councilman24

OK. I'd be hard pressed to interpret "substitute ... components" as including sewn in features. Bring it up at the Rigger Forum in Jacksonville. It out to be good for about an hour. I'm old for my age. Terry Urban D-8631 FAA DPRE

After looking at all these fancy things for 3 or 4 years I still jump my protect when I want a harder hat and a frap hat when I don't care. See the following link for a liner upgrade. http://www.oregonaero.com/p81_2001.html I'm old for my age. Terry Urban D-8631 FAA DPRE

Don't expect it to surf, don't expect to do a two stage flare. Practice flaring in the air if you have time. Try to find the stall point so you don't stall it on landing. Probably flare a little higher, faster, and farther. Performace isn't so much that its 7 vs 9. (see all the modern 7 cells) But zp vs 0-3 cfm fabric and WING design and trim. My Triathlon 190 (7 cell) had the same forward speed and maybe a little flatter glide angle than my sabre 190 (9 cell), measured with an anemometer (sp?). Flares weren't much different, a little. A 200 sq ft Maverick, bigger version of your cricket, wouldn't go as fast or far. And my 5 cell Cirrus cloud would out glide a 7 cell fury side by side. But didn't land for s**t. (Any body want an airworthy Cirrus Cloud?) Another example, after a badly busted leg I had a Manta for awhile and then a Sabre 190. When I wanted a guarenteed soft landing, I picked up the Sabre. Stop worrying, be prepared to PLF, land the silly thing, and buy BEER, and more BEER. Ask around. You can probably find a maverick main to tryout. I'm old for my age. Terry Urban D-8631 FAA DPRE

One way. Cross wind jump run down wind of the opening spot. Each exits solo, tracks into the wind, 90 deg. from line of flight. Farthest open above X (pick altitude) wins. Adjust jump run for altitude, wind, and skill level of trackers to put opening near the right place. More fun? Cross wind jump run far upwind of the opening spot. Track down wind to make it back. Be ready to land out. These days a good spot means the correct side of the airport. Ahhhhhhhh for the good old days when a good spot ment within a 100 ft of where you wanted to open and accuracy approach started at opening. Just kidding, kinda. I'm old for my age. Terry Urban D-8631 FAA DPRE

As a former Golden Knights rigger put it ... "When you open a round reserve, your still in an emergency situation." This was when he was making their Style and Accuracy team change to squares and therefore piggy back rigs. Of couse the only reserves I've ever landed were round. And my first rig was a ParaCommander. Maybe better in two out, but I don't know of any sport round reserve with a free bag. There is a pilot rig with a free sleeve, and another that if the load is high enough the bag will strip free. I firmly believe that the malfunction rate for ram air reseves is lower than sport round reserves. Unless they have anti inversion netting. And again, I don't know of any civilian rig with anti-inversion netting. Also, I'm not sure how many modern rigs are TSO'd for a round. Hmmm haven't thought about it because I haven't care. BTW I pack as many round pilot rigs as square skydiver rigs. The only skydiver rigs with round reserves in my area are sitting in closets and haven't been jumped in 8 or 10 years. I'm old for my age. Terry Urban D-8631 FAA DPRE

Well, since I'm driving down a full size pickup with a cap, I'll guess I'll throw it in. Never was one for traveling light. I'm old for my age. Terry Urban D-8631 FAA DPRE

If all your doing is cleaning the cables don't remove the three rings. Just lay the canopy out, carefully pull the handle, clean it, and reinstall. If you really want to remove the main, you need to worry about more than just putting it on backwards. You can twist one riser, flip one riser throught the lines, flip one riser through the other risers lines, and most of this above or below the slider. When you take the risers off the harness rings, immediately lay one rise on top of the other and tie an overhand knot in the two risers. This keep things in order. I started rigging long before pro packing so here's a description checking it with the canopy on it's side. Put a weight of some sort on the knoted risers. Pull the slider down, and lay the canopy out on it side like side packing. Straighten it out and pull the lines tight. Untie the risers and replace the weight. I always put the nose to my left so I'll describe it that way. If the nose is to the left, the left side of the canopy is on top of the stack and the right side is against the floor. So, the lines from the top half of the stack are attached to the left riser. If things look twisted untwist the risers, place in the proper right/left orientation and replace the weight. Now, start with the lines on the outside of the left link, front or back, and pick up the lines off the floor one at a time going from out to in on the left riser and continuing inside to out on the right. You will pick up the lines from the top of the stack to the bottom. If you look at the cascade and pick up a line in the wrong order you will lift up a cascade with the one your lifting. Do the same with the other, either front or back. Check the steering lines. The left one should go from the left riser through the keeper ring, throught the slider grommet, and directly to the top of the canopy stack. The right should go directly to the lower half of the stack. They shouldn't go around anything or each other. This sounds confusing, but with practice you can do a complete line rotation in about 3 minutes. After it's hooked up, lay the harness face down and run the line groups up to the canopy. The left lines front, rear and steering line on separate fingers of the left hand and the right side the same in the right hand. Nothing should cross and the nose should be on the bottom, pointing toward the floor and the tail up toward your head. This all sounds confusing. You can also just label the riser left and right like some manufacturers do. Or inflate it. Some people never are convinced it's on straight unless the inflate it in the wind and see it. Have some one show you. I once watched someone spend an hour and a half hooking up a main. They never looked below the links to see if the left side is on the left and the right is on the right. It was on backwards. If you haven't figured out quit how things look, take a long look at your canopy when your under it. Look at the order of the lines on the links in relation to the canopy. Once you get used to looking at it, it's not hard to see. Have fun.

I think it's going to be too long. 6' would be closer to a C18.5. Take your measurements per the Sun Path order form and call them with the numbers. Have the serial number of the rig. They can tell you whether the rig should fit. http://www.sunpath.com/downloads/orderform/javelinform.pdf I'm old for my age. Terry Urban D-8631 FAA DPRE

Your welcome. They're useful for other things. Geared to sell to manufacturers but individuals welcome. I buy bits and pieces from them all the time. Of course they're also friends. Some things are only in bulk, like velro. But it's the gooood velcro. I'm old for my age. Terry Urban D-8631 FAA DPRE

Hmmmmm. I was in college 23 years ago. Does that count? Going to be in the area for the Symposium the next week. May have to stop by. I'm old for my age. Terry Urban D-8631 FAA DPRE

Ok I'll bite. Some time to kill before my next meeting. We need harder ones than this. How about 500', terminal velocity, reserve RC pulled at 1700' after cutaway. Been on back. Nothing but blue sky. Hmmmmm. Reserve Total. Bend over and kiss it good bye. ...... Been there, done that. Reserve decided to open, finally. That's why I became a rigger. I'm old for my age. Terry Urban D-8631 FAA DPRE

Heading to the Symposium. Going to be in Florida early. I've got a CRW rig I put together last spring when some of us were going to start in again. Lots of jumps but not many CRW. A couple of 4 stacks and downplanes in the early 90's. Any Florida DZ's have some CRW dogs hanging around willing to jump with an old fart CRW novice? Have a PD lightning at 1.25. If not I'll probably leave the rig at home ... and only bring two! I'm old for my age. Terry Urban D-8631 FAA DPRE

DJ associates sells multispool variety packs. http://www.dj-associates.com/nylon_thread.htm 1 ounce spools 12 standard colors for $27. 12 Neon colors for $30. Or #69 Upholstery thread. I'm old for my age. Terry Urban D-8631 FAA DPRE

I guess I'm wondering why not save up the money rather than investing in one piece at a time? By the time you buy a main you may have changed your mind about the container. Unless it's to keep you from spending the money on something else. There really isn't any problem with buying things one at a time. But once you buy one component you will limit your choices on the others. And having components sitting on the shelf is a shameful waste of good nylon! Obviously buy an AAD last so your not burning up the lifetime. It's measured from DOM not in service date. All canopies are compatible with all harnesses within appropriate size ranges (unless you want a round reserve). An example of old incompatibility is early reserve bags came with the canopy, not the container. Some containers only had two reserve risers instead of four a ram air requires (with one exception). All of these things were in the early 80's. Now the only real compatibility problem I can think of is soft links on some risers with out toggle hoods. But these things are minor and can be remedied. And just to reiterate. A used container should come with a reserve RC, free bag, reserve PC, reserve toggles, cutaway handle, main bag, main risers, main toggles, and usually main PC. The main PC is sometimes customized to the canopy and the original that came with the container may have been lost or sold. I'm old for my age. Terry Urban D-8631 FAA DPRE

Also make sure you take care of your reserve while it's unpacked. Translation - Don't let the cat play in it. I prefer to take cypres' out for my customers. That way I can see the condition of the rig when it's opened and I know how things are handled. I don't charge my regular customers anything. In general I don't add any costs to my customers because they have a cypres, other than my real out of pocket costs for batteries. I want to encourage there use. BTW, you can't put it back in. The FAA tried to insist it took a MASTER rigger to install in a cypres ready rig, but USPA and PIA got them to back off to a Senior rigger. I'm old for my age. Terry Urban D-8631 FAA DPRE

Changing parts may not solve the problem if you don't know why it's happening. Assuming that the current system is working as intended and in good shape, it may be a compatibility problem. A customer of mine this year had his first reserve ride ever, after 1200 jumps, because of a brake releasing. (It got worse from there.) The problem was that he added soft links to risers that didn't have toggle nose keepers or hoods. The slider was able to come down fast enough over the soft links to dislodge the toggle. Risers with soft links should have toggle hoods. These are little pockets for the nose to go into after the brake is set. I'm not familiar with recent Thomas equipment, but check out your assembly and see if this is the cause. It can be fixed by changing links to stop the slider, or by installing toggle hoods. If this isn't it, try to figure out whats going wrong before spending $100 plus on risers. Other riser may be able to be used. But length, width, and ring brand/style should be the same. The geometry of the three ring may vary depending on the ring set used. So.. it may be that simple or it may not be. Terry I'm old for my age. Terry Urban D-8631 FAA DPRE

That might not be a bad first rig to own, but I doubt that your ready for it yet. Based on your last post you have NO ZP experience. In my opinion as an instructor and a rigger for 20 years you should start with nothing smaller than a 210 ZP. Flying these will be very different than the PD 210. Get some friendly or formal instruction. If rental is available you might not want to buy one this big but is wouldn't hurt. I'd suggest that at least a couple of hundred jumps before you might want to get quite that small. But I'm conservative. Read the articles here for some valuable education. My guess (pretty positive) is that PD wouldn't recommend this at your level. http://www.performancedesigns.com/education.asp I'm old for my age. Terry Urban D-8631 FAA DPRE

That's Raven's early enough to maybe need a bikini slider if it doesn't have one. Original Raven's tended to open slow, for those days. Not they'd be considered normal. Precision offered a partially skeletonized slider. They were never maditory but I know serveral rigger who wouldn't and won't pack an original Raven as a reserve without one. I checked by old Para Gear catalogs and I think yours is one of these earlier Ravens. Just something to ask you rigger about or warn your buyer about. I'm old for my age. Terry Urban D-8631 FAA DPRE

I'll try to post some stuff. I'm part of the staff for the event. Most of it will probably be on web sites after there announced at PIA. Never to late to show up. Terry Urban I'm old for my age. Terry Urban D-8631 FAA DPRE

Here is the portion of FAR part 65 that applies. The only difference between mains and reserves is that for mains you don't have to keep records. have the specified facilities, seal it, etc. See the last section below. Now because records aren't required, it would be hard to prove who did what to a main, but if an FAA inspector saw you doing something not allowed you could be busted. The answer to the root question is no. It would be an alteration, require a Master, field approval by the FAA or approval by the manufacturer. But a lot of rigger woulds I'd be very carefull adding a cordura BOC. Most of these are designed as an integral part of the rig. With out the elastisity of cordura you have little room for error. Look into SPANDURA instead. Soon to be use for all Relative workshop BOC's (per recent post from Bill Booth.) Sec. 65.125 Certificates: Privileges (a) A certificated senior parachute rigger may- (1) Pack or maintain (except for major repair) any type of parachute for which he is rated; and (2) Supervise other persons in packing any type of parachute for which that person is rated in accordance with Sec. 105.43(a) or Sec. 105.45(b)(1) of this chapter. (b) A certificated master parachute rigger may- (1) Pack, maintain, or alter any type of parachute for which he is rated; and (2) Supervise other persons in packing, maintaining, or altering any type of parachute for which the certificated parachute rigger is rated in accordance with Sec. 105.43(a) or Sec. 105.45(b)(1) of this chapter. (c) A certificated parachute rigger need not comply with Secs. 65.127 through 65.133 (relating to facilities, equipment, performance standards, records, recent experience, and seal) in packing, maintaining, or altering (if authorized) the main parachute of a dual parachute pack to be used for intentional jumping I'm old for my age. Terry Urban D-8631 FAA DPRE

You must display a light visible for three miles in any direction. FAR par 105 "...... a) No person may conduct a parachute operation, and no pilot in command of an aircraft may allow a person to conduct a parachute operation from an aircraft between sunset and sunrise, unless the person or object descending from the aircraft displays a light that is visible for at least 3 statute miles. (b) The light required by paragraph (a) of this section must be displayed from the time that the person or object is under a properly functioning open parachute until that person or object reaches the surface. A white strobe meets that requirement, most other lights don't. What I do with the strobe is securly tie about 6 feet of line to it, secure the other end to a leg strap, and stow in a pocket or inside the jumpsuit. After opening I turn on the strobe and dangle is below me. This makes is visible from any direction, and gets it out of my line of sight so as not to ruin my vision for landing. For freefall I wear a Portec helmet. Loop 2 or 3 rubber bands together to form a longer band, thread it through the front two holes on the helmet from the inside, and insert the ends of the cylume into the loops of the rubber bands coming out of the holes. Povides enough light wear your looking but is out of your direct eyesight. Again this protects your vision for landing. I made several small red LED lights using componets from Radio shack that either attache to the brackets of a chest mount altimeter or attach to the side of a wrist mount with super velcro stuff. Mini cylumes, usually found at a bait shop for lures, taped to an altimeter face work also. Clear packing tape secures it with out obscuring the altimeter. Thats about all you need. On a bright night you can read your alitmeter by moonlight. Some people tape a cylume to a riser so they have a better chance of finding a cutaway main, but I've never bothered. Unless your doing big RW (more than 2 or 4) I wouldn't worry about your jumpsuit color. Your first night jump should be solo. If you want to try RW keep it to two or three for the first time. Be prepared to PLF on landing. Depth perception is tough and until you have some experience with night landings its a little tough sometimes to figure out how high you are. At our Cessna DZ I often go up to spot for the newbies. Were on a private field, no runway lights, in the middle of the country with lots of individual farm lights around. It tough to pick out unless someone shows you. One of the hardest things, even with the strobes is to see the other canopies in the air. Try to keep the load small and fiind all the other canopies. Its not a bad idea to stagger openings, with the fast movers lower so they don't descend by the others. Set up a landing patterna and stick to it. Have fun. One of the prettiest jumps I've ever done was a night jump. I opened about 5000' to enjoy the view. It was fall and there was a bright moon. All of the low lying areas had fog. Looked like something out of a fantasy. Expected a dragon to fly by me anytime.

The implied advantage is that you open the container, not the PC. Errrrrr I can't resist. I can't pull a pin with 150 lbs of force, like a PC. Can you? I'll be fare. This system has worked well for many skydivers. But I (and many others) believe you have to be much more careful about packing and maintenance with a pullout versus a throw out. Each has real and perceived advantages and disadvantages. Someone else good at searching threads find him one to read. I'm old for my age. Terry Urban D-8631 FAA DPRE

He wouldn't be the only European rigger there. Maybe if he ups his rates he can afford it. We've had a PIA meeting in Germany (which I didn't attend for similar reasons). Maybe one day we'll have a symposium in Europe. Of course all I speak is American. I'm old for my age. Terry Urban D-8631 FAA DPRE

Get your rigger to come to the PIA International Parachute Symposium and see a demo of how to pack it. (The preceeding was a shameless plug.) I'm old for my age. Terry Urban D-8631 FAA DPRE

There have been dozens of designs for keeping the handle in place. Tuck tab stiffeners, combinations of velcro, etc etc. One common source of reserve rides used to be floating handles (routinely know as dildos or more politely puds). Think floating ripcord only in the middle of your back. An early rig had the handle on a somewhat longer lanyard and it was in view on your side. I saw this system knot around the PC twice in a couple of months. (Old Rapid Transit) NO, I won't start the debate over, but see Rob's comments. I'm old for my age. Terry Urban D-8631 FAA DPRE