>>Hi guys, do not bother sold in 6 minutes!! Lets hope the buyer does not have to use it!
Hang glider parachutes have a slightly harder time than glider parachutes, partially because the pack is less dense and lets in more UV, though many parachute manufacturers wrap the parachute inside a foil folder to help protect it. The fabric is also degraded by sweat and other factors. Some fabric and some colours degrade much faster than others too. What colour is your chute? Is it nice and bright so it can be spotted easily in the air or on the ground or have you ever looked? I don't think most of us take parachutes particularly seriously enough. For example, your parachute size should be related to several factors, including your age and weight. Most parachute sizes are for young people weighing an ISO standard 75 kgs who can jump off a 4 metre wall and not suffer any injury. And you? The older you are and the heavier you are, the larger the area of your canopy needs to be. Of course, there's a trade off in that larger canopies open more slowly, so the older you are, the higher you need to be to safely deploy your canopy. I guess it is like Harley riders. They wear poor quality open face helmets to protect poor quality brains. "I'm a licensed rigger. In my experience, the life will be limited primarily by how much direct sunlight, dust, and grit the parachute sees. If you take good care of the canopy and container, and keep the system out of the direct sunlight, it'll last quite a while. Other responders have suggested a practical life span of 15-20 years, and that's not too bad a range, IMHO. However, if the system has been abused, it could be unusable after just a few years. Pay attention to the harness too, as it tends to suffer from abrasion and from the pilot's sweat. It's not that unusual to see harnesses and containers that become unusable before the canopy." "In the UK the parachute manufacturers and riggers are not allowed to re-pack parachutes over 25 years old. ie once over 25 years, you have to throw it away...... in any event most parachutes that age that I have seen are big, heavy, and very uncomfortable to wear. " _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] http://lists.base64.com.au/listinfo/aus-soaring
