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Hi all,

I have an hole in the mesh of my Apex 42" PC, its possible (and safe)
to repair it? If yes, how I can do it?
Thanks for any suggestions and experiences share!

Safe jumps to all
M

To repair it properly, you're going to need to disassemble the whole PC and cut a new piece of mesh out, then re-assemble it with the new mesh.

Honestly, I don't think it's worth it. I'd just get a new one.

3 choices .

If it is bad tear on the Mesh ? but the outer skin & Handle is still Primo and you really like it .
pick-out bar-tack on the tow line . flip it inside-out . remove mesh & re attach new mesh .

If it is just a small snag hole/tear . lightly cauterize the Mesh with a lighter to keep from fraying and running. Then hand-stitch the small tear . then Keep jumping it .

If you really feel mindfucked like any repair is Black Death on PC Mesh . Just buy New one .
Or Recycle the repaired PC to the Twin Fall Gear Pile for bridge Flopping with your. B-team shit gear .
.

My finger pass through the hole!!!
But the ZP its in great conditions !

Just one finger? Or all of them?

If it's just one finger, I'd probably just keep jumping it as is.

Yes Tom, just one finger, I have considerate to hand stitch it but before to do that I'd like to ask to more experienced jumpers!

M

I'd just ignore it and keep jumping the PC. I've put hundreds of jumps on PCs with holes like that in the mesh with no issues.

Thanks to share;)

I love when Tom talks dirty to me...

As there was already talk about holes in PC's, I remembered I have a 42" APEX PC that I got when I bought my gear. There is a Tear in the mesh and it's repaired by former owner - I haven't jumped it though - picture attached.

As I pull the mesh or any other part of the PC it look like the repair holds the mesh together like it should be. I would just like some second opinions. It's of course easier just not to jump it but... Has anyone jumped PC's with these kinds of repairs.

how is that symmetrically? have you checked to see how much shorter it is on that side?

I would also be curious about the weight. Mesh is pretty light stuff, and if you're not really careful with the repair you could end up with that side of the PC lagging behind during inflation because of the added weight.

Purely for discussion Tom:

It's a 42" PC, generally you aren't doing a go and throw. Would the weight added be negligible at a 1 second or 2 second delay stowed? for a GnT i could see it being a problem for PC inflation.

I wasn't thinking that it would cause hesitation of the entire PC.

I was more wondering if the extra weight on one side would cause that side to lag, causing an asymmetric inflation, possibly resulting in increased oscillations.

I don't know of anyone who's actually done any testing on that sort of thing, so it's all pretty hypothetical.

I've checked the symmetry and it look just fine. When I hold the PC up from whatever side or point it look like the repair does not drag or deform the PC (or mesh) significantly at any way - looks like a normal PC just the ugly repair for the tear... Don't think there is much extra weight thanks to the repair though.
While checking the inflation in hand (dragging through air) it also acts normally but when applied the forces that it's meant to deal with when throwing after few second in freefall might it act totally different and oscillate - I'm not sure.
As i understood the former owner used the PC with this repair.

ahhh, that does make sense and i could see a small issue with oscillation.

That is not (generally) a very dimensionally stable region of a pilot chute anyway. I cannot tell for sure from looking at the picture if the repair made would alter the trim of the pilot chute further outside the range that would be acceptable for a new one.

Also, I don't think the added weight of the thread used in the repair would contribute to a measurable change in performance that could be directly attributed to the repair.

Some manufacturers use a surger to finish the junction between the top skin and mesh of pilot chutes. In this case, the overlap of the surger stitching places more thread on one side of the pilot chute than the region directly across from it. The amount of thread I'm talking about is far more than what is shown in the picture of the repaired mesh. There are no steps taken to offset this tiny bit of added mass because....well... it doesn't matter. Unnecessary.

All that being said, I would not jump the pilot chute in the photo because I would have other concerns.

One would be the question of how the mesh was stabilized (or not stabilized) before it was knotted closed. A hot knife could leave small sharp, hard ridges that could interact with the rest of the mesh in an unpredictable way.

Another would be an uncertainty in knowing the current status of the repair at any given time. Each jump puts wear on a pilot chute. If the repair were to fail, that little repaired tear could become a large hole on your pilot chute during a BASE jump, which is not a suitable environment for a pilot chute to malfunction.

Which leads me to my next concern. I forgot who said it, but someone once told me, "your pilot chute is the first thing that has to work correctly in order for you to live." You get one shot at your pilot chute working correctly on a BASE jump then you need to get really creative, really fast to get your canopy to linestretch. A new vented pilot chute is less than $100 (toxic PC's excepted) so the potential risk from using this pilot chute, in my opinion, far outweighs the cost-benefit of keeping it in service.

Just ordered a new 42" PC ;)

Thanks to all for the imputs

Safe jumps
M

The smart move !

And it only took 17 posts to come to the smart conclusion :-)

So we can conclude that Italians are smarter in a faster period of time than Australians?

:))))

Zing.

I suggest using older and/or repaired
pilot chutes for Static Line jumps since
the break-cord does the work and there
is a little greater chance of snag damage.

I agree