riggerrob

Chasers were built in Britain by Thomas Sports Equipment. TSE has a long history of Service Bulletins, recalls, etc. Chasers built in the early 1980s were pretty ugly, but their patterns and workmanship improved over time. See Poynter's Manual Volume 2, page 206. Also look at the long list of Airworthiness Directives, Service Bulletins, etc. published on the Australian Parachute Federation's website. There is also the question of whether anything built by TSE satisfies the American TSO requirements.

Good habit Speedracer. Even if your pilot is proficient on the GPS, you should still hang your head out the door to check for other airplanes, or heaven forbid: your position relative to the DZ.
One other thought: freebags are not free any more. A good spotter will land freebags on the DZ.

Last year my old buddy TK Donle from the Relative Workshop posted an excellent opinion on the Pull-Out vs. Throw-Out arguement. TK reminded us that the most important thing is to throw your pilot chute out to full arm's extension to get it clear of your burble. TK said that the worst thing about a pull-out is that you waste half your strength just pulling the pin, consequently you don't have much strength left to extend your arm.
Personally, out of 3300 jumps I have only made about a dozen with pull-outs, no problems, but I really have little experience. I made my first decsion on that issue when i purchased my first rig in 1979 with a belly-band mounted throw-out. In the early 1980s my decision was confirmed when we converted to throw-outs for all the students. Since then I have become a Master Rigger, etc, but still have not doubted my initial decision. On the other hand I have repacked a disproportionately large number of reserves after guys tired of searching for floating pull-outs.
One last thought: when I worked at Rigging Innovations, only about 5% of production had pull-outs.