andrewhilton

Hi Stratostar, Thanks for the input and reply. There's a Rod's Rebel pictured elsewhere on dz.com - quite possibly yours - but that has 3 pack opening bands ; this rig has 2 and they are neater eyelets and rubber elastics, not the metal spring and hook eyelets that the Rods rebels has. Poynters records that the RR went from 3 POBs to a single strand of shock cord in 1975, so I'm surmising this isn't a Rods rebel? Andrew

Pics rig2_1 and rig2_2 houses a 28' flat circular, not a c9 but a red coloured version of such a canopy.

I have 2 rigs hanging around in my gear mountain which I can't identify. Both are back mount harness/container combinations. Any suggestions or ideas much appreciated. Pics rig1_1 and rig1_2 housed a ParaPlane Cloud canopy and I think has a Pioneer Super Pro Harness, however the container is not a Super Pro.

One of my favourite canopies too.

Poynters Vol 1 states the Omega is 'A tandem parachute assembly with Teflon lined reserve ripcord housing, no belly band, hip mounted pull-out pilot chute and "Reallywell" canopy releases. Circa early 1978. In June 1978, the Omega O.H.R single point release was added' I'd love to see pictures of a 'Reallywell' canopy release, presumably the Riggers' Workshop variant of the capewell. Beatnick what does yours have - single point or reallywells? Links to more pictures for Peter's comments - A strange cutaway system I don't know. A strange cutaway system I don't know. A strange cutaway system I don't know. A Dacron reserve ripcord. (Kevlar actually) Some sort of strap type main deployment system (with lines coiled in pack tray.) Some sort of strap type main deployment system (with lines coiled in pack tray.) The packed rig

A couple of extra pictures

Today I assembled a rig that I have had for ages. A 'Riggers Workshop' Omega system from 1978. I have posted pictures as usual on my flickr site which illustrates many of the features of the rig. However I need some help in figuring out how to close the main container. It is some kind of pull out system, but the only place I can logically locate the pilot chute is outside the rig. There seems to be a pouch in the back pad but as it is on both sides of the rig it may just be a coincidence. The pilot chute bridle and the pull out lanyard ends up located outside the main container as well, covered only by the large main container side flaps. It seems pretty messy but I have done the best I can to figure it out from first principles with a small hint in Poynters that the Omega had a 'hip mounted pilot chute' . Can anyone recall how this system was closed?

22 feet long 10 inches wide Made of Crepe Paper We used newspaper at the weighted end - 2 sheets of a 'broadsheet' (ie big) newspaper rolled up seemed to do the trick You're aiming for something that takes two minutes to descend from 2200 feet. Make one, time it and adjust accordingly.

There's a good section in the Para commander handbook covering short-lining and how the acceptable length to short-line by varies with the jumper's weight. What model of PC do you have? My Competition PC is just beyond the recommended minimum line length in the book but I have a 100% success rate using it, based on the one time I have jumped it. Are you in the UK?- I would be happy to provide packing lessons. I have some notes somewhere I could email you too. I can lend you a deployment device and maybe even a rig. I'm not sure it would fit in a rig built for a modern 260 (mine are built for Manta 280s or bigger). Here's a link to some pictures of round deployment devices to help illustrate things. There are also some pictures that could be used to make a short sleeve aka slag (sleeve/bag) or POD including basic measurements. The slag measurements are for a PC ; the POD is for a Papillon. http://www.flickr.com/photos/vintageparachutegear/sets/72157628083833002/

This rig and main has been in Scotland since bought in Perris new in the early 80s......and the main was used for about 500 jumps over the years, I hope it'll hold for a few more with me under it.

Well spotted. No one ever wanted to borrow this rig. I think the handle configuration may have come from the fact that this rig was seemingly originally built with a single handle SOS system ; in configuring it back to having seperate handles on opposite sides, I'm speculating that a lazy / easy option was taken by whoever did the conversion and the cutaway system was left as it was with the reserve handle conversion added to the non-standard side.

I acquired a Comet and matching rig this weekend for the collection. The canopy is a Comet 228 ; the rig I think is a Pigmee and has markings from both Parachutes Australia and Embury Sky Systems on it. Some pics attached, not jumped it yet. Anyone notice anything odd about the rig?

It's worth what anyone is willing to pay. Over here in Europe a Delta2 Parawing is pretty rare so I'd be bidding if I didn't have one already. Production Delta2's appeared in 1969, the coloured lines were fitted to the earliest models, though some manuals appear to show them without coloured lines. Perhaps those were the prototype models, or down to the Black and white photos not showing this up clearly enough.

Whilst out of print, Peter Chapman uploaded it to http://www.parachutemanuals.com//index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=&func=fileinfo&id=308 That book is an increasingly valuable resource as time goes by.

Lots of info as always in Gary Lewis' Para-Commander Handbook. The two scans attached here show that shortlining was possible up to about 4.5 feet. I put PCs in modern Telesis (student) rigs, they fit fine and allow me to use all the safety features of modern gear.

I have placed an ad in the classifieds to help me reduce the parachute mountain in my county. Glad to pass this on for free if someone can use it. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/classifieds/detail_page.cgi?ID=116328;d=1

This isn't the answer you were looking for, though there was a Jumbo PC on the classifieds on DZ.com for years for about $500 which never sold. 27ft Russian PCs seems more common than Jumbos though - is that an alternative for this guy looking for a slower descent - ie was the 27ft a slower descender than the 24ft Mk1's and Mk2's? Or perhaps not? - as it was built for accuracy, which meant it was good at going straight down....

Darren - Headcorn, UK do water jumps annually, or at least used to. A memorable comment from Zing on these forums, was that the Strato-Flyer's landing put the acceptance of the ram air reserve in the sport back by about 10 years. I have an almost new one but am not drawn to trying it out! Andrew

About time I got one of these right. More pics of one at http://www.flickr.com/photos/vintageparachutegear/sets/72157622566866375/ This came with a C9 and a T10a (modified by some guy called John Sherman). I now squeeze a ropes and rings heavy weight Stratocloud in a diaper (!) into it. The labels on this rig show Stylemaster for the harness - I guess it was a TSO issue - eg the harness is an exact copy of a Stylemaster, including the chest mount reserve's d-rings, even though the rig of course already has a reserve built in. Andrew

The POBs point at it being a Strongs......their piggyback'd version of the Style Master front and back was known as a Starmaker, which is what this probably is

Irvin Hawk parawing ?

Here's Henny's Sierra (not Sierra lite) flying at Teuge in 2008, also another advert for lightweight rounds - the RW PC. These and the Strong Starlite must have been the end of the line for rounds - were these were the fastest and smallest rounds that the sport managed to get to before ram-air became mainstream?

The OSI on the packing pics Beatnick has posted is far longer than the OSI on the canopies I have been using. I think the original length was something like 2 yards, but this was cut in half after some experiences with the openings. The same picture also shows a telfon coating on the OSI to help with the high heat and friction. Not used on the canopies I jumped, and may well have been something that was hard to replace once it was damaged/worn. Beatnick and I have been talking about that lately. The multicoloured canopy pictures I have are of canopies that have barely been used and have been well looked after ; the Red Devils one had seen a lot of jumps. The photographer knew his stuff too, the coloured lines show up well don't they? I think the white and black one must have scared its original owner and was just stored away. It must have less than 20 jumps on it, the coloured lines are gleaming bright. For the Red Devils canopy, the lines had all been cut off and I had to make the OSI from scratch too - I used kevlar tandem. This was quite a project, which would have been Beatnicks if not for the owners reluctance to trust the overseas mail for such an artefact, hence it stayed in the UK and ended up with me. Tons more detailed pics at http://www.flickr.com/photos/vintageparachutegear/

Security Sierra....though the cascaded lines in the picture don't fit in with my info 1975

Here's some pictures of the Delta2 Parawing jumps we have made over the last few weekends at Langar in the UK. All of these fantastic shots were taken by Tony Danbury. The red/black, and white/black canopies are UK made Irvin Delta2 Parawings ; the red one is an original Red Devils canopy. The Red Devils Parawings were US made, and were among the first 3 commercially produced versions of this canopy. The Red Devil canopy belongs to Craig Bulman, who rescued it from the scrap bin around 1992 when he himself was in the Red Devils (The Parachute Regiment Freefall Team). It needed a lot of work including a full reline before it could finally be jumped again.