RiggerLee

Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

More pics Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Cool! That worked! Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Trying to up load pics... Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

In the end the only real question is, Is it a good repair? In a very pratical since, a good repair is one that serves the intended purpose. In this case will the repair prevent the tear in the stabilizer from spreading. If it serves that purpose then this repair is a "good" repair, for values of good. A separate question would be, is it an "ideal" repair? But that is a separate, unrelated question. An ideal repair would return to canopy to factory new condition. The only repair that would do that is the total replacement of the whole stabilizer. Virtually all work falls some where between these two examples. The only "bad" repair is one that falls below that first limit. Duck tape can be a good repair dependent on your objective. Maybe not as nice as rip stop tape, but if your goal is to get through the weekend or even through the season, duck tape can be a "good" repair. Not as nice, or as long term as a patch but also not as demanding of your time and resources. There is a point of diminishing returns. Is it really worth it to replace an entire stabilizer for a quarter inch hole? Is it worth taking apart the whole reinforced slider stop to do a proper patch for a quarter inch hole, when you'll have quadrupedal to size of the hole to sew a two inch patch on your quarter inch hole and then rebuild the whole stop? Point of diminishing returns. Every one has their own standards of where that lies. But remember that all of these work so none of them are actually wrong. Some are just nicer options then others. So don't bee too quick to judge others work unless it is actually "wrong", as in it does not work. An old drogue may not warrant a patch when you're just waiting on UPS for the new one to arrive. Rip stop works. So I'm not making fun of any one that strives for the highest standards but I'm not going to turn up my nose at work that... works. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Or using that particular example you could just pack it. Seriously not every thing needs to be "fixed". Think about how you would have to take the canopy apart to put a "Standard Patch" on it and how little you would get in return. This is part of why I advocate using small single layer "scab" patches on small holes. When some one incest that I patch a hole smaller then half an inch I generally do a small single layer patch. sewn in two rows around the edge. Looks almost the same. Covers the hole. And I don't have to make it larger then necessary to give me the room to do a french fell. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I think their were three or four models. It's been years since I jumped a unit, once. I do not recall a single impressive thing about it. It wasn't super bad but I would grade it in both flight and tech way, way bellow a 190. The one I jumped was a five cell. Low aspect ratio, four=square + one. Once inflated it was square. Three line groups and a few other oddities. Nice mussem piece. Are you telling me you can't find any thing better to jump? Really? I don't generally dump on older gear and I'd have no fear of jumping this for fun. But as to packing instruction for daily use... It's complicated. Proper construction of curtains requires specialized machinery. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

It would be interesting to fly some thing like that. Riser length and the distance down to the CG affects the dynamic pitching characteristics of the canopy. It's noticeable on small high performance canopies. I'm not sure how much you'd see it on a large lightly loaded docile canopy like that. For example we don't notice it on the rocket but the motor speeds are not high enough to really give any type of dynamic flare. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I was simply referring to the fact that for it's surface area it has a bottom skin, a top skin, and all the fucking ribs and seams. Approximately two and a half times the fabric for the same foot print. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Sooo it's kind of like a.... ROUND canopy. You've taken a square canopy. Removed all of the positive aspects of the square, which could potentially get some one into trouble, and inserted the behaviors of a round. Only it packs two and a half times as bulky. And the only real difference is that you have more forward speed that can be added to the ground speed when the unconscious or stupid person lands down wind. Just not seeing the net positives. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I've got a slightly different opinion so I'll try to make an argument for the other side. First I think you're confusing separate issues of canopy and container design. In this I'm going to class the deployment system as part of the container not the canopy. I justify this based on the installation of diapers and four line releases that are available for the C9. The old B12 pilot rigs are a 60 year old design and this shows. The C9 it self is also old but it's not fundamentally a bad design. In fact it has some very good qualities to it. Name a stronger canopy. Can you even imagine how you could build a stronger canopy. It's damn near impossible to blow up. And with the multiple seams in the gores from the bias construction very hard to have a catastrophic failure. With out a diaper or quarter bag it can invert in which case you can burn it all to hell but that's true of any round canopy and as Quarter bags and diapers are available and standard on all modern installations of the canopy it's not really an argument. In fact I'd argue that the quarter bag deployment system is by far the strongest high speed deployment system ever invented, past or present. I've seen other diaper designs fail on high speed deployments when the radial seam it self parted do to the acceleration or the diaper failed do to the snatch force. The diagonal Flutes on the quarter bag are by far the most secure stowage method ever conceived. The 1 inch wide tape running down the seam carries all the load for the bulk of the canopy held in the quarter bag. The locking stow is not some rubber band but actual one inch wide locking loops of type four tape. It's better then a complete D bag because 3/4 of the length of the canopy is fully extended and under tension then the quarter bag releases. It's not just dumped out of the mouth of a D bag into the high speed air with 14 foot worth of travel before there is any tension on the apex or radial seams. It's a really smart system. And since steerable for line releases have been standard on it for a long time that's not really an argument. Are their newer designs. Yes. Are they better? Well, they are different. One thing I will say is that they are light. The one thing the C9 is truly missing is a diaper. The new designs survive on high speed drops not because they are stronger canopies but because they... cheat is too harsh a word. I'm a proponent of sliders. But the truth is that you are depending on what is fundamentally a weaker design. Do you think that it's magic that a Buttler canopy weighs half as much? It's because their is half as much canopy their. Nothing really compares to that net of continuous lines cradling the bias canopy of a C9. It's a tank. Oh, but it opens hard. What? You just survived a 500 knt ejection and your complaining that the canopy opened hard? You unconscious. One arm was broken by the edge of the cockpit The other leg was broken just by the seat. The compression fracture in your spine was from the explosive charge the ejected the chair. And the canopy just opened 100 ft above the ground from your 400 ft ejection and your complaining about how fast the canopy opened. And do you really think the navy pilot flying off the carrier that loses on on launch wants a slower opening canopy? How high is that deck off the water again? And it's not like he's going fast. I've jumped C9's I've got one in the closet in the other room. As a crew dog and a base jumper, if your complaining about a C9, all I have to say is. PUSSIES BIG. They land hard. That was the closest I can find but please insert the face of a crying child throwing a temper tantrum. I don't get the landing issue. Part of that is my perspective as a relatively small person. I may never get laid but I can land almost any thing. I don't see round canopies in pilot rigs as bad things. The aviator canopy may be the best square canopy built for a pilot rig but that's because your doing every thing you can to turn it into a round. All of the most desirable characteristics that make it suitable for a PEP are those that try to emulate a round canopy. And it's not small. At the point that a square is big enough to really work in a PEP you might as well have a large round of equivalent weight and volume. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Looks like it's all closed up. I wish I'd thought to mention this earlier. Have you ever thought about adding false ribs to your tail like they are doing on some of the newer high performance canopies? The trailing edge is a lot of drag. It might sound odd to suggest this on a large low performance canopy but I'm thinking that it's an even bigger problem on larger canopies with wide cells and widely spaced ribs. It would be really interesting to make a second prototype, exactly the same but with those included. I'd bet that you would see a measurable improvement in performance. I had an old Chafen canopy once. He insisted on terminating his ribs short of the tail leaving the top and bottom skins lose and unattached. It looked like he just chopped off the back of the rib. Never really understood why but it gave him a very rounded tail. No sewing between the top and bottom skin. Lots of drag. The canopy actually flew and landed much better when I sewed the top and bottom skins together along the rib line. Some thing I always wanted to play with is actually making the unloaded ribs shorter so that the bottom skin has a zig zag to it. The short ribs would terminate at like the D line. the top skin would be rectangular but the bottom skin would be a saw tooth forming a point at the long load bearing rib. So the cell would have basically a cone on the back supporting the single layer top skin. The idea is that the airflow would smoothly transition along the cone. No blunt trailing edge between the ribs. The bottom skin would also act as a zigzag to carry the load from the unloaded rib. It would be like a cross brace with out the diagonal rib. The bottom skin would be the load bearer supporting the unloaded rib not letting it float upwards distorting the canopy. Span wise support with out the extra rib. The bottom skin would be the same shape it always is with the lifting of the unloaded I beam, it's just built into the canopy allowing the top skin to remain a smooth fully spread air foil with the support it needs. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Looking at that a couple of things come to mind. The first is that with the ring and snap floating like that they are at the perfect length to whip up and bitch slap the shit out of you on opening. The second bigger issue is the ring. I don't think a RW8 is the right choice. First chest reserve rings like that are generally rated for 5000 lbs. The RW8 is only rated for 2500. But I think the bigger problem is how it's tested. It's designed to be loaded by a riser spreading the load over a wider area. It puts the load in almost a length wise pull down the side bars. By loading it with a snap all the load is concentrated in a very small area trying to pull out and elongate the very center of the ring. I'm not nit picking and this does not lead to just a miner elongation or distortion of the ring. The failure can be catastrophic. We've broken rings in pull test. My boss was testing some things to destruction and got "smart" and decided to use a strap with an RW ring on it to pull some thing, it was a heavy slink. But it loaded the ring sharply at one point in the middle of the ring like a snap. It plucked a peace right out of the middle of the ring. Sorry not really set up to take a picture. The interesting thing is it failed at about 1/3 the rated weight. And this was a heavy ring. An RW9 which is beefy. It's like a military ring. It's not just a question of the ring being under strength in the event of one snap coming lose. It's an issue of it possible failing as low as 1000 lb which is not cool. And if it fails like in the test it wont just bend it will snap. So their's a reason why the old chest mount rings were so beefy. Not only was it designed to survive as a single point but it loads fundamentally differently. Maybe you should rethink that strap. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Where is Maggot when you need him. Why did he have to go and die. One of his many screen names on base jumper was TrannyBanger. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

If he's from Mexico the answer is never. He's perfectly safe. They refuse the deport totally illegal aliens convicted of multiple felonies short of murder in broad day light. If on the other hand he's from a European country, is white, educated, and speaks even as a second language some form of English... then he's fucked. He'll be gone as soon as they can find a seat on a plane. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

You can't see it in that pic because you have to turn the hook by hand, turn the pully on the end of the machine, till the gap where the hook part of the hook exposes the tension spring on the side of the bobbin case. It's just like on a home machine but you can't remove the case from the hook. A couple of other points. In the pic. those screws you see are not the ones. They hold the curved plate that keeps the case setting in the race. If you turn it slowly you'll see the ridge in the case that that plate holds. That is a perfect place to put a drop of oil so that it's drawn right into the race. Their's no real way for a machine to oil there it self. you have to do it every time. Also in the pic. Those two round post with holes in the top of them part way under the hook, you can see them better when you turn the machine by hand. Those are wicks, another good place to put a drop of oil. You should oil these points every time you change bobbins and when you first set down to sew any thing. Make it a habit. Set down to sew, open plates to see how much thread you have, oil bobbin and threads and any other points on the machine, close plates, begin sewing. Same thing when you change bobbins. Make it a habit. Their is absolutely nothing, with the exception of the motor, on this machine that can be damaged by oil. If in doubt squirt some oil on it. Any where one thing moves and touches another. Tip it up and look at the bottom. Shafts pass through parts of the frame. on the top side above all of these will be a little hole through the frame. That's an oil hole so squirt some oil through it. That bushing is thirsty. Same things all over. Oil, oil, oil. Now you see why I told you to get one of those oil bottles with a long straw on top. Is this machine an oilier? Does it have an actual oil pan that you fill up with a pump? If not then you may see a set of gears on the bottom where the hooks are that turn the rotation to make the hooks turn vertically. This it a gook place to spray a little white lithium grease on the gear teeth them selves. just turn the pulley as you do it and spay it in the gap. It stays better then oil. Once you make friends with it you will love this machine. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I don't recall exactly what you have but the way this generally works is Their is a rotary hook that turns. Setting in the canter of the hook is the bobbin case. It's free setting in the middle of the hook held in the race by a little curved plate by screws. a small tap on it's side is held by the throat plate to keep if from turning. Their should be a little looseness and play their. If you turn the machine slowly by hand, Machine off and motor run down, you should be able to see a small leaf spring on the side of the case which sits in the hook. The thread comes out of the case through a slot and goes under this leaf spring. There are two screws that hold the spring on the side of the bobbin case. The one at the end actually ankers the spring. The one in the middle closest to where the thread comes out pulls down on the bow in this curved spring controlling the force on the thread. This is the bobbin thread tension. It's a small adjustment. Don't turn it more then about 1/4 turn at a time. But you want it to run as low as possible with out fucking up and getting ugly. Run both tensions as low as you can reliable balance them. for some thing like a canopy seam. You don't want more shrinkage then you have to. When you sew tape or over stacked tapes you'll have to turn up the top tension some but you'll get the hang of how much. Can somebody post a pic for him? Get a tape foot at the very least. And maybe an upturn folder to go with it. Tape coming from a pule on the top of the machine or hang it on a shaft from the ceiling. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I don't really understand the discussion on this. It sounds like a perfectly good rule to me. Thinking that you could hold on to a baby is just silly. Reminds me of the scene in Fearless, great movie, where they crash the car to see if she could hold onto the baby. I don't even see the harness with the ass attachment working. These things are like bobble head dolls with little scrawny necks and 50% of the body mass in the head. The head is just going to come off and bounce around the cabin. Look at whip lash injuries in adults with far better support. To survive a deceleration you really need support along the whole spine. I remember some very interesting studies where they were trying to design restraints that could withstand multiple angles of impacts, like side impacts. Good luck. Some thing would always shift, the pelvis, head, rib cage and the spine in between would just snap. You know, airbags have become so common in vehicles I'm surprised they haven't shown up in aircraft yet. I wonder if it's the gas generators that can't pass muster. But would you really need quick deploy air bags like in a car? In a plane you actually have some warning. You could just have them put their trays in the up right and locked position and inflate all the air bags before impact so you're cushioned like a big balloon. Fill them with some thing non offensive like nitrogen. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Why no shoulder straps? How about facing the seats backwards. It would be a little awkward, you'd have to recline then to be comfortable on take off, but I'd much rather face the rear in a crash. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

One of the greatest shirts I've ever seen said, "All Grown Up and Still Fascinated By Nipples!" And no I didn't print it. Damn then for being funnier then us. The truth is that we never, ever, get over nipples. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

So have you put any more thought into the Slat idea? Interesting looking rib. Maybe it's just the perspective but it looks like you've moved your point of maximum thickness farther forward. Really round there at the A line. Any particular reason behind that? And I think the gold looks cool. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

17 way? No way is 17 a record. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Depends on your taste. If you liked breaking bad I think you would like sons of anarchy. You might like to check out Cosmos both new and old. I enjoyed Space Odyssey. Their were some really great little details in it in the back ground, nice special effects. Blue Planet? I think that's the name has some of the best underwater photography I've ever seen. If you like quirky comedies you might check out Eureka. Yes, I'm a geek. Scandal was pretty damn good as was house of cards but the third season was a little lost for direction. And walking dead and Z nation are the best Zombie movies around. You can tell that I have way too much free time. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

And I have no doubt that many of us with a thousand or more jumps would be happy to jump the shit out of it for you. But honestly after a couple dozen jumps I think I would have a pretty good grasp on the canopy and would be able to tell you if it had any really bad characteristics. At that point I would say that it was past the first phase of it's testing. and could be passed on to almost any experienced jumper to continue racking up numbers on it. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

And did you point out that this wasn't the first canopy you had built, but the fourth or fifth. That it didn't have just nine jumps on it but countless flights from ground launching and towing. That that actually far more dangerous then testing from an airplane at a descent altitude. And I hope you made it clear to them that you weren't going away. That you were in this for the long haul and would have yet another prototype ready soon. I will be very disappointed if you let these self important despots squash your ambitions. Now you know how we felt as colonist back in 1776. Every one stand up and revolt against this terrorny! The Nylon must be free! Give us altitude or give us death! Fly free or die! And I'll bet you find a staunch supported in Leblanc. If nothing else for the almost daily laughs he has gotten as we stumbled through this project. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com