Re: [B52] LD2 and StrongLite
I did not hear the full story about the incident that drove Squirrel to publish a Special Inspection on their Stronglite harness/containers, but I suspect that it involved a riser trying to peel off during an unstable opening.
First my review of Squirrel's Stronglite harness/container. It definitely is light-weight, way lighter than the Gargoyle (and 290 square foot canopy) that I repaired last week. It has a fairly conventional, 2-pin container. The pin-cover tucks under itself. The Stronglite looks like it was sewn in a para-glider factory. The container fabric is thin, rip-stop para-pack, only about 200 denier. In comparison, MIL SPEC/PIA SPEC para-pack normally used to make tail pockets, line leg pads, etc. is twice as thick: 400 denier. It will not survive many slide landings or approach marches through thorn bushes.
The container was small for a BASE rig, but judging by the 180 - XXXX serial number, it was built for a 180 square foot main canopy. It was longer than most BASE containers, making for a shorter reach for the BOC. Mind, you I always thought that the shortest skydiving rigs looked as silly as stupid, fat white men wearing clothes originally designed for a team of petite Japanese women!
Hah!
Hah!
Speaking of BOCs ... this Stronglite also has the smallest Spandex BOC I have ever seen on a BASE rig. I doubt if you could stuff a huge pilot-chute, designed for sub-terminal openings. More likely, that BOC was designed for 30-ish inch diameter pilot-chutes used for terminal openings.
However, container fabric is the lightest of all harness/container materials.
The Stronglite's harness is mostly (risers, back straps, main lift webs and leg straps) made of (4,000 pound tensile strength) PIA SPEC Type 8 webbing and sewn with 5 cord, pretty much standard for skydiving and pilot emergency parachute harnesses.
The only significant difference from common materials is in the chest and leg straps. They are made of square-weave webbing about 3/4 of an inch wide. It is not familiar to this old parachute rigger, but I have seen similar on rock-climbing and para-glider harnesses.
The leg straps contain two (fixed length) layers of Type 8.The adjustable leg straps are made of that narrow webbing and slide through some nifty aluminum buckles. The buckles are machined out of aluminum and anodised. The edges are much sharper than most parachute hardware, so I wonder how many hundred jumps they can do before they start fraying webbing.
The chest strap is also made of the same narrow webbing and narrow aluminum hardware.
The oddest thing about the Stronglite is the shoulder joints. They follow standard parachute industry construction techniques except for the choice of confluence wrap. Most skydiving manufacturers warp the shoulder join in confluence wraps made of (1200 pound) Type 12 webbing or (4000 pound) Type 4 webbing.
Most parachute harness manufacturers also include a steel confluence wrap in the 2500 to 5000 pound range. Even the Aviator PEP uses a 500 hundred pound square connector link to prevent the risers from peeling away from the back straps, if you deploy on your back.
Oddly, Squirrel only uses some of that light-weight (200 denier?), rip-stop, para-pack for confluence wraps.
Quick!
Audience members, what is the tensile strength of 200, rip-stop, para-pack?
?
?
If I worked for Squirrel, I would insist on wider radia on the next batch of hardware. I would also make the rear risers so long that they wrap back onto the diagonal back-straps and are sewn to the diagonal back-straps with 5-cord.
Would I buy a Squirrel Stronglite?
No!
But if they make a few updates, I would consider jumping a Stronglite 2 harness/container.
