Skydiving Magazine Article "By The Numbers", published summer of 2003, and response to the subsequent "Letter to the Editor". The "Letter to the Editor" was written by a representative of the company that manufactures the CYPRES automatic activation device.
I don't have access to the text of the representative's response. In order to provide context, I am including a link to Airtec's own website where they published a statement which touches on many points from the letter to the editor. They put this page up in 2004, after the article had come out. The actual letter to the editor was somewhat more vociferous in their disagreement with my testing methodology and conclusions.
Original article text:
Airtec's website, dismissing likelyhood of an open-canopy fire (2nd half--"2004" text):
Author's (my) rebuttal to representative's "Letter to the Editor":
(The rebuttal was never published in the magazine).
Notes:
- At no time after the article came out did Airtec express interest in analyzing the data from the CYPRES unit used in the testing for the article.
- The final paragraph in the rebuttal letter was rendered moot when a skydiver activated a CYPRES during a landing maneuver in April of 2004. Fortunately, the skydiver was not injured in the incident.