This presentation showed the database with its limited capabilities and functions but even then it was a very good way to search for safety notices specific to the equipment you're currently working on.
With feed back from riggers and reserve packers over the years, we have updated it with many improvements.
All safety notices were scanned in copies and stored in jpg format making it a very memory intensive system, this was in the days when we were happy with a computer that had 80 mb's not 80 gbs. This was the biggest draw back which meant it could only be used by riggers with the right computer available.
It also had to be updated by each individual rigger, a lot of riggers never had easy access to a computer and with all the microsoft updates it became a problem to install and keep it working on different platforms i.e. win 95, win 98, win XP etc so the enthusiasm to keep this going slowly died with the limited resources available.
After years of using and testing new ideas it was obvious that a project like this needed funding to make it a viable and usable tool which is why Allan invested in a professional "web based" database that can be updated directly by the manufacturers and parachute associations. This now means it's always up to date and anyone with internet access can get access to it.
Below are some screen shots of the original database back in 1996
............
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Allan Hewitt designed and produced the original safety notice database and presented it to BPA members at the annual AGM back in 1996, at that time it was a windows 95 installation disk, it was then updated for a presentation in 2000 for use with windows 98.
.........
.........
