rigging65

Not so fast. Although no one thinks of this and it is widely ignored by everyone, the safety stow on your reserve free bag has rubber in it. IE: a natural substance. But like I said it is ignored (good thing). *** Sshhhhhh! Don't let that out....it's all synthetic, no natural stuff anywhere... "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

I would suggest you flat out walk up and introduce yourself and let him/her know that you're eager to work. You can always learn something new from hanging out and talking with someone seasoned. Don't undercut the market, it's a good way to loose any local-rigger friends you might make along the way. Good luck! Ask questions! "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

IMO, the reason why colors are important are to help you find out where the handles are in a violent situation. We all know that using both your eyes and your hands to find the handles makes the chore faster, right??? I like the idea of the handles not matching your suit or your harness...in a violent spin, as the blood is rushing away from your head, having them contrast is good juju I think. As for them matching each other, well, that's up to you. I retrain my muscle memory several times each load, several times each day, so I'm confident that I'll go after the right handle...finding it might be the issue at some point though. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Actually, it's Trident H&C, Inc. now www.tridenthc.com info@tridenthc.com "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

The design we have calls for the top reserve flap to be a single piece and (without giving too much away) different configurations of the rig would make it impossible for the RSL to be anywhere but on the left side. In the interest of building them all the same way, we're sticking with keeping the RSL on the same side throughout. I'm sorry I can't go into more detail than that, but to say more would give away some design information that we're not ready to release yet.

Then you need to think about it a bit more. You want to have your standard Collins Lanyard on the same side as your RSL, right? But the end of your Collins Lanyard has to end up on your right side, as that's where the cutaway handle is. So, with a left sided RSL you have to find a way to route the Lanyard all the way across the yoke and down to the cutaway handle...or do what was done on the Sigma Tandem and combine the Collins Lanyard and the RSL into one package...which still means it needs to live on the right side, in order to effect the opposite side cutaway cable. Think about it, it makes sense. We've looked at alot of different ways to have a left sided RSL and a Collins Lanyard-like system, and we've yet to come up with a solution. Why do we like the left side RSL? Because it keeps the lanyard more manageable, and with the way our rig is designed, the RSL can't route around from the other side. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

We designed and built our own (like most on the market) and have been using them for some two years. It's a pretty easy design to build, although I don't know if it'd be cheaper to build them or but them. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

I like the idea, but if you've got to have a Collin's Lanyard, then that sort of limits it's use to rigs with an RSL on the right side. Bummer.... "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Range is good when getting into AFF. Do what you think is going to give you the most consistent, largest fall rate range. It's an expensive mistake to go into testing without the right tools! "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Just keep in mind that the less input you use, overall (including your risers inputs), results in less deformation to your flying surface...this is max efficiency. Any deformation reduces the overall efficiency of the wing, but of course we need to use some (in the real world) to "adjust" for our imperfect flight. In an ideal world, you'd let the canopy fly in full flight, start a huge carving harness turn, way high, using nothing but input from your hips, that you would let up on as you came around the corner on final. The resulting transfer of the wing coming back level would result in lift that would flatten the slope out right as your feet come in contact with the ground and you'd gently transfer your weight off the canopy (thus keeping it flying) and onto a smooth surface, sliding along until you stop. That, is near perfect efficiency. And while we may not get there with what gear we use/skills we have currently, it shows that reduction in wing distortion is the best way to maximize your glide. What I would get from this is that less is more... Maybe not safer, but more efficient. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Absolutely. We finish all of our housing ends off and size them so they fit up snug against the back wall (in effect not allowing any extra cable to hang out even if the housings weren't capped off. We've done several tests with "partial housings" and found just what you mentioned...even a little bit of cable can cause a very serious bind. It's all-in or none-at-all. Thanks for making that point Bill! "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

That's an easy fix, about an hours worth of work at any good shop.... "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Well, considering you just mentioned the most visible hardware on the rig, why would you pay to have the rest of it colored if you couldn't get that stuff done??? "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Sounds like what about 10 people a year would have said before they died from cutaway/low-pull or cutaway/no-pull. There are no absolutes in life. But there are statistics that back up the use of RSLs as a positive thing. Show me statistics about the down side of using one and maybe I'll change my toon...Anyone?...Anyone?... As for the post about the broken riser that "would" have caused a premature RSL fire: Where did the riser break? Even if it was at the grommet (which is pretty damn hard to do now on Super-Mini's) there are RSL kits that place the ring below the grommet so that it shouldn't be able to fire unless the entire risers clears. Pretty tough to argue the numbers folks. You can say you don't like them, you can choose to jump without them, but you can't argue the fact that the numbers support the RSL as a positive life-saving device. Does that make you dumb if you don't use one? No. But you should stand up for yourself and state that you understand the risks and choose to jump a statistically less safe rig. Can you do that?? Gut check time...how much do you believe in your convictions...? "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Powder coating doesn't handle metal-to-metal contact well at all. It will chip and you'll end up with little flakes all over the place. Plus, people will bitch when it does flake and want it fixed.... I hit a stumbling block with the Stainless Steel coloring as well. The type of Stainless used in the industry has a magnetic quality...this was the one thing the guy I spoke with about this coloring process said would make it a no-go. I'm going to get back in contact with him, but it seems this particular process just fell out from under us. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Believe me, I wish people would spend more time looking at their rig choices and at least try to base them off the safety options they like best, rather than what looks flashier. To be honest, about the only group who seems to base their decisions off safety options with any real consistency is females who are buying gear right off of student status. Seems that once they get into the yard for a while, someone else tends to feed them info and convinces them of a choice...and then that choice seems to be etched in stone. Males, well, let's just say that Testosterone seems to be the order of the day...guys just like cool stuff. It appears most everyone is convinced that all rigs are created equal...I tend to agree that rigs are tested equally (generally), but not necessarily all made with the same quality "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

If the risers are built properly, there should be no problem getting a hard-housing into the channel. We modify quite a few main risers with hard housings here. Simply making sure the housing is pushed all the way into the channel (it should be just a touch shorter, overall, than the channel...this keeps the cable end from advancing past the end of a short housing and getting caught up), then tacking it down with waxed 3-cord holds everything nicely in place. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

My God, do you have any idea how expensive that would be??? It'd be cheaper to have your harness totally rebuilt...plus new risers. Wow, I wish I had that kind of jing laying around to play with on an used rig! Plus, we all know it's all a gimmic anyway, but what a gimmic it would be!! "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

What I got from them (Prismatic), is that you get a few very basic Earth-tone colors in the process. I'm actually going to pursue this a bit more and get some samples. I'll let you know what I find out!! "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Define "non-harsh".... I think, maybe, we could be convinced not to run a complete test series (and only do several confidence drops and third-party strength tests) if a company, such as yours, could show test data confirming that there is no degradation of the base metal over time. If it were cost effective. Maybe. Care to step up to the plate? "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Flite Suit has made vest/Belt combos like this before. I'm not sure of the exact weights, but it was a lot! you might shoot off an email to sales@flitesuit.com to find out more. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Yes, it is a Nylon Blend..it's what we (Flite Suit) use as the base material for most of our suits...although we use a heavier "medium-weight" material for many, many of the Bomber Freefly Suits. Depends on height and weight. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

SkyDance SkyDiving is putting together their first USPA Coach Certification Course for 2003. The dates for the course are April 25-27, starting after work on the 25th. The USPA Coach rating is the first step in the Instructor Process for any USPA rating, so come on out and get your rating! Contact Manifest at manifest@skydance.net for more info or to leave a deposit (required). "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

That about sums it up, thanks Mick! "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

We don't use any pure cottons at all. Almost everything is a Poly-cotton blend, although you could use cotton if you wished, we just don't. I'd suggest you get the highest thread count you can. Stay away from Acrylics, they fall apart. You'll want to either over-lock the seams or bind them for strength! "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."