Rigging

[guest]

Robin,

Blast handles weren't banned in 1974.

I was still using them in 1978 at Lake Elsinore. I think in 1974 they came out with that thing that said, "the center post must be drilled out," so the handle could be pulled in a direction other then straight down.

Nick
BASE 194

[guest]

Nick:

Read more closely, please. I wrote:

"... because I started sport jumping in 1974, just as USPA was banning them."

This does not state when the banishment process concluded, as it was a multi-year process, but it was, in fact, underway in 1974 because I was jumping at Fort Bragg-Raeford and a whole bunch of my elders were using blast handles and most of them were making some variation on the statement: "I'll give up my blast handle when they pry it from my cold dead hands."

So no, I don't know the exact year blast handles were officially banned, and I didn't say I did, but I'll also say that just because you were still jumping one in 1978 at Elsinore doesn't mean USPA hadn't already banned them and Elsinore was just ignoring the edict... but I just called Al Frisby and he told me he and Joe Morgan had to change their ripcords in order to compete in the Nationals sometime during the mid- to late 1970s. As he told me:

"It was a stupid goddamn deal anyway. It was designed to just pull it straight off the housing and it was fine. If you were one of those people who couldn't pay attention, you could drill out the center post so you could pull it in other directons. It was one of the best ripcord handles ever made."

Frisby also reminded me that USPA may have banned them, but the FAA did not, so they are still technically legal to jump.

RH