Basejumper.com - archive

Found this today. Manufacturer says ''They need a lot more care than normal steel pins, but a chance of a hangup is greatly reduced''
Is this true? I mean, if this is was true, then everyone would already use yellow cable pins. Can anyone see potential problems associated with these?

I see more dangers than anything else. Dent in the plastic coating would possibly cause a pc in tow, sudden increase of pin tension could bend the pin out of shape into the grommet. Have you seen many malfunctions with the standard metal curved pin not working as it's supposed to work?

V

Straight pins, curved pins, and yellow cables
all work just fine and perform same function:
Keep rig closed till YOU want it to open.

Now for something more educational/productive...
Please explain the reasons for using a straight pin
versus a curved pin.

To The Experienced Guys & Gals:

Please do not answer, I know you know

Nah, just curious about the truthfulness of the manufacturer's statement.

Angular load on straight pin= pc in tow or hesitation? Straight pins are used where no ang. load is ever applied?

The potential problem I see is that flexible pins don't create any leverage.

Primarily very cold weather is the hazard. It causes the material to crack and be inconsistent. If it's the cutaway yellow chord stuff, it will probably be fine. If it's plastic coated on steel cable, you may have a potential disaster.

Hasn't Flex Cable been used with manufactures of Tandem Harness Container systems with deployment ?
.

Hasn't the Strait-Pin been used in Reserve Containers for years in Closing & Deployment ?
How much Lb. load-pressure is continuously on the reserve strait-pin till it used .

Don't quit get the 'Angle Load' thing for a closing-Pin ?

I think if you put straight pins on a base container and pull the bridle at 90 degrees from the container(straight up with the container lying down) it won't open. The lever effect will tend to stick the end of the pin into the fabric. But that's my guess.

So I think it's better to stay away from these pins and be conservative.

The cable housing on the reserve cable/pin ensures that when you pull on the reserve handle the pin gets pulled in one direction only.

And with Pull-out deployment system, the pulling force should be in the pin direction only -> straight pin is used.

Yes, straight pins are used when the pull force
is going to be a straight line, as in a reserve
which is activated by pulling on a cable.

Yes, curved pins are used when the pull force
is going to be perpindicular, as in when using
a pilot chute that is thrown (versus spring).

I have jumped tandem rigs where the main pack
tray was kept closed by yellow cable material or
steel cable with that clear coating. Both, thanks
to their flexible nature, worked just fine in Florida.


Lastly, a tip about curved pins for the newbies:
the pin starts out laying flat, as the load is applied
the pin stands up, and then is extracted, hence if
I am priming pins I stand them up.

edited to fix typo

I wounder how much pin tension would be needed to kink the cable into the grommet.

Looks like a "solution" looking for a problem...

+1

If I remember correctly, some guys tried the same kind of thing with skydiving rigs some time in the nineties or early 2000's. They were using longer (3-4 inch) pieces of lolon coated cable (the yellow cutaway stuff) to help alleviate the problem of pins being accidentally popped on freefly jumps. I don't think it ever caught on, as I never saw it anywhere except on DZ.com.

I had a drogue release cable on a tandem break in freefall. It was there on exit, but when I went to use it, the orange plastic handle was gone. The cable inside had broken through flexing, but the plastic covering meant that it couldn't be seen. Not a good thing to happen if it's a pin holding your container closed.

I am more than well aware of possible problems of that & I would never use a strait-pin for a closing-pin on a BASE rig . Or for a skydive Rig either on the Main container .

But would Not the Flex-cable Be & Act & Function like a Curve-Pin when it bends in any direction it wants, when Not being pulled on a No-Angle Pull . ???
.

yes thanks for clarifying that .
.

doesn't the second picture support that theory? A push force on the end of the cable bends it, the pin flexes. A pull force should translate forces similarly (around a fixed point of rotation like the closing loop).. I shall do a test in the loft and post my results.

We were talking about the metal straight pin. As for the yellow pin, yes it will bend and extract as it's supposed to. The question was about the yellow pin somehow ''reducing the chances of a hangup''. After all the replies, looks like these pins are a bad idea on a base container(breaking, kinking, cracking the outer coating, low temp. problems, etc etc). Wow, looks like the community still provides answers

Our SOV's (Special operations vector) when configured for static line deployment (double bagged square canopy) have a flexible coated metal cable towards the end of the static line, through the closing loop. those are pulled in all sorts of different directions and haven't frayed the closing loops yet that i've noticed.

not that it's terribly relevant, but they are used in current production sky-rigs

Like Davo said, not particularly relevant to this discussion, but I have been using the double yellow pin set-up in my skydiving rig for about 12 years (the same yellow cable!) and have had no issues with it at all. I inspect it closely at the start of each jump day and briefly during each packjob. Never had any bedding in, dents or nicks. The main reason I went for it was at the time I was jumping Cessnas, and moving around in small planes is notorious for popping open pin covers and occassionally pushing a pin out. The fact that these pins bend so easily make it pretty much impossible for them to be pushed out accidently.
For those who don't know, the single piece bent in two is so the tension of the closing loop will not pull the pin thru the gromits, as well as ensuring there is no "fixed end" - it is a fixed loop and 2 free ends so less likely to come off the bridle attachment point.
There is of course the chance that the yellow coating can crack and the wire pull out of it at pull time, leaving the yellow sheath in the closing loop, causing a baglock, but I'm OK with that since I keep a close eye on it.

Those would look really stupid on a necklace.



You cant fuck up a curved pin!