replacing a reserve pilot chute in northern lites container

[sfzombie13 324]

does anyone know of a replacement authorization for the old jelly fish pilot chute in a northern lites container?  dom is 3-'86.  i looked up some old threads here and couldn't find anything but did get a number for velocity and talked to blake out there who said he was going to look into it.  i figured if anyone would know, they may be on here.  the damned thing looks brand new and i can't wait to jump it.  even if i can't jump it, it would be great for our parasailing we're gonna do this summer at the dz.  can't go wrong for $100. 

[pchapman 279]

I'm not familiar with what originally came with Northern Lites.

I have an old 2 pin Northern Lite I use for accuracy and other jumps. Back in the early 2000's when assembling it, some parts were missing. So I put in a 357 Magnum reserve PC, as that was a commonly available generic reserve PC (before the single-loop-through-the-PC era), and have stayed with that.
I tried packing it using a nice strong Vector PC but the spring was so strong it kind of distorted the whole pack job, given its old 2 pin design, so I didn't proceed with that. 
(Note though that I'm in Canada using our rules, so I'm flexible with mixing and matching, not worrying about TSO's or any company's approval.)

[betzilla 56]

ParaPhernalia still exists - they just don't manufacture sport gear anymore. You could reach out to them with your question. Here's a link to their contact info: http://softieparachutes.com/order.html. An email usually gets a fast response, in my experience.

Good luck!

[sfzombie13 324]

blake from velocity got back to me and said it took the national 357 magnum pilot chute and could get me a free bag when i get him the measurements.  i called paraphernalia and they have the pilot chute in stock.  the only reason i started looking was that my rigger looked up an old manual and told me about the jellyfish pilot chute and that it was unreliable.  turns out that i can get this back in the air for about $350.  thanx for the info.

[councilman24 37]

What is a jelly fish pc? In 42 years I've never heard that reference. My guess is its an MA1. They're actually not a bad PC IF the spring isn't wore out AND you don't care about it getting snagged. The replacement in mains was the hot dog with a 36" spring. The idea that all it had to do was stand up. When in a stable burble the MA 1 was wimpy. When in the air stream lots of drag.  

No I wouldn't pack one now. But we used to have (still have) some pretty good Israeli made one in the early 80s. In fact my first rig, a Crossbow piggy back still packed in the basement and  as airworthy as when I was jumping it, very likely has an Israeli version in the reserve.

Edited January 22, 2020 by councilman24

[sfzombie13 324]

if i knew i would tell you.  i can't even find a picture of it but my rigger said it has strings hanging down that were supposed to aid in clean deployments and looks like a jellyfish when you hold it up.  they were not very reliable, so probably what you have.  after talking to velocity, they said the 357 magnum was original to the container, so it's not changing out equipment any longer, just replacing missing items.  the freebag and pilot chute costs $350 and i paid $100 for the container, so not that bad a deal still.  looks like brand new, as the picture above show.  the problem now is the size of the reserve it holds.  just a touch small for me, so i may not be using it to jump, at least not right away.

Edited January 22, 2020 by sfzombie13

[crapflinger2000 1]

I would guess they are referring to this.

(Ignore the kicker plate)

I don't know how aerodynamically sound they are as a pilot chute once they are out of the pack. Maybe they are OK in that regard.

They might be referencing the springs, which are OK as long as you are happy with a PC that basically just poops the flaps open and then, spent by that effort, lays serenely on your back, chilling out in the burble.

[sfzombie13 324]

i thought so too at first, but when i asked about it, he said that wasn't it.  i have seen them before with the netting hanging down like the one you pictured.  that looks like the military spring loaded pilot chute that jumps out of a mirps if i recall correctly.  turns out i was concerned with the wrong thing and the reserve that this container holds is too small for me so i have to use another container for now.