koppel

In Australia the paper seals are available free from the APF office.

I prefer the BPA sealing method for two reasons. Firstly is that it adds no extra force to the pull force of the ripcord and secondly it ensures that the seal stays with in place. It's one less thing to cause a problem. I have found a couple of paper seals in hard housings on a rig when they were attached in the normal method.

I would be keen if thats possible.

where the hand-cam glove has a mount above the video camera for the gopro

double decker as it were

Anyone of you F.O.G riggers out there than can tell me if this model reserve had a bar-tack at the leading edge junction between top skin and rib?

Looking at one now and there are none but is that correct?




Bueller? Bueller?

love Cookie! always well thought out designs. Never cheap, never short on quality

have you tried http://www.apexbase.com/

or any of the other BASE manufacturers?

attached is the AXE by Downward Trend

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And you missed it doing gear/pin checks for so many months...?

I could show you a couple of ways that it can be done that can be difficult for even e perienced jumpers to notice let alone pups who are taught to trust their omnipotent all knowing rigger.

As for comments about the manual.. pfffft! Most manuals are vague and blurry at best. Your average joe blow will not be able to identify the error from the manual. Show me the pictures from the Mirage manual that gander should have used to recognise the error. People say read the manual all the time but how many actually do?!

Hell some manuals even have information about other manufacturers components that is mis leading and incorrect!

I do appreciate that a coupe of manufacturers have seen fit to upgrade their manuals this decade to concise, clear and accurate compared to some of the older styles out there.

There is a tool that prevents the pin from being pulled entirely whilst checking the pull forces with a fish scale

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Or am I going to have to persuade my rigger with beer/tequila to go through the process one afternoon at the DZ?

Best option. He will be able to explain the differences between your rig and others if the are any and give you detailed information specific to your experience and understand

Contact TSE and enquire about life time limits on their equipment. From memory I think it's around 15 plus 5 if recertified by factory.

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Timestamp: Down Under - Saturday morning ie Manufacturer Closed

Anyone out there know if NAA have an approval for the use of a Vigil in their Centaurus container?

Manual appears rather dated and only notes that the rig is Cypres ready. ...

....................................................................

Cypres was the first modern, electronic AAD and all the later models merely copied Cypres' configuration and pockets (Argus, FXC Astra, Vigil).

Cypres is the only modern AAD manufacturer to publish a manual on how to sew AAD pockets into a variety of containers. I have sewn Cypres pockets into hundreds of containers, but ... some of them ended up with Argus, or Astra, or Vigil AADs ... don't know how that happened ... nudge ... nudge ... wink ... wink ... say no more ... say no more ...

IOW all the later electronic AADs are compatible with Cypres pockets and closing loops.

Chances are, your Centarus manual was written after the invention of Cypres, but before the introduction of Vigil.
If I were you, I would stuff the Vigil into the Cypres pockets and pack that reserve.

sure thing... except there are manufacturers that require a specific approval for each and every AAD model to be installed and that do not allow others... or rather there are/were some that allow Cypres but not Vigil-Argus-M2 etc

Its nit picking mostly but I try and lead by example and if that means that I cant pack a rig there and then so be it, the sky isnt going anywhere :)

Hey pchapman

There you hit the nail on the head.

Checking the PDF manual provided me by the company previously shows it was outsourced and is version 1.3 but has no date so can't be used to determine whether it was printed prior to other AAD's being released.

APF require me to follow manufacturers instructions and is becoming closer to the methodology of FAA through an aligning of CASA with FAA. This leads me to choose the "cypres is approved" means cypres and not other AAD's. Picky but more obvious and no chance of re-visiting me in the future.

Solved the time factor by juggling AAD's and rigs and installing a Cypres

Will wait for reply next week.

Cheers for input.

Thank you for the reply Nova

Bottom line is some manufacturers require a seperate authority for each brand of device. Others leave it open by not giving approvals and leaving it to the rigger.

Vigil have allowed the use of an existing cypres installation kit but that does not mean the container manufacturer has.

This does not answer the question above. At this point I can either pack without installing the vigil or not pack it

Timestamp: Down Under - Saturday morning ie Manufacturer Closed

Anyone out there know if NAA have an approval for the use of a Vigil in their Centaurus container?

Manual appears rather dated and only notes that the rig is Cypres ready.

Have a customer that needs rig for training for competition urgently.

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After decades of experience, they concluded that cutters tend to deteriorate after 12 years, while soldered joints tend to "fatigue" after 15 years.

and for a bonus of three points who knows the designated life set by Airtec of a Cypres Cutter? ;)

canadian hospitality this way... Just bring Scotch / Bourbon

nice work buddy

glad we stuck with the 188 cos all the cool kids are downsizing slowly these days

in 8 years of dealing Wings I have had

..... amazing service every time from whoever was there at the time. Ankie was Awesome. RIck is Righteous! Anne is Amazing... hell, even Aggie in his brief sojourn was damn good too.

I have had customers change their minds long after gear has gone into production and Sunrise casually step up to the mark and change things for them at their own cost just because the customer wanted things a certain way.

I have had rigs that have had to go back.. W8-2 ext with a problem with the #3 flap not sitting quite right and the flap popping out sometimes in free-fly. I sent them from AUSTRALIA and on the Eleventh day I had them back!! You do the maths but it strikes me that they provided a pretty good customer service... that was my rig 8 years ago and the extremely high level of customer service I got made me want to share that with others.

There are lots of good manufacturers out there and as a full time rigger who deals with a lot of them regularly I reckon most of the problems I have seen between people and the manufacturers tends to come down to the person not taking the time to understand what they are dealing with.

I ship via the Post Office often enough... no problems and its generally around the 35-45 bucks for a rig for registered delivery

certainly. Not suggesting anyone discussing this here would not swap them out or act appropriately.

One of the ones I saw was two completely separate pieces as the break had gone right through!

seen it in other brands of rig as well where the cutter sits on top of the PC

Not convinced by the statement 'if you can turn it on it will work' above

with a Cyprs you can remove the cutter after the unit is turned on and there is nothing that shows on the screen to say that continuity of circuit is no longer there.

Consider then (and its a long bow to draw but still) an event in freefall where a jumper with a cracked cutter gets hit on the back by someone, say a freefly jump or someone going low and under a formation (dont say they shouldnt be there...we know that already) and the cutter gets bumped further than it was by the impact so as to break the connection. Unit shows as functioning now on the display but it willnot.

Having had a couple of cutters like this in the last few years that I have seen my only point here is to say... just because it turns on does not mean that it will activate your reserve if you need it to.

ie if in doubt get it changed. I have removed a couple of cutters recently that look like they are starting to crack and have swapped them out in case.

Can't really help other than to say that I have seen the ring cause wear and also the rapide link cause wear. This is why I prefer cost links to attach bridles where there is not a larks head system at the bottom of the bridle

Perhaps discuss with you rigger or the person who assembled your rig. They may remember something

Yup.

Seen it a couple of times. On both occasions the problem lay with a non-stainless component that had pitted and / or rusted and during use the rough surface of the component has over time rubbed through the material

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Only goes to prove my point that it's more & more a business than a sport. Not saying that's a bad thing necessarily, it is what it is.

indeed in some parts of the world it is indeed a fully fledged industry now. Sadly for most of that industry they have yet to wake up to the responsibilities of being a genuine industry and the ethical and legal obligations that come with it towards your staff and your customers.