riggerrob

Why does this remind me of politics in Germany 90 years ago? The National Socialist Party got into power by using thugs (e.g. SA) to pound political opponents into pulp. It took an even bigger bully - Joseph Stalin - to un-seat Adolf Hitler's Nazis. Do we want to see a repeat? History may not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.

those tubular handles started out as old thread spools. Later we discovered that the black plastic spools were too brittle and too easy to crack when people stepped on them, so we switched to softer, more flexible orange plastic tubing for main pilot chute handles. I have so many thousands of jumps with tubular handles that they are the norm for me. Even Strong Dual Hawk tandems have tubular plastic handles encased in Cordura. I am so old that whenever I see a hacky sack hanging from the corner of a rig, I have an over-powering urge to kick the hacky-sack! Hah! Hah!

"Call Jane" is a Hollywood film that debuted at a film festival during January 2022, but it only hit local cinemas this week (last week of October 2022). It is a fictionalized version (names were changed to protect the law-breakers) of the story about how a group of Chicago women who organized illegal abortions during the late 1960s, before Roe versus Wade legalized abortions in the USA. I first heard about the film when the two leading ladies: Sigourney Weaver and Elizabeth Banks were interviewed on a TV talk show. The two actors really seemed to have the courage of their convictions. They strongly seemed to believe that their characters did the right thing. On a personal note, this reminds me of all the times that Dr. Henry Morgantaler got dragged into Canadian courts during the 1960s and 1970s. Dr. Morgentaler started the first birth-control clinic in 1969, in Montreal where he prescribed birth control pills, vasectomies and performed abortions, long before they were legal in Canada. Funny how a film about abortions only debuted two weeks before an American mid-term election. ????? Next question: will the film "Call Jane" affect the mid-term elections in the USA?

Did Bolsonaro start a dis-information campaign before the election campaign? Did he start accusing his opponents for stuffing ballot boxes before the concept crossed their minds?

By their nature, most semi-automatic guns can be converted to fire fully-automatic. At one end of the scale, an FN FAL C1 can be modified by simply inserting a paper match stick into the trigger group. Yes, I have done that modification to a Canadian Army rifle. At the range, I fired one magazine on full-auto bursts and concluded that it was a waste of ammunition. At 15 yards, the first bullet went into the target's right hip. The second bullet went in to its left shoulder and the third bullet missed completely. Most fully-automatic guns are useless in the hands of amateurs (read gang-bangers). Gang-bangers want full-auto because they instill fear in victims. Just count the number of bullets fired during the average drive-by shooting, then count the number of bullets that struck the intended victim. Back during the 1960s, Us Army surplus M1 carbines were popular with Montreal bank robbers because they could easily be converted to fire full-auto. My dad even had an M2 carbine (fully-automatic in military service) but he installed an after-market selector switch to limit it to semi-automatic. Mind you, tolerances can be tight in most trigger groups, so the difference between semi and full-auto can be a matter of a few thousandths of an inch. Designers of semi-auto weapons often have to add disconnectors to prevent run-aways at full-auto. I could refer you to a couple of textbooks ... but prefer to leave the bad guys guessing. One of those textbooks is sitting on the far side of my living room.

Perhaps we should define it as "make your decision above/before altitude "X"." When teaching S/L or IAD first-jump-students, I keep things as simple as possible and just tell them that the higher they decide, the better. Perhaps the block of instruction needs to be re-visited multiple times during a jumpers' career. Is an emergency procedures review required before every new USPA license? The decision-making tree can get more complicated as jumpers acquire more hundreds of jumps.

Yes! I remember when "Limits to Growth" was published. There was a conference by that name at Bishop's University. Funny how human birth rates started to decline around the same time. Dr. Henry Morgentaler opened his first birth-control clinic in 1969. The good doctor offered vasectomies, birth control pills and abortions. If you want to see what abortions were like before Morgentaler, go see the just released film "Call Jane." ... or visit a few right-wing Americna states today. Funny how that film was only released two weeks before Americna mid-term elections??????????

We do not need petroleum to make gasoline or plastics, etc. it is just the cheapest source of long-chain polymers currently available. My 3D printer runs on poly lactic acid ... not quite sure how PLA is made, but the name implies that it starts as milk. The disadvantage of synthesizing plastics, gasoline, etc. from other sources is the increased cost. Consider the example of Nazi Germany. They started World War 2 with only a few months reserve of petroleum and not significant oil fields within Germany or Austria, so Nazis conquered oil fields in Romania, but that was not enough. In June of 1941, Nazi oil reserves were running low, so they launched an invasion of Russia. When they failed to capture Caucasus oil fields by September of 1941, Germany lost the war. German chemical engineers were clever enough to synthesize oil, plastics, fertilizer, etc. from Germany's vast coal mines, but the processes were expensive, and they could never produce enough gasoline to win the war. By late 1944, the Luftwaffe was essentially grounded by shortages of gasoline.

Good point! We will never drill for the last barrel of oil because it will be too deep, too far off-shore and too crude (think road tar) to be profitable.

Wow! A second time that I agree with Ron!

I disagree with the notion of only deploying a reserve if you find yourself below altitude "X." That tactic may have been relevant when round reserves were fashionable, but when was the last time you saw a round reserve in opened in the air?

We teach a simplified definition to first jump students, especially S/L or IAD students. "Count to 5 and look up. Is it there? Is it square? Is it flying straight? Can you turn it? Can you flare it?" If the answer to any of those question is no, then look at the right side of your chest and grab the red handle .... The sooner and higher you make this decision, the better. Any delay in releasing a malfunctioning main just reduces your chances of survival." I do not waste time telling them to look at their altimeters. If they do, I remind them that USPA (used to) recommend deciding to cutaway about 1,800 feet.

While the First World burns ridiculous amounts of oil and gas or birth rates declined rapidly during th e1960s and 1970s. Ever since then we have had to import laborers from the Second and Third World. As birth rates slump in Second and Third World countries, our overall human population will start to decline. My guess is 2050 when the last of the Baby Boomers die off.

Now that many of our neighbors are installing sculptures of ghosts and goblins on their front lawns in preparation for Halloween, I suggested to my landlord that we install a similar scary statue on our front law. I suggested installing a statute of a lawyer. My landlord was ^%$#@! furious until I promised to only include the images of the lawyers that I admire and respect.

A joke only understood by computer programmers.

Funny, we had a few ZP Manta 290s at Pacific Skydivers during the early 2000s. They were red, white and silver and we did not suffer any malfunctions. The biggest complaint was that they took all week to come down with light students, so we only hung them on larger (more than 200 pounds) students.

During another rigger course, I assigned a similar equipment selection exercise and the lone, British candidate was ^%$#@! furious!!!!!!!! I told him to calm down, then said that I could keep the junior jumper busy learning the finer points of precision landings for the next 200 jumps.

This question arose on the INCIDENTS forum about a fatality in Spain 10/14/2022. What is the current fashion in minimum docking altitude? What is the minimum docking altitude for a junior jumper doing his/her first few canopy formation jumps?

Boeing just delivered the last 747 freighter and shut down the production line.

This reminds me of an equipment selection exercise that I assigned during a rigging course a few years back. I said "Your customer is a junior jumper who did his first jump in May and now has 40 jumps. .... His objective for the end of next season is to jump a wing-suit from a famous tall cliff." Only one rigger candidate clued in that BASE jumpers usually stick with large canopies only loaded at 0.7 pounds per square foot. Hah! Hah!

Hanlon's Razor reminds us that "if an act can be equally attributed to cruelty or stupidity, stupidity is the more likely answer." Mind you, if I ever have to use Hanlon's Razor to analyze someone's actions, I will never do business with them a second time.

Hah! Hah! That reminds me of a conversation with a junior jumper as to why it was unwise for him to do "X" with less than 200 jumps. Me: "Would you like to hear the half-hour explanation?" Junior jumper: "No, never mind, I'll just wait a few more jumps.

The 200 jump minimum was written by wingsuit manufacturers about 20 years ago, back when wingsuits were rare, few second-hand wingsuits were available, manufacturers certified all the wingsuit instructors and manufacturers had some some say in who could buy wingsuits.

Returning to the original question: minimum opening altitudes are more about old jumpers telling young jumpers "Death lurks in that corner." Old jumpers learned those lessons - the bloody way - 50 years ago, so there is nothing to be gained by repeating mistakes made by long-dead skydivers. I respect the Canadian Air regulations and CSPA's BSRs because I have read hundreds of accident reports and know that those rules were written in blood.

Wendy makes a good point. If we compare the rate American Second Amendment, rates of gun ownership in the USA and the number of people suffering gunshot wounds in the USA ... the rest of the world shakes our collective heads and asks WHY? Something like 15 years ago, CSPA briefly considered implementing a similar set of canopy experience restrictions, but the problem was that too many young jumpers were already on the wrong side of the red-line and would whine that they could not afford to buy a larger canopy this season.