Basejumper.com - archive

Service Bulletin attached as .pdf file.

This makes me so mad. After much research and lots of questions to the crew down at Apex I purchased a big ass Flik Lite 308 in confidence. I hope that they at least man up and provide the new lines. I don't need them to install them, but it would be nice if they made this right. It isn't like it would cost them a whole hell of alot.

They are offering replacement lines with 525 for the inside As, and new B cascades in 400 to make it easier to replace the lines.

From an email I received earlier today:

Sounds promising.

So apparently the big-ass Flik Lite canopies still are made with 600 lb Dacron and my dumbass can't tell the difference. Still wonder about the cascaded A/B lines.

I have a earlier Fox that I believe has 400 lb dacron lines. It was a used canopy, so I don't know if it was a special line set or what. It came without valve covers, so it must be an earlier model. I have never seen another normal Fox with such small lines. Of course, I can't check my lines or serial number/DOM at the moment because it is sitting in a federal police evidence locker

Anyone else have a regular fox (not lite) with 400lb lines?

PMP-0712 attached.

Is the attachment missing?

Hmmm. Apparently so.

It appears that it exceeds the maximum attachment size for the forum. Let me see if I can find someone who can change that.

You're welcome to e-mail it to me and ill try reduce the size for you.

As this is an official Apex service bulletin, how about asking Apex to host it on their website and just copy the link here? I somehow feel that regardless what is in this site, official bulletins and their attachements should be available at the manufacturer website...

I assume that they have either already put it up on their website or intend to do so in the future.

If you can find it there and post a link, that would be great.

Anyone is, of course, free to ask them anything they like.

I assumed the same so I took a quick look on their website and did not find it. Granted that I did not spend more than 3 minutes in looking for it so it does not necessarily mean that it is not there. :) I agree that everyone is free to ask whoever whatewver they like but personally before gong into lenghty efforts of hosting a manufacturer bulletin somewhere or changing a forum configuration to get it available to the public... I would just kindly ask the manufacturer if they can put it up to their site. :) Just my 0.02€ (that's eurocents in this side of the pond :))

The service bulletin got posted to Facebook here:

http://www.facebook.com/...p;type=3&theater


I haven't seen the PMP pop up there yet, but hopefully it will.

Links:

Service Bulletin

Product Modification Procedure


I will see if Meso has time to set up a spot somewhere here to host various manufacturer bulletins like this for any BASE gear.

I was preparing some wiener schnitzels and later on doing some scrambled eggs and having nothing else to think about I was wondering about 400lb dacron and thinking if saving few grams of weight and couple of square cm's in your container is really worth risking your life? i can understand ultra-lite canopies and the saving of weight and space there but lines? I guess if you'd take a dump before the hike you'd lose more weight. Or run couple miles for few days, you'd lose more fat and your hiking shape will improve.
I'm not trying to be an asshole but I just don't get it.

I don't either, but different people are going to make different decisions.

I will try to outline m reasoning for ultralite gear. I own 4 rigs out of which 1 is a Trango. I think ultralite gear has it's own specific usage as any highly specialaised gear. I jump my Trango only slider up and 99% of the jumps with ws. I only use it for big wall stuff, most of the times with big hikes as well. On this environment, compared to my Trolls, I can carry for example water and food or rope and climbing harness "for free". For me, this is a significant benefit. So to summarize this, for me the Trango is specialized equipment for specialized use. I would never ever recommend it to every day canopy or use it on slider down environment. For this use I have my Trolls which do the job perfectly there.

Regarding the lines, the Trango has 725lbs Spectra lineset, the same lineset which has been successfully used by major gear manufacturers in skydiving for years. I have not experienced or heard personally any line failures in skydiving environments for such sets and would be comfortabe to jump a line set up 1000 jumps on a sabre or a stiletto. Given that we are speaking about BASE here and the lifespan of the trango is maybe 500-600 jumps, I have decided to reline it after 250-300 just to be sure. So to be honest I'm not really worried about the lineset and yes, it s significantly flatter than your standard dacron set. Not that it would make a difference on the aerodynamics to me, I suck so bad with a ws anyway. :)

Well of course using spectra 725 brings some benefit over dacron 725, and that's why I do not understand the usage of thinner dacron if you can actually get the lines which are as strong as dacron 725 and much thicker

There is now an articles category for these sort of service bulletins here.

If anyone has any others to put in there, please email them to me and I'll try to get them put in there.

Thanks!

Taking a dump is probably more efficient than picking these lines, but taking a dump *and* picking the lines would be the best. Before reading these threads I wouldn't know why I shouldn't pick the lightest lines. I do understand that we are all crash test dummies in this sport, but I would assume that the manufacturers do basic calculations on safety before they offer something like this. Looking at Lucifers post here http://www.basejumper.com/...post=2955956#2955956 showing the details I am pretty shocked that Apex hasn't done this simple calculation themselves before deciding to offer these lines. Too bad, because I've always liked Apex.

Hey Tom,
The PMP was on their site when it was posted. http://apexbase.com/...882d9_1189307424.pdf

Maybe we should build our walls in our homes with 1x2's instead of 2x4s??? It would place less weight on our foundations. ;)

One parachute, one chance. I'll stick with overbuilt gear.

My .02$ which isn't much especially with the weaking dollar. ;))

that basically IS what they do if it's mobile... if you were carrying your home on your back, you'd probably want it to be lighter...

In my old age I will take bomb proof vs 10 lbs. Everybody Different.

I would not want my only home to be mobile.

V

agreed. but that's why i have many homes.

They seem to fly well in the wind, it's just the landings that need to be worked out.

+1 and yes( everybody's differant !!!) ;-)

very true! :)