accumack

I may be out of the area but if I'm around I'll try to hook up with you.

Someone stamped over the stamp that states the it is a Swift 175.

All Para-Flite labels used a stamp for date,S/N,ect. and there would be a round Q.C. stamp. Also the date of manufacture is after Para-Flite stopped making sport equipment. P.I.S.A. was licensed by Para-Flite to make some reserves for Europe but I believe they were marked as such. This looks like someone has made a copy. I would not pack that as a reserve.

All real swift plus reserves were TSO'd look inside the left or right end cell at the reinforcement tape the the serial number was stamped there. There were some that were knock offs and those are not TSO'd. All swift plus reserves had a warning label on the center tail. If that is missing the canopy is not usable as a reserve the removal of the label voided it's use as a reserve. I worked for for Para-Flite from 1973- 1995.

Ten Seam Rippers Nine cypres batteries Eight smiley washers seven different thread colours Six packing manuals Five Lead Seals Four Closing Loops Three T Bodkins 2 Pull up Cords and a Pack Opening Band Tool

Para-Flite had Randy Deluca film quite few jumps with free stowed lines. i don't know what happened to those films though. It was real ugly!

It is latched. The gate is parallel to the snap. If it was not snapped the wings of the gate would be even/flush with the top of the snap

I believe the bar is slightly thinner on one side. It's hard to tell from the picture. I remember some years back late 180s or early 90s we found a couple of pieces of hardware where the bar was installed backwards in the V-ring from the hardware company.

Sad to hear!

It's called a flat spin and there have been people die from blacking out! Now there was a parachute called the vortex ring that spun.

One of the things you'll learn is to take the jumpers feed back but don't depend on it. Most of the feedback we got during prototype testing had to be taken with a grain salt. Everyone is looking for something different in the way the canopy behaves. I didn't really see anything bad happening during any of the turns. the airfoil will have quite a bit of an influence on how a canopy turns. Are they saying it is staying in the turn a little after they let the toggle up and that is what feels weird?

Unless something has changed the military jumps a done below the minimum jump altitude required by USPA so they shouldn't count toward any license but they do count as jumps.

Thanks for posting. Max was one of a kind always having fun and would jump with anyone. RIP

If the canopy is reinforced correctly you can get away some pretty weak fabric. At Para-Flite we had our own testing standards that made weak fabric showup easier. We sometimes used weak fabric for proto-types that we knew would not get too many jumps on them.

Para-Flite did these back in the 1980s elliptical crossport with a strip in the center. We were seeing distortion and this eliminated it. We were using elliptical crossports for years prior without the strip.

What you can do is act like you are packing the canopy and see if you are close to the highest point with the bridle attachment. The reason we used the 'C' lines vs between line attach meant points was so the load path was straight to the linesand used less reinforcing tape. Just look for stress points on your old canopy since you have some jumps on it and make your decisions.

We used to put the bridle at the 'C' lines.

He built one so he is a parachute builder. He'd have to make a few to be a manufacturer.

Sorry I missed see you while I was Elsinore. It would have been great to talk to you.

I may get over there next week during the SOS record attempts to see some of my old friends from the East coast. If I do I'll look for you.

Congrats! How long are you going to be in Elsinore?

Not true all Swifts were crossported. You are right; I was thinking of the Safety-Flyer (160sf/1.25oz) that predated the Swift. I later replaced it with a Swift, but I don't recall ever deploying the Swift. No Para-Flite canopies were crossposted at the time of the Safety Flyer due to Jalbert's patent which was over turned in the late 1970s or early 1980s after that all Para-Flite canopies were crossported. The Safety Flyer was out of production by then.

Not true all Swifts were crossported.

The steering line setup was to make the canopy more docile. Back then there were no high performance canopies. So we worked hard to make it easy to handle. The lines that go slack when you release the brakes were required to have the canopy open quickly.

Whether or not it is legal for a manufacturer to set retro actively a service life. If something were to go wrong and a family sued i wouldn't want to go to court and and argue that I went against what the manufacturer said because it wasn't legal. just my $.02