KevinMcGuire

Oh yea, one other thing. DO NOT MOVE OR TILT THE ANTENAS. If you do, then you will bring techs out to fix them and if they have to do that more than once, the'll be on to some one monkeying around on them and they will increase security.

I may not have all the technical info but I can offer this. When I closed my shop it was to go and work on cell towers. I've been up close and personal with them (while they have been on) for many months now and With ZERO affects that I have noticed. I asked my mentor about the risks, (a veteran in the cell phone industry-climbing towers for over 15 years) and he told me that he has never had any ill effects nor has any one he has ever worked with to his knowledge. Keep in mind that when we work on them we are not working in front of them. I don't imagine that you'll spend a bunch of time in front of the antennas. Probably just passing by. My mentor believes that there has been much hype about what is an acceptable amount of exposure, He thinks it's all over blown. Yes, he is always on the tower with me when I'm working There is a risk of being burned by the RF frequency if the coupling that attaches to the actual rectangle antena has not been tightened sufficiently and it is allowed to leak out and then you'd have to be very very close to it for it to get you. Besides that I'd say they are safe enough or at lease safer than jumping from the tower. Make every effort not to damage the small rectangular antenas. they cost a bunch and the owners will be non to happy. If some one has any solid info, I'd love to see it. Hope this helps

some thing else to consider is that you need to have the FXC calibrated in a chamber every so often. I can't remember what the interval is off the top of my head but finding a rigger that has a chamber will be no easy task. I know that it has never been cost effective for me to buy one. Just food for thought. Kevin

why would you want to? There are much better AAD out there.

In my experience, rolling the tail is done only so that the canopy can be put neatly into the bag. Also in my experience repairing parachutes, I have found many many time that when the tail has been rolled excessively during packing, damage in the form of friction burns are likely to appear on both cells next to the center cell precisely at the point where the rolling took place due to the high speed unraveling of the tail. Next time you are packing, try this little experiment. While standing, roll the tail as much as you think is necessary then let it go. You'll find that the tail will unravel it self while it hangs there in your hand presumably with no air speed to help it. Now think of what is happening to the tail when 120mph of relative wind hits it. It will unravel much faster and more violently than it did while you held it in your hand and sooner or later it will damage the material. Also keep in mind that line a over is much much harder to get than most think thanks to the slider(excluding tandems). The slider grommets contain each riser group and make it difficult for any one line to make it around the front of the canopy with out dragging all the lines with. Especially when the bakes have been stowed and while stowed, the upper control lines are usually only as long as the B or C lines depending on the parachute. Usually what some one thinks has been a line over has actually been a tension knot. If you think you had a line over that would not clear, then check the top skin of your canopy. If it was a line over then there will be visible damage in the form of burns or scuff marks where the line over was. If no damage exists, then chances are it was a tension knot. They look very similar to line overs

I have never heard of any one who was hurt or killed because they wore body armor, but I have heard of people getting hurt and killed by not waring it. Out of all the jumps I have made, I have a total of two jumps with no body armor (both into water). Thats what make me feel good at the exit point. However I think wearing it or not wearing it should remain the jumpers choice

Buy the specs. they are well worth it.

"Do or do not...there is no try." Yoda

How many jumps are on the canopy? You may have an issue with your brake lines. Check them to see if they are the same legnth. Also check your P/C to see if it is damaged. Just a thought

Be carefull bro. Make sure that you come back home in one piece. I'm looking forward to jumping with you and Katie again. good luck Kevin

No. It could definitely load one side first in a cross wind, even with perfect body position. Same is true with or with out a multi. Cross wind deployments are just like over zealous P/C deployments. They tend to drag the canopy off to one side

I have done that many times but I have recently closed my loft and don't have a place to do it at the moment. I guess it really comes down to how much interest there is. If there are others out there that would like to do this let me know. Perhaps I could put somthing together. Kevin

I spoke on the phone to a rep from the PIA. There is no way for this idea to be put into action for the next symposium due to the fact that it is already in the works. He was not absolutely opposed to the idea but he sighted many obstacles that could keep it from working out. If this idea is to even be seriously considered, it will take a large amount of interest, participation and effort from many people like you and I. Please keep in mind that this idea has just been hatched and it has not yet been officially presented to, or considered by the PIA. So in short if you like this idea, tell your rigger friends to get on line and show their support. The planning for the 2007 symposium may begin later this year and that means we will need to get enough riggers supporting it to show that this is viable. Other wise this idea will simply go away. Thanks Kevin

Neon orange is the color that comes to mind

In 1994 I attended the PIA symposium in Orlando FL. At that time I was a new rigger with little experience. I attended as many classes as I could and received a great deal of new and valuable information. I watched in aw as Rags from PD worked his magic to repair a canopy. I attended many other classes that were equally impressive and left the symposium with the feeling that I had spent my time and my money well. I made sure that I was at the next symposium 2 years later but this time the feeling I left with was not the same. I attributed this to two reasons. The first reason was that in the two years following my first symposium I had gained a great deal more experience, and second, was that the classes were very similar if not identical to the ones I had been to two years earlier. As a result of this I have had little desire to travle back to other symposiums and have done so only for the purpose of networking with manufactures and other riggers. The following is a Proposal That I feel will not only improve the rigger continuing education program but also no doubt, bolster attendance. Classes could be held during the PIA symposium. Classes may be as follows. In addition to the half-hour/hour long classes offered at the PIA symposium I propose that other more in depth classes be offered. These in depth classes could be a weeklong and be as many as 2-3 hours in length. This would allow those interested to attend 2 or 3 classes a day. Classes such as basic or complex canopy repair, harness construction and repair, sewing machine repair and other such classes could be offered to riggers wanting to gain practical experience by doing (not just watching), improve their existing skills, or to gain the necessary practical experience to become master riggers. I have put a many hours of thought into this idea and have what I think to be some good ideas that could make this a reality, but before I put these ideas down on paper, I thought that I’d get a feel for how many out there would actually be interested in this sort of thing. If the response is positive and large enough then I’ll put together a draft and post it for everyone to check out and to offer suggestions. A project like the one I’m proposing would be a logistical challenge to say the least but I feel that with the proper planning and support it can be done and done well.

Something to keep in mind is that the hardware is actually the weakest part of the whole system. Your standard thread through leg adapters are only rated to 2,500lbs, so using T-7 or T-8 becomes more of a choice based on slip factors or suppelness. Often people see the double wrap of material around their articluated hardware and assume that their harness is twice as strong. Not true. for the reason stated above One manufacture claims they have the strongest harness on the market because they use T-13 rated at 12,000lbs. How can this be when the hardware on the rig fails at 2,500lbs? A system is only as strong as it's weakest part but fear not. If you manage to generate 2,500lbs of force during opening, you would most likely be torn apart (or wish you had been)

I didn't honestly beleive that you thought "throwing caution to the wind" was cool. I was just poking fun back

" Kevin is a long time jumper, and as such has the luxury of perspective (and wisdom) to not jump when the wind kicks up." I was not aware that caution or safety was a luxury. Most of the time it's a just a pain in he ass. Especially when it forces my to climb down. Each of us must do what we think is best for our selfs and in the end we can only hope that we've made the right decisions. Good luck guys. Keep it fun

Hey riggers out there. I have just closed my riggng shop and have lots and lots of brand new certified webbing avalible. I have red, purple, navy blue, royala blue, airforce gold, and white in T-7,T-8, and T-17. Will part with large or small quantities. PM me and make me an offer if interested Kevin

No worries. I don't need to read it that bad. It sounds like it was removed for a good reason

I think that I read something about this this morning but the article as disappeared. Just curious as to why. I didn't get a chance to finish it. Is that missing article the one your referring to?

QuoteKevin, Sorry for getting side tracked. I sensed a bit of sarcasm in Daveo's post and I just wanted to put it to bed. Please accept my following words as fuel for debate and not tools to insult. (So for me, who have a more random body position, I believe that I have more disadvantages of the multi then benefits from it.) It sounds to me as if the problem is not the multi but the larger issue. Your body position. It is not reasonable to expect a system to work as intended with out the proper input from the jumper and if the jumper will not work to ensure good body position then it is not the multi's fault. (If you consider more aspects of the multi then just heading performance like the increase of complexity in the system it self and the more variables it allows and then ad the cost of it.) What could be more important than heading performance? It is often the difference between life and death. should that take a back seat to increased cost and a slight increase in complexity? IMO the slight increas in complexity is no so great that it becomes a saftey factor. Do you dissagree? ( Center cell stripping on the other hand are very ugly to look at but I am not so sure it really are as bad as it looks.) The key to this statement is that your not "Sure" if it is as bad as it looks. Wouldn't you want to be sure or at the very least, reduce the possibility than leave it up to chance? Please bare with me on this next thought. It is not a side track. It is directly relevant to this thread. I think everyone understands what will happen if your risers are uneven while packing and are left that way. Which ever riser is the shorter of the two will dictate the direction the resulting turn. This is due to the fact that the shorter side will load first and draw the canopy in that direction. To a lesser degree the same it true with regards to the bottom skin. If while performing the final bottom skin flaking and one side is mistakenly drawn to far over so that there is more material on one side than the other, then it will effect the opening in the same fashion as a riser being uneven. It will lead to an asymmetric inflation and promote a turn. Remember that I said to a lesser degree, but still important. The degrees of success in a pack job is equal to the sum of ALL it's parts Without the multi, I believe that any attempt to maintain an even and symmetrical bottom skin all the way to bottom skin pressurization is next to impossible due to the violent and random way a single point extracts the canopy. Kevin

I should say that my first 50 jumps were not so great. I did just about everything you can think of wrong and some how managed to get through it. I have towed P/C's, had 9 line over's, WAY over delayed (and nearly paid for it), had 4 180's, line twists, jumped from one building only to find my self in free fall over the tall building across the ally, and yes my big ass has even blown up canopies. You could say that I've been tested. A rational person would have quit but I don't know any. It was only after my 3rd REALLY REALLY close call that I did something to change things. I became a rigger. Not some part time weekend rigger but a full time, eat , breath, and sleep rigging type rigger. I'd work all day in a loft then go out all night and jump. Each night I would jump new packing ideas that I had learned or come up with during the day. I had lots of good and lots of bad ideas, and as a result of the bad ideas, I became really good at repairing canopys. Go figure. Also I sought the advise of those who were doing it better than me in my area. Mainly the folks at BR. Todd, Annie, and Marty back when he worked there. much of my success I owe to them. Now I don't mean to say that becoming a rigger will cure everyones opening problems or that the only fountain of knowlege is at BR, but if you really study parachutes, their construction, how to pack them, their opening dynamics, and the conditions in which you choose to jump, you'll find that making a parachute do what you want is really not that hard. After all, they are just parachutes. How does that saying go... "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." In the beginning, I approached BASE the way my mentors had. that is to say that there was a certain amount of magic involved in my surviving each jump. That way of thinking (which was the style at time) nearly cost me my life. Does everyone need to devote their life to this as I have? Clearly No. but I do think that in order to have true longevity in this sport, it might take just a bit more effort, training, and education than most are willing to get.

O.K. I'm back, Where was I? Oh yea... Tail pocket inversions. Before I begin, let me first say that what I have posted and what I'm about to say are theories and therefore under constant review What is tail pocket inversion? Imagine a canopy that is being extracted from a container and the lines are playing out. when things are going correctly, the lines play out of straight down and thus are less likely to contribute to a heading problem. However, if the tail pocket becomes inverted, the opening where the lines exit the tail pocket is now facing up or horizontally. The lines will then have no other choice but to exit the tail pocket and then pass directly over either the top of the tail pocket or the top or bottom skin and trailing edge of the canopy itself depending on which way the tail pocket inverted. When this happens, it becomes possible for the trailing edge of the canopy to be turned either right of left and thus helping to induce a turn. The resulting turn may then be made more pronounced as bottom skin inflation occurs do to the jumper swinging under the now inflating canopy. Damage to the canopy may also occur as the lines move swiftly past the F-111 resulting in burns. While I concede that supporting the tail pocket may not prevent tail pocket inversions %100 of the time, I feel that the logic behind the idea is sound. Again, these are just my thought on this subject and I welcome other opinions

IMO I think that each and every opening is the result of many small factors. To be sure body position is a big piece of the puzzle and so is the method of deploying the P/C but those two factors alone are seldom enough to ensure good heading performance. I have spent many hours watching video of openings in slow motion for both student education as well as personal growth. I have seen time and time again perfect body position and a perfect P/C deployment end in an off heading opening as a result of an symetrical inflation of the canopy. What is causing these asymmetrical inflations? Typically they are a result of the following reasons. 1) Poor packing 2)Container choice-over sized canopy for the container being used or poor container shape ie..canopys may hang up for a milisecond in overly wrapped corners or the pack job that is deformed as a result of trying to close side flaps, or riser covers that cause the risers to work too hard to free them selfs. If one side hesitates even a little it will induce a turn. The severity of how bad the turn will be will be directly related to how steadfastly the riser cover holds the riser in place 3)Wind conditions 4) Overly aggrresive P/C deployment 5) Center cell strip. To me the logic behind the multi makes sense because- Most of us spend a great deal of time dressing up our canopys to ensure a good deployment. We carefully flake and fold the canopy, and carefully place it into the container. More often than not what I have seen with a single point attachment is that usually the center cell is pulled violently out of the container leaving the other 6 cells behind thus negating all the hard work of dressing up the pack job. At that point, it's a crap shoot. You might have an on heading opening you may not. I don't wish to imply that with out the Multi you'll always have off heading openings. Clearly this is not the case. My point is that in the sport of BASE it is often not just one big thing that ruins your day it is actually several small things working in concert to become that one big thing. If we take the time to try an eliminate those small things then our chances for success are that much better. I have heard that some do not like to multi and have decided not t use it. I'd be interested in hearing their opinions. I just thought of some other possible causes of off headings that could be eliminated by the multi but I have to split. I'll post more later Kevin