Cypress Batteries

[schuey87 0]

Quick question, why do cypress batteries need changing every 2 years... why not just wait until the battery power is low... I'm not questioning the 4 yr servicing at all here, I'm just wondering why it is a compulsory 2 year battery cycle on the cypress even if they're still working and no error(s) appear when turning on. I'm sure that some people use their cypress batteries way more than others, so there must be juice left in a lot of the cypress batteries that get replaced... or am I missing something here?

[riggerrob 643]

Yes, many Cypres batteries get replaced when they still have volts remaining.
The Cypres maintenance schedule is an educated guess at wear and tear patterns. Its goal is to replace, repair, etc. components before they to deteriorate to the level of "life-threatening."

Cypres 1 batteries must be replaced every 2 years, 500 jumps or when a "low battery voltage" error code appears during the start-up routine. Cypres 1 batteries can be replaced by any FAA Senior Rigger (or foreign equivalent).

Cypres 2 batteries are replaced every 4 years, during factory inspections (aka. "4-year check" and "8-year check").
Airtec had to set some standard and they erred on the side of caution.

Also remember - that if you ignore Airtec's instructions - you are also ignoring Federal Air Regulations, because the FARS require you to maintain all aerial equipment "in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions.

[freeflygirlz 0]

Hi!
it's not only safer to stick on the manufactures rules, it's even cheaper to do the regular bat. change during the standard repacks. So you can make plans for the repack-date to meet your jump-plans.
If you just wait for the cypres to show the error code, you never know when your aad will be out of order. for some persons (student / tandem) or dz with mandatory aad-use that would ground them without warning.
I've already seen this happen with gears that exeed the 500jump limit before reaching the 2years limit.

cypres 2 improved a lot, so this topic will lapse in a few years anyway.

but it would be indeed nice to get a recycling market for cypres bat. (using the left power to supply energy to any portable electronic stuff like a pocket lamp)

blue skies ffg

[USPA 0]

Because before it was mandatory, someone at my DZ died, because of failure to fire (well the part that she didn't pull anything also helped off course). Cypres was ok, turned on, voltage reading ok, less then 500 jumps, only battery was 3 years old. After this, the 2 year replacement became mandatory.

The trouble with skydiving; If you stink at it and continue to jump, you'll die. If you're good at it and continue to jump, you'll see a lot of friends die...