The Apco Mayday Reserve Parachute Series are available for hang-glider pilots. This includes all three versions of  the classic mayday (Regular, Light and Superlight), and the Mayday SQ – Light Square Parachute).
We have upgraded our long bridle, to a double dyneema bridle, offering  lighter weight and lower bulk, with higher strength.
The Light Dyneema Bridle can be assembled onto all but the tandem and UL-28 Reserves (These  are supplied with specific bridles).
Assembly is simple, using a larks-head knot, and the bridle ends are protected with teflon sheaths, preventing meting of the bridle due to friction in case of a shock opening.

Review

The Mayday has been compared for a long time with some other rescue systems, but according to the findings of the Italian Free Flight Federation (FIVL), it still comes out on top. A series of tests, made from a fixed balloon in November 1997, attended amoungst others by Swiss Federation expert Alain Zoller. Over 20 modern reserve systems were tested.

Many vital properties of an emergency parachute were assessed, such as opening speed at high and low velocity, sink rate and stability during descent. The Mayday 16 was the second smallest parachute on test and yet it consistently performed at the top even in sink rate and stability. The only systems with a better sink rate were; 31.7m2, 34.1m2 and 43.4m2, all at least 10m2 larger than the Mayday’s 22.1m2 and in the case of the Trekking F22 at 43.3m2 nearly twice as big. The Mayday is a pulled down apex reserve parachute, which possesses the one thing that wasn’t tested – reliability. But over the years the reliability of the system has been well proven. Anatoly Cohn recalls that the system has saved hundreds of pilots around the world. At a time when trends and gimmicks regularly come and go the Mayday has been saving pilots since 1984. What other system can boast a fact like that?