Bill sure remembers what the para-plane was like.
I jumped one in 1972 and it had 19ft lines - really long I ordered one @
costing a huhe $550. We were told they were shortlining the new one. When mine arrived and I had the first jump everyone around commented on the long line length. Without measuring the line length I decided to shorten them by 6ft. I took the canopy up and jumped. The canopy was very close on opening. The factory had in fact shrtened the lines by 3ft. I had a canopy with 9ft off the uriginal line length. A least the canopy did not get line twists like all the other paraplanes.
I also did my first tandemmaster jump in 1972 with a paraplane by attaching another jumper to me and exiting attached by a harnessand opening, We flew around together (at an incredible speed) The passenger cutaway from my harness at 2000ft and opened his PC. It was the passengers first square jump.
Hilly
