4 stow freebag??

[pchapman 279]

Ok, what the heck is this??

Found a 1 pin freebag that has 4 closing stows, in 2 rows, using O-rings.

Looks remarkably like an RWS / UPT bag. The velcro closed line stowage pouch at the back is completely normal.

I know elastics were sometimes used to close early reserve freebags. That supposedly didn't last long as O-rings were then tried, which were soon supplanted by Safety Stows by basically everyone. That would be before my time, say late '70s to early '80s.

(Actually I long have thought a 4 stow freebag might be a good idea. If people are worried about our freebags having only 2 stows in this era of higher speed skydiving, having 4 stows using 2 Safety Stows might be a great alternative. Without going all John Sherman on the issue and using a million elastics like Jump Shack.)

Edit:
I know UPT & CPS have some fancier bags for use in high speed & weight situations like their military gear, but I think this bag is from earlier days.

[gowlerk 2,206]

If it has no markings, and no part number, it is not a TSO'd freebag. Therefore some creative master rigger made it. Or it is from a Canadian made non TSO'd rig. Westway Innovator perhaps?

Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

[irishrigger 32]

i have packed the UPT SOV3 and they have the 2 free stows i think, but they don't look anything like the picture. i have never seen O-Rings like that used before.

very interesting and intriguing! are there any markings or any details on the bag at all or bridle?

[Gene03 0]

It's an early Para-Flite bag.

Before Dick Morgan invented the safety stow.

I must correct my statement.

It's a RWS Vector freebag.

The four "O" ring four grommet configuration was a PFI design.

Probably made in the mid '70's

I've updated a few of them when the safety stow was introduced.

“The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him.

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec quotes (Polish writer, poet and satirist 1906-1966)

[pchapman 279]

I had another look and there is a "V5" written in marker inside the line stow pocket.

Which sounds quite Vector like, even though Vector II freebags (for example) had simplified sizes such as "Medium" I think.

I'm still guessing the bag might be from some early Vector I or Vector clone from the supposedly brief O-ring era-- perhaps before manufacturers were big on labelling all their parts in addition to the rig itself...

[Gene03 0]

pchapman

I had another look and there is a "V5" written in marker inside the line stow pocket.

Which sounds quite Vector like, even though Vector II freebags (for example) had simplified sizes such as "Medium" I think.

I'm still guessing the bag might be from some early Vector I or Vector clone from the supposedly brief O-ring era-- perhaps before manufacturers were big on labelling all their parts in addition to the rig itself...

V5 makes it a RWS freebag.

“The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him.

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec quotes (Polish writer, poet and satirist 1906-1966)

[accumack 14]

Gene03

It's an early Para-Flite bag.

Before Dick Morgan invented the safety stow.

I must correct my statement.

It's a RWS Vector freebag.

The four "O" ring four grommet configuration was a PFI design.

Probably made in the mid '70's

I've updated a few of them when the safety stow was introduced.

Para-Flite did not use 4 locking stows and Dick Morgan while he was responsible for many things did not invent the safety stow it was Elek Puskas.

[Gene03 0]

Is that you Charlie??o

“The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him.

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec quotes (Polish writer, poet and satirist 1906-1966)

[accumack 14]

No, Jimmy.

[Gene03 0]

I stand corrected then.

Hell, you should know, you were there.

“The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him.

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec quotes (Polish writer, poet and satirist 1906-1966)

[hackish 8]

The westway innovator was a 2 pin design. I can dig one out and give you a photo if you like.

-Michael

[riggerrob 643]

Wow!
Took a few years, but I finally get to tease Hackish about being half-right.

West Way made both 1-pin and 2-pin sport rigs as well as a few pilot emergency parachutes. Steve West started making Innovator containers with two reserve pins (aka. Wonderhog) circa 1980.
By the late 1980s, Steve was building Innovator 2 containers with a single reserve pin. Innovators pack mostly the same as Vectors. I have only seen 1-pin Innovators during this century .... and not very many on the West Coast.

As for the OP's freebag, I would just confirm that rubber is still flexible and repack it.
If you need replacement O-rings, just ask your friendly neighbourhood cash-register repairman.
Hah!
Hah!

[hackish 8]

Ha, don't tell my wife. I still try to avoid admitting I'm not always right. I didn't know there was an innovator 2. The one I have is an innovator. DOM June 1989.

-Michael

[pms07 3]

Gene03

Probably made in the mid '70's

RWS Vector and mid '80s prior to "safety stow", I owned one like it...