Skybear

When I send a customer's unit in for a scheduled service in the USA and they inform me that it needs to go to Germany and will take twice as long as it should, I would appreciate if they would tell me why. So that I can pass the information along to their customer. Instead they say nothing at all. And just leave the customer to wonder if their unit had a flaw, if it was randomly pulled for extra test for statistics, if they were too busy in Ohio and had extra capacity in Germany. Nothing. No information at all. just the usual "don't worry little skydiver, we will take care of you" shit. Airtec does not communicate anything at all to anyone ever. I agree that it isn't satisfactory for the customer to receive no information at all. This should be changed but you have to address this to SSK not to Airtec. When SSK receives a unit for testing they are authorized to perform every check that has to be made. They are NOT authorized to do any kind of repair or upgrade to the unit. So it might be a sensor which is slightly off, a hardware upgrade or some serious issue which requires the unit to be sent to Germany. I discussed this personally with Helmut Cloth, the owner of Airtec, and he says he wants to keep all the critical work in-house to have full quality control. I will forward your wish for better communication to him, so that he can discuss with SSK.

That's a MUST READ for every newbie! I suggest that a copy of this article is made available on every dropzone in the student area

They ended up as the biggest scam in the gear business. You call that legend????

I've been to the boogie yesterday and talked to Helmut Cloth in person. What you see on the picture is NOT a prototype but the first production unit of the new model. As usual there have been a couple of different prototype versions in the air with test jumpers. That little box with the wingsuiter on it can be worn inside the helmet and it will let you know which set of parameters (low-speed for wingsuit flight or high-speed after canopy opening) is in use. It was a lot of talking to many people yesterday and I must admit that I forgot how exactly the information is transmitted but it is somehow audible. Please excuse me getting old and forgetting things. Technically this unit is very different from normal Cypres units and it is not possible to update regular units with just a software change, like e.g. changing from tandem to speed. Helmut Cloth wanted to announce it officially on the boogie and official information and marketing material will be released shortly. I hope that helps to clarify things a bit.

Got that point. I think the same of some other companies inside and outside of skydiving. I don't buy their products and don't care. This keeps my blood pressure pretty low. Think about it It's a free country and everybody can choose.

I just called Airtec to find out what is behind the "highly recommended" maintenance. Helmut Cloth himself was on the phone and explained a bit of the background. Since the mid-90s his customers in some parts of the world, especially South America, Eastern Europa and some asian countries, had troubles with customs when receiving their units back from service. The whole issue was solely mad by corrupt customs officers who tried quite often to rip-off skydivers in this countries. Usually they (customs) were in a powerful position and therefore successful. The new rule is made to allow people jumping there Cypres for more than 4 years when they are absolutely forced to do so. The downside of this is that IF you skip the service your are losing warranty. If you DON'T SKIP service you keep the 12,5-year warranty as it was in the past. My opinion: I will send it in for service. Two services over the lifetime cost around 320€ in Germany. That's 2,13€ per month over 12,5 years. Most life insurances cost more and they don't even save my life when I need it. @gowlerk: Why are you hating Airtec that much? Everytime when a Cypres topic comes up you start a real serious bashing. Why? Can you please explain?

Need a feline? My cat sometimes sleeps in my helmet when it's laying aroung

One of the problems of pin-puller AADs was that they weren't able to pull bent pins. People died because of this and it was one little piece that led to the development of modern AADs.

How does that address the point of the thread opener? Some sellers obviousy advertise units with a older DOM as new units, which isn't fair. With a Vigil it would be worse, because their warranty lasts only 2 years, which is 10,5 years less than the warranty of a Cypres. If you buy a 2012-Vigil of the shelf of a dealer today it might already be out of warranty. There is no free repair, even if something was broken from the moment when the unit was produced. The thread opener adressed an ad where a 2008 Cypres was advertised as new. For us it might be obvious but for some newbies it might be not. With a Cypres you buy the most proven and reliable AAD in the world. I don't mean that they didn't have their problems from time to time, but in the end they solved them all and took care of every customer who had potential issues getting their AADs fixed and brought to the current production standard. I understand the financial disadvantage of a Cypres compared to a Vigil, but I value my health and life a bit higher than a few hundred bucks.

It was plastic until 2012. All 2013 and later models are made of aluminum.

You can buy any Cypres Rigging material directly from Airtec or SSK.

Small amount of cocaine. True story.

Not sure if they are schoolkids. The domain is registered to Manfred Unger with an email address from Fritz Unger Wind Power Systems in Hannover. This guy founded his company in 2011 when he was 20 years old and produces micro wind power plants. The company has a history of not keeping promises, material break-ups and demonstrating insufficient technological background in their business area. Looks like those daydreamers are aiming for the Darwin Award.

Cookie now offers a GoPro-Mount which is snag-proof. Nothing bad about a cut-away but eliminating the hazard might proof best.

Not true. Vigil uses exactly the same sensor which is now known to be faulty. They just don't tell and because of their no-maintenance philosophy it will be never fixed. All AAD manufacturers say that you shall check if the device is working before you jump, which is more a legal thing. Get a Cypres and a Vigil, open both, see and understand what you see.

I met him only one time when I was in DeLand this year in January. He and his friends invited me to join their five-way. When people ask me about my time in FLorida I always start telling about this skydive and this is also were my telling ends. Not because the skydive itself was so special but because of the five people. Mike was a vital part of this group and I enjoyed his great personality a lot. I was looking forward to meet him again when I am back and now he is gone. Very sad. RIP

Always when something real bad happens we look at it with hindsight. The first time a hoodie caused a fatality we will all ask: How could he? Erik Hollnagel, one of the leading scientists in systems safety, said: The future seems implausible, the past incredible. Think about it.

Their website is offline meanwhile. Either they figured out how stupid it was, or the authorities got them or someone was seriously hurt. Hopefully they didn't go for the Darwin Award.

I'd be happy to buy your wifes Cypres if she doesn't want it anymore. Considering as a paperweight now I'd say 100 bucks is a fair price.

Why are you pissed? If the order is not yet delivered you will get a unit which is perfectly fine. I am in close contact with the company and I can tell you that they are indeed working on a recovery plan with great effort.

I'd love to see a paper version of this book

It is not to difficult to find out who it is. His attempt of covering his identity is as amateurish as his believe in invulnerability. I think he knows at least that parts of his project are illegal without proper supervision. Building windmills and building an aircraft (yes, it is an aircraft) might look similar, but it is different.

Recently I visited Mirage and saw a rig there which had 2500 jumps on it. The owner shipped it in to get parts of the harness replaced. Except those few parts the rest looked very good, more like 500 than 2500 jumps. If you take good care of your rig it should live very long.

I wonder, if some of you just don't read their SBs and FAQs. They are working on a quicker solution than the 4-year-service, but they can't do it overnight due to several limitations. Instead of hiding the problem they made it public, so that everyone is aware and can act accordingly to their recommended practice. They cared way more about safety than about damagin their public image. As long as you act as recommended you will be safe. When they found a way to fix them all quicker, then they will do. No need to ground 32000 unites for several months. No need to shutdown several hundred AFF and Tandem businesses for several months. When Helmut Cloth developed the C1 from 1985 to 1990 he put all his money, more than 1 million Deutsche Mark, in this project. He was almost bankrupt when he started production but he really wanted to make it as perfect as possible and not sacrifice quality for time or earlier profit. The same man who played the game really hard back then is now taking care of this problem. You can trust that he works day and night on it and a solution will come. In the past, Airtec was critizised for communicating late, when all the work was already done and the fixes were ready. Now they changed their policy, because of safety considerations, and again a lot of people are ranting around. If you can do it any better, than build your own AAD and bring it to the market. If you can't then please shut up and leave it to people who have more than 25 years of experience with it.

Tylenol was a simple recall. Nobody wanted it back. I understand your wish to get it repaired now, as I understood the wish of 31999 other people, including myself. But how shall 20 production people, all intensively trained for their job, cope with that NOW? Do you really want to wait in-line as number 27892, to get your unit back in July 2014? Get real. They were fucked up by a faulty piece of electronic that wasn't discovered although it was tested to very high standards. Now 14 out of 32000 units hung themself up, which equals 0,0004375%. Do you use condoms or does your wife/girlfriend use the pill? You should worry more about their reliability than those of the Cypres or any other AAD.