Zahry

No, manufacturer recommends to change the line set after 400 jumps as far as I can remember. What was the canopy pilot doing prior to canopy collapse? Was the canopy in a straight flight, in a snap turn or was the canopy recovering after radical speed change (radical pulling or releasing brakes?) What was condition of the line set? How experienced was the TM with elliptical canopies and handling turbulence? Was he just flying with his arms up giving up his life to fortune or was he steering the canopy through the turbulence? In general, modern canopies have smooth openings and soft landings and those are the things which the passengers notice most. And if you give them the toggles they can actually fly the canopies by themselves. Perhaps the passengers can benefit from reliability of openings and good gliding ratio so they don't experience off DZ landings so often and you can keep comfortable gaps between exits. Maybe it could be the better penetration in high winds compare to most of other canopies as well. Unfortunately it doesn't come for free. As you go smaller in size you need more skills and knowledge to benefit from advantages which those canopies offer. That's the same for tandem canopies as like for other sport parachutes.

The HOP 330 is my most favourite tandem canopy. I did about 1200 jumps on those canopies and I've jumped it in very rough conditions. At the DZ we did about 10 000+ jumps on those canopies with very few problems. Main thing is do not do 1200 jumps on one line set as like some dropzones (that was not mistake - I really wrote twelve hundred). The canopies are mostly out of trim after 500-700 jumps but the openings are mostly fine up to 800 - 900 jumps - that's what mostly fools the people. The line set should be exchanged after 500 - 600 jumps otherwise you can expect bad collapses in turbulence. Everyone must sort out what they want from their canopy - if you wanna have canopy with soft openings, lot of speed, low toggle pressure and heaps of lift on landing you can not expect the canopy will fly itself back to hangar. HOPs are not for tandem masters which like to be just suspended weight under parachute. HOP you have to fly as like any other modern elliptical canopy - if you will fly it the old school style as like the old guys fly their old canopies designed almost half century ago - then it's natural you will run into troubles. It is impossible for me to answer if Sigma 370 is better than HOP 330 or vice versa because it is purely about personal preferences - both canopies are very good. For experienced canopy pilots with good skills I would recommend the new crossbraced H.X.P 280 - but it is completely different ball game

Thanks Tom, Mail with more details will be on the way soon.

A couple of times, Strong Enterprises insisted on replacing frayed lines when they did 8-year inspections on those reserves. The other area - where I have noticed fraying - is at the connector links. I suspect that L-bar links are sneaking out of the forging mill with rough edges inside their elbows. The only difference is that yours is worse and seems to include a few broken lines.

FWIW if Strong says the rig is airworthy I'm sure it is. It would obviously be in their best interest to sell you a new line set. I'm equally sure that they wouldn't want an incident on one of their rigs due to a line breaking.

Hi Everyone, During a few casual reserve repacks I found damage on lines (photos of some photos are attached - I have much more). Because the reserves were due for inspection and porosity testing I've send it to Strong representative. I've been assured by the person the lines are in good condition and all reserves were certified by him as airworthy. Just as a rhetorical question: Does anyone thinks that was a bad call I refused to put the reserves to service until the lines will be replaced? Because I was concerned about the reasons why the lines has got damaged I've started a little investigation (I found damage on other reserves). I found the damage is repetitive and mostly I found the damage on the same places. After playing around I found the damage is almost always very close to the plastic chokers on the free bag or close to drogue riser. It seems to me the cause of the damage could be the plastic chokers and the lines can be getting the damage during freefall as the rig is "working". It appears to me as the rig vibrates, stretches during drogue deploy and parachute opening and the drogue riser is brushing the reserve wall (the reserve wall is showing a lot of wear after few years in service). It could be the causing enough movement to wear the lines or induce enough movement to allow the chokers to damage/cut the lines (lines seems to me very exposed - Kevlar is sensitive to abrasion and easy to wear as far as I know and if the plastic chokers are not smoothened it could cause even more damage). The damage is very hard to spot if you try to find when the reserve is hanging. The easiest way how to find it is lay all the lines down on some dark background and run throug the lines. What is your opinion about this case? Does anyone have similar problem with Dual Hawk Tandem system?

I'm sad to say it is not so hot with the sport skydiving here in Mot. The enviromeent has changed a lot. The owner is still cool and sport orientated, but most of sport orientated people has gone from DZ and most remaining emploees incl. manager doesn't want to hear of doing skydive unles they are paid for. It is harder and harder to do a sport jump. It is getting dificult to have beer at the evening at the DZ (unless we wanna face grumpy manager at the next few days).