In art school I owned an industrial sewing machine. It could sew through virtually anything and was great for repairs and modifications of heavy garments and bags. It had a "walking foot" that moved the needle in sync with the feed mechanism on the bottom which let it pull through almost endless layers without issue. I think the most it took before choking was about 15 layers of denim. You could lift the foot with a knee-operated lever too which made moving the material while you worked effortless. Of all the crap I've sold over the years to buy other stuff it's the only one I really regret letting go of.
I manage lol, being circumcised had a much worse impact on my gait for considerable time, oh, and i got my median sized nuts crushed by my leg straps once after deploying my parachute, that sucked
why not? I have a burning passion for aerial sports, i have various sports skydiving licenses and BASE jumped for a while, so i am somewhat experienced in piloting different ram air canopy type wings. I also have a parachute rigging license and I’ve repaired and serviced parachutes for some time now.
Additionally, i also have designed a variety of mods and paraphernalia, including DLC coated closing loop pins - friction has foiled attempts to deploy reserve parachutes in the past, as well as a self-designed, modded slider to be retrofitted onto a model produced by performance designs parachutes.
The reason for the slider mod? The oem one is too small to slow down the deployment sequence, breaking the bones of unsuspecting parachutists. They are far from perfect in many cases and have never been sued for it.
Here’s another scary case in point if you’re interested in going down that rabbit hole. But I’m getting off track, I’m just having fun and I’m aware of the risks I’m taking by pursuing this. You’re risking your life on potentially badly designed gear either way, i just only have myself to blame lol
to be entirely honest, even that is beyond the point. Parachutes are dead simple things, pretty much all constructed from the same ZP ripstop nylon and built the same way.
Sure, there is a whole bunch of subcategories and outliers, but it’s all very mature technology if you aren’t pushing boundaries with things like full sail fabrics intended for paragliding wings, ultra fast and small cross braced speed machines and such. I’m not innovating here, i use the same designs, fabrics and processes, even the same sewing machines.
I also skydive with a commercial reserve parachute and a tertiary belly mounted emergency rig for good measure. The secondary reserve is rigged into a so called "automatic activation device" [1]. The chances of murking myself due to negligence, complacency or by pushing my luck with disciplines like relative work (flying formations) or free flying (acro) are wayyy higher than a fatal accident because one of three parachutes malfunctioned. Skydiving is a deadly sport, it says so on the waiver you have to sign, and if i don’t feel comfortable with the inherent risks, I’ll gift my gear to a newbie and call it quits.
[1] AAD - device monitoring velocity and altitude, fires a cutting charge, severing the reserve closing loop if still in free fall at set altitude. I use this one
