riggerrob

Modern RSLs and MARDs are ALMOST idiot-proof. You are more likely to dis-lodge the RSL/MARD by slamming your rig around on the ground or slamming a door frame on exit. If you are habitually that rough on your gear, it will not last very long. For illustration: both Cypres and BOC became fashionable introduced about the same time during the early 1990s. It was briefly fashionable to stand a rig on its yoke to stuff the pilot-chute into the BOC. After a few broken Cypres cables, that packing method fad soon faded. Container manufacturers responded by shifting Cypres control heads from the right mud-flap to deeper in the reserve container where they were better protected. Other manufacturers of electronic AADs learned from Cypres' problems and installed thicker, more durable cables.

Sometimes manifest pushes TIs too fast. If pushed too fast, TIs start skipping steps and making mistakes. I draw the line at running to meet the plane. My fastest walking pace is about the same as most people's slow-jog, and I can keep up that pace all day long. If I have to run to meet a plane, that means that manifest did not think far enough ahead.

How much is Lodi charging for hop-and-pops? How much is Lodi charging for jumps from full altitude (14,000 feet)?

Yes. That PD video shows you the best - most professional - way to tie on steering toggles. Further, I like to wiggle the knots until they are hidden inside the grommet. This prevents them from snagging on the steering guide ring.

Perhaps you are looking for the New Zealand model for training drop zone staff. They take on near neophytes - like you - and train them how to drive the shuttle van, how to pack, how to edit videos, how to do manifest paperwork, handle money and credit cards, how to dress students, how to refuel the airplane, how to take out the trash, how to mow the lawn, how to swab the decks, how to do outside camera and eventually how to do tandems. Pre-levels to become a TI include 3 years in the sport, 500 jumps, another skydiving coach or instructor rating, class 3 medical, etc. Before you do any of that, chat with your local TIs and ideally a Tandem Instructor Examiner to learn if you are tall enough and strong enough and have the right personality to become a TI. A good TI keeps the student in the limelight while he/she plays a quiet supporting role. Also determine if you are willing to work long hours for small pay. Pay is slowly improving as drop zones struggle to hire from the small pool of full-time, professional TIs. Then get the Class 3 medical (private pilot). Related to the aviation medical exam is your recreational frug habits. Some countries (e.g. USA) have rigid standards severely limiting the types and quantities of recreational drugs that you can ingest AND work as an aviation professional. Alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, hashish, heroin, extacsy, amphetamines, etc. may all be popular recreational drugs on your DZ. Recreational drugs are a quick "in" socially, but can hamper your career in the long run. I was a full-time professional skydiver for 18 years. It helped that I had been a part-time TI, IAD, static-line and freefall instructor before I went full-time. It also helped that I had a couple of rigger ratings so I could hide behind a sewing machine while the rest of the full-time staff were grumbling about the rain. I had to learn the finer points of driving the fuel truck. All those skills made be fully employable, meaning a lot of 60 and 70 hour weeks.

Examiners are required to report all new TIs to the manufacturer. Strong even puts a limit on the number of days between completion of Phase 1 training and paperwork being sent to the factory.

Sliders are traditionally measured at the middle. Span is measured at mid-chord and chord is measured at mid-span. Apply 5 pounds of tension to remove any wrinkles. You can install a slider made by ABC Corporation on a canopy made by XYZ Corp. as long as dimensions are similar. Consult your friendly, local rigger about the finer points of grommet size, aspect-ratio, etc.

UBI is a good concept, but easy to exploit. Vancouver bus drivers hate "welfare Wednesdays" because residents of the nastier neighborhoods become "welfare millionaires" who spend Wednesday and Thursday drunk, stoned, high, etc. but are broke by Friday. May I suggest that one way to reduce exploitation is to issue debit cards, but hard-wire limits on those debit cards? For example, those debit cards would be useless in liquor stores or fancy restaurants. Mind you addicts can be crafty people always trying to invent a new scam. We have addicts in Vancouver who will sell their prescription drugs - for pennies on the dollar - in order to buy tainted recreational street drugs (crack crystal meth, extasy, fentanol, etc.). Minimum wage should stay significantly above UBI to provide incentives to work. Consider that many welfare programs include free prescription drugs, eyeglasses, etc. that are not counted in the ... say ... $1000 per month. If those poor people work too much or earn too much, they lose a few hundred dollars per month in benefits.

Last week I sat in at USPA Examiner Standardization Meeting immediately after the Parachute Industry Symposium in Reno, Nevada. The room was pretty "heavy" with UPT Sigma Examiners, but I seemed to be the only Strong Tandem Instructor Examiner in the room. Civilians still need a minimum of 500 jumps, 3 years in the sport, USPA Coach rating, etc. before they can attend a Sigma Instructor Certification Course. However, the US military is training military tandem instructors with as few as 200 solo jumps. I first heard of the practice with Alaska Air National Guard search and rescue jumpers jumping with tandem bundles 20 years ago. Mind you, the military has a mentoring program to get their skills up to speed before the Tandem Instructor Certification Course. IOW prospective military tandem instructors must complete a series of exercises before ... I suspect that "200 jump wonders" are restricted to jumping with 500 pound bundles for "X" number of jumps before they are allowed to jump with humans strapped to their chest. The USPA meeting also emphasized the importance of mentoring junior tandem instructors during the first 150 jumps after they earn their ratings because it can take up to 150 jumps before they develop their own "flow" and get comfortable in the tandem instructor's harness. It looks like the good-old-days of simply assigning a TI rating, then sending them off to work alone are falling out of fashion. One advantage these days is the proliferation of video which makes monitoring TIs in Fiji much easier. The disadvantage is that examiners don't have to travel to Fiji for a week. Hah! Hah! May I suggest that you contact my old friend: Niklas Gummeson in California (Gummeson Consulting, [email protected], telephone 386-848-8547)? I have known Niklas for 30 years and our paths have crossed many times. Niklas is a Sigma Examiner often trains military tandem instructors in both the wind tunnel and freefall? UPT can probably recommend another half-dozen Sigma Examiners who also train soldiers how to jump with tandem bundles. Does that answer your question?

This get us to Hanlon's Razor: never attribute to malice that which can equally be attributed to stupidity. If the student does not "know" at the start of the lesson ...

My ex-wife is still baffled as to why I left her. Something about "death by a thousand cuts." ... of was it ... "May you be cursed by a wife with a sharp tongue."?????

One rumor has it that Russian tanks were forced to advance in columns, along roads, because fields were strewn with Ukrainian land mines. The narrow advance just made it easier for Ukrainian anti-tank crews to know where to wait in ambush.

Fear works 100 times faster than love. The disadvantage is that fear soon burns-out the vessel. That is why I refer to "fire and brimstone" sermons as lazy preacher's methods. I could never worship a god that I feared.

If you buy from out-of-state, ask you local rigger or DZO to recommend a rigger near the seller. Riggers often act as escrow for parachute sales. Typically, the rigger does a full inspection on the harness/container, reserve canopy, AAD and main canopy and charges you the usual rate for his/her work ($100 to $150). He/she delivers a written inspection report to both parties. If the rigger recommends minor repairs, just pay them. Once the money has arrived, he/she delivers the rig to the new owner. The new owner gets an airworthy rig with a fresh repack. I have been involved in dozens of these transactions and inspected hundreds of bits of second-hand gear when I worked at Square One, etc.

Really scary how many poor whites who fought for the Confederation ended up worse off economically after the American Civil War when they had to compete with recently-freed blacks who became share-croppers. Some blacks were better-off after the war, but some were worse-off. Poor blacks ended up competing directly with poor whites. Share-cropping was a miserable way to make a living. Both poor black and poor white laborers suffered under the new economy of the Southern States.