Today I test flew my brand-new Moyes Matrix Race harness. Made to fit, incredibly beautiful, very sleek design. I had it customized in terms of protection and communications.
First I applied plasti-dip spray to the harness boot area, replacing the original leather cover, which wears out rather quickly. In the next picture you can see my job of plati-dipping the harness. I made a few mistakes, like spraying a little bit out of the paper mask I had taped to the harness, but all in all it was a pretty decent job.
Secondly, I applied ScotchGard spray to the whole outside of the harness. This was a nice tip I got from Nixon, the Moyes dealer, now, in case I land in soaked areas or my harness gets mud, grass or other stains, I can easily wipe it all out with a wet cloth.
Then I had the help of Nixon in creating a nice setup for the radio cables and antenna. We had to make a hole in one of the pockets, but Nixon had a sewing ring press, or whatever it is called, so we fitted a nice steel ring to the hole so it won´t keep ripping open.
This is also my first harness in which the risers go straight to the dingle-dangle, there´s no more biners to mess with. This system also makes it virtually impossible to forget to hang in before take-off. The harness seems to have it all, many pockets, a great finish for the chute pocket, same for the drogue pocket, and as I would soon find out, it manages to be much more comfortable than my old Matrix (not Race).
Nixon helped me repack my reserve parachute into the new harness and suggested that I elliminated the mylar against mylar connection between the parachute main riser and the harness parachute riser. It´s been recently suggested that, in case both ends get loose, whenever they get suddenly tight in a real life reserve throw, the friction of the straps against them selves could melt and cut the straps. So we used my no longer needed biner to make this connection.
I was afraid the biner could be cumbersome inside the parachute pocket, and I discovered that I can feel it when walking around carrying the wing, but not in flight.
So today, with a little more than 10 hours on my new RS4, I went to the Rio ramp and took my first flight on the new harness and I loved it. The harness has a new system of going prone that is totally smooth and easy to lock in any position. The transition was a non-event and the only difference I felt was that it was a little harder to come back upright than my old harness.
These are the pictures:
