RiggerLee

Actually the bigger canopy thing might happen although through an indirect route by the certification process. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Yes and it makes a nice location. But the grommet hole is only one failure point. You'll also see failures from the internal forces where the tape on the smallest ring fails releasing the entire riser. That's the advantage of the elongated ring from aerodyne. it increases the mechanical advantage of the middle ring reducing the internal load on the small ring. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I buy all my nylon from A&E Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Hmmm My first jav was built in like 91. It wasn't long after that that we started to get rw-8's in. I don't think the RW-7 thing lasted more then a couple of years total. People figured out that they were a bad idea real quick. Actually I just looked. I've got a RW-7 here stamped 93 so they were in production at least that long. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Honestly, I'm cheep. It's not an inexpensive devive to buy and maintain. I did a lot of CRW. The probability of it helping me was relatively low. Note: there has been a save on a CRW dive and I had a friend that hit his head on exit that one might have saved. A helmet would have been even better for him. Still the need is a lot lower. And I have on occasion borrowed rigs that had AAD's in them when I was doing something... weird and felt the need for one. But I could never justify the investment too buy one my self. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

It would be difficult the make the requirement universal with the number of people that have been hurt or killed by them. And please note that Although I do not jump one my self I am not fundamentally anti AAD. I know that all sounds strange and contradictory but bear with me. AAD's have become extremely reliable and can be depended to do EXACTLY what they are designed to do. Please pay attention to how I phrased that. The problem is that they are not designed to save your life. They are designed to fire a cutter when they experience certain conditions of static pressure and pressure change. And they will do it whether you want them to or not. What follow may save your life, it may not, or it may kill you. And it has on numerous occasions done all of the above. AAD fires have saved a hand full of people. They have also saved a much larger group of idiots. But they have also played a part in a number of incidents and accidents, read fatalities. On top of all this there has been some controversy about the cutters even inhibiting the normal operation of rigs. Pinching loops and locking containers closed. I don't think it's a huge issue but it is out there. So with all of this it might be hard to make it unilateral. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

It would be more appropriate to say that the change from the RW-7 to the RW-8 fixed the problem of the riser being cut where it wrapped around the harness ring. The Type 3 reduced the elongation of the grommet hole but it also increased the bulk where the webbing folded inwards and decreased the mechanical advantage of the middle ring. Booths specs did help to standardize the production but the tolerances are still very tight. And I think the biggest thing has been that we've gotten better at packing. learning how to stow micro line and softer opening canopies have, in my opinion, done more then any thing else to stop riser failure. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Every thing said here is true but you may be blowing some of it out of proportion. Cutting away under normal circumstances is not a problem with any system. If it were they would not be in use. Problems only arise in extreme circumstances. With extremely hard openings. With twisted risers. With out of spec components. It's not till things go wrong that it gets interesting. The problem is you're asking people that have spent there lives studying those cases. It doesn't attract our attention till a riser breaks on a line dump. Or a cable kinks and gets sucked through the grommet on a hard opening. Or a ring bends. Or some one goes in with twisted risers. Mini risers work. We've all jumped them. We've all cut away with them. What I'm saying is this. The tolerances are at the limit of manufacturing. The mechanical ratio is not there. The reinforcement that is added to protect the grommet hole only reduces the mechanical advantage. It is fundamentally an inferior design. The advantages are. It's easier to pull the slider behind your head and it looks cooler. And in theory it has a little less drag. Some people even fold them in half to try to make them even more aerodynamic, but that's just anal. But it's the cool thing that really sold people and made mini risers the standard design for the industry. Let's face it. We sell cool. That's what skydiving is. The people that care about safety play tennis or go bowling. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

From an engineering point of view, mini risers, or more importantly mini rings, suck. It was just fundamentally a bad idea. There were problems with hard opening causing elongation of the grommet hole. Some of them broke. More importantly the internal forces are too high. There is just not enough mechanical advantage in the length of the rings. I've seen risers fail by breaking the tape of the small ring. It does transfer more load to the white loop that could contribute to a hard pull. A greater issue is if you get any external load on that loop from an out side source like the housing, but we've gotten smarter about that. One solution that lets you be cool and have your one inch risers is the aerodyne ring. Their mini force risers or what every they call the things. It substantially reduces the internal forces in the system. Note that they are a little longer and are not necessarily compatible with all rigs with out a little work. If you get big rings and big riser you wont go wrong. If you get big rings you can always put mini ring risers on then, no problem, you just wont look as cool. It's really just a question of form vs. function. What's more important to you? Looking cool or functionality? Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Till the badly finished fabric rots. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

YOU FOUND MY SCISSORS! Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Jo Ann's... We have established were the problem is. DO NOT GO IN THERE AGAIN. Do not speak to any of those people. You are not a little old lady building a quilt for your grand child. You're a rigger start acting like one. Find the person that deals with industrial sewing machines. You'll know the place because it will look like a wear house. It will have rows and rows of bare metal shelves that go all the way to the roof stacked with old heads. Never buy a head younger then you are. There will be table tops stacked on pallets. Piles of old legs and other accoutrements stacked in the corner. And motors stacked in boxes. Thread comes on one pound or half pound spools. Needles come by the hundred. Buy your bobbins by the dozen. And fabric comes on a roll. There are two worlds in sewing. Those of us that actually build things with REAL sewing machines and... those other people. We do not intermingle. We will help you but you must cut all ties with those other people. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Between the snatch force of the bag hitting line stretch and the drag of the PC it generally flips you up onto your ass. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

In the event of a high speed mal, bag lock for example. You would be pulling the ripcord. PC launch well when you pull the ripcord. And you're standing up so the PC is launching almost horizontally so it's actually in good air, no burble hesitation. And you've got some speed so little chance of towing the PC. On the whole it's a pretty good scenario as long as you act promptly. See, I'm not always doom and gloom. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

There have been some fatalities where the reserve did not open in time from a cypress fire. One theory is that the Pc is not launching when the cypress unit fires. The loop is not released from the top where all the flaps can just slip off the end of it as the PC pushes on the from bellow. In stead the cutter severs the loop deep within the pack job and the remnants of the loop caught on the end of the rip cord lock the flaps as the PC tries to push it's way through them The tail has to be pulled up through the pilot chute and run through all of the grommets like pulleys as the grommets spread. Depending on how deep the loop is cut this can cause significant hesitations in the PC clearing the flaps of the container or even locking it closed. Lot's of threads on this. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Well... we are having PC hesitation problems with AAD fires. Think about it. Pack opening bands - Set your pilot chute free! Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Consew 230, half speed motor, small pulley. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

On the main tray, like a left sided BOC doesn't really work. Think about it. There is a loop formed by the risers/canopy all the way from the three rings down to the bottom of the rig. The reserve, at least in it's present location is with in that loop. You basically can't have any thing crossing that loop when the main lifts or vice versa when the reserve lift off your back. Same classic problem you run into when trying to build a tirsh rig. There are possibly ways to build a container with a hand deploy reserve which could have an AAD. It would involve a multi path deployment system. Where basically the Free bag would be a part of the container. You throw the hand deploy and it releases and lifts the whole reserve tray, AAD, spring loaded PC and all. Alternatively The AAD cuts a loop opening the tray and lifts the inner bad to line stretch. It would be complicated. I think... I could do it. Of course the obvious choice for a hand deploy reserve is to build a chest mount where neither canopy interferes with the other. Done that. Or you could just stick with a rip cord which allows you to remotely activate the reserve from a very convenient handle on your chest. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Setting the AAD issue aside. Where would you place the reserve PC so that it can be deployed ether before or after the main. Think about bridle and riser routing. It has been done by placing the reserve PC high on the shoulder or behind the neck. Not the most convenient location. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Routing. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Ether the line comes looking like a Y and you larks head the A line on and then make the loop around the B line attachment, finger trap, and bar tack. Or It comes as an A line and a B line and you loop them both on and finger trap and sew the cascade. Break lines you sew all the top attachment points. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Compatibility should not be that big an issue. As I also pointed out. This business of only having to test the smallest and largest only applies if function is not impaired. They have used that paragraph in the standard as an excuse to only test the most extreme variations. I think there is a legitimate argument that function IS impaired. In which case the TSO is invalid. If they have to test every other size in order to insure function then that is what is required by the TSO. There are a number of standards for performance in the TSO. Not just strength. That's actually the easiest one. And a good argument for the harness to be separate. But the container is also TSO'd It must also meet the standards that apply to it. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

WTF? Dewolf doesn't teach rounds? Are you serious? I don't even know where to start on how wrong that is. I recall a motion to repeal the military experience qualification at PIA based on lack of familiarity with squares. This is the same issue from the other side. How can you be a Rigger with out knowing how to pack a parachute? What happens when a butler walks in and they close the diaper wrong and kill the fuck out of some one. There is no such thing as a Half Back rating. Lee Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Now I'm confused. If F references TS-135 then what is this TSO c23G? and what standard does it reference? Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I think he would like to see it happen but I think this is a case where wishing does not necessarily make it so. There is a skill to interpreting the meaning in these document, and I don't have it, but I think it hinges on the phrase "...in accordance with the parachute manufacturer’s instructions..." Which this would deffenintly violate. I once brought up the idea of getting an approval through the FSDO as an alteration. Which would be legal but no one really seemed to jump on that idea. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com