JerryBaumchen

Hi Scott, Two in a Top Secret, huh? Not such a bad plan; they had a small problem with the reserve actually opening. JerryBaumchen

Hi Scott, They only guy who I knew that got two MA-1's into his reserve was Rich Johnston (D-134) and for the life of me, I don't how in the world he did it. I asked him about it once and so he pulled the reserve ripcord. They really did not fly much farther than just a single pilot chute. However, the thinking of the day was that two was better than one. The rig was an original CrossBow and he had a Navy Conical in there with the two p/cs. Rich quit jumping in '68. Some time around '62 or '63, he and three other guys from Snohomish set a World Record. The category was 4-man accuracy, 2000 meters, night, without delay. Not so easy to do on a 1.6. Who was the guy you knew? JerryBaumchen

Hi luv, No close friends jumping but way too many in airplane crashes. JerryBaumchen

Hi pop, One other little bit of trivia: The DZO's of Alta, UT at the time were Bill Dause and Dick Simon. Dick Simon got out of jumping and became a race car driver; he drove probably 10 times in the Indy 500. Bill Dause, well he . . . . JerryBaumchen

Hi rhys, A little story about Strong Ent. & hot knifes. Back, many years ago, PIA used to put out a newsletter. I had been trying just about every hot knife there was and was very disappointed in all of them. Not hot enough or wouldn't last for 20 mins. One day I get some info in the mail and this company makes hot knives among other things. So I call them & take a chance and buy one. They are ( IMO ) without any doubt the best hot knife there is. So I write up something about them and send it in to the PIA newsletter. About a year or so ago I happen to being calling down to Strong Ent. and this guy answers, I tell him who I am and he proceeds to tell me that I am that guy who told them about those hot knives and they are fantastic. Who woulda guessed. Oh BTW, the company is: M. M. Newman Corp. 24 Tioga Way P. O. Box 615 Marblehead, MA 01945 1-800-777-6309 and it is their Model HK-60. Just in the event that anyone would care, JerryBaumchen

Hi BIGUN, No apologies ever needed for me; well unless . . . Nope, Jack bought her in about '65 or so. And I know the photo was taken in '64; or else I gotta go see some type of head-doctor 'cause I'm doomed. I first met Jack at a competition here in the Portland-area in '65. He had just come down to watch and I was talking to him and Cameron ( who was judging the meet ). The PCA ( name before USPA ) did not have any money to send a US Team overseas that year. So Cameron asked Jack if he would be willing to go on a US Team if he had to pay his own way & Jack said 'Hell, yes.' But the Army boys represented the USA in international competition that year. Jack never was on a US Team. Jack Ady never entered another competition after winning the US Championship in '64. But he is still a hell of a good guy; and I would not want to tangle with him. JerryBaumchen

Hi howard, Ok, I don't believe you. Once around late 60's or early 70's I was at Security Parachute. Dan Abbott was showing me around & they were making something on the order of 10,000 small parachutes for dropping flairs at night. That was the real bread & butter for parachute companies in those days ( VietNam War-time ). JerryBaumchen PS) Once around '65 or so, Bruce Perry ( D-1544 & I'm D-1543; so I liked to give him a hard time about that little fact ) out of the Tri-Cities in Washington state ( at a competition here in the Portland-area ) jumped a 40+ ft cargo chute on a lark. That thing took forever to open and then a year or so to descend.

Hi BIGUN, Fresno in 1964. That's Lyle Cameron on the top of the fuselage. The aircraft was used for US Team tryouts & training prior to the '64 World Meet. RE: Hint 2... The airplane is sitting right now where it happened That aircraft is now owned by Jack Ady ( 1964 US Nat'l Champ ) and is sitting in Snohomish, WA. Right/wrong????? I talked with Jack last summer and it needs a full fuselage covering and he does not want to spend the money to do it. I doubt that she will ever fly again; unless some lottery winner buys it from Jack and restores her. JerryBaumchen

Hi Peter, What is it they say: A picture is worth a 1,000 words. Now it all makes sense. That riser is built very similar to how a StyleMaster riser was built. But with those snaps it might just be a SuperPro riser; my memory is a little fuzzy. You say that the canopy is on 4 Rapide links, 2 each side. I would think that then the lines would fit onto 2 L-bar links, 1 each side. Then you could use the cross-connector that you have. I would not attach a cross-connector to the Rapide links. Way too much chance of getting loaded in the wrong direction. Hope that this has been helpful, JerryBaumchen PS) From the photo the stitching looks sufficient for the use of 1 L-bar link per side.

Hi sid, Re: I was curious about the triple cells on 2 & 6 I have never made a tandem jump and know 'very' little about that type of equipment but I seem to remember seeing a photo of a Strong Tandem Main that was built like this. Anyone else remember something like this? Or am I just losing my mind? JerryBaumchen

Hi Peter, Ok, we're making progress. It does have a single riser each side with space for 2 links on each riser I take this to mean that the single loop at the top of each riser leg is large enough to fit two L-bar links into the loop. Yes? If so, I have seen risers of this type but I would recommend that you not do this. I do not know of any risers of this type that were ever FAA-OK. ( Now someone will find one that I don't know about ) There it was inside the pack, between 2 of the 4 links. OK, so this setup is a single-leg riser design with loops at the top of the riser leg for two L-bar links and then this cross-connector attaches to one L-bar link on each side. Am I correct? If so, I would not put this design into service. But that is just me . . . Can you reconfigure the canopy to just one L-bar link on each side? This would allow you to put just one L-bar link in each riser loop and then use the cross-connector that you have. If you want to take this off-line, just send me some info/photo/etc via email and we can go from there. This is one of those tough situations for any rigger. You agree to do a repack, your inspection reveals something you don't like or is not legal, and then you have to take a bunch of time and/or start spending money to correct it ( and, of course, the customer gets mad and wants his gear right away ). Almost a no-win situation. JerryBaumchen PS) I don't know your time frame but the offer to build you a riser set still stands. Just would need to know some details on what you might want.

Hi Peter, All of the cross-connectors that I have seen of 550 line go between the snaps and not the links. That does not mean that none were built using the 550 line going between the links; just that I have never seen that configuration. Also, when something else is used it usually 'depends' on the design. If you are using webbing as a cross-connector then you can sew it close to the snaps and use just one piece of webbing. If it is sewn at the links then I would advise using two pieces of webbing to go between each riser leg. A question for you: Are you looking to makeup some risers or are you just curious? if you are going to makeup some risers then consider using just two L-bar links ( one each side only ) as ( IMO ) this is the simplest style to build. The early StyleMaster reserve risers used four L-bar links ( two each side ) but only one stitch pattern per side; they stitched both risers ( the two on each side ) together with the one stitch pattern. This meant that the risers did not seperate when being used, they acted like a single-leg riser but with 2-links per side. I hope that you can understand this effort to explain the design to you. If you build a set of risers with only one L-bar link on each side and you have a canopy that would normally be on four L-bar links then you might consider unwrapping the Clove Hitch to mount the lines on the two L-bar links ( again, one L-bar link per side ). This was a fairly common practice 'back in the day.' I would refer you to Poynter's original Parachute Manual, section 8.2.C.2.b; this describes some testing that I did on unwrapping the Clove Hitch when necessary to mount a 4-link canopy to a set of 2-link risers. Now, if none of this makes any sense to you then just disregard it; or send me an email and I'll try to better explain. Worst case: I'll make you up a set of risers; what design would you like? JerryBaumchen

Hi Aloysius Send me an email with some contact info for you. I am wanting to test some low load ( 300 lbs or so ) samples and the test machine I have access to does really work at those low values. Thanks, JerryBaumchen

Hi ryoder, Well I'm not ringing any bells just yet; but I think you have it. Pioneer's problem was they were trying just about anything to get around Snyder's patent. That is why they built these semi-double surface canopies. They finally settled on a Cloud copy that had the bottom skin ending about 6" before it would get to the tail. I forget the name of it but it was the canopy that Chuck Embury was marketing a lot. JerryBaumchen

Hi JP, There is a very substantial difference. If it went through the ACO then it was certificated that way as an original certification. An ACO is the office that issues TSO authorizations, for instance; then a local FSDO might issue a Field Alteration to a rig/canopy/etc. I am thinking all other 'certifications' are some sort of mods to an existing certification. I hope that you can understand what I am trying to convey to you. JerryBaumchen

Hi Flyer, Well, never having kids helps, JerryBaumchen

Hi Sparky, When he first developed the SCS it also had to be a round star. He later changed it to any formation because no one was doing rounds anymore. That was why his daughter wrote the letter denying my submittal. JerryBaumchen

Hi swooooop, No, but similar technology. JerryBaumchen

Hi Roger, A little story about my SCS award. I 'qualified' for it by coming into a 16-way formation of some type, either 15th or 16th, pretty close between another guy and myself as to who got to our outer slots last. So I send in all of the paperwork and get a letter back that I had not qualified for the SCS because it was not a round formation. Since I was much younger then I immediately fired back a very hot letter about how in the h*&$ anyone could consider a specific formation position to be less work than just anywhere on an 8-way round. I then got a letter back from Bill, with my award, and informing me that he had been out of town and the first letter was written by his 13-yr old daughter. I felt about 1 inch tall when I read his letter. OBTW, I've learned to calm down a little over the years, JerryBaumchen

Hi Andre, They also said that a rigger could NOT install a CYPRES into another mfr's pocket. At which Bill Booth stood up and said that Sunpath ( Javelin ) and he were going to start making their own AAD pockets and if AirTec wanted to lose their business that would be their ( AirTec's ) choice. Kudos to Bill for his statement and where he stands on this type of silliness, JerryBaumchen

Hi Roger, First, Thank You, and to Bill, for all of the work on this effort. It is amazing to me that Bill is still going on this after all of these years. Re: I still remember getting my SCR and SCS and was thrilled both times! Me too; there was a time when they were considered real accomplishments. JerryBaumchen

Hi Bill, That is also my memory of what Dan said. IIRC, the first jump on a glued canopy was about '66 when Loy Brydon jumped a Rogallo wing with glued seams. The concept has been around a long time; the details are causing the production delays. JerryBaumchen

Hi Nick, That post is a wealth of information. Also go to: www.parapublishing.com At one time he sold a guide for how to become a rigger. JerryBaumchen

Hi bigway, This 'conforming to the retail price' was tried by both Pioneer and Security back in the '60's. Some times the distributor would actually call up the buyer ( if he had the phone number ) and ask him what he paid for his ParaCommander. A local dealer/dzo got around it by having a trade-in. "You got a rubber band there. I'll give you $35 trade-in for it.' JerryBaumchen PS) It always has been and always will be the law of supply & demand.

Hi Sparky, Well, I have never heard of it called a 'guppy' cord but it is what I've been doing for years. Guess we have a new term in this whole rigging thingy. Pop quiz Friday folks, JerryBaumchen