hackish

Who says brits don't have a sense of humour. -Michael

A number of sizes have been mentioned but I'd say the most common is 1" type 4. Different variations involve adding a straight pin (often attached with narrower or thinner type 3) as well as folding in and sewing different parts of the toggle itself. In general, it's a size 0 grommet (not a 0L) and the toggle is sewn with e thread. Using F makes the toggle nose more abrasive and in time ruins the cat's eye on the brake line. The industry standard is 3 passes of tape for the nose, each folded in on itself for a total of 6 layers of material but different variations do exist. The reason for the standard size is that brake lines are designed and sized to accept this. A smart idea is to get an old set and disassemble them to make an exact copy. Dave's (paraloft) directions are good ones to look at since they already give a cut sheet but I suppose it would be nicer if there were photos. Finally, an industrial machine is a good start, but not every industrial machine is comfortable doing them. My 20U struggled until I modified it with higher lift and a longer needle system. Unless you have a lot of experience you may be fighting the machine to make it work well and that's no fun if you're also trying to learn. -Michael

Why does this happen the day after I get one of these? -Michael

Something I like about less mesh is that they tend to pack nicer. That mesh is really bulky. -Michael

It's not as hard to resize a rig smaller when it comes time to resell. I think the UPT product will be far easier to resell because of its populatiry. I also think there is no problem free-flying with either a curv or a vector3 so that probably shouldn't be a consideration for you. Factory support can be hit and miss so it may not be a bad thing to check with your local riggers to see which product and factory they are more comfortable dealing with. -Michael

A primary consideration for me is a system with a MARD. Most times you need a reserve, you already have an open ball of nylon overhead. Companies tend to be secretive because they have a lot of money into TSO testing and the design their rig is based on did have to pass their respective TSO requirements. Anything they say can and will be twisted around and presented in a negative light. -Michael

I spent a good deal of time trying to figure out what sort of chemistry would affect a variety of materials from nylon 6-6 to hma, vectran and dymeetra. Fortunately, most are pretty resistant except for acids and UV. I even did a bunch of testing to see if I could identify a reduction of reserve loop strength from sharpie markers and pen ink. Although I could not, there isn't a guarantee that some marker won't be a bit acidic. You also don't know that fingernail polish won't flake with sharp edges that damage the fibers. I don't want their loop breaking in the door thanks. -Michael

I professionally reverse engineer, disassemble and modify electronic controllers and have for many years. The skillset required to fully understand and test the implications of making modifications is huge. It would be easier to start from scratch - like an open source project. I also have lots of experience auditing open source code, it is rare to find good code in any project, much less code that meets any sort of safety-related guidelines. People love to pound out code and try stuff, but the engineering, testing as well as documentation and traceability is time-consuming and boring for many programmers. I think a rigger would be foolish to seal a rig with a home-made AAD inside. I also think I wouldn't want to be on the same aircraft. I also think any pilot who understands what a homemade AAD is would also say no. Maybe if the desire is to work with devices like this, it would be best to stick to toy rockets where you're not putting lives at risk. -Michael

Another part of the puzzle is the resale demand and value of the rig. Many people will put a few hundred jumps on their 170 sized rig before downsizing. Every spring I see newish jumpers spending big bucks on their equipment or trying to sell the stuff they bought 2 years ago. -Michael

It has often been a point of discussion and testing. Many companies will compare their RPC against others saying theirs produces more drag. While this may be true of meshed pilot chutes that in clean air and perfect orientation, the info in that video is not wrong at all. Performance of the unit in a burble is often overlooked and a history of using them in AFF main deployment situations is a lot more testing than any single company could hope for in a reserve testing situation. -Michael

I'm in the same boat as you. Settled on a Consew 146RB. I haven't found the time or cash to order one yet. That Adler98 long arm from Keystone is something to drool over. $6k is a lot of work before it's paid off. I've learned that many machines can be adjusted or modified for more lift provided the needle system can accommodate the difference. I've re-worked my 20U for the time being to deal with this problem but the tough issue is switching to a 135x7 needle because it means stocking another needle system. If you don't change systems the needle bar hits the top of the presser foot while sewing thicker material. -Michael

Awesome tests! As someone who builds a lot of risers, I love seeing stuff like this. It really highlights the need to be picky about retiring worn parts and for those who construct, to make sure they are built to a high standard. The scary one was the red reserve risers breaking under 1000lb. Do you know what the typical riser load is for a terminal opening? -Michael

Small correction to your thinking. You have 2 pieces of seal thread taking the load so the disconnect force is about 8 pounds. -Michael

The VTC-2R/VR360 is a good reserve and it packs nicely into the sigma. We have a mix of those and the precisions already mentioned. On a technical sense, there is no incompatibility with respect to line length. (Although I prefer the precision lines for packing). Untreated dacron is soooo bulky. If I had to buy new equipment I'd specify the UPT reserve. In the big scope of things if a couple hundred $$$ either way makes a big enough difference there are bigger problems looming. -Michael

Rigs are setup and designed so at average freefall speed the pack opening and bag extraction is within a range. Do it too fast and you're going to wear the heck out of your dbag, canopy and body. Too slow and those subterminal openings are going to suck. If you increase the Cd significantly what happens to the speed of deployment? I believe Booth did a good bit of research and found an optimal amount of time to linestretch. Discussions with PD indicated that too much snatch force not only puts a lot of stress on the canopy but can lead to hard openings and malfunctions - again, they're designed and tested to open at a certain rate. Call your rig manufacturer and ask if they would recommend the snatch. Without naming names, most will quote reasons already mentioned. Finally, don't assume a terminal opening is as slow and rocky as people describe. The bag leaves your back damn fast and at terminal you're going to be hard pressed to find any oscillation or rocking of the bag. It has a heck of a lot of inertia and from the high speed footage I have the elastics are about the only thing doing any considerable amount of "rocking". Obviously these sorts of things have a place and I believe the snatch is a good design. Just make sure you're using the right tool for the job. -Michael

Congrats on your new learner's permit. -Michael

Which 5C thread are people/factories using for harnesses? With E-thread no-name was garbage. Coats was good, American Efrid was better and barbour has been the best. For the 5 cord, DJA's brand is acceptable, Coats is acceptable. In my case, an 8oz spool will last a year so I don't care if it's more expensive, I want excellent thread, not mediocre. What is the cadillac of 5 cord and where do I get it? -Michael

right but did they flare their wingsuit back up with almost no speed and a giant burble? Special activities can benefit from special gear. OP shows 125 jumps, so it is important that readers not be misled into thinking that they're better off using one. It's like putting racing brake pads on your street car. Race means better right? -Michael

Depends on the rig. Some are sewn to the d-bag. As I outlined above, putting an untested aftermarket part is likely to be increasing the chances of a malfunction. I showed my design to chief riggers and designers at 2 of the largest manufacturers. After discussing all the fine details about how their PC works within a system I realized that the design is not appropriate for the general skydiver. A PDA type PC is not a new idea at all. If pulling the pin and extracting the d-bag at the highest speed possible were the objective we'd all be rocking 48" pilot chutes! The amount of drag generated by your factory unit was carefully selected and tested. It works. Just make sure what you have is maintained in good condition - that's the key to increasing safety. -Michael

Every time I've replaced a pilot chute for someone they reported much better openings. So if you want to compare properly you need to compare a new factory PC with this one. The rig manufacturer has a good idea of what works with their own rig. They test them out with respect to the CD, bridle length and amount of time to line stretch. There are some magical numbers that work well with respect to how fast the bag leaves. If you've ever seen high speed photos of how quick the bag gets off your back the whole idea of it rocking and tumbling about in the wind is a bit of creative thinking/advertising. Just throwing something else in there that has a higher CD can actually increase the chance of a malfunction. For wingsuiting and BASE, it probably is a good idea because of those unique environments, but for normal skydiving what we've been using for the last 30 or so years works. -Michael

Maybe I'm asking for unreasonable things since most industrial machines are designed to do only one job well. I use the 20U for straight and zig-zag. I do use reverse frequently. It really does most of what I want save for being a little too light duty for the heavier sewing. -Michael

Does the 143 have a reverse? What about an easy stitch width adjustment? -Michael

That's a good point. The only thing is, 99.9% of skydivers use the same type of collapsable PC as the other. They work. Those that don't are often the wrong size or badly worn out. It ain't really broke so how much energy do you want to spend fixing it? -Michael

Good idea but the thread guard strikes the presser foot while sewing too. I can maybe tweak the machine a bit to force it into doing what I want but I do feel it is a little too light for some of the things I'm asking it to do. -Michael

I'm sure a guy like me would buy one of your 217's so you have enough space for your new one! On ebay there is one up for a cool $2500! My 20U doesn't have a lot of lift when it comes to sewing leg straps. Do you find the 217 has enough lift? Specs on it didn't seem like it went very high.