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Tom, You may also want to check your pilot chute if it's a kill line, spectra kill lines can shrink, making your pilot chute slowly lose it's pull force after you cock it. Tad

I wondered if anyone can tell me how a Time Out, Flashing edition operates, just bought a used one with no instructions. There are 2 buttons on the back one up and one down, but I don't know the sequence or interval. Thanks Tad

I really think that an aerobatic pilot could read some simple instructions on square canopy flight and land himself alive and probably unhurt. After all a pilot is not going to leave an aircraft unless it's pretty certain he'll die if he doesn't. It's a free country, if a 70 jump wonder can buy a sub 100 cross braced canopy, why can't a pilot buy a square reserve. Tad

Rob, I use the steel botkins to help close all the flaps and let it sit a while so the air all seeps out of the bag,(tight Sucker) but when I feed the steel botkins through I push the soft botkins through with them after I've put them through the cutters. Basically just like the instructions for the racer show. 2 pull up cords, 2 steel botkins, 2 soft botkins,2 temp pins, 1 racer equals, a pain in the ass. I may try your way next time. But I do like the way the steel botkins line up the flap grommets. Thanks Tad

Rob, When I got out of the army in 84 I didn't jump much for quite a while, when I started jumping again, I couldn't believe that everyone got out on one pass, and no one spotted.But I've kind of gotten used to it, if I'm not on the first group out, or counting the exit, I just go with the flow. The worst thing that could happen were we jump is having to walk (which I hate) or getting a lift back to the DZ. But if I'm the one telling people to climb out, I watch the DZ for the whole climb( with the otter, thats about 10 min). I'm not going to be the one that hoses the later groups by getting out slow or being off the wind line. I jumpmastered a static line student one time that had a line over, hand deployed a 24' flat pulled in his main and stuck it between his legs, and hit the pea gravel, now that was a good spot. But I'll bet a lot of jumpers today have never spotted, I guess that why God made GPS. BSBD Tad

Mike, I think the only reason that Precision didn't agree with RWS's findings, was that in their tests, the attaching tape failed at a lower level, so after the double bar-tac, the attachment strength was doubled. But both agreed that after the "fix" failure occurred at between 400~600 lbs, boy thats comforting to know. I don't blame you for being upset, I think they should replace the type3 tape with something stronger, and they should do it free. Those attachments may be fine for a symmetrical deployment, but in a fast or unstable opening some attachments might be loaded before the rest are and fail. I don't believe I'll be running out to buy a Dash-m anytime soon. Good luck, BSBD Tad

How about a bungee colapsble pocket on the slider? At normal or low speeds the slider would work normally but at high speeds the pockets would open up to increase pressure on the slider and slow the opening a little. When I was on the parachute team we used to dump at a full track from 12000 feet at 2000, never had a hard opening even at about 150kts. But I could do a hop and pop at 2000 and still open soft and quick. I realize our canopies back then were bigger and different than now, but I still think something can be done with slider size or design to make high speed openings better, without going to some complicated reefing system.( As I recall, people used used to chop ropes and rings a lot) Thanks Tad

I think it's kind of funny that people discuss this like it's right or wrong, thats why it's optional. All parachute gear choices have good points and bad points, AAD's, RSL's,Eliptical or square, if it's right for you then great. I'm sure that the advantages of a Reserve pad for freeflying or chunking exits far outweighs any disadvantage they may have. I like metal on the left, but thats all I've ever jumped. If I borrowed a rig with a pad I wouldn't think twice about jumping it, but I wouldn't buy a rig with one on, because I'm not on an RW team and I don't Freefly,(OK I'll admit it, I'm a sap sucking belly flyer). As for the argument about a metal handle for the cutaway side, my feeling is that if your reserve gets pulled on exit, your gonna know it pretty quick, if your cutaway got pulled on exit you'd just go on flying fat, dumb , and happy till pull time, then you'd think 'wow, what a soft opening'. I also think anyone without good upper body strength should be careful with a pad.( look what happened to Missy Nelson). Probably soft loops would be a good idea. Basically on this issue I'm pro-choice. Just my $.02 Blue Skies Tad D8142

I always practice the two handed method, pull the cutaway and as soon as you feel yourself release, pop the silver, I'll worry about getting stable while my pilot chute is getting busy. I've only had one actual cutaway and about 12 intentionals, so far works great. I realize that there are always situations that will require different actions, but years ago I watched a friend go in trying to get stable after chopping, and it left a lasting impression. BSBD Tad

Jason, I'm not a commercial rigger, I just basically pack for friends and family, but I think most reserves are pro-packed. My brother has an older racer and the packing instructions only show a pro pack with a little more care of the nose and tail. If it wasn't the most reliable method, why would 95% of jumpers pack that way. Blue Skies Tad

Jake, remember if you make some kind of bracket you should have a quick release on it. The ones we used on the army team were aluminum with hose clamps on inside and outside of the foot. The bracket had webbing under the food and fastened across the top of your foot with a quick ejector snap, then some webbing hooked on to the top of the brkt wrapped around you ankle with velcro. A piece of 750lb braided line was attached to the end of the webbing with the velcro and the other end was fingertrapped to the release on the quick ejector snap, so you could grab the line and pull and the whole thing would come right off if you had a problem. Be careful because the canisters get hot, and at least the military stuff, gets smoke, slag, and little burn holes in your gear. But there's nothing like popping a little smoke for the folks. Good luck and blue skies Tad

I'm a rigger and a vector jumper, is this problem worse with small containers and larger reserves? Are these reserve sizes within the recomended range for container size? I've never seen any bulletins on this. Thanks Tad

Your reserve risers, will force your main risers to the outside a little, but the toggles on the upper part of the risers should be clear. But there are a lot of different rigs and riser lengths out there, some could be different, but all systems should be designed to work either way. Blue Skies. Tad

Clay, I'm sorry but when I said "old F111 canopies" I actually was refering to Strato Clouds, Strato Stars, Cloud Delta's and Titans, of which only the last two were F111. I'm not saying that you stalled them on landing, but if you couldn't reach the stall point on them, you would have a hard time getting a good landing. That's just my experience after 1300 jumps on those types of canopies. But I agree with you that you don't want to stall any of today's canopies on landing. Blue Skies Tad

January Skydiving Article: Precision Readies Reserve FiX: Mandatory service bulletin will apply only to "first generation" Raven-M reserves, specifically those that use 3/4 -inch Type 3 attachment points that are sewn to the canopy with a single 42 stitch bartack.The Canopies were built in 1997 thru 1999. This is the result of a November incident in which several lines of a Raven-M reserve pulled off during deployment. The jumper was not injured. The factory is recomending an additional bartack be added to the A and B line attachment points. Just received this today. BSBD Tad

The article is called maximum performance by Scott Miller of PD on Pg 34 Jan Parachutist. Good Article, there is a picture of a guy stalling a sabre2 and I don't think you want to do that on landing. With old F111 canopies that was more true, if you could'nt reach the stall point. you could'nt get slowed down to land, but todays canopies don't stall very well, and you want to fly the canopy until you unload it. Check out the article , it's got some good info. Blue Skies Tad

I believe the original purpose of the wide bridle on a free bag was to act the same way as the catapult PC, if the pilot chute caught on something , the bridle is supposed to lift the bag off and still deploy, if this works like it's supposed to, the second PC is kind of redundant. I wonder how many times people find themselves hanging under their reserve with their PC and free bag still attached to them or hooked on to their cut-away main? That would be interesting to know. Tad

Justin, Bag strip is where the bag is snatched off with such force that it leaves the reserve canopy and lines sitting in your container after the bag and pilot chute leave. I actually don't see how it can happen with the locking stows on the bag, but since a free-bag isn't attached to the canopy I guess it's possible. I've heard of of it happening before, but I've never see anything official. BSBD Tad

Steve, I just bought a tri 160 used this summer, I'm a little heavier than you, and thought it might be a little small. I was impressed at how easy it was to get nice landings, especially with a little wind. After only about 30 jumps on it , I wouldn't want anything bigger. Have someone explain the Zero-P flair to you and give one a try if you can. Good luck and blue skies Tad

Hi Larry, I modified my PC this summer to a bungee collapsable, and found a quick way to test it before I jumped it. I wrapped the bridle aroud my hand and flipped it out of a car window at 30 mph, it stayed deflated untill about 40 MPH and at 55MPH about ripped my arm off. (note: accelerate slowly) So the next weekend I jumped it and it worked great. I'll still buy a KLPC this winter for next year, but I wouldn't be afraid to try yours. Good Luck and Blue Skies. Tad

If my choice is to jump with a round reserve or not jump, I'll jump with a round, I wouldn't buy a round reserve unless it came in a nice rig, but after all folks it's a 'Reserve' to save your life, not a choice of rides. I guess I,m defending rounds because I jump a 26' lopo, and I'm not too scared of them cause I've got over a hundred jumps on rounds.If your on a budget, $400 buys a used square reserve or a lot of jumps. That being said, I am checking out the used reserve adds, and will get one sometime. My only reserve ride was on an army team rig with a safety flyer. By the way , the US Army only took one week to teach us to do PLF's. BSBD Tad

I've only got about 30 jumps on a 160 tri, but the best way I've found to pack it, is the way they show on the Aerodyne Research site, but I roll the nose tight and roll the tail enough to tighten the bundle. It sniveles a little then opens smoothly, before I started rolling the nose it would open quick one time then slow the next. But canopies and people are different, try different methods and see what works best for you. Blue Skies

Making your slider collapsible isn't that hard either with velcro or draw strings, but the grommets are a pain unless you have all the right equipment, it's hard to get the old ones off without damage and you need the setting dies. I don't know what a rigger would charge to do it. Aerodyne Research has collapsible sliders for $60.00 , and of course PD sliders are much more, Para-gear shows them at $99.50. I'd be careful of putting anything other than a PD slider on it, you might be in for a suprise opening, or lack there of. Maybe ask Lisa, or Dan about his new sliders. Blue Skies Tad

Marc, Just to let you in on some of my limited experience, I've got over 1300 jumps on F111 canopies and it seems like no matter what you do on opening they usually open the same, I just got a 160 Tri about 25 jumps ago and it seems like anything you do packing or body position affects the opening. At first I watched the entire opening until I realized that looking over your shoulder caused a turn in the opposite direction on opening. I like to watch the opening because I'm still trying to figure out how to pack it, but only after it sets me up. As far as touching the risers during deployment, I did that a few times until I bumped a toggle and it released early. Also if you need to steer quickly on opening use your rear risers because it's very hard to turn with front risers and brakes stowed. I've settled on rolling the entire nose tightly and rolling the tail also. So far that has given me the most consistant openings. It snivels for a while then opens nicely, but it doesn't take that much altitude maybe 600-700'. Good luck and Blue Skies. Tad.

If you look in the classifieds on this site, or used canopy lists at square1.com,aerostore.com,skycat.com, etc. you can see what they are going for. Of course canopy and line condition are a big factor, and how soon you want to sell it.