sundevil777

Those conditions do not support the use of FMD. With windsocks that disagree, you are more likely to suffer from all of the problems of FMD because the first person down is more likely to adjust their final direction unpredictably. There are so many reasons that FMD is very bad. What is the advantage? 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

The center cell is more vulnerable because it tends to get a lot of sweat, and therefore salts and the damage they cause, due to lying on it while packing. Having the center cell replaced is not so expensive, very reasonable to do for a canopy with 800 jumps. 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

There's lots of comments, many of them not realizing which canopy came out first, so I would not assume there was any reason to believe the 'incorrectly installed skyhook' assertion. It might be true, but as I described earlier, the events are quite plausible without the need to have an incorrectly installed skyhook. 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

I take it you've never jumped at Perris where it's not uncommon for the wind direction to change from the time it takes to board the plane to the time you're setting up for your pattern. In fact, it's actually not uncommon for the wind to change direction even while a single stick of jumpers is landing. While not ideal and causes some people to have to land downwind, it's far preferable to them landing in whatever direction they choose. The first person down policy is a very flawed concept. No concept is going to be without some problem, but first person down policy has no redeeming qualities. It makes it harder for people to anticipate setting themselves up into a sequence for entering the pattern when they don't know in what direction they will be landing until someone finally lands. No problem if that first person does what is 'expected'. If that first person does what is not expected, but everyone else is expected to follow their lead, the sequencing of others to enter the pattern is blown completely. Of course everyone has the option of landing far away from others out in the boonies, but that isn't the focus here. I would rather be able to know what is expected right away, whether that is conveyed by pre-jump instructions or tetrahedron, or arrow, whatever. If I didn't like it, I could decide to go far away to land in my own pattern very early, instead of having to wait for the first person down. 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

No, it is apparent from the video that the reserve pin was pulled before pulling on the Collin's lanyard loop sufficiently to cutaway the riser. Once the pin is pulled, then one end of both the ripcord cable and the lanyard are free (and the cable and lanyard separate from each other), so they will slip away from the plane's door handle. 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

No, it is not true. Many of those commenting didn't even realize which canopy opened first. The skyhook system includes a mechanism that in the event only one main riser is released (and is actually pulled away from the jumper), the other main riser will be cut away also. The main risers are not released as a result of simply the reserve being activated. Learn all you can about how gear works, even systems that aren't on your rig. The jumper in the video was smart enough to not be tempted to react to the malfuntioning canopy by cutting away. 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

I put 1700-1800 jumps on my rig and had basically had to throw it away since the Cadmium plating wore off and rust was starting to develop on the hardware. The harness was still in great shape and the container looks like it had half if not a third of the jumps as it does on it. I will never again get a rig with out Stainless. I think it worth mentioning for newbies in the audience that the big problem with the rust is not the effect it has on the strength of the hardware, but rather that the rust is abrasive to the webbing it contacts, and the strength of webbing is very sensitive to such abrasion. I still can't understand how cadmium plated hardware would be less expensive. When I was designing for Boeing, we were highly discouraged from specifying cad plated fasteners because of the costs inherent from the environmental controls required during mfg/disposal/etc. 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

Should be if you downsize. Nothing wrong with staying at a light wingload, especially as they would be able to at least go one size down with the existing rig. This guy isn't even licensed yet, but the expectation of downsizing more than his rig can accommodate is assumed. That price of the new racer is attractive, but consider that you should not, IMO, buy a rig with cadmium plated steel hardware - get stainless steel hardware. I don't know if Jumpshack will offer it, as it isn't listed as an option (I'd think they would bend on this item). The notice about the RSL is wise, many would advise having only a one-sided RSL rather than have the risk that the two-sided design imposes. If you get an AAD, you would have to get a cutter for a 2 pin system, which will cost a little more (about $150) when you buy it new, or you'll have to buy a new cutter if you buy a used AAD that is a one pin unit. 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

Are retail prices dictated by PD? Different dealers sell them for different prices, so it seems not. If wholesale prices are up, but not retail, then it might just be the market forces of supply and demand, along with competition from other mfgs. 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

Quite right! The only time I've seen such aircraft take up jumpers, it took forever for them to get just to 2k. 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

Some are very firm on their advice to wait quite a while before getting one, as you said to ensure you build altitude awareness. I think that is valid, but an audible can still be very valuable even if the only alarm you set is the last-final screaming/constant tone. Even if you're trying to build altitude awareness by not using it to designate all 3 possible altitude warnings, if you've gone through your hard deck at high speed (in freefall or under a sniveling canopy), you are less likely to die if an audible screams to remind you. 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

What makes you think that is true? 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

That "zoho" link is full of assumptions and unwarranted conclusions. It was the first in your long list of links, the rest are likely junk also. It should not be represented as an unbiased representation of facts. Even the lawsuit against Airtek is also a load of assumptions, specifically that the cypres fired too low. That is not known, at least from the threads on this site it has not been reported to be the case. The reserve PC came out too low, we don't know when the AAD fired. 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

That should work pretty well, as long as there is in writing the agreement that after some set period of time the dealer keeps the equipment, with only a (small?) portion of that deposit possibly being refundable - kinda like a restocking fee? A dealer can then sell the rig and likely still make a good profit. Even highly ugly (custom color) gear should be marketable when you start out with most of a big deposit in your pocket. 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

I don't recall this incident. The 'skydiving community' can apply a fair degree of peer pressure, even on a prominent company like Airtek, when it is warranted. This forum is the most prominent way of providing a vehicle for that pressure. Please provide a link so we can see how this incident was discussed on this site. 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

My memory was that the testing done by the Golden Nuggets did not have the cutaway handle pulled already at the time of deployment. 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

If the test articles are not subjected to the conditions that are asserted to enhance the possibility of a jammed loop (the "argus cutter review" analysis), then they have no meaning. 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

It would be very educational if a 'dummy' skydiver could be rigged up to repeatedly do testing of this situation - if a reserve deployment is quickly followed by an already chopped main, how often it will foul the reserve as happened to Mike McGowan. 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

It may seem very important to say that some cutters have been tested with no tension on the loop, and the cutter worked. It is a very different test than the scenario described in the "argus cutter review" document. That scenario is for the loop to be under tension, but at an angled orientation that could allow the top of the loop to be cut while under tension, then the bottom of the loop left to be cut without tension present. Cutting a loop with no tension at all does nothing to disprove the validity of a problem with the other circumstances that have been asserted to be a possible explanation for the lockup. 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

Not any more, they sent out the letter. What else do we need to know? 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

The "argus cutter review" at the PIA site references a particular orientation of grommets, etcs. that makes it more likely to suffer the 'top of loop cut, bottom of loop jammed' scenario. When Aviacom did tests of the service bulletin returned units, I wonder what was the configuration of their test firings. The scenario in the "argus cutter review" does make sense that the bottom of the loop could be under no tension when the cutter makes contact. I think we can acknowledge that this is a bad condition for a cylindrical cutter. I wonder if Aviacom's test fixture can recreate that scenario. It shouldn't be hard to do, shouldn't require installation in a rig to test many cutters in those circumstances. The cylindrical cutter design does appear to be a bad idea, or at least bad execution of that idea. I admit that perhaps Aviacom has thoroughly refuted the claims made against the cylindrical cutter design, and I just haven't paid enough attention to realize that. The most recent letter from Aviacom is as far from that as can be. 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

In a previous life I was a mechanical design engineer. I have quickly reviewed the PIA documentation at the bottom of this page (especially the "Argus cutter review"): http://www.pia.com/TechnicalSpecialPage.htm The analysis seems to be sound, logical, without bias. Perhaps I've missed Aviacom's reply that shows how this is all a big conspiracy against them. If someone can point that out for all of us, that would be great. 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

The tone of this letter is clear. They assert there is nothing wrong, no reason to think something is wrong, there never was anything wrong, our competition is complicit in destroying us, and our product is the best. That is certain to increase the distrust among their actual and potential customers. They should have been able to say they don't know anything about that incident yet, but they have been working on a redesigned cutter that should start to be available on XX/2011. Instead they imply that there is no reason to think there is anything wrong, they are just poor victims of a conspiracy. That wallows in a vast sea of lameness. 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

Thanks, that is interesting. It would be really, really poor design practice to have it even possible for that to happen. It can be done by 'keying' features that are integrated into the shape of parts, and if that keying feature is built into stamping/forging/casting tooling, then it can't be screwed up. Of course not only do they have a new cutter design, but they must obviously be different at the connection to the box. Perhaps the entire cypres cutter is patented, and they refuse to sell it to others at a reasonable cost? 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

I agree, it is just the cutter, it could be much worse in terms of the scope of a fix. If it turns out that a different cutter design is the final outcome (replacement of all cutters), either they will require their customers to buy a new cutter (very bad for customer good will), or the company takes a huge financial hit. Customer good will for the Cypres took a hit when they announced the limited lifetime after they were introduced to the market (it did happen after, didn't it?) What was supposed to be the advantage of a cylindrical cutter? I would have thought that the designers would have had a tough time justifying a new design for the cutter. 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