hackish

While technically the heatshrink will shrink at about 185F most heat guns produce considerably more. I normally use a lighter for this. When it comes to sensitive electronics a calibrated heat gun is used and these can set you back $500-$1000. I'm not a big fan of this. -Michael

Please make sure there is adequate slack on the bridle so that the pin can rotate to any direction. I run the bridle above the pin then back down. On the UPT/Vector thing I don't think it's fair to say they just started. It's just that recently that enough newbies who actually read the manual pointed it out so old farts became aware and added it to their teaching curriculum. -Michael

I think with such an epic project it should be easy to get someone to jump it. I hope you can get some gopro footage of the event. I don't know CA that well but if you were in FL I'd be willing to bet some of the PD guys would help you out. It might be a business but I've found a lot of the manufacturers to be very generous and willing to encourage new ideas and new people. -Michael

I used to jump a Diablo. I have many rides on a Swift plus. Completely different animal than a 5 cell swift. I'm sure TK can tell a story about a diablo landing on the hood of his car pulling out of the parking lot... Just sayin... -Michael

Sometimes it's worthwhile to ask the manufacturer. For example I had no idea that our icarus tandem mains have the serial number printed inside the centre cell too. Maybe you will learn that the serial number is in a second location too. -Michael

I think for 220lbs plus gear it is probably not safe. I turned away someone with one of the old 5 cell swifts for that exact reason. As I recall the max weight was around 190 lbs. Something to think about is when those things were designed they did not anticipate people going above 1:1 wingloading. -Michael

Frankais made in Quebec, Canada. A large number of the suits at my DZ were made by them. Fortunately in skydiving there are many quality products to choose from. I own a Tony and a Frankais. I got measured at Tony suits and by Frankais. I think this can be a valuable part of the process as they see your size and are good at measuring stuff up. -Michael

It's 100% magic that gets the reserve out faster 90% of the time. -Michael

If you're at all handy you can make many of the tools at a fraction of the price. For example I used a $4 nylon cutting board as a closing plate for years. Packing weights were simply 5lb sand filled exercise leg weights with the velcro cut off. The velcro protector was made out of about $0.50 in scrap pile velcro and some leftover tape from an old bridle. -Michael

You understand that he is stating that the skyhook disconnected? How is that a 'save'. There is actually no way to know for sure unless you have a video. If you get a MARD deployment you can still have a disconnection. It should take at most about 9lb of force to disconnect the two so even something simple like the whipping action of the freebag coming off the reserve can snap the safety thread. A couple years ago I had a video of a tandem save where exactly this happened. The MARD assist was very evident in the gopro footage yet the freebag landed about 100' from the main. I had several stills of the two together and apart. -Michael

Ha, well put mcordell. There are often pockets of different brands of AAD in areas. It is often related to who is selling them. For example here I pack about a hundred Vigils every year. Today I actually saw a Cypres. At some DZs the exact opposite would be true. -Michael

Thanks for the pics reactor. We have no damage like that so far. It also appears in those pictures that there is a rapide link installed as I think you can see the barrel. I am curious how related is this to the actual line material. Is it specific to dacron lines? Are there specific types of sliders that cause it more than others? Is the type of grommet related? Of course brass will conduct heat better but probably also generate more than let's say SS. -Michael

Interesting coincidence that there was in fact a CSPA technical bulletin did just come out about this. -Michael

If in 1 season enough damage can occur to cause a piece like this to become damaged then my first objective is to stop the damage from occurring. I'll get some photos but I am pretty sure it's from heat. -Michael

This morning I started noticing that all of our tandem main soft links are in bad shape. All have been installed for several years. Last year a few started catching my eye as items to watch. They've progressed from "Hmmm" to "must replace". Is this something others have seen before? How many DZs are using the SR-1 soft links on their mains? Is there a solution that could protect them and still allow easy inspection? -Michael

I like the idea in principle of using a sock on the hardware until you start counting the clanky pieces on a sigma passenger harness. I did 4 in the tub today but really found the leg pads didn't clean up that well. It was a little amusing the number of pieces of gravel I worked out. I tried putting them in the washing machine on spin to dry them out but there really isn't that much stuff to hold water in like there is on a rig so I 'm not sure if it made a real difference. -Michael

After a number of years tandem harnesses are pretty dirty. I've been asked to clean them all. I can understand why! They look like crap even though there is nothing physically wrong with them. If it was one I'd it it in a tub like I normally do with a H/C but doing a pile of them, this looks like days of work! Anyone got tips/tricks or anything helpful to share? -Michael

Read by itself, this sounds as through one needs permission to make non-TSO'd components. In the U.S. (and Canada, too, I think), there are no restrictions on who may manufacture non-TSO'd components or what materials they might use. You have to take it in the context it was written. As per CSPA, a Canadian Rigger A or A1 is not permitted to make these parts. TSO isn't particularly relevant as it is not a distinction as in the USA. TC says to follow a professional org. For the most part it's CSPA. It's been years since I looked at the exact fine print wording (they wanted to pass a that would have really caused issues!) I can't recall much of a leg you could stand on. -Michael

I agree with what you're saying. I inspected one of the rigs made by the guy you mentioned and I was so impressed with the construction that I bought one. There are a few parts that worry me. First is without any rules or framework you have no idea how well made some piece is. Is that proper tape or just some chinese crap for making tents? At least with a requirement of a rating you push the individual to attend the necessary education and be vetted by the examples of work they produce to pass the course. The second issue is liability. The second they step outside what the rules say they're exposed up bigtime. Some riser you make fails you can imagine what questions you'd be asked in court. With no right to make a part imagine defending it in course even perfectly constructed. Make some Ty17 risers. Then the RSL side breaks on a hard opening and the guy goes in. Negligence causing death does carry prison time. Up here in Quebec there is a looser culture. I'm seen as the tete carre for wanting to follow the rules and even pack according to manufacturer instructions. It's not actually that hard to find an established rigger B or master rigger who is willing to supervise some work. If the objective is to work within your ticket then it can still be done. -Michael

Personally I'd do the microline. I don't like dacron because I find it too bulky. There are camps of thought on each line and each has its advantages and disadvantages. Searching will give you many pages of discussions. There are a lot of things that go into a hard opening so you are better off to invest your time in maintaining elastics, neat and proper packing and good stable deployment to lessen your chance of a hard opening to begin with. -Michael

I'm not that rich but it's tempting to actually order one and see what they send. Order it, paypal it then do a chargeback when it arrives by saying it is not what they advertised :} -Michael

This thread: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4703903;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread is in fact about what is permitted or not under the different tickets. I still have to spend some time reviewing what was said about manufacturing parts but even that didn't seem to have a solid answer. I missed the A1 course this fall so I can't comment on what A1's should be permitted to do. -Michael

The optimum's design is completely different than the PDR. A different design is going to mean many different things, one of which is the shape of the airfoil. Different airfoils have different characteristics. I specifically asked a PD engineer why he thought the PDR did so well and had such a good run. His response was that they put a lot of effort and lot of testing into it. After they got it right they focused their energy on other types of parachutes. A flare is not subjective at all. It's real and quantitative. Aerodynamically the parachute will have different lift/drag ratios throughout the flare itself. These are quite measurable in terms of speed and descent rate. If I need to park my butt into a small clearing in the woods I'll take the parachute with the better slow flight characteristics thanks. It isn't correct to say that optimum is a PDR made from lighter material with a longer toggle stroke. -Michael

Most of what you say is absolutely true. But the above does not apply to the Optimum. They are not the same as PDRs. My vote is for a PDR with harder openings (note, I said harder, not faster) and I put less importance on having a flare that mimics a 9 cell main. But I do like packing Optimums, they have the feel of really nice lingerie. Take that anyway you like! Is there any real evidence that the Optimum was not properly tested? Is there any real evidence that the optimums do snivel? They did get a TSO so you'd need to look at the testing info for real numbers, not the inexact science of looking at a crater in the ground. There have been a few reports but don't forget that correlation does not mean causation. There is another thread about AAD units not firing consistently at the right altitude. There are other discussions about reserves being packed into small rigs too tightly. Any of these could also be the cause. -Michael

Keep in mind that out of tens of millions of jumps the issue has happened a few times. UPT did testing and added it as an alternative method to their manual. Skydivers do read the manuals right? I think the worst thing they could have done would be to just tell people to switch from a method that has millions of successful tests to one that has hundreds. What if that introduced a different unforseen problem that occurred once in every 10,000 jumps not one in every 10,000,000 would we be better off? -Michael