“The circle is now completed”

By Deyan BakardzhievNo Comments
Here’s a story just a few people know about. That’s the story of why I choose to leave my military life and go neck deep into rigging. There were not many opportunities to jump as a civilian in the beginning of the century in Bulgaria. Actually, there was only one place that was organizing jumps one weekend every month in the summer. And in order to jump there, you had to share the gear with everyone else who wanted to jump. And usually that was some beat-up accuracy system without an AAD. That was if you were good enough to jump with a “square”. If you were a student like me, you were challenging the gravity with a round on your back and a chest mounted reserve in front.  At that time, very few people had their own gear. As soon as I became “good enough” you should read this as able to deploy somehow stable and mostly at the correct altitude,...
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The grounding of Icon rigs

By Deyan Bakardzhiev1 Comment
On the 26th November KNVvL grounded all Icon rigs. Over the last 2 weeks many of my customers with Icon rigs contacted me with request to modify their rigs (as per KNVvL VB 2021-05) so they can jump again. I’m making my respond to them public, because it will simply save me time from not having to explain it again next time. Here was my respond to all of them. WAIT! That’s right. Just wait! It’s winter and you won’t miss much jumping anyway. First of all, let’s see what’s the reported problem. The reported problem is that in some rig sizes in case of AAD fire, if the cutter is located under the reserve pilot chute, the tail of the loop that’s been cut could be long enough to trap the reserve pilot chute inside the flaps. That’s a known problem in the industry. Many other brands suffered from that exact problem 15+ years ago. By putting the cutter on top of the reserve pilot chute, the loop is kept as short as...
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Anatomy of a mistake

By Deyan Bakardzhiev Comment Closed
So here’s the deal. I’ve posted many pictures of mistakes on my facebook page. Those where either manufacturing mistakes or mistakes made by a rigger. All up till now I did my best to hide the identity of the product or the name of the rigger, because AREA 47 facebook page is not a place to point fingers. I hope it’s seen as a source for information and not a place to start brand wars or naming and shaming rants. This time I will tell you who made the mistake you will see! Look at this picture! What you see on the picture is a drawstring of a PD Valkyrie slider being caught by the right bartack that reinforces the channel. Now, that wasn’t done by PD!!! I want to make that clear. I did that! Some years ago I read a book called “Black Box Thinking” by Matthew Syed. It was recommended to me by my good friend Collin Scott Thompson (the...
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Reserve PC update for Vector 3 Micron

By Deyan Bakardzhiev Comment Closed
UPT has changed the size of the reserve pilot chute cap for Vector 3 Micron. The reason they give is to improve the esthetics of the rig. With the "old" RPC you only had just a bit more than 1,5 inch to each side of the reserve container. And while that didn't matter for the skilled rigger, for many other riggers that was a nightmare. With the new cap size, the distance now is more than 2 inches, and that should make difference. Time will tell! This is not a Service Bulletin and it doesn't require any action to be taken. It's just that new rigs ( Micron ) will be delivered with this reserve PC, and if you have a reserve ride and loose your RPC, the new one you order will be the "new" one. Safe weekend everyone! ...
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The reserve canopy limitations explained

By Deyan Bakardzhiev Comment Closed
Let's talk about the TSO for a second...woops, half of you just left the building :) For the rest of you still here TSO stands for Technical Standard Order. It’s basically the quality and performance standards for parachutes since year 1949. I'm not gonna go through all different variation and their requirements. For most of you it’s gonna be just boring! The reason I'm doing this post is to help you understand what the numbers on your new logcarts mean. When we've got the new forms from KNVvL, the instruction was to write the TSO Weight and Speed for the reserve canopy. That’s the CERTIFIED MAXIMUM. Now that’s changed and we have to write the “RECOMMENDED” weight and speed, which for most manufacturer is much lower. A little example here; Decelerator 120 reserve from Parachute systems is certified to 275 lbs (125 kg) and 150 knots. (275 km/h), but the recommended weight is 183 lbs and 130 knots. See the picture . Manufacturers are...
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Hybrid Valkyrie

By Deyan Bakardzhiev Comment Closed
PD has made changes on their Valkyrie and you can now order it with ribs from sail material! Here is what they say: Hybrid Valkyrie (Sail) You love your Valkyrie. You’ve been jumping her for the past two years. She gives you the buttery smooth openings, responsiveness, and power you crave! But you’re ready for more…and we’re ready to give it to you! Introducing the Hybrid Valkyrie – everything you love about the Valkyrie but more. We incorporated sail fabric into the ribs to give her more power, more responsiveness, and longer swoops than a standard construction Valkyrie. Think of her as a “Valkyrie on steroids” with more sensitivity in the harness and more stopping power than ever before. Available as an option when purchasing a custom wing, the sail ribs are a great addition for a seasoned or first-time Valkyrie owner. When choosing between the All ZP and Hybrid Valkyrie, keep in mind that the sail ribs will increase pack volume...
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CYPRES service lifetime

By Deyan Bakardzhiev Comment Closed
We've just received this email from out friends at AIRTEC   "CYPRES extends the service life ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ The CYPRES lifetime has been 12.5 years since the beginning in 1991. Starting in 2002, we began testing longer maintenance intervals on the Ripcord CYPRES family. With the knowledge and experience over an entire service life period we are now comfortable to extend the service life (which has technically been impossible in earlier years) for all CYPRES units manufactured from January 1st to 15.5 years. For this longer service life we offer a maintenance at 5 years and 10 years after date of manufacture. The units will remind their users. This service is recommendable because it corrects wear and tear, fixes defects, provides improvements, adds new features, integrates better handling solutions, establishes applicable adjustments to new developments in skydiving, supplies applicable adjustments to changed conditions of the environment, contains all applicable hardware upgrades and includes all applicable software updates." ...
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