Info On This Rig?

[MagicGuy 0]

Hey guys...

I was looking for some information on this rig. I know it's an older rig, but it has been flown as recently as 2 years ago and supposedly flew great for all 24 jumps that the seller managed to get in for the season. The rig was also jumped by Ron Green at Nationals. Here's what the seller said:

"It is manufactured by Para-Flite and has a 5 cell square main and a Safety Star Reserve with a unique rip cord deployment which I like for it's dependability."

I bought the rig mainly out of curiousity. Before the bashing begins, please, we are all adults here. I have absolutely no intentions on jumping the rig. I got it for $350 and figured if anything, I could sell it for parts at a later date. I just want to look over it, see how things work, display it in my house etc. I'm just looking to see if anyone knows anything else about the rig that may be of interest.

Thanks all. Have a great Holiday weekend and a Happy New Year!

[PhreeZone 20]

If its got a 5 cell main and a Safety Star reserve you are looking at it being approx early 80's vintage. Main deployment is a ripcord deployment. On the front its got the main opening and cutaway on the right side and the reserve deployment on the left.

The odds of parting it out to anyone other then a vintage collector is low since the container is 2 generation cycles out of date, the main would'nt even be recommended to students and the Safety Star reserve was one of the first square reserves and there are much better designs out there. It looks to be in good shape for the age though.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[riggerrob 643]

Looks like a Centarus Delta.
It is the second version of the Centarus harness/container, which is the grandfather of most modern skydiving containers.
The first version was designed by (the dear departed) Troy Loney during the mid-1970s.
By the time he designed the Centarus Delta - in the early 1980s - Troy had worked out all the major bugs for single-pin reserve containers.
When Bill Booth was designing the Vector I (1980) he spent many hours on the telephone picking Troy's brain for the finer points of container design.
Shortly after he designed the Centarus Delta, Troy sold manufacturing rights to North American Aerodynamics, who then did a series of redesigns, so that by the late 1990s, Centarus looked more like a Talon2 with rings, tuck tabs, etc.

In conclusion, Centarus are decent rigs as long as you replace Velcro and pack them according to the manaul.
Also remember that Centarus was designed when bellytive work was fashionable and long before sit-flying was done by any more than a couple of crazy Frenchmen,

[riggerrob 643]

Forget about selling that Safety-Star reserve because it belongs in a museum!
Hah!
Hah!
5-cel Swifts are were the next generation of square reserves sold by Para-Flite. They are the oldest reserves that I will repack and I know a lot of junior riggers who don't want to touch 5-cell Swifts because of their complex brake lines.

How big is that 5-cell main?

[MagicGuy 0]

I really appreciate all of the information, guys. Like I said, I know the rig is old and it's not something I plan on jumping, more of a collectible to feed the hunger for jumping.

The gentlemen who sold the rig said that the maximum weight on the main is 200lbs. He didn't give a specific size number. I think he knew that whoever would be buying the rig would be doing so for collectible purposes, but he swears he has jumped it as recently as 2 years ago and that it flew great!

Since we're here already, how difficult would it be for a novice to remove the canopies to clean the container and assemble it to at least make it look like a packed up rig? Display purposes, guys, display purposes!

Thanks again, y'all.

[mark 107]

Thanks for getting to this before me. I was going to say "EOS" because of the emergency handles placement and the riser covers, and the data card pocket, plus the "made by Para-Flite" in the description. The reserve pin cover flap is wrong for an EOS, though. But both EOS and Centaurus Delta are Troy's design, aren't they?

Mark

[murrays 0]

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I really appreciate all of the information, guys. Like I said, I know the rig is old and it's not something I plan on jumping, more of a collectible to feed the hunger for jumping.

The gentlemen who sold the rig said that the maximum weight on the main is 200lbs. He didn't give a specific size number. I think he knew that whoever would be buying the rig would be doing so for collectible purposes, but he swears he has jumped it as recently as 2 years ago and that it flew great!

Since we're here already, how difficult would it be for a novice to remove the canopies to clean the container and assemble it to at least make it look like a packed up rig? Display purposes, guys, display purposes!

Thanks again, y'all.

I wonder if the main is a DC-5?

--
Murray

"No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

[sundevil777 102]

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I was looking for some information on this rig.

$350 was too much to pay for it.

Apparently this doesn't bother you, so you are going to make a gear dealer very happy some day.

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[mark 107]

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I wonder if the main is a DC-5?

The first photo shows a main about the same volume as the 180 sq ft Safety-Star reserve. That and "maximum weight on the main is 200lbs" suggests possibly a Swift main, at most a Cirrus Cloud, probably not the much larger 260 sq ft DC-5.

Mark

[MagicGuy 0]

LOL No, it really doesn't bother me. It will keep me entertained for a while, and is sure to get lots of ooohs and ahhhhs from guests. And when I start jumping regularly, I can tell all my buddies that I bought my first rig for $350! I'm sure the looks I get will be worth the money

[azureriders 0]

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just looking to see if anyone knows anything else about the rig

lol, I saw it there just before you bought it

[mattmais 0]

looks like the left 3 ring cable is routed improperly in pic 2...????

[riggerrob 643]

But both EOS and Centaurus Delta are Troy's design, aren't they?

Mark

[JerryBaumchen 1,451]

Hi Rob,

I first met Troy in the early 80's when I was going in and out of Denver on business trips. A very nice, quite, unassuming guy; just a nice guy.

He once told me that on his original Centaurus he never did the three Strength Tests by dropping the rig from an aircraft; the FAA allowed him to load it to 5,000 lbs, three times, in a test machine and they accepted that testing.

I thought he had a degree in Physics, not engineering; but I may just be wrong on this.

I do not know exactly but the very first reserve tuck in top flap that I ever saw was at the '91 Symposium (I think '91 ??); it was a rig by PISA. However, your info may be more accurate than this.

Just a couple of thoughts, nothing else.

[riggerrob 643]

I do not know exactly but the very first reserve tuck in top flap that I ever saw was at the '91 Symposium (I think '91 ??); it was a rig by PISA. However, your info may be more accurate than this.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Well, PISA did introduce their NARO container around 1991 and it does have a tuck-in reserve pin cover. ..
I have a half-dozen Student NAROs hibernating in my loft this winter.