ernokaikkonen

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Everything posted by ernokaikkonen

  1. Are you saying that there is no evidence linking early hominid fossils to modern humans? That's the first time I've heard of that. Can I get a quote? Australopithecus afarensis was probably about as far from a chimpanzee as it was from a modern human. Take a quick look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolution. There's a chart that shows the human family tree. There are no huge gaps between "Lucy" and Homo Sapiens.
  2. Don't quote me on it but I think your 180lbs may be a bit optimistic. In any case, yes, the rubberband will probably break. Eventually. It may hold for a second or two. That's well enough to cause a malfunction; I tried it once, now I don't double wrap locking stows anymore.
  3. I wonder why. The only downside I can immediately see in the double loop system is that it's apparently a complete bitch to pack.
  4. Am I sure? No. I haven't seen the gear. However, this is from Tonto's post I linked to: You'll have to ask him if you want anything more specific.
  5. I really, really, don't like this keyword linking stuff. That's all.
  6. You bet wrong. He's thinking about the lower melting point of Spectra as opposed to Dacron or Kevlar. That's after an incident at his home DZ where a reserve was deployed into a pilot-chute-in-tow malfunction, and one line group of the reserve was completely severed. Details in this thread.
  7. I have to disagree. After having worked as a full-time packer for two seasons, I've noticed that "doing things to the nose"*) does make a difference in the deployment. This opinion has been formed after packing the same parachutes for the same people several times within a short period of time(teams training). Many of the people would ask the packers to roll the nose, so we would. Unless we were too busy to do it, in which case we'd often get feedback that "the opening was a bit stiff this time". I believe that if the packjob is neat and tight and the slider stays all the way up until the bag is closed, it is possible to make a brisk opening canopy open more comfortably by doing things to the nose. However, if the packjob is sloppy and the slider is all over the place, no amount of rolling will save you from a slammer. None of the above is taken from a scientific study, so psychological effects, subjectivity and selective memory may skew the results. Some experiments would be in order, I suppose. *) "Doing things to the nose" in my case includes rolling the 3 or 4 cells from each side into the center cell or doing the "nose inversion trick", but NOT stuffing the nose into the packjob, which I believe to do nothing except increase the chances of a line-over.
  8. You're talking about two different things. Parachutes de France makes toggles that set the brakes using a metal pin, but use two tuck tabs to secure the toggle. RWS makes toggles that replace the bottom tuck tab with a metal pin, but they set the brakes with a tucktab. See attachments.
  9. Bill Booth's post about line stowing practices surprised me. I hadn't realised some people were leaving that much lines unstowed. I usually leave about 50cm(20"), that seems to be enough to keep HP canopies from twisting up. Obviously some people think that's not enough, and maybe on some set-ups it isn't. So, in order to shed more light on the subject, here's a poll; How much line do you leave unstowed when packing a main canopy? If people feel that they have to leave close to 36" unstowed, and that same 36" is the threshold(as stated by Mr.Booth) that allows the nasty "lines-around-main-flaps" malfunction, something should be done. Is it really necessary in any situation to leave that much line unstowed? I've always thought that as long as the bag can leave the main container without snagging on the corners of the reserve container, you've got enough unstowed line. Maybe the unstowing of the lines and the resulting "bag wobble" during deployment can also contribute to line twists? If that's the case, what's the solution? One idea I came up with was to use a bag with only locking stows, and a pouch for the rest of the lines like on a reserve freebag. That way the lines would be fed out through the center of the bag during deployment, and as such there would be no bag wobble to worry about.
  10. Here's a clicky: FAA Parachute Rigger Handbook
  11. Why do you think hooking the shackle on a release housing is a bad idea? Like many others have mentioned, I can't think of any kind of malfunction caused by doing it. Leaving the shackle loose and just tucked under something seems like a much worse idea to me; if it comes out during a jump it'll be flapping right there next to the 3-rings(which seems like it's not much of a problem), plus if it snags on something like another jumper you're looking at a premature reserve deployment. Ouch.
  12. Are you serious?? Everybody knows that you can only do that at freefall speeds. Many people have drowned going through clouds, what do you think will happen if you try to pore-breathe while immersed in water?
  13. Oh, that's interesting. I've never seen one live, what are they like? Comparable to what other helmets? And again, good old Pro-Tec will protect you the most unless something is out to puncture your helmet and your skull. I've developed a test that's suitable for testing skydiving helmets against such hits that the user is likely to take during a skydive: If someone says to you: "Pro-Tecs are worthless, they offer no protection!", have that person wear a Protec, and whack them on the head with a baseball bat. Then, ask whether or not they'd like to repeat the experience without the helmet. You can also try the same test with a Bonehead(this will probably hurt a bit more). Personally, I wouldn't like being the test subject while wearing my Gath. For puncture resistance tests, hammer a nail into the bat, and cut off the head of the nail. Yes, it's a terrible trap to fall into thinking your helmet would protect you. That's why I usually jump without one.
  14. Bump. I just noticed the same thing bugs me with the "watched threads" notifications.
  15. Really? This from the manufacturer's website(http://www.gathsports.com/warranty.shtml):
  16. "When it wears out". Helpful, isn't it. It's impossible to give exact figures as the wear depends on so many factors, but a good starting point would be "Change steering lines at 300 jumps, and the whole line set at 600". YMMV; I've heard of Vectran line sets lasting well over a 1000 jumps.
  17. Everybody, thanks for your replies. I've got all the information I needed. Now I just need to find some money for a new rig...
  18. I had a chance to repack a reserve into an Infinity a couple of months back. I'd never seen one(they don't seem popular outside of the US), and I was very impressed with the rig. Very neat looking when packed, very clean lines and simple design with nothing unnecessary. For that kind of price/quality combination I'm seriously considering an Infinity for my next rig. I just went through the "Post your Infinity"-thread, and I noticed something. While most of the rigs look very good, there is are lots of rigs with wrinkles in the same place(see attachment). I realise that some of these rigs may be empty and just "stuffed with something" for the photo-op, but I don't think they all are. So, a few questions: 1) What's causing that? I'm speculating that it's a canopy with too small a pack volume for the main container, forcing the use of a closing loop that's too short, and that's pulling the side flaps too high. 2) Is that just a packing issue? So that if you pack it just right the wrinkles will disappear? 3) Are some sizes more prone for that happening than others? 4) Can you pack an Infinity "grommet-to-pin" for WS jumps and have the rig look nice when it's closed? I know my Atom really doesn't look very good with the original bag packed upright. 5) Can you get dynamic/open corners on an Infinity? Any comments?
  19. Can you point to a source that says that the suicide bombers are children? It is my understanding that the most usual Palestinian suicide bomber is a 20-30 year-old male.
  20. There's no need for the stows apart from the locking stows. The elastic keepers alone would be enough; Atom and Icon reserve freebags have a system like that. It's not as easy to pack as a main bag though, but maybe it could be developed for main use. I don't know how well the elastics would hold up in use on a main bag. That said, again, being the grumpy conservative person that I am, I just don't see the need. Adding more parts in the system means adding more parts that can malfunction. The current bags work fine, just make neat stows.
  21. It has been said that canopy manufacturers use a special bag to test their reserves, because a regular bag with a safety stow would cause the canopies to blow up during the high speed, high weight testing. Regardless of what the standard says about testing canopies(which is what you're arguing about): Since the same TSO and same test procedures apply to testing harness-containers, what special canopy are the h/c manufacturers using to keep canopies from blowing up during the testing of their safety stow freebags? If the h/c manufacturers are able to test their systems with regular safety stow bags, why wouldn't the canopy manufacturers be able to do the same? If you're just trying to figure out how the testing standard should be interpreted... well, that'll take a while.
  22. Where can I find the latest version of the PIA volume chart? The one I have is six years old... (edit to add:) Also, while reading the chart I noticed that all elliptical canopies have N/A in the "PIA size" column. Obviously the PIA standard for measuring the size doesn't work for ellipticals. Is there a standard for measuring the area of elliptical canopies?