billbooth

All ripcords have slack. The "bungee feeling" of my new recoil ripcord goes away after you pull it just 3-4". It is then just as solid as steel, and comes completely out of the housing.

While the particular design of my Retractable Reserve Ripcord is new, the materials used (Spectra, bungee cord, and stainless steel housing) are identical to those used in my Sigma main ripcord, which has been in use in thousands of Sigmas for over 6 years now. Plus, all RWS RSL's have been Spectra for around 10 years now. I think the materials and basic design have been very well tested indeed.

We're whipping a dead horse here. Nothing further can be accomplished by this. I should have known better.

Jumpshack's own video shows a container opening to line stretch time of just over 1.5 seconds. (As I said above this is about average for all container systems have seen videos of.) This is the only time that matters when comparing container systems. How long a canopy takes to open after it gets out of the bag depends entirely on the design and packjob of that canopy. It has nothing to do with the container it was packed in. I am not going to call Jump Shack liars. They are good people. They are my neighbors and friends. John Sherman is one of the few "originals" left in this sport, and Nancy is one of the nicest people I know. Our children grew up together...hell, even our dogs are brothers. I am only telling you what the video you asked me to watch shows.

I've filmed dozens, perhaps hundreds, of low speed reserve deployments. Packed properly, I've never seen a 1/2 second reserve opening from line stretch. The slider balances forces. At higher speed, the air entering the canopy is also faster. It is very hard to get a properly packed reserve to open under 3 seconds from an RSL breakaway...without a Skyhook, that is.

Not true, activation to line stretch is .97 secs. The video is real, the deployment has been timed with a frame count (cutaway to line stretch) I don't have any vid to say what the Vector line stretch time is so I'll go by your more than ample knowledge of your product. Vector line stretch is 1.5 sec, with skyhook .5 sec. But believe the vid. The one I saw had .97 sec to line stretch. That is less than 1/2 a sec difference from the skyhook equiped rig. Geez, less than 1/2 a sec ain't much and I was agreeing with you! OK. I just watched the Racer breakaway video with the "embedded stopwatch", I paused it at line stretch (canopy OUT of the bag), and the watch read OVER 1.5 seconds, or about normal for all the rigs I've seen videos of. (Did I do something wrong viewing the video?) The reserve was "open" in just over 2 seconds. This means it took their reserve canopy around 0.5 seconds to inflate. Any canopy which inflates that fast sub-terminal would "kill" you at terminal. It was obviously packed for a fast sub-terminal opening. Normal reserve packjobs, that won't hurt you at terminal, should take just under 1.5 seconds. Remember, once the canopy is out of the bag, the rig it came out of has no effect on its opening time.

Without the Skyhook, the Racer line stretch time, and the Vector (or any other rig) line stretch time are the SAME...1 1/2 seconds. With the Skyhook, all rigs will give the same 1/2 second breakaway-to-line stretch time. Skyhook equipped rigs are simply a lot faster then non-Skyhook equipped rigs...period, exclamation point, no question. But the Skyhook is not just about speed. It gives many other advantages that I have spoken about before.

I thought this was settled a long time ago. No modern sport container system deploys, to line stretch, faster than any other. This fact was determined years ago in side by side tests. You can cheat on the tests by "front risering" for greater airspeed just before breakaway, or by packing for an extremely fast canopy inflation...but the fact remains: Given the same conditions, all modern gear performs about the same. The fact that we are still discussing this worn out topic, simply proves that the old saying is true: "A lie, repeated often enough, becomes legend". You can't believe everything you read on the internet, guys...Honest!

Tandem is simply a tool. Is is what people make of it...nothing more...nothing less. I does allow almost anyone to make a jump, so the number of people available make that first jump is now nearly limitless. However, the number of people who remain in the sport is entirely dependent on how we treat tandem students. In other words, it's up to each and every one of you. Be happy that we now have turbine aircraft, and beautiful drop zones to jump at. The money to fund these nice things came, in a large part, from tandem students. But also see what you can do to make these people feel welcome. Make them want to come back. Look at tandem as a gift, and don't blow it.

Too bad you left out the best part of the picture. As you know , the baby is Guy Manos's daughter. That's why I knew the scene would not be cut.

If he's making that kind of money you would think he would drop the prices on his rigs. Jerry It's $16 before screen actors guild dues and taxes. Less than $10 is left per pay check. I think I'll keep my day job.

It is preventive. Failure-of-drogue-to-release malfunctions are extremely rare on Sigmas. They are unheard of, if you actually pull the handle. And as you already know, the Sigma also makes an out-of-sequence deployment a virtual impossibility.

Newer Sigmas have shorter pins to make it impossible to rotate the pin under the "Cypres washer" while packing. This mistake would, of course, make for a hard or impossible pull with either handle.

Because of its position, down low behind your back, the left hand Sigma ripcord seems harder to pull. But, if you put a scale on it, you would find that the force necessary to pull it, is exactly the same, or slightly less, than the right side handle. After all, you are pulling the same pin, through a slightly shorter housing. It feels harder, however, because you can only generate about 1/4 of the force with your left arm behind your back, than you can with your right hand in front of you. It is also harder to pull the ball straight off the housing from the behind-your-back position, so it takes some practice to get it right. I have toyed with the idea of bringing the left hand ripcord up front into the same relative position as the right ripcord, but everyone tells me to leave it alone. Anyway. I almost never use the left ripcord, so it doesn't matter. By the way, we have a "military" closing loop, which lowers the pull force so much that they can use the system for up to 1,000 lb. all-up bundle jumps.

where did you get that number??? Sorry. MAJOR TYPO. I meant 800 jumps. Fatalities happen every 80,000 jumps.

The stents are damn near perfect. However, the way the body reacts to them is a little bit (15%) unpredictable. I can just hope I'm in the the 85% who have no problems. By the way, the waiver they made me sign scared the hell out of me.

Ok. But how is that some reserve canopies having spectra lines, but still having acceptable openings. even though they are designed to open fast. It's a numbers game. Reserves aren't used that often at terminal velocity, so it will take a long, long time before we have a problem with a micro-lined reserve. Remember, no-stretch lines are only a problem in very rare situations. If your canopy doesn't have an unusually fast opening, then what kind of line you have makes no difference. A reserve use only happens every 80,000 jumps, and something around 90% of reserve openings are subtermnal. This means a terminal reserve opening only happens every 720,000 jumps...plus, not very many reserves have no-stretch lines. All this means that the chance of terminal opening on a such a reserve are well over a million to one.

When I was packing at Skydive Hollister, I packed up several 1000 pound spectra lined 421s. Was there a short run of them? When they came back from a re-line with dacron, the tandem masters complained of long snivels. We put so much effort in to slowing down the openings with the Spectra lines that the openings with the Dacron lines scared them. Yes, we did a brief experiment years ago, when "micro-Line first came out, with a few canopies. But, as you said, these were all recalled after about 100 jumps, and re-lined free of charge. This brief exposure to microlined tandem canopies proved to me that they were a bad idea.

On all Vector and Sigma tandem canopies, from day one, only Dacron lines. People who would never skydive, often very old, or handicapped, jump tandem. There is no justification, that I see, to risk these peoples lives, just to save a few pounds on a tandem rig.

They are shipping again, but there is a large backlog of orders.

The last time I went, in 1999, it cost the Russians around $250,000 just to set up the "ice airport" at the pole. If 100 jumpers go, that's only $2,500 each. If you want to go "cheap", you need a lot of jumpers. It is the most remote, and beautiful, place on earth, and well worth the expense. I took hundreds of jumpers on my six trips, and I don't think any of them regret it.

Was it a scheduled admission or emergency? Thanks for all the "best wishes" guys. They really help. I had no symptoms, but I just turned 60. So I went for a diagnostic "nuclear" stress test last month. It showed the I had reduced blood flow to the right, bottom of my heart, after about 12 minutes on the treadmill. So I went on the internet, subscribed to the New England Journal of Medicine, and read every study I could find on angioplasty. Based on this research I chose the best stent manufacturer, doctor and hospital I could find. I am now the proud owner of a brand new, bright and shiny, 3x15 mm, Guidant Cobalt Chromium stent. (If you think skydiving gear is expensive, go price stents.) I figured it was better to do this now, under controlled conditions, than take pot luck in some dingy emergency room at some later date. Anyway, I think (and hope) I'm fine now.

If you ever find yourself under canopy with a partially pulled cutaway handle, just look at the back of each riser. It will be obvious how much cutaway cable is still through the white loop. If there is enough to grab, simply pull each cable all the way back up through the loop, and then re-velcro the handle. If there is not enough to grab, you probably should cutaway...altitude permitting.

What chest rings? I don't see any chest rings!

The Micro Sigma Rig (made for the Sigma 340 canopy) is 2" narrower than the standard Sigma, so you do get a smaller rig. Everyone around here who jumps the Sigma 340 says about the same thing...Sweet openings, a little faster, more responsive, and lighter toggle pressures than the 370...yet, it lands just as well. However, being smaller, it does require a slightly higher skill level with heavy loads.