Bill Booth, I've got a question for you!

[josheezammit 0]

Hey, i have read many a posts about the origin of things such as pilot chute handles and have found info on the origin of the tandem system, but i had a few more questions for you. Where did you get the main closing pin from, and where did you get the idea for the three ring release system? I love to hear a good bill booth story, i mean the beard kinda makes him look like a younger santa claus, and he is sorta like santa for skydivers anyway, everyone wants his toys.

Ahh, what a wonderful world.

[marks 0]

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but i had a few more questions for you. Where did you get the main closing pin from, and where did you get the idea for the three ring release system?

you don't need bill to answer that for you, I can..........






























































BEER!

[migliore 0]

You really want to listen to the Skydive Radio interviews he did. The links are here and here.

Shane

[billbooth 10]

On my first hand deployed rig, I used a bight of pilot chute bridle through a bungee cord loop which held the container shut. Then came the nylon coated steel cable "flex-pin". The curved, solid steel pin was just the last refinement in that thought process...ie, the container should stay closed until the pilot chute pulls it open.

About the 3-ring...There are only three simple machines that produce mechanical advantage...the pulley, the inclined plane (or screw), or the lever. I knew that to be practical a single point release had to have a MA of about 100-1. Pulleys didn't have enough MA, and tended to lock up. Screws were expensive and complicated to control, and also jammed easily with sand. As I remember, the three rig release was at least my fifth or sixth try at it. It solved all the problems evident in my earlier designs. Round "levers" that flipped through each other were simple, couldn't mis-align, and allowed wide tolerances, so were are difficult to jam. Most importantly, they were cheap. The first working prototype of the 3-ring release system cost me under $100 to build...compared to the millions it might cost do develop a release like the Capewell it replaced. You might also notice that the nylon coated steel cable from early hand deploy experiments was put to good use on the 3-ring. The "pud" handle, believe it or not, took me the longest time to figure out. I originally used soft housings for the cable, but that led to hard pulls, so my early customers had to literally steal the cable off pay phones if they wanted the 3-ring option. Luckily, I found a supplier before anybody went to jail...but it was damn hard to find a working pay phone in DeLand for a while.

The Skyhook is another invention I worked on for years before I could finally figure it all out. As usual the answer came to me in a dream...where everything is possible.

So you might say that I do all my best work in my sleep. I still remember waking up at 2 in the morning with the finished "3-ring" design in my head, and heading immediately to the shop, literally in my pajamas, to put the first one together. It was really cold (for Florida) outside in my suspended harness, but I must have hooked the damn thing up and broken away, a hundred times before I could go back home to bed.

[josheezammit 0]

thanks bill, I appreciate you answering, can't wait to see what your next invention that has you up at 2 am in your pj's is going to be!

Ahh, what a wonderful world.

[mjosparky 4]

The curved pin is the invention of Hank Asciutto, owner of Para Innovators and Dennis Trepenier. The first coated cable pin I saw was made by Leo Orlowski at Elsinore. Everyone called it the “Polish” pin.

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[daniel_owen_uk 0]

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You really want to listen to the Skydive Radio interviews he did. The links are here and here.

Seriously worth a listen, haven't listened to all the Skydive Radio programs, but those two in particular were absolutley facinating to me. (being a geek and into gadgets probably helped)

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