Relining a Safire II with Dacron?

[BlindBrick 0]

Anybody done this or know of a loft that will?

I know that I'll have a larger pack volume and more parasitic drag but my Safire's a 269 so the drag increase would probably not be noticable and my contianer is made to hold up to a 280.

-Blind

"If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

[hookncrater 0]

PM or email MEL http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?username=masterrigger1;

He can answer this question most likely.

What do you have against Vectran anyway?

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when in doubt... hook it!

[Kris 0]

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What do you have against Vectran anyway?

I'm thinking that with a name like "BlindBrick" and a canopy that's 269 in size, he's looking for the softest openings possible.

Sky, Muff Bro, Rodriguez Bro, and
Bastion of Purity and Innocence!™

[BlindBrick 0]

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PM or email MEL [url]
What do you have against Vectran anyway?

I've had some absolutely brutal openings, even sub-terminal. It's a new canopy with less than 40 jumps on it, but it's recently began having trouble with the left endcell not wanting to inflate and it also developed a significant left hand turn (have to fly the right toggle at half brakes to counter) at the same time (even once the endcell is inflated). I've looked it over and can't find any rib tears or damaged crossports, so I figure it's the lineset. If I am going to have to reline it, I'd rather just go with Dacron.


-Blind

"If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

[hookncrater 0]

Don't you think the opening shock is more a function of your freefall speed and less the type of lines you are using? Barring any physical damage to the canopy, it is hard to believe that the Vectran went that far out of trim in <50 jumps. I don't doubt the validity of your problem by any means, but it would be the first time I have heard of that.

I guess you learn something new everyday. Maybe you should just stop deploying while headdown.

Good luck!

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when in doubt... hook it!

[ryoder 1,590]

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Don't you think the opening shock is more a function of your freefall speed and less the type of lines you are using?

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/safety/detail_page.cgi?ID=19

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However, the fact still remains, that if you do have a rare fast opening on a microlined canopy, Spectra (or Vectran) will transmit that force to you (and your rig) much, much faster, resulting in an opening shock up to 300% higher than if you have Dacron lines.

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[ryoder 1,590]

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I've had some absolutely brutal openings, even sub-terminal. It's a new canopy with less than 40 jumps on it, but it's recently began having trouble with the left endcell not wanting to inflate and it also developed a significant left hand turn (have to fly the right toggle at half brakes to counter) at the same time (even once the endcell is inflated). I've looked it over and can't find any rib tears or damaged crossports, so I figure it's the lineset. If I am going to have to reline it, I'd rather just go with Dacron.

I had my Samurai relined with Dacron this past winter. I advise going to the mfgr first. Brian thought it was strange that I wanted Dacron, but he did it.

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[BlindBrick 0]

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Don't you think the opening shock is more a function of your freefall speed and less the type of lines you are using?

I guess you learn something new everyday. Maybe you should just stop deploying while headdown.

I am actually not allowed to go terminal at my DZ because of my belly speed is ~165. So, my last 10'ish jumps have all been subterminal openings. My last opening was a nightmare that was caught on film from two different angles. Film shows a stable deployment and my Vigil registered only a 78 mph max speed. Despite that, it opened hard enough it took a large chunk out of my right hand when it flung my arm into the risers.

-Blind

"If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

[Kris 0]

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Barring any physical damage to the canopy, it is hard to believe that the Vectran went that far out of trim in <50 jumps.

Vectran doesn't go out of trim.

Blindbrick, since you have so few jumps on the canopy I'm going to assume it's new. If that's the case, you really need to be contacting the manufacturer. Heck, new or not, give Icarus a ring and since they do happen to know something about canopies, they may have some ideas for you or may want to get the canopy back for testing/modification.

Sky, Muff Bro, Rodriguez Bro, and
Bastion of Purity and Innocence!™

[masterrigger1 2]

Hi,
The Safire 2 was never designed to have dacron lines installed!
It can be done but the canopy will not fly correctly with the current line trim.
If you are having brutal openings on a Safire 2 , something is very wrong.
It could be the canopy, packing or deployment problems.
Please contact me at the shop(864-429-8428) and we will look at the canopy.
Thanks,
MEL
The Icarus Service Center

Skyworks Parachute Service, LLC
www.Skyworksparachuteservice.com

[hookncrater 0]

Kris: I am aware of the dimensional stability of Vectran but thanks. =)

The only times I have been slammed on opening, both canopies were lined with Dacron, so I hope that people don't think that changing lines will be a magical cure-all for a hard opening canopy. You still have to do everything else right too, i.e. packing, body position, etc.

Cheers.

________________________________________________________________________________
when in doubt... hook it!

[BlindBrick 0]

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The only times I have been slammed on opening, both canopies were lined with Dacron, so I hope that people don't think that changing lines will be a magical cure-all for a hard opening canopy.

s

I've been slammed on Dacron several times, once to the point of graying out(this was several years ago when I was experiemnting with sliders and took a Raven bikini slider to terminal on a Laser 9 main). In my, admittedly limted, experience hard openings on Dacron are much more tolerable which I attribute to the fact that the dacron stretch is lessening the peak force.

So I'm not looking for them to be a cure but rather a mitigator.

-Blind

"If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

[Bandanarama 0]

You might see if you can get an instructor, rigger or a very experienced certified jumper at your DZ to inspect it and perhaps jump it for ya. That way, they can rule out gear problems. However, if they inspected it and found a problem, they could recommend the best course of action such as a rigger adjustment/tuning or sending it back to Icarus. I don't think you should bother switching to dacron vs. vectran on a new canopy. Why spend the extra money on lines when you most likely have perfectly fine ones that may just need some tweaking? Besides, you can spend that extra $$$ on jumping. Good luck and hopefully you can get this issue resolved in the near future!

Eric

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One's destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things. ~ Henry Miller