Ideas about Direct-Bag

[lifewithoutanet 0]

Yes, I agree, you are correct. Forgive my mis-use of the term. Still, I'm curious about the overall strength of the construction of the canopy itself. If, for example, a break-cord didn't break and the bridle attachment point is stronger than seams connecting each cell, what are the consequences? Obviously the force is distributed through all of the lines, but I'm still curious about the cell strength.
-C.

[JaapSuter 0]

Duh, I suck. First I ask:

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The only result from holding on too long would be center-cell strip, correct? Can this indirectly lead to heading problems or am I overlooking some other factor?

And then I say:

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The result is generally messy enough to make you want to repack.

Which answers my own question.

[Lonnie 0]

break cord is designed to mil specs., to break at or above 80-lbs. I can't imagine that a thin peice of cotton tape could hold enough to damage your canopy. Base canopies are built with extra load bearing tape through them to disperse these forces. However what strength it would take to do damage, would be a question for the manufacture.

NEVER GIVE UP!

[GaryP 0]

D-bag jumps were the norm in my early days - here's what we found.

The break/cord link between the canopy attachment point was something we started using after a couple of jumps for the exact reason Nick said - we sought to hold the top of the canopy for a moment to the inside of the bag while allowing the bottom of the S-folded pack-job to snake out first rather than it all coming out in the air as one "lump" after the last stow released and having to unfurl in the airflow.

Because this break/cord was only used to retain the top of the canopy and not used to support the weight of the entire deployment, it only needed to be a lightweight breaking-strain. We used rubber bands or a single loop of lightweight twine for this purpose.

The tailgate had not been invented at the time we were experimenting and we chose not to use the Line-Mod as we thought the use of tight locking stows would negate this need - we were wrong. Upon watching all the videos of these jumps it was pretty consistent that the openings were positively TAIL-FIRST no matter if we packed on the side (factory) or on the nose (pro). With afterthought now I WOULD USE A TAILGATE for all these jumps although I would not wrap it too tight.

Also - make sure the safety bridle is not mis-routed anywhere. I happened to fluke survival of this most-basic and fatal error.

Canopy bottom-skin inflation seemed to occur after about 25-35 feet after the canopy had left the bag pretty consistently. Openings were always much higher than PCA although this is part due to do with the fact the canopy is deployed from the exit point and not 9' (bridle-length) down.

Heading performance was pretty much faultless. I can't remember anything more than say..45degrees off-heading EVER with this setup.

Overall - a good choice where off-heading = death or if you are getting off something ultra low.


g.

"Altitude is birthright to any individual who seeks it"

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[skypuppy 1]

Last time I did a PCA jump, the holder got his fingers caught up in my pilot chute and I landed with some of his limbs still attached to my rig.

It didn't seem to affect my jump at all!

If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead.
Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone