eric.fradet

It sure looks like there is an upper and lower skin, at least for a little way back from the leading edge ________________________________________________ No there is no, I can guarantee to you, since I am use to fly everyday in southearn of france close to this type of wing ! the design has been invented by luc armant from ozone, and the link you refeer it is just a bad copy, in fact it gives to you the picture of a double surface but there is only one but there are 1 foot rods to hold the nose of the single surface curved such if you have not seen in live, you think it is a double surface; one month ago, an experimented pilot took off from Chamonix Valley at 3000 feet high and reached 17000 feet altitude to land on the top of Mont Blanc. The goal of this design is to have a very thin packing volume in order to climb eazy..

Besides the fact I do not like the idea for any sport rig to use any MARD, (in my mind MARD is restricted to the soldiers jumping at 1000 foot high, who are the only skydivers paid to be kill, anyways) 5 reasons to not use any MARD (in fact they are more but it should be enough to convince people) 1) Increasing entanglement on any Type of main horse shoe malfunction On a MARD equipped rig, the chance having your camera helmet entangled by the reserve travelling on his way is duplicated when you cutaway, in those days everyone jump a camera. Also if only the non-RSL riser is entangled, the RSL riser will leave and open your reserve container, chance on entanglement is higher. the MARD may also increase the probability of a main and reserve entanglement after a cutaway, in any type of horseshoe malfunction like foot (feet) in the main lines, main pilot chute trapped in the arm or foot, or main container open while main pc still in his pocket, The situation of a horseshoe (premature container opening with PC still in pouch) is worth looking at to get the picture : Any type of partial or total malfunction will look like these two little pictures which show the differences in between having a skyhook or not. Pic 1 shows a PC (without a MARD) trying to blow by the cutaway main that is still attached to a jumper via a stuck pc. Pic 2 shows the MARD trying to blow by the cutaway main that is still attached to a jumper via a stuck pc. If the reserve pc with the MARD inflates, it is likely that the reserve will find clear air to inflate in, but not if the reserve pc goes through the lines of the main or something similar. If the reserve pc with the MARD does not catch air immediately, and is still attached to the MARD wraps the trailing main, then I think that a main-reserve entanglement is almost a certainty. The remaining length of the reserve bridle line may provide enough drag for the reserve canopy to come out of the reserve bag, but maybe not. You can also get more slack in the reserve deployment (from the MARD point of attachment to the reserve risers) that will allow the reserve (bag and or lines) to flap around and become entangled with the trailing main. At best you could hope for the drag on the reserve lines to pull the reserve canopy out of the bag, even if the bag is attached someplace along the trailing main. I think this is a failure mode of the MARD that has not been tested, not been explained and kind of glossed over. (I certainly do not recommend asking test jumpers to test this either.) 2)Main bag lock hitting the reserve ( I did experimented it myself) . All bag locked mains will not miss the reserve canopy, especially when it is a Sigma Tandem., their tandem reserve opens in deep brakes, and therefore doesn't get out of the way as well as a "normally" braked canopy. Also with a small reserve, there is some damage or entanglement potential issue, especially to have the main lines wrapped around the reserve ones. 3) twisted lines reserve due to the main spinning malfunction momentum : All very experienced skydivers who experimented a few of this type of scenario have already disconnected their Skyhook (including sponsored team by UPT like world champion Babylon Team and French National Vertical Formation Skydiving team do not use it because of that) Read this one : it is the worst case I know, but I have other very similar scenario too : A very experienced jumper using a skyhook had a malfunction on a Velocity that had him spinning into line twists while the canopy was spinning. The resulting cutaway with a skyhook had him entangled in the freebag and bridle, he sorted it out but was nearly choked out by the reserve risers caught under his chin. It produced some nasty rash. Severe spinning around your Y axis while spinning violently doesn't seem to be covered on the videos that I have seen 4) increase of reserve shock opening There are, scenarios where an open canopy can be cutaway and act as a super pilotchute while the jumper is still at terminal. 1. The cutaway handle is accidently pulled on exit or in freefall, the jumper deploys the main, the riser covers hold long enough for the canopy to come out of the bag and partially inflate before separating from the harness. 2. The jumper deploys the main, has a hesitation, goes for the cutaway handle as the pilotchute lifts off, cuts away just as the canopy comes out of the bag. This is a relatively common malfunction. 3. The jumper experiences a baglock. Just on cutaway the canopy comes out of the bag. In these scenarios the jumper has not been decelerated by the main but it will be at least partially inflated as it lifts off. If there is a skyhook it will act as a super pilotchute with the risk of a catastophically hard opening. Many people think that once the resreve is out of the bag the speed of the opening is determined only by the slider. The slider is critical for any opening but so is the pilotchute. UPT knows this so their drogues collapse on lift off so as to have just the right amount of snatch to lift the bag at optimum speed. If your kill line shrinks on your sport rig not only do you get slower bag lift off you get slower inflation. A big pilotchute gives a harder opening because the bag is more rapidly decelerated. At the moment the canopy comes out of the bag the speed difference between the jumper and the canopy will be higher and therefore the load on the lines will be higher. That means the initial snatch will be harder but force on the lines also contributes to the next stage of canopy inflation. Lets say standard bag lift off takes one third of a second. That suggests the bag is travelling at about 45 feet per second slower than the jumper. 135 ft/s vs 180 ft/s. A fully open canopy with a suspended jumper has a descent rate of about 15 feet per second. A cutaway canopy with only a reserve freebag hanging under it will have a descent rate somewhere between 135 ft/s and 15ft/s depending on the degree of inflation. It d doesn't need to be inflated much to increase the speed difference between the jumper and the bag by a factor of 2 or 3 and possibly as much as 6 compared to a standard pilotchute. Surely this creates the possibility of a severely hard opening. The prospect of superhard skyhook openings has not been fully investigated. 5) Short reserve bridle Some manufacturers have shorten the reserve bridle by 4 feet to make the system work better! This is just as insane than tacking the system with a 4 pounds of resistance cord to the reserve container ! They forgot that there was a good reason to decide in the past to come up with the 16 feet long reserve bridle, like they also forgot that there was a good reason to have a hesitator loop configuration to secure the bridle and holds the reserve bag, with a bite of the reserve bridle to stage/sequence the reserve opening, by locking the container closed under full reserve bridle extension. For sure we build up devices to make the skydiver a better idiot instead to educate him .. So, I don’t think that there is anything good with putting out a (necessarily) flawed system specially as long the truth is not out there about the weaknesses of the system so people are not informed, having no responsible decisions about whether to use it or not. Downplaying the dangers doesn’t do anyone any good. I think that problems will always exist in any MARD, there is no perfect system. Furthermore, it is a system which is designed to make up for user stupidity, and therefore could be eliminated if people weren’t being stupid. Still, people want it. Never mind that it could kill them, or that gear is very safe when used appropriately without it. They still want it. UPT’s story that there have been thousands of Skyhook deployments with no other problems misses the point: that people should fully understand their gear, how it works and how it may fail, so that they can take responsibility for their own safety. They should not be told a fairy tale of perfection, as if skydiving could be made completely safe by better gear. Too much safety devices kill the safety ! For sure we build up devices to make the skydiver a better idiot instead to educate him .. So, I don’t think that there is anything good with putting out a (necessarily) flawed system specially as long the truth is not out there about the weaknesses of the system so people are not informed, having no responsible decisions about whether to use it or not. Downplaying the dangers doesn’t do anyone any good. I think that problems will always exist in any MARD, there is no perfect system. Furthermore, it is a system which is designed to make up for user stupidity, and therefore could be eliminated if people weren’t being stupid. Still, people want it. Never mind that it could kill them, or that gear is very safe when used appropriately without it. They still want it. UPT’s story that there have been thousands of Skyhook deployments with no other problems misses the point: that people should fully understand their gear, how it works and how it may fail, so that they can take responsibility for their own safety. They should not be told a fairy tale of perfection, as if skydiving could be made completely safe by better gear. Too much safety devices kill the safety !

Any idea why the LES wsa introduced and then withdrawn? Of maybe it wasn't introduced? __________________________________________________ I can answer this one since I designed the LES : it was withdrawn because MARD system was found unsafe in sport rigs, what was the case in 96, and it is still true in 2012 (some manufacturers should also not offer it to sale), as I said it could be useful only in case you cuttaway in between 200 feet and 300 feet above the ground ! not a situation you will see in an entire life on a drop zone, besides of that there is a lot of situation where MARD can kill you ! sometime to make the sport safer, you have to make it less complicated

And how is it different in a military, wherte you Interlock system is being used? ____________________________________________________ well the only difference I see with MARD'use : military jumpers are paid to be killed while the civilian skydivers pay to survive, but at the end because rigging caution is superior in the army avoiding rigging errors , because military people do not use reactive main canopies making reserve sensitive with line twists after jettisonning, it makes it safer to be used in the Army, at the end in my mind MARD are not designed to safety but to not abort a mission because a cuttaway, that's it, think about that : how many people in the world are supposed to be killed in the sport because they cuttaway their main below 300 feet ? probably none or close to zero !, it would be the only time it could be useful to have a MARD .. MARD is just a commercial thing, they are sold because some good buisnessman made you believe what there is a need, sport manufacturers knows there is no need but at the end they have to respond to their customers

One other major rig mfr once said to me that he had never heard anyone tell him that they were not going to buy his rig because it did not have a MARD. __________________________________________________ I think it is even worse than what, as I always said, the MARD system on the civilian market will kill more than it will save people, and if I count right, it is already the case ( 2 deaths fatalities because a MARD, how many saves because a MARD ?)

Returning back on topic: it is not too difficult, digging on the Internet, to perform reverse engineering of any idea now. If anyone want to do it. With so much photographs and diagrams of the patent's - it is not any difficult. ____________________________________________________ You are right when you wrote it is not as difficult to make a copy, it is much more difficult to have a brain and use it, I have no doubt what you Research and Development Department is a copy-cat machine, I responded with price because I spent a huge amount of money to develop and protect my device against people like you who just spend their time to steal other people idea, with no respect for intellectual property, otherwise you would at least ask to use my drawing patent...Of course I do not believe a word about what you say about price matter.... eric fradet

_________________________________________________ Alexey Sharadkin wrote me down in march 2008 in order to get more information about my device, he obviously wanted to get it for free, so I did not want to cooperate since I have no confidence in a manufacturer working in a country as Russia, not based of a rule of law . Eric Fradet

Ted's life vas dedicated to his sport, he brought a lot to people from my age and my kind, the actual young generation probably does not know much about him since he has chosen to stay in the shadow... he always has been there when I have been asking for a technical information, very helpful, as it has been written down by rinaldi524, Ted has not been trying to make money in this sport, his goal was to improve it all the time, if by chance he would have the opportunity to carry on for the next 20 years, for sure he would have been done it ..there is probably so few people like him in the skydiving industry, what it needs to be mentionned..thanks for your time Ted

So is this generally available now? There is still almost no info on the mirage website that I could find __________________________________________________ they have better to not advertise on it, there are laws in the US going against people infringing patents ! Mirage Research and Developpment office is only a copy cat machine, not even able to do it right... eric Fradet

I am sure I will set off some alarms here, but buy the rig you like because of the rig, not marketing ________________________________________________ specially when the technology which uses Mirage does not work properly...I have been working on the device since a long time, and the correct design is the one I sold to Airborne to fit inside the next ARAPS (remplacment of the MC4/MC5), it takes less than half pound of force to disconnect the device in case of "reserve only", the technology uses Mirage is a bad copy of my device, they makes it cheap, and the simplest way does not work properly (I already tried), DRX owner should think about how much force it requires to disconnect the system in case of "reserve only", they will find out probably over 8 pounds, which is just insane....

the DRX is not Mirage idea, they just try to get for free something they do not own...we'll see http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/originalDocument?CC=US&NR=2009127395A1&KC=A1&FT=D&date=20090521&DB=EPODOC&locale=fr_FR

here you go : http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20080308680 device to improve the positionning of the slider by magnetism

I was the one who discovered the issue with the Javelin, in fact on javelin was more unsafe because the F 111 fabrics from the Pilot chute was stucked with the bottom flap because urethane coating, so the PC could not launch..the solution was double wall for those red cordura rigs, in your case at least; the reserve PC will launch but if for instance your toggles stay stucked on the pack tray, it could be unsafe....

Yes this is something I know, it did happen sometimes with Atom red and black cordura from 2002 to 2005 in places which are wet and hot like French Island "ile de la Reunion", or places where happened a particular weather event, it really comes an issue when the steering lines are stucked on the reserve pack tray, Aerazur Parachutes de France has been working this winter on a double wall to fix this issue ..except adding some talc there is not much you can do, and checking out every 4 monts for instance by onening your serverve (without repack)

I have a baby plane with less than 100 jumps on it, rings and ropes on the top skin 2 ma 1 s at the end. It belonged to D1142 and I am holding it for the museum __________________________________________________ My understanding is the baby-plane belongs to the Para-plane family ! then it is fantastic, I am rushing to send you a PM right now, thanks...

hello, The French Skydiving Museum in Strasburg is looking for a Paraplane, I am not familiar with this canopy but we are speaking about the one with 2 pilot chutes, circa 73-74...anyone who still has one whatever is the shape, and is ready to make a little money on it while giving a long and new life for this canopy to be shown to everyone , please contact me : ericfradet@yahoo.com

Communicate to who is concerned : I, Hereby confirm that at this time, there is no longer a ban on the use of the ARGUS in FRANCE .Any skydiver can install and use the ARGUS in any harness/container system in France. eric Fradet

I've seen one video of bag strip on a tandem canopy that had all the locking stows half-hitched. The canopy came out of the bag 1-2 feet out of the container _______________________________________________ line dump due to the use of bad rubber bands on a tandem sigma bag, the line stows which have been released are going to float above the bag and can capture the bag

I'll try to find a photo. ______________________________________________ there are some pictures on page 77 (almost at the end of this excellent document) : http://www.ffp.asso.fr/IMG/pdf/MANUEL_LES_SYSTEMES_D_EXTRACTION_ET_DE_CONDITIONNEMENT.pdf

On conventional freebags the force necessary to pull out freestowed lines is almost zero and once the first closing loop is pulled out running loop releases the pressure and there is almost no force needed to deploy the other one ...... THERE IS NO SAFETY FEATURE LIKE THAT ON DHT ------------------------------------------------------------ for your knowledge the Atom tandem reserve bag from PF/Aerazur also does NOT have any running loop but an elastic band to hold EVERY stow, similar to the DHT one, and I can tell you it works pretty good so far, Atom Tandem is very popular in Europe

The big Advantage of this TSE RSL version : it works better when you are doing a cutaway proceedure while you are on your back, since the tension of the lanyard will be in direct line of the reserve handle, while if the RSL lanyard pulls when you start to face the ground, the tension is roundabout it can interfere with the upper arm of the skydiver

Hehe, take a look at a Vector 3 next time you get a chance. The main flap (that protects the pin) does not open when the container opens. __________________________________________________=> the man who found this design is the one who makes the.................Infinity rigs ; Kelly Farrington

Hehe, take a look at a Vector 3 next time you get a chance. The main flap (that protects the pin) does not open when the container opens. I always know if my flap was secure because it's still closed when I lay my rig down to pack it. _________________________________________________ => you would be surprised to learn who invented this device !

"What the hell are we doing jumping gear where a collapsed drogue will lift the bag but won't clear the risers?" _______________________________________________ as a technical adviser I have to deal twice a year with exactly this same type of incident in France, with exactly the same scary situation as yours, not enough drag from a baglock cannot separate risers from the harness specially with a light passenger, it happens with any Tandem ( Atom, Advance, Vector) except maybe the Strong where the drogue collapses after the main will be deployed so the Dual Hawk has enough drag to release the risers,

Ok, who invented the collapsible slider? _________________________________________________ as far I know a french man Pierre Auvray came up in 1987 with a central way to collapse the slider, then Brian Germain in 1996 came up with the design actually used by PD ( 2 lines ) anybody has more clue about this question ?