On Monday morning a beautiful new Skyline Zero Drag FR harness showed up for me at Quest Air. I had traded Oz Report ads for the new harness and a Skyline Survive M PDA parachute which was already installed in the harness. I couldn't have asked for a nicer harness, and it even came with a drogue chute.

I took the harness out of its bag. The molded fiberglass boot was removed from the end of the harness, but it doesn't have to come out of the harness to pack the harness in its bag. There were two black bags around the fiberglass. One according to the manual (which was in the harness bag pocket) is a spare. The other has Velcro on it to hold the boot in at the end of the harness.

On the outer boot bag there are two Velcro hook patches covered with a Velcro fuzz patch. You can swap this patch back and forth to allow you to lengthen or shorten the harness by moving the boot forward or back arresting its movement with the Velcro.

I put the harness bag in the compartment provided by the fiberglass boot.

There were also two flat inserts that I put in pockets in the sides of the harness. These are there to smooth out the harness. You need to remove them when folding up the harness to go into the harness bag.

It was nice to have a manual. I don't think I've had one for a harness before. Maybe I just didn't notice them. The manual wasn't totally up to date on the latest changes, but it was close enough that you could figure it out.

When I opened up the harness I started to notice its many features. In no particular order:

1) zippered pockets for the aerotow tabs with little (less drag) strings on the sliders;

2) chest and stomach buckles on the inside of the harness (less drag), the chest buckles (and the chest area itself) well padded on the inside;

3) adjustable leg straps with buckles independent of the stomach strap/buckles (no strapping yourself around the groin);

4) two side pockets (one left and one right) accessible through neoprene covered slots (not zippered and therefore basically open to the outside) from the outside divided in half by Velcro strips to allow for segregated pockets, one not open to the outside. The pockets are topped with zippers on the inside that allow easy access for cables to radios, for example. They include tabs which allow you to connect string or bungies to your radio or camera;

5) thick removable knee and leg pads in zippered pockets;

6) two relatively short side pockets, shorter and smaller overall than those found in other racing harnesses (the side pockets in these harnesses are used to help shape the harness and come filled with packing that can be removed and the pockets filled with glider bags). The inserts mentioned above are used to shape this harness;

7) zippered pocket on the back of the parachute pouch (that sits behind the pilot's butt);

8) the small zipper slider with a small string at the back/bottom of the main back zipper that allows for access to the large back storage area;

9) the sliding second smaller carbon back plate that moves back when the pilot pushes against the boot;

10) the separate camel back pouch;

11) the main outside zipper has the sliders reversed so that their smooth sides are on the outside. The zipper extends five inches beyond the top of the chest material allowing for easy zipping up. There is a plastic buckle at the top of the chest, which relieves stress on the zipper, which is always a concern of mine as I've had zippers unzip in flight;

12) extended "bat" wings with foam "wedges" at the back to help form the bat wings;

13) a drogue chute with its interior zipper pocket and neoprene slotted opening to the outside;

14) the very clean parachute container and exterior handle;

15) the embroidered wings on the back;

16) the shackled safety next to the slider, there in case the slider fails;

17) carbon plate covered butt plate for the kick-ass activator (which worked well);

18) sacrificial outside Cordura boot cover. I think that this needs to be covered to tuff toe http://www.tufftoe.com/.

19) the clean overall appearance of the harness.

Here I am hanging in the harness:

Photos by Belinda

I should have been hanging in the ladder hang strap one step higher, so I am too head up in this picture (even though I am right on the base tube). The top sliding carbon back plate was not pulled back as far as possible as I hadn't hooked it up correctly (this was one area where the manual was out of date).

The harness has the most room of all the harnesses that I have tried lately (more on these soon) and gives me plenty of room for boots, in the boot. I normally fly with no shoes or very light shoes (due to the fact that other harnesses don't give me much room) so I wasn't pushing all the way back on this harness (as I would have had to push with my out stretched toes), so it wasn't totally straight. I wasn't aware at the time that I could move the boot forward.

This harness was made to order for my dimensions and I found it had plenty of room. It was easy to zip up and there was lots and lots of storage room. I first put the harness bag in the bottom back storage area above my calves, and didn't even feel it.

This is a shot with my head resting on the base tube:

Click on the photos above to see higher resolution versions. You can see more photos at the Skyline web site.