Where can I find 'stuff' to do with skydiving equipment?

[Quagmirian 40]

As some of you may know, I am a real parachute bore with aspirations to go into the manufacturing industry as a career. I'm posting this with the hope that all the riggers and company staff out there with their vast wealth of knowledge might be able to point me in the right direction. I'm looking for anything remotely educational, like books, documents, websites, expired equipment to take apart, materials, people to teach me things, anything really. A while back when I posted some rubbish I made, I got a lot of replies and someone very kindly emailed me the 3 ring construction manual. This is exactly the sort of thing I would love to have a look at and I really appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

Just a note, I am also a student skydiver and I have asked dropzone staff and riggers for this sort of stuff, but they have decided to go down the 'don't mix business with pleasure' sort of route. In other words, they don't want to fill my head with equipment knowledge while I forget what I should be doing on a jump, quite rightly some would say. Let me make it clear that none of this is related to my skydiving career and I don't intend to be an armchair rigger around the dropzone.

[obelixtim 100]

You don't actually have to be a skydiver to be a rigger. so you could start on a riggers ticket anytime. You can buy copies of manuals by contacting manufacturers or gear sellers. Check out some of the major US gear dealer websites.

I find the attitude of your DZ staff strange. They should be happy that you are interested in gear. They would be jumping antique equipment themselves if it weren't for the innovators in parachute design, who all started from scratch.

But being the UK, their attitude doesn't surprise me for a second....its quite typical. Negative.

The son of a friend was alway interested in doing what you are doing, so I gave him a ragged out parachute. He dismantled it, and started building kites and the like on his mothers sewing machine.

Today he owns a VERY successful business building kites, and has captured the NZ market for kite surfers and land yachties. He's a lot richer than I am!!!.

Go for it.

Edited to add:

As an afterthought, a lot of rigging involves sewing and the techniques thereof. something that holds no real appeal for me.

However, you can learn a[ lot of the techniques from other industries, and obtain materials from them as well.

I'm thinking sailmakers, upholsterers, saddleries who make horsey stuff. Some of them should be easy to find.

I recall a young skydiver exactly like you. Paul Martyn, his name. Everyone thought he was wasting his time when he first expressed an interest in gear.

He is better known in skydiving circles by his nickname, Jyro.....and he's the one responsible for the Icarus range of canopies, now a world wide brand.

So go for it.

My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

[RiggerLee 61]

What exactly are you interested in doing? There are all kinds of rigging. I was sort of like you. Where I started you were expected to do most things for your self. I started packing on the second canopy I ever jumped. By 25 jumps I was assimbleing rigs. At a hundred jumps I was working in a loft building containers. Later I built some base gear all kinds of accesseries. Now I'm doing more recovery systems. And I got to tell you every bit of it has been fun. There are always new things to learn about at every turn.

Tell us a little more about what your interested in and we'll try to dirrect you. Don't sweat cluttering up your head. The greater your knowlage about your gear the better skydiver you will be.

Start with pointers, the new parachute manual, and knacke. There are also some web sites out there with articals. Peek has one. There is quite a bit on the jump shack site and some others.

Buy a sewing machine. A real one, in other words INDUSTREAL. Don't fuck around. If it doesn't have a knee or foot lift and a moter that weighs 30 lb's on it's own don't bother with it. Don't let any one make fun of you. Sewing is cool. When you can build some thing that flys, that's cool. I don't care what your woofo friends say. When you build some thing that has never exested before and test it by climbing a mountian that no human being has ever stood on top of before and test it by jumping off, that's double cool. Shit that goes super sonic is tripple cool. Learn to sew. If nothing else the sex toys alone that you can build are worth it.

Lee

Lee
[email protected]
www.velocitysportswear.com

[obelixtim 100]

Good post.

Poynters manual....the riggers bible.... everything you ever wanted to know and more...Don't read it all at once!!!.

My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

[LouDiamond 1]

Have you read the thread at the top of this forum titled "So, you want to be a rigger" yet? Lots of links to the type of information you are looking for in that thread.

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[davelepka 4]

***A while back when I posted some rubbish I made

I am also a student skydiver and I have asked dropzone staff and riggers for this sort of stuff, but they have decided to go down the 'don't mix business with pleasure'***

Think these two things might be related?

There's a diffence between a student saying, 'I have an interest in rigging, can you point me in the right direction', and, 'Look at the rig I designed and built with no real knowledge of equipment or materials'.

The frist one makes you sound like a guy with an interest in rigging, the second one might make you sound like a pain in the ass know-it-all, who's trying to put the cart before the horse.

Maybe your instructors are right, and you should sitck to the skydiving business when the sun is shining at the DZ. A better question to ask would be, 'Can you point me in the direction of a rigger I might be able to work with to learn more about gear', and then ask that rigger about sitting in on some rigging sessions whenever it's convienient for him.

Another tip - forget anything you think you know about rigging. Based on the fact that without and 'real' knowledge, you tried to build a container, I get the feeling that you did all sorts of internet 'research'. I'm not sure what you read, or what you think you know, but you (and any rigger you work with) will be much better off if you start rigging lesson #1 with blank slate, and get all you info in person, from an actual rigger.

It's become somewhat of a negative side-effect of the internet, is that we see more and more students and newbie jumpers showing up thinking they 'know' things because they read or saw them on the internet. Big surprise, you can't a;ways believe what you read or see on the internet, and in terms of the $20 million a Nigerian prince is trying to give them, these jumpers seem to know that, but in terms of skydiving issues, they seem ready to trust their lives to info or techniques they read or saw online.

Case in point - you've already made up your mind that you want a career building parachutes or parachute equipment. You're not licesned, not a rigger, and don't own a rig, but that's what you want to do with your life. Can you see how that might seem like a bit much for the established jumpers or riggers you might be working with?

Be interested? Yes. Be enthusiastic? Yes. Be humble? Yes. Be realistic? Another big yes.

[andyhughes 0]

Hello,

Have you gone through every single document on UKS document repository yet? Particularly the service bulletins.

http://www.ukskydiver.co.uk/cms/index.php?/files/

There is a lot of guidance available in the UK... but you have to approach things in the right order. If you have got your packing certificate done, then get yourself on an Advanced Packers course. Until you know equipment really well, repairs & alterations (i.e. sewing) will have to wait.

You could also go over to the US on a FAA rigger course... there are several. But the focus is on packing rather than repairs/alterations.

In the mean time... sew a lot... make some kites: the nasa parawing, and anything generated by the Surfplan software. Visit manufacturers and riggers, and ask specific questions.

Andy

[mark 102]

Quote

You could also go over to the US on a FAA rigger course... there are several. But the focus is on packing rather than repairs/alterations.

Directed to the OP, not andyhughes:

If you want to focus on repairs and alterations instead of packing, I think at least a few of the folks running those courses would be happy to work with you. You might not qualify for a US rigger certificate, but you'd learn a lot. Ask around.

Mark

[Quagmirian 40]

Thanks for the responses everyone.