I was looking for previous posts I had regarding RC skydiving and stumbled upon these posts. I got MIKE from Paramax in Germany after a 6 month wait, and I was glad I purchased such a fine quality kit. It has flown perfectly with NO dirt dives whatsoever. It is a sturdy and reliable diver. The secret for 100% chute openings is this:

1. It has a metal "gate" where the pack's final flap metal loop is inserted, and where the servo pin passes perpendicularly to secure it firmly, but allowing immediate snag-free release. This is set up at rear of Mike's neck.
2. Rubber bands connected to legs exert opening force on this same flap.
3. The flap contains a 3" piece of ripstop that is furled around the drogue chute. Once the pin is released, the flap flips open, pulls the drogue chute and lets it out into the air stream.
4. The pack fabric allows for snag free operation.
5. The parachute fits tightly inside the bag, and it would seem like it wants to come loose.

After my initial march 2005 jumps, I tried installing a flag. I added a second pack which is packed first with the folded flag and a weight. Once packed, the loop and pin is inserted into the gate's FIRST opening. The servo pin is positioned so that it secures this portion ONLY. The chute is packed normally on top of this flag pack, and the second metal loop on the final flap pack is inserted on the SECOND gate. The servo pin is now allowed to travel through the second gate completely to keep everything secure.

The servo is basically mated to a knob rather than a switch. Rotating it 50% will make the servo pin travel just enough to release ONLY the parachute. Once the knob is rotated 100%, the pin is entirely removed from both gates, which will release the flag pack and unfurl the flag. I adjusted the knob in such a way that it HAS to be at 50% precisely for the parachute to open, and about 95 to 100% of its rotation to unfurl the flag. This ensures I don't accidentally over-rotate the knob and open the flag AND parachute simultaneously. It works fine every time.

The benefits of this are quite obvious: You free fall, rotate the knob 50% to open the parachute ONLY, and once the skydiver and parachute have stabilized, you are free to release the flag at any point during the flight down under open canopy. This allows for a WOW factor of unfurling the flag some moments before final touchdown to please the spectators

Will upload pictures of those jumps and the mechanisms soon.<br type="_moz" />