mjosparky

I guess I'm older school....if my dog isn't welcome, neither am I. At nine years in the sport I don't think so.

I have spent many hours looking into the 2 incidents I mentioned in my OP. I have talked to the jumpers involved other riggers and different manufactures. The one thing I was unable to do was inspect the gear personally. There are 4 things that stand out as possible causes for such injuries during opening. One would be a packing error, i.e. slider not controlled during packing or not un-stowed. Two could be a poorly fitting harness allowing the load to be taken mid shaft of the femur. Three would be a poorly sequenced deployment due to improperly functioning riser tabs. Four would be line trim. It is my feeling that these injuries were caused by one or a combination of the above conditions. I received some negative PM’s from people defending Aerodyne who I felt jumped the gun on what I intended to be a quest for information only. This was not, as I posted, a slam against anyone. For what its worth I hope this helps in some way. Sparky My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

I am old school. No dogs or kids at the dropzone.

There are only two things you need in this life. The love a good dog and friends that care about you. Everything else is just fluff. It makes me feel special to have been blessed with both.

Jim has covered just about everything. It is a matter of weight placement and lanyard length. The attached picture is a 600 sq. ft. flag under a 245 sq. ft. canopy with an exit weight of 275 pounds. Sparky My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

It is neither stupid nor boring. But it continues to be done by stupid people at really stupid times. Sparky My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

Hey Derek, Something I posted a few years ago. I think it addresses the question you have raised. Sparky Edited to add: None of us are nearly as good as we would like to believe. My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

The one piece of equipment that can affect the way you fly more than anything else is a jumpsuit. It should be made to your size and the type of flying you intend on doing. Jmo Sparky My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

Thanks, Sparky My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

Just curious, how did you get such a low D Lic. number with only 10 years in the sport?

Thank you all for your input. Including PM’s. You have all brought up good points. I assure you that judgment will be reserved on the issue until I have much more date. Although I no longer actively jump I was involved in testing and development for a little over 25 years. My only intention is to identify a problem if one exists. As darkwing pointed out, 2 is a very small sampling out the numbers out there of a very popular canopy. Thanks again for not turning this into a pissing contest.

I am aware of 2 incidents at one dropzone where the jumpers suffered fractured femurs during openings while jumping a Pilot canopy. I know that twice does not make a trend but would like to find out if anyone is aware of similar injuries to jumpers jumping Pilots. This is not meant as slam to Aerodyne or Pilots, just an attempt to gather information that may head off a potential problem. Thanks, Sparky My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

"You keep thinking Butch, thats what you are good at." Michael My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

John, Like you, I have done Demos for many years. One of the reasons I choose “Neon” orange as my primary color was for visibility to the crowd. It is my belief that the orange and the “Neon” green are the most visible in all conditions. A little history: I was a Firefighter for 30 years. I retired as a Captain. Many years ago I worked with a Battalion Chief for the City of New York on a study funded by NFPA. If you stop and think you will remember seeing Fire Truck painted a puck green, baby shit yellow combination. This is called “High Visibility Yellow” and is the color that came out of that study. After 4 years of study it was determined that this “High Visibility Yellow” is the most visible color to the human eye in all lighting conditions. An amusing aside to this study was the discovery that “Fire Engine Red”, yes that is a color, became almost invisible to the human eye in poor lighting condition. I.E. night time. What is amazing is that very few Departments were willing to make a change to this proven color for safety. Michael My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

Great find. That should settle the question on packing any GQ Security product. Sparky My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

Niels, ZP is the worst thing that has ever happened to the world of skydiving. It is like putting 10 pounds of snot in a 5 pound bag. Like people have already said, if you what to become good at anything you need to practice. A paid packer already has the practice so they make it look easy. If you are not willing to practice, and that means failure after failure, than settle into a life of paying packers. Ain’t life a bitch? Sparky My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

This is from Instruction Manual #716 dated Dec. 2000. That was 18 years ago. MAINTENANCE NOTES 2 The following Maintenance Notes are to be observed: 2.1 The life of the assembly is 15 years from date of manufacture subject to a critical inspection at 10 years. 2.2 The recommended re-packing cycle for this assembly is 120 days (four months) Since this was printed in one of their manuals, I wouldn’t touch any of their rigs/canopies are over 15 years old. jmo Take it for what it's worth. Sparky My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

Jim, Even though you will be breaking the last record still standing that I was on, I wish you blue skies, safe jumps and a new record. Sparky My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

It came from the FAA. It is their document. Sparky My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

Try the attachment and see if this meets your needs. Sparky My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

The triangular extension going from the top of the bag and tapering to the bridle was first used by Hank Ascuitto on the main bag of his StreamLite container. Without digging out the data sheets I seem to remember that it worked great and reducing or eliminating bag spin during line deployment. Sparky My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

I have over 1,000 jumps on the bag is the attached photos. No one problem with deployment. Nothing that happens while the canopy is still in the bag affects what the canopy does after leaving the bag. This is fact not fiction. The use of stow bands causes bag whip and tight stows cause extreme bag whip. The purpose of the bag is to stage the deployment not to reef the opening. Sparky My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

At what point in your jumping career did you have all the answers? 5 jumps, 20 jumps or maybe 100 jumps? While I agree that the net should not be the last word in rigging solutions it seems to be a good start on doing the ”research” you speak of. Rather than “humiliate” the man give him a reasonable answer and encourage him to seek further input form a local rigger. Just a thought. Sparky My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

Once again Jerry is right. There are records that a rigger is required to keep and there are records that are "attached to the parachute,". Attached is what Part 65 has to say on the subject. Sparky P.S. Jerry, your item will be in the mail this week. My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

Try this site. Sparky http://www.scr-awards.com/index.html My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals