Setting the brakes on a Sigma

[PalleNygren 0]

For 1000:s of packs, I've always done the same thing, pulling the stow thru the cats eye on the main brake line and pulling the resulting excess BELOW the guide ring. The other day one guy at my DZ pulled the excess out ABOVE the guide ring, stating that it would eliminate some sort of potential malfunction scenario. None of us could explain the scenario or why this would be better.

Anyone out there feeling smart enough to explain it to me?

(I've checked the UPT dockumentation and nowhere can I find pictures showing the excess above the guide ring)

[Rover 11]

Can't help ya - use Icarus mains

2 wrongs don't make a right - but 3 lefts do.

[theonlyski 8]

PalleNygren

For 1000:s of packs, I've always done the same thing, pulling the stow thru the cats eye on the main brake line and pulling the resulting excess BELOW the guide ring. The other day one guy at my DZ pulled the excess out ABOVE the guide ring, stating that it would eliminate some sort of potential malfunction scenario. None of us could explain the scenario or why this would be better.

Anyone out there feeling smart enough to explain it to me?

(I've checked the UPT dockumentation and nowhere can I find pictures showing the excess above the guide ring)

I've seen a lot of interesting rigging techniques, usually the people using them haven't got a solid grasp on what they're doing and are preaching something they heard or tried themselves that fixes something that isn't really a problem.

But yes, use Icarus mains.

"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

[PalleNygren 0]

1. The question was not regarding which main to use.
2. I've made my choice regarding which canopy I prefer
3. I'm still looking for some input to my original question...

[theonlyski 8]

PalleNygren

1. The question was not regarding which main to use.
2. I've made my choice regarding which canopy I prefer
3. I'm still looking for some input to my original question...

I know you didn't ask for what main to use, that was just a joke at the end.

Good luck finding your answers, without some sort of detailed failure mode that this is supposed to fix.

"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

[peek 21]

PalleNygren

None of us could explain the scenario or why this would be better.

Then it is probably not better.

Quote

(I've checked the UPT documentation and nowhere can I find pictures showing the excess above the guide ring)

Another good reason to not do that.


How about contact the manufacturer and see what they think? Sometimes people come up with ideas that are better than the manufacturer's method, but it is best to ask them in case they have already found issues with doing it that way.

[pchapman 279]

Wasn't the slack brake line ALWAYS kept above the brake ring on Sigma canopies? That is, on the traditional Dacron lined ones that were the only ones you could get for years?

Now with Vectran lined ones, things are different. There is no setting loop on the secondary brake line.

The Dacron lined ones had brake setting eyes both on the main brake line and the secondary flare line. As I recall, the secondary lines had their own guide ring even then, so when setting that brake line, which was done with the setting loop in the main guide ring, it had to go both in and out of the top of the main guide ring anyway. So it made some sense to leave the slack "above" the main guide ring. Then the slack for the main brake line was also left out above, perhaps just for symmetry or because the velcro covers were up high anyway, around the tip of the toggle.

Another reason for leaving the excess brake line above is that by the standard 'below' method, then one would have two separate big thick brake lines trying to rush up through the brake guide ring, as soon as you popped the toggle. Which, who knows, might be more likely to tangle or jam.

So I'm wondering if it is a historical thing, someone thinking, "Bill Booth always wanted it this way on Tandems, slack goes above the guide ring!!"

This was absolutely true for some years but no longer applies once other types of equipment are available, in particular Sigmas without Dacron. After people get something drilled into their head for years, it can be tough to forget, even when the original reasons have changed.

[douwanto 22]

I believe the excess line on the stowed line is to be pulled threw the ring and stowed below the ring on the back of the riser. This is to eliminate any chance of the excess line being caught or pinched between the riser and ring once there is tension on the lines making it difficult to extract the toggle and release the brake.

It sounds like you have been properly stowing the brakes. At least this is how I was taught on Sigmas and have done for the last 15 years.

Uncle/GrandPapa Whit
Unico Rodriguez # 245
Muff Brother # 2421

[stayhigh 2]

RTFM should suffice the question.

Bernie Sanders for President 2016

[pchapman 279]

stayhigh

RTFM should suffice the question.

Nope. The Sigma manual, at least last year, only shows how to pack the old Dacron lined Sigmas.

But it did help to make me aware that I was wrong in my recollection (a few posts back): on the Dacron lined Sigmas, the main brake line does pull down through the guide ring, while the secondary brake line remains above. So there was at least "something above" on the old Sigma canopies.

The manual does not show how to pack the Vectran lined Sigmas that have been around for years. The UPT tandem manuals have at times taken many years to update -- even in the early 2000's they showed things like backing out of a King Air or standing on the step of a Cessna with the student hanging from the instructor, techniques that might have been OK in the 1980s but I doubt much after that.

Anyway, just calling Bullshit on the notion that the manual is always correct or updated, even if it is worth checking.