Quagmirian

To change the subject to something slightly more positive. I've been ground launching my new canopy and for the first time ever got a friend to ground launch it too. He didn't kill himself, but it's something we probably won't be repeating. He did get some lovely pictures of the canopy too: [inline 1.jpg] [inline 2.jpg] [inline 3.jpg]

You serious? Did they actually say that? Oh man, that's tjhe biggest load of crap i ever heard the BPA come up with. Hand on heart it's true. The minutes will come out in a few months and then it's public for all to see. The way it was explained is that since I have no insurance, if there was ever an incident the lawyers would then go to the BPA. They would then have to explain why they let an 'unqualified' person make and distribute gear. You can kind of understand but it's hypothetical scaremongering to the max. I sometimes wonder if these people forget that we jump out of aircraft for fun. I also tried explaining that aerospace engineering doesn't really cover parachutes, but that also fell on deaf ears. It was a very one-sided meeting where everybody seemed to have made up their minds before I even arrived.

Bad news from the BPA. I really was expecting that when I started I would be taken for an idiot, and then things would improve from there. It seems the reverse has happened. Just over a year ago I got the blessing from the chair the rigger's committee to go and jump the grey thing. Oh how things have changed. The good news is that we now have a more solid definition of 'recognised manufacturer' from the BPA. The bad news is that it doesn't include me. To cut a long story short it now looks as though I am expected to become a BPA rigger and go away and do a degree in engineering, for insurance purposes. So that if anything ever happened, the BPA could defend themselves in court. That's basically the gist of it. It will be years before I can become a BPA rigger, and I really dislike the prospect and cost of going back to university. This may well be the end of 'My Little Project' in this country. I am disappointed but not exactly surprised.

The normal aka the shit way. I've learned a few tricks which seem to help. I chose 20% of the nose which is good because it seems to have got a bit bigger in production. I haven't got any pictures yet, sorry.

From the 7th for 4 weeks. Will you be there?

Oh shit sorry. It's like my nine cell but with ZP fabric. It's loosely based on the Sabre 1. It has narrower 3/4" line attachments, spanwise reinforcement, 725 Spectra lines, a slightly flatter trim, a nose lip and a collapsible slider, and a few other minor modifications. The seams are all the same and were a bit easier since there's less bias stretch. The fabric is difficult enough to pack but doesn't seem quite as slippery as PD's stuff. I'd guess it's about halfway between Soarcoat and Gelvenor. I know that ground launching is dangerous but it's all I can bloody do at the moment. It raises the philosophical question, am I a parachute manufacturer if my products don't get jumped?

I thought my collapsible slider looked a bit silly on its own, so I made a canopy to go on it. I've ground launched it and it flies a lot like a Sabre. [inline DSCF1444small.jpg] [inline DSCF1445small.jpg] I now have a nice range of canopies to try out. I'll be going to Lake Elsinore again in April if anybody wants a go on one. [inline DSCF1447small.jpg]

I'm getting pretty bored here. I had another go at making a collapsible slider and I think I got it just about right. I'm also going to have a go with Spectra line for the first time. [inline DSCF1437_small.jpg] [inline DSCF1442_small.jpg]

Sorry for the lack of updates for those following. The good news is that the grey prototype 5 canopy has been cleared for me to jump, when a certain person is happy with it. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to happen any time soon, due to the season winding down and difficulty co-ordinating with the DZ staff. I've still yet to get any jumps at all on the new orange 7 cell, due to similar problems, and arguments about whether it needs a cutaway rig (deja vu anyone?). Forgive me for sounding frustrated, but I feel like I've hit another roadblock just as I thought things were getting somewhere. You can read the decision at the end of page 8 of this doc: http://www.bpa.org.uk/assets/Minutes/STC-2015-09-24-pdf.pdf I've ordered in all my materials for the next canopy, a ZP 9 cell. Obviously I'm not going to build anything until I have plenty of jumps on the two canopies I have at the moment, because that would be silly. I've also picked up a few reference books, an introduction to paragliding and an aerodynamics manual. Anyone feel like buying me tickets to California so I can get around all this?

C. Definitely C.

I think Basik still sell both coated and uncoated line. They look reasonably cheap but I've never bought form them before.

Just my uninformed arsehole, but I think you can smooth out smaller grooves in a grommet with fine sand paper/polish. If the damage is bigger the grommets can be replaced. Luckily, brass grommets are fairly cheap. I think someone else was asking the same question here recently.

UPT spec calls for #2 so that's the one I would use. You can email them and ask why. You will probably get a good answer.

Ooh go on. Where?

They don't exist. What you're looking for I think are Rutgerson Super rings. They are cheap enough but the setting tool is very expensive.

u wot m8?

That stuff is specific to each container.

Yeah, sometimes when you inspect something you see what you expect/want to see. It's very easy to miss seemingly obvious things.

Holy shit. This trick is apparently as old as gear itself. I've heard about it happening but never seen it. Just be thankful it wasn't your harness. Have you talked to Aerodyne yet?

You have to hand it to PD for being very good at this. Remember that guy who bought an NZ aerosports canopy in a custom size and had all sorts of problems? It can be the smallest thing that turns a well tested product to shit.

STAHP

So, uh... can I camp?

Interesting you should mention this. If you look at the trim charts for a PD 9-cell it has been revised with a larger slider chord. Some 20% bigger for the 210. I think it slows down the openings, quite a lot. I will come back to you with an exact figure. Have you read Gary Peek's study? http://www.pcprg.com/hardop.htm

+1 As someone without a puller, I can say you really want one for canopy construction.

I've just bought a roll of grade 1 quality ZP (beer), and I want to share the test results that came with it. See attached. Interestingly it doesn't start out as actually zero porosity. That explains why it feels slightly different. It doesn't have glossy, slick feeling. 0.05 cfm should be nice to pack but I'll wait and see with that. It also will be interesting to see how the permeability degrades over time. Rather worryingly there is no spec for bias/bow or quite a few other things. I will be following this up to make sure I have a complete spec sheet, but I thought this would be worth posting. Lovely florescent yellow colour: [inline DSCF1341_small.jpg]