manchuso

I jumped a single keel and a double keel this year at Couch Freaks and loved them. Have been on the lookout for one for quite sometime without luck. Any advice? Blue skies, Manchuso

I´m in with skydiverkeith...I do love the skyhook setup but I´m not about to change my SEP to rely on it; likewise, I don´t use rsl nor any other gadget no matter how effective they might be because my emergency procedure is already ingrained and tested; I feel confident with it! A monthly exercised cutaway make´s it work like a charm with out any oil or wd-40 and most of my experience is with integrity risers blue skies, rafael

Good! I´m taking a couple of weeks in mexico starting tomorrow night...as soon as I get back I´ll get it scanned and post it blue skies, Rafael

For civil aviation to clear my 500ft jump I made an earlier jump from 2000ft. That one gave me the willies! I used a pioneer 26ft lo-po which steered like s*** but it opened almost on level with the plane...can´t have it all! blue skies, rafael

I have a´93 Atom and the original manual. Check the picture; If that´s what you´re looking for I´ll have to scan it but it´s going to take a couple of days as I´m about to travel. Any specific questions I might help you with? Blue skies, Rafael

I made 5 static lines with TU´s in 1990 then 5 freefalls before switching to a US Pap... Last year for my birthday I did a 500ft jump with static line and freebag. I had civil aviation authorization, lots of chilled champagne for my friends and 20 mile winds... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5wjTM0r9SM blue skies, rafael

Hey, that´s me! That PC is as Mk1 made in 1983 and in mint condition. I love the way it flies; most of my winter jumps are with it and at 155lbs with a little effort landings are ok safe landings! Rafael

Many years ago I was trying a delta cloud (240sq.ft/160lbs) and one of the things I usually do testing a canopy is to bury a toggle as fast as possible. The delta immediately started turning backwards on that side. At that time, elipticals didn´t exist so a backwards spinning main was quite a novel, ugly situation...not satisfied with my reaction that first time (scared) I did it again and I tried to see what happened after that initial moment if I kept the toggle down and was happy to see the canopy right itself and start spiraling facedown as I expected it to do blue skies, rafael

Hi Brian, Actually, whenever someone comes to me with doubts about his pack job what I do is grab his pilot chute and stretch the whole gig to show him what´s going to happen when he deploys. It´s late and I don´t want to do it with my parachute now but next saturday I´m going to pull my bridle and see what happens. Thank you for helping me question my packing technique. There´s always room for improvement... Blue skies and safe landings, Rafael

I don´t know how to make a get well card, but I´ll do my best... Blue skies to you man! I met you at a couple of pia symposiums and loved your attitude! Hope to see you next time I´m in the States. Rafael

I´ve been searching around for information on the VIP 150 line trim. The canopy´s dom is 1995 and it was made in Slovenia by Perché - Fly Market. I´ve tried reaching the new company but they´ve never answered me back. Thanks in advance. Safe landings

I´m really interested in a Parawing. As I mentioned before, in Uruguay there were none and I´m interested in collecting old gear. The offer stands if you´re interested. blue skies, manchuso

We´ve never had parawings in Uruguay and I´ve no clue as to it´s market value but I´d love to jump one. I guess I´d pay USD150 as long as it´s in good condition. blue skies

No, it had a regular slider. I remember using a rubber band to keep it in place against the slider stops when packing. The parafoils used to come with split sliders. Safe landings

I used to jump a heavily modified cloud; I was told the lines had been shortened almost three feet, the original ring reefing system had been replaced and it didn´t have a bag so it had a diaper/strap right like yours which was used for line stowing. Talk about hard openings! safe landings, manchuso

Hi ahdz, Thank you for the photos of your "slag" they are clarifying. I´ll be trying with the sleeve but I might be tempted to ask you for one. It looks nice as well! The picture I posted is of paracommander mk1 mfd in 1983. Would you believe there are a few more mk1´s and competition pc´s -now for sale- in pretty much the same condition as mine? Safe landings

Thank you and all others for the advice; you´ve all been most helpful. I guess I will do the D-bag thing. As I mentioned before there have never been any pods or short sleeves in Uruguay so even though I now understand the logic behind them, I can relate to the D-bag better. What kind of dressing should I use for the stabilizers; and with a split bag, why should they be going (last?) into the full D-bag? safe landings, manchuso

Thank you riggerrob and stratostar The wonderhog would be great but it might take me some time to travel to the states and shipping to uruguay is definitely not worth it. I´ll have to work it out "en casa" Short sleeves and pods...I know d bags and regular sleeves but can´t grasp the short sleeve and as far as I can tell the pod is referred to in Dan Poynter´s 1st volume but I haven´t seen one -ever- could you explainig to me the mechanics of each? The stowing of the crown lines outside I can understand; a friend of mine had this 252 foil with extra long reefing lines and this were stowed outside the bag. I guess I can copy that. Thanks once more for the help Safe landings, manchuso

Thank you and riggerlee for the advice. Nice canopy stratostar! I´d love to try a russian pc; I´ve jumped paps and zondas (argentine) and now I´m trying to locate a sierra that used to be around. I´m moving away from retro because it´s a VERY tight 6 points harness and it takes me a long time to adjust -every time I jump- and I´m a lightweight 5´7" The sleeve I have is original, brand new and it would be a pity to discard it except for pack volume considerations; the sideways packing would be ideal as long as everything fits...if not I´ll ask you both for more detailed instructions for the d bag or pod Do you know how big is the PC? The parafoil 282 packs at 830 cu.in. and it´s still the biggest sport canopy we´ve had here in Uruguay. The other option I have is to look for a military rig; they have huge canopies so their rigs should do nicely. And they use ripcords...which brings me to the matter of spring loaded vs hd; naturally with a ripcord I´d use the same pilotchute I have now but should I find a sport rig then I have to use a hand deploy 36inches or bigger? Thanks once more for the advice Safe landings, manchuso

I have this PC Mk1 in great shape that I´m jumping every now and them, packed into a mini/superpro H/C and want to change it into a piggyback. Thing is we´ve never had pc´s in piggybacks here in Uruguay and I know there´s this huge list of thing I have to do to before it´s ready to jump. Among them I can list the following: SIZE; I´m looking for a container for a 282 foil...will it be big enough? BAG!!! what modifications do I have to make to a regular d bag to make it compatible with the pc? Pilot chute...HD or spring loaded? Have I missed anything? All advice is welcome Safe landings

I used a regular MC1 rigged for freefall in a single pin container with a five points harness. The chest rings were D "wide mouth" rings to which I attached the butterfly snaps of the reserves. That means I had what I call the certified reserve, in the correct position, locked to both chest rings and secured to the harness with a waist belt. To secure the other reserves which were packed without pilot chutes, I attached one snap each to the chest rings and fixed a couple of rings to the earlier mentioned belt so that they were secured only with the snaps and therefore easier to release once I landed -It worked- The whole set-up is quite heavy but feels pretty solid. Practising the exit from our C 182 I found the back of the plane to best place from which to go out -enough space for moving around and a diminishing crew when on jump run- Figuring I had too much weight hanging from my waist, I did a standard exit, launching it from the wing strut and it was beautiful, really stable. Pulling the ripcord, it took about 4" for the main to open -softly- and after checking the canopy, began the assisted deployment of the reserves. That´s when the fun began in earnest... I´m not sure if the way to go is with a cluster or as I mentioned earlier, a 28ft main and three T10A NON-STEERABLE reserves. Personally I´ll be trying the later as soon as I can find the canopies. I assume you´ve jumped more than a couple of times with rounds and have experienced people around to help. Remember that landing rounds is not that hard when you´re in shape, lightweight and experienced. Be careful... Blue skies

Yup! That´s my idea, although I´d try the 28ft main and three non-steerable T10A reserves. Have just seen the video from the ground and it´s the steerability that messes with the whole set up. When I started skydiving we jumped 28ft TU´s because in case of a partial mal you didn´t need to cutaway. Only thing I have to do now is find the said canopies... Blue skies and thanks for the advice!

So after jumping again with a PC after 16 years I decided to try and jump a big main and three little reserves. I saw the movie a long time ago and a couple of old timers told me many years ago how they did it. It was quite an experience! I don´t know if the main usually deflates when the other canopies are in the way of the air flow or it happened because I´m quite light but I didn´t like it one little bit... I think this kind of jumps were done with 28ft mains and T10A non-steerable reserves, but all I could get my hands on was an MC1 main, two K XX and a 26ft phantom. I never gave much thought to steering, figuring I would drift regardless of what I tried to do but all the reserves tried to fly separately making for an erratic flight and much excitement! In fact, it was so exciting I only launched the third reserve when I was about to land... The winds were almost nonexistent and the landing was quite soft. I´d like to hear advice from people who have done it before because I want to do it again. Blue skies to all