highspeeddirt

"removal of this label voids TSO"

UMMM Goretex is a fabric,not a finish.

Have you tried para flite?

Singer31-15,Singer 96-10,Singer 112w115,Singer 7-31

a reuter wrap was a piece of elastic that wraped around all the suspension lines about a foot below the skirt band.one end had a metal fitting on it and the other end had a loop sewn in the elastic. the idea was to wrap the elastic around all the lines then insert the loop end of the elastic thru the metal fitting.a straight steel pin was then inserted in the loop keeping the elastic wrapped around the lines.the pin was attched to either the left or right steering line and was set up so that at line stretch, the pin would pull out and allow the wrap to free the lines.the canopy would then open.used primarily to prevent canopy inversions due to out of sequence deployments on pioneer tri conical canopies.

heres one for ya. at a dz in new jersey (circa 1972). first jump student(static line) made a lousy exit and caused a bag lock.this guys body position was basically the fetal position with his hands covering the front mounted reserve. at 1000 ft the sentinal fired but reserve did not deploy immediately because student was holding it closed.around 3-400 feet somehow the reserve pilotchute got out and deployed the reserve,which then opened ..exit point was just off the western end of the runway and this guy went screaming by some poor old student pilot at around 300 feet.! the pilot radioed back to the airport that some guy had just bounced as he had no open parachute as he zipped past the left wing 100 feet or so.

lets not forget BURSTING STRENGTH.

try warren eichhorn at parachute equipment corp in virginia www.paraequip.com

umm..."they retrieved DNA from me"... do you mean your DNA (it wouldnt match you know) or some of his DNA?

as a kid, my brother and i would retreive the errent sleeve and pilotchute when a retainer line broke.usually we got $5.

depends on the canopy.when i worked for steve snyder we had some canopies that would take 14 hours to make a lineset

what you are seeing as the steering/control lines is actually the sleeve retainer line and pilotchute bridle

"what would be the chances of the bridle pulling out the d bag?" ask riggermick. he knows. when para flite invented the square reserve in 1977-78,the containers were made so that the d bag would fall out if turned upside down (i.e. the container did not restrict the d bag in any way.).what held the bag in was a bite of bridle (folded into what para flite dubbed "a needlefold")stowed in a loop of elastic shock cord passed thru 2 opposing container flaps.as rig built today is SO restrictive that it does not need the bridle stow. BUT they are so restrictive that the bridle alone really cant pull out the d bag.

back in the day (circa 1968 or so) we had a guy named charlie pooley that jumped at snyders dz in nj. he had an irvin hawk.irvin, in an attempt to slow the openings down, decided that a really tight deployment sleeve would work(HA).irvin sent him one which he installed .he packed his hawk and was doing a demo for an airshow . the ceiling came in and they only got 1300. HE JUMPED, did a hop n pop(maybe at that altitude it should have been a pop n hop).needless to say , he had a sleeve lock,the sleeve was just too tite at lower airspeeds. chopped it with his oneshots and rsl'd x-bo reserve. time under reserve was about 30 seconds.landed rite next to his main.

i guess what i was wondering was, did he have any formal training as an engineer or did his design work just come from his experience as a rigger/jumper?

i agree. thats why i no longer work for him.i wont mention names, but the dz involved(where the rig came from) has had a tandem fatality .and the boss involved has reincorporated once or twice and changed locations.

i had a tandem resrve come in for repack several years ago.the card said i had last packed it,but there was no seal,and the handwriting did not match.(.it also was not in my rigging logbook) when i started to disect the packjob, it became very clear to me that it was not my work.i informed the boss at the loft i was working at , i wanted to report it to the faa. he said no and i would be fired if i did.so yes i can identify my work.and i think most riggers can id theirs too.

PILATUS PORTER(pilotless port o let!)!

as a kid back in south jersey in the late 50s or early 60s i remember seeing them along with the occasional navy blimp from lakehurst.ahh the good ol days...........

QUICK? that all depends... years ago i lost 3 friends jumping.2 died in a midair collision at opening time, one of whom was knocked unconcious(no aad) and remained entangled in the other guy's main.she never saw death coming .the jumper whose main was deployed however realized the situation and deployed his reserve without cutting away (which was VERY unlike him)speculation is he knew the other jumper was in his canopy and tried to save them both by staying attached to the main and hoping his reserve would clear the mess, which it did not.they impacted pretty much at terminal in a recently plowed field.when we reached them, some 15 minutes later(we had trouble locating them)he was still breathing .in this case it went both ways , fast and painless(relatively speaking )for the first jumper, and long and drawn out for the second. in a second fatality some 3 months later,we had a guy who was epileptic (and no one knew it) apparently had a seizure in free fall and went in without pulling anything(no aad).he went thru the roof of an industrial building .as he passed thru, he was decapitated by a structural roof truss,so i would assume his death was quick and painless.

a GOOD ATTITUDE is very important.if you are cocky and think you know it all, etc, it is not good. i personally know several riggers who i wouldnt let pack my lunch, let alone my parachute.remember that you are human, prone to mistakes and double or triple check all your work and COUNT YOUR TOOLS ! . lives are depending on it!

I concur withGOLDWING.I too saw the explanation from Norm heaton (and USPA/PCA)and it is indeed based on the DaVinci tentroof parachute.

can anyone give me some history on jim handbury?

nitrochute makes a great kill line collapsible(w/hackey handle) .they will make them in any size,with any length bridle you ask for. price is great ,just $60 including shipping.their e mail is [email protected]

i ve heard there is a new dz in bakersfield (or one comming soon)anyone have info???