dmathews1960

If anyone following this thread knows where I can find a Paradactyl, I would be TRULY appreciative! Been looking for about a year now and still no luck!

Hey riggers - especially old guys like me! I have a very nice Delta II Parawing that I want to put into a modern, airworthy, piggyback harness/container system. I'm only guessing that I should look for something that would hold a modern 280 sq ft main. As modern canopies might pack smaller, is this big enough? Since I'll probably be finding one online, I would like to have the container size nailed down before purchasing something. Can anyone confirm that 280 is correct, or what the correct size should be? I'm setting it up with a BOC. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Yup. I have heard lots of stories of people stalling the single-keel dactyls and dropping about 1500 feet before recovering. And I have heard lots of stories of streamers using the Delta II OSI system, although I have concluded that at least some (maybe most) of these were due to packing error since the system was so unfamiliar to folks. And I have corresponded to people who have jumped single-keel dactyls, double-keel dactyls, and delta II's and the consensus seems to be that the double-keel was the most forgiving. I am working with a guy to purchase his Delta II, and I plan on jumping it sooner than later. But my greatest desire is to have (and jump) a double-keel dactyl. Since I'm AFF Program Director at Skydive Tecumseh, i think it would be cool for students to see a vintage canopy flying and know that students used to use them. Last week or so I posted in the Skydiving History and Trivia forum, and then in the Gear and rigging forum (since I figured there may be some old riggers in that group). I also posted on FaceBook in the Oldschool Skydiving group. In that group I got quite a bit of discussion and potentially found a Delta II, but still haven't located the twin-dactyl that anyone is willing to part with. If you hear anything, I would greatly appreciate the leads.... Thanks in advance. David Mathews [email protected] 269.470.9969

Thank you so much. I would really appreciate any help finding one!

Thank you so much for trying! I have a couple of leads I'm still working.

Thank you so much. Now that I'm no longer in the running for National Director, I don't have to worry about people thinking I don't have any common sense :)

Hi folks. I posted this in the history forum a few days ago but haven't made any progress, so I'm posting it here. My guess is some of you experienced old school riggers might be able to provide me with a lead. Thanks in advance. Hey Everyone: Like a lot of you, I grew up on rounds, made some Para-Commander jumps, and then bought a Strat-o-Cloud. I always thought, though, that the Delta II and the Paradactyl were the most beautiful canopies in the sky. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Anyway, I've talked to some really helpful folks, and have convinced myself that my first choice is a double-keel Paradactyl, and my second choice is a Delta II. I am NOT obsessed with the idea of jumping a completely vintage container and setup. But I am somewhat obsessed by jumping one of these canopies, so my plan is to find one, get it inspected, and put it on three-rings in a modern container with a modern ram air reserve. I'm asking for help locating either a double-keel paradactyl or a Delta II. Any help or leads you might be able to give me are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Now, the "why the hell do you want to do that?" comments can begin. :)

Absolutely beautiful! Do you still have the white one? Do you have any advice for me in trying to locate one (at this point I would be happy to get a single keel one)

Someone told me they had a Delta II. I got it a couple of weekends ago to look at, and it turned out to be a PZ-81, so I returned it. Last weekend I acquired a Para-Commander Mark 1 that looks and feels brand new in a shortbow-crossbow container. I also got a crossbow 26- steerable conical reserve that also looks brand new in a standard belly mount setup. I have no interest in getting these back in the air, but couldn't pass them up because of the quality. I am mentioning this to everyone who has vintage gear interests in the hopes that someone will be interested in these. I think finding a double-keel dactyl or a Delta II is simply going to require talking to lots of folks before finding someone that has theirs (or their Dad's) in the closet. I'll keep you posted if I find anything.

Thank you so much for your willingness to help!

Hey Everyone: Like a lot of you, I grew up on rounds, made some Para-Commander jumps, and then bought a Strat-o-Cloud. I always thought, though, that the Delta II and the Paradactyl were the most beautiful canopies in the sky. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Anyway, I've talked to some really helpful folks, and have convinced myself that my first choice is a double-keel Paradactyl, and my second choice is a Delta II. I am NOT obsessed with the idea of jumping a completely vintage container and setup. But I am somewhat obsessed by jumping one of these canopies, so my plan is to find one, get it inspected, and put it on three-rings in a modern container with a modern ram air reserve. I'm asking for help locating either a double-keel paradactyl or a Delta II. Any help or leads you might be able to give me are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Now, the "why the hell do you want to do that?" comments can begin. :)

Thanks. I've linked up with Craig Bulman and Andrew Hilton from the UK. They have been TREMENDOUSLY helpful.

Is anyone still on this thread who can talk to me about the Delta II?

Hey Everybody: Voting in the USPA National Director Special Election ends Friday June 30th. A couple of days ago, on another internet group, someone challenged me regarding my opinion on Collegiate Nationals. I am posting BOTH his comment, and my response below, so you can see where I'm coming from. Once again, if you agree with the things I'm saying, I would REALLY appreciate your vote. Thank you. Here's his comment: we had a record attendance of 92 competitors at Collegiates last year. What's your reasoning for why this is "completely unacceptable"? How many attendees would you find to be acceptable? What ideas do you have to increase participation? Rookiefest may be an unfair comparisons as it's open to anyone with 200 or fewer jumps and less than 18 months in the sport -- there may be thousands of such people. Collegiates is open to college students who have the time & resources to also be skydivers. My Response: Thanks for your comment. I think the first step to improving any situation is coming to some shared agreement that we can/should do something different. Here is my reasoning: There are over 3,000 colleges and universities in the US. Nearly 4,000 if you count branch campuses. By headcount, there are somewhere around 16 million college students nationally. According to the listing in Parachutist, there are 5 College clubs. Clearly the Parachutist list isn't complete, as the service academies aren't listed - which may or may not operate as a club. But you get the picture. My strategy for increasing participation at Collegiate Nationals would be: 1. first to increase the number of active college clubs. I would favor USPA convening a task force including members who have collegiate experience themselves along with Group Member DZ's that are interested in hosting a club. (Forming a club isn't really that hard, I was able to work with students and Michigan State University staff to recreate their club this year). So the first step would be engaging members toward this worthy goal. I would favor USPA making it a high-level, visible priority. 2. I would also ask USPA to create metrics as to the number of Colleges represented each of the last ten years (I would have said five were it not for Covid), and the number of participants. Using this benchmark data, I would ask the task force to set a goal - I honestly don't know what that would be, but how about a Big Goal of ultimately having say 50 Colleges represented at Nationals, or 100? I don't think this is unrealistic, because the system is already set up to allow single skydivers from a College to compete. (I completely agree with you that Rookiefest isn't a good comparison - it was just my attempt to say that if you put effort into new skydivers, good things can happen) 3. I would use Parachutist magazine to highlight this activity, generate interest, etc. The recent USPA webinar was a good start, but as you might guess, had very low participation. The most recent member survey of USPA members shows that if we want to communicate with current members, the print version of Parachutist is the way to go. **Postscript: When I wrote the above answer in the other forum, it was mostly from memory. Further checking confirms about twelve million of these undergraduate students are full-time, plus there's another 3 million graduate students (I don't know how many are full-time) But in any case, there's more than 13 million college students in the pool from which to draw (since the competition rules require full-time enrollment the previous semester). So yes, I think we really can (and should) do better than 95 participants from just a handful of institutions. Clearly, though, this just my opinion.

@sfzombie13 Excellent idea. But I have one caveat. I want a MAJOR revision of each first. After that, I would anticipate minor, incremental changes that should be easily tracked as you suggest.