RiggerLee

Ok, I'm still confused here. Is this a seven cell with noncascaded center a/b lines? I thought we were talking katana here? Some body help me out I'm still confused and that bugs me. What kind of canopy do you have there? Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Was he jumping slinks? Are there bumpers on the lines? It looks like the discoloration comes all the way down to the end of the loop. If he was jumping hard links with out bumpers look for wear where the line got pinched and cut between the grommet and the link. Am I blind or are there only four lines on each link at the top of the page? Katana? Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

What year was it made? I recall a discusion here about GQ securitys pollicies on there current equipment and it's effects on older security gear. Is it legal to pack that or are they all grounded? Not throwing stones here. Great canopy. If you don't want it I'll sure take it and put it in a base rig for water jumps. But what was the final concenses on all of that? Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

At least he made it. That poor bat died for the dream of going where no bat has gone before. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

It's from Stimpson. It's the one for SS not brass. You must have the brass one. The diffrence is in the top half, the hand part not the base, It's marked #0 SPUR SS. I think I got mine from Loid and Hodges but it might have come from Fassener Supply. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Yes there isa hand set for ss that puts a tight roll on the edge. A riser is about as thich as you can go the long shanks are just barely long enough and you have to use a heavy hammer to get enough compression to really roll it. Does any one know of a slightly longer grommet then he ss #0 from Loid and hodges? Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Replicating a chest mount reserve? Are you talking about this canopy or the container? I can think of easier canopies to build and nicer containers to copy the an old mil chest. Flat packs and Seiras are much nicer. Any one remember the little brick shaped one where the canopy stacked on edge and loops camp up through the middle? Like a smaller tighter version of a stile master chest? I'm brain locking and can't remember the name. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

You can buy new parts all day long. As some one who has worked in the industry I'm all for that. Suport the skydiving economy! Save us from recesion! But please don't do this because you have some ilusion about how it is makeing skydiving safer for you. Please. Cad is soft. It's a sacrifical metal. It's only job is to protect the surface. That ring just has a slightly heavier coating. I've seen lots of risers that looked just like that. On an abrasion scale of 1-10 I'd give it a 2 or maybe a three I can't see from the picture. That's low. Any excessive wear on the riser? Not just pollish where it's rubbed the resin smoth and shiny but wear? You know there's a lot of things I'd sweet way more then that. It seems to have become really popular to have become ultra concervitive. It's an easy stance to take exspecaly here on the web. People comeing up with comments just so they can be heard. There are a number of people here that I really enjoy hearing from. People with real knowlage that we can all learn from. It seems the adverage knowlage of jumpers has gone down even in the time that I've been in the sport. As good of a tool as a site like this can be and as hungry as people are to learn they are consumed by fear and uncertinty. It's a mistery and frightens them. Playing off there fears to garner there attention is not the most productive thing in the world. And now it's like we are in to the second or third generation of this. Now these fears are being treated as fact as they are being passed down. Some times I wonder if this is all a good thing or not. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Very cool. Waiting with baited breath. It's nice to have threads that are more interesting then "look at the color of my new rig." Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Sure I'd jump it. I'd try to get a new set of risers. No hurry but I'd like to get a new set in the next 500 jumps or so. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

By far the most important facture in determining whether a rig is "Freefly Friendly" is how shiny it is. How much pollished stainless is there on the rig. How many unnessasary rings does it have. Color is also important. To be "Freefly Friendly" the rig must be built in loud colors. The preffrences in color vary but they must be bright and incorperate the newest exotic fabricks. Shiney and relective siver is always a good choise. White is also a popular option. Keeping in mind that if the rig becomes unexceptably stained it will no longer be safe to "Freefly" in and will have to be replaced. Black a former staple of the skydiveing industry is not "freefly Friendly" and you will NOT be cool with a solid black rig. The most important thing is it must match the rest of your gear. If it does not corordanate with your jumpsuit it is NOT "Freefly Friendly"! This raises the question of which comes first the jumpsuit design or the rig. It has become a chicken or the egg question. Ideally they should be designed togather as a corordonated package. With the rise of Origon as one of the leading "Freefly" jump suit manufacterers The suit has actualy taken presedence over the rig in the disign proccess. It is now easier to corordonate the containor with the jumpsuit then vice versa. The advent of "Freeflying" has been a God send to the gear manufacterers as it now requires any student graduating off AFF to imeadently buy new custom gear, jumpsuit, container, canopy, gearbag, etc. whitch to be "Freefly Friendly" must be totaly unique and custom with all posable new options and mods in order for them to skydive safely. Just remember It must be totaly custom and unique while at the same time being exactly like all of your friends following the latest trends at the drop zone so that you may follow the path of compleat freedom and createtivity which is "Freeflying". I hope I have explained the necasary requirements for a rig to "Freefly Friendly" so that you too can join the sport of compleat acceptance and freedom for otherwise none of your friends will jump with you. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Most of what we use is very forgiving as long as the neadle is sharp. Does any one have a lot of exspereance with the more stableized fabrics, the "sail cloths" and paraglider fabrics that are becomeing more fashionable? I would think some of them would be less forgiving in terms of neadle size and oversewing etc. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I just checked. A 19 is the smallest we use here. I could probable get by with some thing smaller. It sounds like your not pulling the thread back from around the bobbin. Some home machines have a very light spring on the tension plate. You may not be able to screw the knut down tight enough with out actualy clamping the thread. Get a stiffer spring, rethread the machine so the thread makes two loops around the holes it goes through before the plate rather then zig zag through them, add a half loop through the little post on top if it has two holes to go through. All of these can add a base tension to the thread before it goes into the tension plate. Or just get a real machine and sew like a real man! Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I'll toss out a theory. I've seen a lot of old loops made with a straight stitch. I'm trying to recall the containers that I've seen them in over the years. A lot of the loops That traditionaly seem to be built this way were long continueous double ended loops used in two pin pilot or sport rigs. In that case in the event of a partial pull, one pin cleared, where the continueous loop was ment to let the pilotchute launch regardless you would have a very long loop winding it's way through a lot of flaps and grommets. A stiff bartack or tight zigzag might create a stiff spot locking the container when it could not turn the corner around a grommet. A long straight stitch might be softer and more flexable and althoue it's under stress it's not being shock loaded so I doubt the lack of streatch is so big an issue. In fact althoue you make a good argument for zigzags over bar tacks I'll point out that most suspension lines are bartacked with staying stitches and that doesn't seem to be the bigest failure point. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

A what? Did you say Baby Cobra? I didn't know any one jumped those things. I thought they were grounded? What's the story? Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Well the term Reefing was stolen from sailing. It refers to tieing down a section of sail to reduce it's area in high winds. There are lines or ties to squize off a large fold of the sail and keep that section compressed and uninflated. What you're describeing is the clasic use of the word in parachutes. Later it seemed to be applied to all kinds of stageing devices on opening. Just for shits and grins let's see how many we can come up with. 1. I think the first system was where the milatary used a balistic cutter around the mouth of canopies to prevent over inflation till the guy or load had slowed down. As I recall it was a timed charge activated by a pin lower down on the line like a two stow diper. The fuse would start counting when you hit line streatch. I remember seeing a canopy with reefing rings on it once. The small wide rings that look like little sections of tubeing. I think it was a C-9 but the cutter was nolonger installed so I didn't get the chance to see it. I have seen larger ones that cut 1 inch tubeular webbing and they weren't that big. Any one know more? Like what type of rigs they went in? 2. I remember seeing a canopy I think it was one of the pionears with a Runter wrap. A strap locking the base opened by a pin lower on the line. Early version of a diper. I remember Stanford showing me the proper way to pack it by cutting the thing off. 3 Various forms of dipers, two, three stow, full, ashudo. 4. The velcro wrap on the delta two para wing. 5. Pilot chute controled top skin reefing. 6. Pilot chute controled around the skirt reefing. I'm listing this seperat because even though I've never had the chance to jump a Statostar with it I hear this one actualy worked. 7. The tape slider on the Starlite. 8. I've seen the picture in pointers like the rest of you of the hydrolic reefing system on the volplane but I've never gotten my hands on one. 9. PC controled reefing on squares. As I recall it was used all the way up through the Evolution. 10. I'm lumping all the sleaves, pods, and bags into one pile. 11. Modern rounds like the buttler sombraro and BRS. This shit can really work well. I've built some things like this for various purpases. 12. Some really large cargo squares that use multable cutters to stage span wise inflation. 13. At the opposit end I've packed some low altitude ejection seats that had a lanyard on top of the PC attachad to the aircraft to extract the canopy. It was cut a second later by the balistic cutter I mintioned. 14. I've never seen a balistic spreader. Any one ever played with one? 15. Remember the guy that was trying to build rounds and paragliders with inflating presureized tubes to speed opening and hold them out ridged? He ever go any where? Come on what else can we ad to the list? Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Is the turn a recent problem? With or with out breaks stowed? How many jumps on it and how many on the lines?Type of fabric? Old or new? Type of line? How are the outers shrunk? Is the trim asymetric? Is that the worst of the damage? Tears, how long... feet? Hard to imagion what's in that picture causeing a signifagent turn. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

In theroy old cards can be just thrown away. The one exception to that is if it shows compliance with a SB or AD. You might have to have a master rigger sign off mods or SB. Generaly speaking it's good practice to keep them as a record of the gear. You might try to get copyes of them it would probably increase the resale if you could for instance show that there had been no rides on the reserve. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I think it's used for natural gas. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

It's an interesting question. Where does that leave all the third party riser manufacters. Many lofts do not hold a TSO. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

If I'm understanding what I'm seeing it's all on one side of the webbing. It would tend to point load at one corner and would tend to try to peel off. The stitch density isn't very high and it might have trouble resesting that type of failure. Better to samwitch. Remember an RSL may see higher peek loads then 22 lb. they tend to pull at odd angles and with negative machanical advantage. An RSL should fail below a certin point to avoid trailing a main canopy but that loop looks really cheasy. Look just go get some one to slip it in to the riser and bar tack it for you, OK. And you might want to erase the thread unless you want people to continue to make fun of you. Yah, it really is pretty bad and I'm just trying to help you here so don't go showing that to any one else bragging about your sewing till you get it fixed. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I'll give you $100.00 for it. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I can't beleave no one has addressed the most critical issue here. That being, would you please not call it a "Chute". God you sound like a first jump student. Aren't the up jumpers there giveing you any guideince? Look you just can't be doing that, Ok. It is totaly wofo. And remember to cross your legs under canopy. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Ok, try this on for size. First keep in mind that there are a lot of variables here and it is at best hard to make really wide generalazations. We're talking hands up no toggle imput here. Also be advised that I'm pulling most of this straight out of my ass. Here goes. A canopy is trimmed at a natural CL. So in a steady state it wants to fly at certin air speed to produce the lift to suport your body weight. G=1 Now for its flight path to curve upwards you have to produce more lift G>1. In other words you have to go faster. L is proportional to the square of V. But surfice it to say that the amount of excess lift relates to how much over speed you are going. The amount of curve in your arc depends on how much G you are pulling and your over all speed. a little of excess L on a fast canopy, slight arc, long recovery. A lot of extra L on a slow moveing canopy, Hard turning fast arc, quick pull out. I'll try to make this make sence. Big student canopy. Wants to fly slow. Hook it and it feels like you swing back underneath it in nothing more then the length of the lines. If you get it going even a little bit faster it's a signifagent increase in lift and your not going that fast over all so the recovery happens over a very small arc length. Remember you have to increase your speed by the sqr of 2 to pull two G. So if you can go 40% faster you'll be makeing a 2G pull out. So 40% faster on a Manta is still not that fast. At two G it ony takes a couple of seconds to correct your path back to steady state. In the mean time you have not gone all that far along the arc. It almost looks like a 90 deg corner. Same canopy heavier guy underneath it. The canopy wants to fly faster. For the same percentage increase in speed it takes the same amount of time for the canopy to recover. But now the over all speed is greater during this time. That means a longer arc. Other examples. Lets take a flat trimmed canopy like a Stileto. Being trimmed flat means it has a good glide angle but is a little bit slow. The flatter you trim the canopy the slower it will be in stedy flight for the same wing loading. You hook it and it has a relatively short recovery arc because the steady state speed of the canopy is relativly slow. Also the glide path is shallow so it feels like the angle you've returned to as you come out of the hook is more pronounced. In fact sence the canopy is going to come out of the hook and may climb to a path above it's natural glide angle you may find that it almost planes it self out with out any input. Now lets look at a canopy of the same size but with a steaper trim. I'll throw out a Katana as an example. The natural glide angle is not as good but the canopy wants to fly faster. When you hook this with the same percentage increase in speed you're pulling the same G loading but moveing much faster. So the recovery arc is much longer. Also the angle it wants to return to is steaper and you may feel that it has not pulled out on it's own. You may feel that it needs more toggle to plane out. The issue becomes even more extream as the canopies become smaller and there speed increases. We have one guy that jumps a canopy in excess of 4.0 In steady flight I'm guessing he's running in excess of 60 mph. He spots his exit for his landing approach. I mean i would guess he starts his turn at over two grand. This is pretty dumbed down. It's really not fair to compare diffrent canopies like this. We're leaveing out a lot of variables. And I don't write very well. But at least it sounds like a decent line of bull shit. Pollish it a bit and I think you can pass it off on an unwitting low time jumper. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

It all boils down to a CL and CD. are you looking to build a model based on that or are you trying to predict them based on the spec's of the canopy. One is very doable the other is pretty much a nightmare. Honestly the best way to do the second problem is to measure it directly off a canopy. Eather being kited or in a tunnel. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com