of the folded canopy*** We can all discuss the fancy methods of making it look pretty, but the bottom line is put the grommets all the way to the stops. RTFM KISS principle Ken Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

Make the seller accept payment in USD. Paypal, banks, credit cards, it doesn't matter. All money changers charge about 2 to 3 %. If you buy in your own currency then the seller can either pay the fee himself or use the USD in his paypal account for another purchase. Being in Canada that's what I do for US customers. It's fairly easy for me to spend USD and I'd have to pay the fee both ways otherwise. UPS will hammer you with broker fees all the time. I always use the post office for international shipments for just this reason. Ken Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

The 401 and the 500 are almost the same machine. The A is meaningless, some people say in means it was made in Anderson SC, but 401 and 401a are the same machine. The 500 series are a styling update only, still the same inside. They look kind of cool, but they have doors with delicate cast aluminum hinges that are prone to breaking and can't be fixed. A cleaned and maintained 401 is an awesome machine. It's at the height of the Singer model list and was the last great machine before the slide into plastic and cost cutting began in the late 60s. In Europe you will be more likely to find the German assembled version called the 411g, or in GB possible the Canadian 401J only small differences, basically the same great Singer. Ken Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

Sewing machines? Ask my wife about those! I got interested in them after taking the rigger course. Started buying used domestics for too much money. Then I saw that I could pick up good used pre 1970 machines for cheap because everyone has one in the house, but since grandma can't see anymore, and we throw our worn clothes away now, no one uses them any more. So I started refurbishing these old beauties and then ebaying them. Now I have about 3 dozen old Singer 401's and 15-90s and 15-91s and 319s and 306s and a couple Pfaffs and Elnas all waiting for my work bench. I've sold about 50 of them in the last couple years. I ship them all over North America, as far away as Puerto Rico. For my own sewing, I only keep a 20u and a 312t141 two needle, because I don't have room for any more tables. I don't sell industrial machines at all, mostly because they are too expensive to ship. This is the sort of thing machine addiction can lead to! Ken Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

I've got an excellent condition Pfaff 360 That I'll be putting on ebay this week. I'm guessing your wife may not want used 1960s technology though! Seriously you need to know what she wants in a machine before you buy one. Probably not the best "surprise" type of gift unless you catch her somehow talking about a model she wants. Ken Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

If you weigh under about 210 lbs out the door, you will be ok under it. You will not like the flare, or the lack of forward speed. But you will learn lots about shooting accuracy going backwards on windy days. If 200 UK is the same as 300 US then the price is sort of ok, but I'd try to get it for less. But I'm cheap. There is not a lot of market for these, but there is some. They have been used for both BASE and CRW in the past. At 300 jumps, the uncoated fabric is "broken in" (porous) but it will not get a lot worse than it is for a few hundred more jumps. Usually they are completely finished by 600 or 700, unless a real light weigh person is jumping it. Ken Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

It sounds like you want to spend some cash, so you may not like this answer. For the best quality image possible, don't go sticking any additional glass in front of the high quality lens that Sony installed in your camera. The 110 already has a wide lens, and no matter how much cash you spend you will only degrade the image from there. It depends of course what you are shooting, and your ability to fly and keep your subject in frame. If you like ghosts and flare and less resolution then a wide adapter is what you want! I never use my .5 anymore for 4way or tandems. I just don`t need it. The only time I need an adapter lens is inside video. In that case I need as wide as reasonably possible, which for me is a Opteka .3 fisheye. I hear that the Century ``Baby Death``is better. But not 3 times better,which is what it costs. You could get yourself one of those to impress your friends! I`m sure others will have more helpful suggestions for you. Good luck and try to do more fun than work if you can. Ken Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

Go here: http://pc-mobile.net/nikongps.htm Scroll to near the bottom. They have nice 90 degree angled plugs with adapters so you can use standard 2.5 mm plugs, or cut and splice. They mail them out from Hong Kong, so allow a couple weeks for delivery. They work well for me and are cheap enough that I bought extras. Ken Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

Excellent idea and probably the best way for you to go. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

The short answer is no. If you try this you will not be happy with the fit of either the 190 or the 150. And you will have to make unsuitable compromises on the reserve sizing. I understand why you might like to try this, but realistically you will need to go through two sets of gear in your progression through these sizes. It also may happen that you will get to 170 or so and decide to stay there. I did, for 18 years now. Ken Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

Hmmm, I would have to agree with Elliot. PD should stand up and correct the obvious error in the original design for free. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.