riggerrob

Alcoholism has significantly reduced the life-expectancy of Russian men.

Can we compile a list of the companies that hold STCs or 337s to install skydiver-specific seat-belts in jump-planes? We know that Hooker Harness' belts are widely used in American-registered jump-planes, but I am not clear if Hooker ever earned a Transport Canada STC to install them in Canadian-registered airplanes.

That Leopard 2 was wrecked during a driving accident on a range well west of the fighting front.

Back during World War 2, WALLIED leaders like Churchill and Roosevelt (sp?) decided that it was less expensive to supply weapons to the USSR - and have millions of Soviet soldiers die on the Eastern Front - than to have American and British Commonwealth soldiers die on the Western Front. Germany had about 200 divisions on their Eastern Front, but only 26 divisions on their Western (French Front. During onen mid-war conference, Churchill commented to Stalin about the high casualties among Russian soldiers and Stalin poo-pooed his comment with "It was much worse during the 1930s purges." Bottom line, Russia has always been willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of soldiers to achieve political objectives. Sad.

Dear Gowlerk, Why do you hate China so much ... to inflict a part of Russia on her? Hah! Hah!

This morning's CBC news radio said that about 200,000 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine over the last 14 months. Meanwhile about half as many Ukrainians have died. Why? What is this war accomplishing???????????? The Russians completed de-nazification when they bombed the Azov Battalion flat during the siege of Mariopul.

A tiny number compared with the total number of Ukrainian citizens killed by Russia during the same time period.

That is because Russia is forced to sell oil at deep discounts after NATO, European Economic Community, etc. refused to buy Russian oil. India and China may still be buying oil from Russia, but they can demand deep discounts on otherwise un-sellable oil. Neither China nor India are honestly reporting the prices they are paying for Russian oil.

Rigging Innovations and Wings have also built longer versions of their medium-volume containers.

If I were the sheriff or chief of police in that district, I would lay a beating on the murder weapon - with a large and heavy hammer - before handing it to the auctioneer. IOW destroy the gun or render it inoperative before handing it to the auctioneer.

Stock Cessna seat-belts can do a reasonable job of restraining skydivers, provided that you route seat-belts between harnesses and bellys. The best restraining method invovles wrapping special, skydiver-specific seat-belts around the hip joints of their harnesses. American operators of jump-planes changed their attitudes towards seat-belts after a couple of fatal crashes in 1992. Most now have "Hooker" belts installed (aka. the "tag-line" belts that are standard on PAC 750XL and Quest Kodiak). Jack Hooker (Hooker Harnesses of Illinois) invented the single-point restraints now used in most North American jump-planes. Pssst! I have also invented a couple of other methods of restraining tandem students ... but please don't tell Transport Canada.

When you think back to the year that I was born, the Catholic Church still provided the bulk of the social services in Quebec: elementary schools, high schools, universities, hospitals, orphanages, soup kitchens, etc. Ergo the Catholic Church had plenty of political and economic power. Just like "you cannot sue city hall" it was almost impossible to sue the Catholic Church in Quebec. Granted, the Jews had their own hospital in Montreal and Protestants also had their own separate school boards. As tax revenues increased, the Quebec Provincial Gov't eventually took over most of those social services from the churches.

MIL SPEC 2 shot Capewells were invented during the 1950s to allow pilots to release their parachute canopies after landing ... to prevent being dragged to their deaths. The Military Specification Capewell 2-shots on my student gear were almost rusted solid. Totally useless when you wanted to get rid of a miss-behaving main. MIL SPEC 1 1/2 shots were an improvement. My impression was that Security tried to improve on the 1 1/2 shot Capewells by making them 1 shot. ... by attaching the cable to the sheet metal cover. How close is my guess to reality??????????????

Does anyone remember why Security's "One-Shot" Capewells fell out of fashion?

Italy did that many years ago when they banned civilians from owning military caliber guns. Basically if a particular caliber had been used by the Italian Army, civilians were forbidden to own that caliber of ammunition or any gun capable fo firing it. ... because the Italian police and army did not want to be out-gunned when facing criminals. The exact opposite happened in North America after the Boer War (ended circa 1900) when the professional British Army got their @$$e$ shot off by Boer farmers firing the latest in Mauser military rifles. Many Boers bought these rifles simply to chase hyenas, etc. away from their cattle. During the 20th century, the Canadian and American Armies assisted civilians in getting their hands on full-bore military rifles. The North American objective was to train large numbers of civilians in the basics of rifle shooting in preparation for the next war.

You can take a Vancouver city bus to the top of the stairs leading down to Wreck Beach. Wreck Beach is a clothing-optional beach overlooked by the University of British Columbia.

How about tying a "not airworthy" small paper tag to something like a D line attachment tape? That tag would be found during any normal inspection. if the next rigger missed the tag, then he/she did an incomplete inspection.

Try to find a UAE medical doctor who is certified to do aircrew medicals. If you are in the USA, that should be an aviation medical examiner certified by the US Federal Aviation Administration. In Canada, an aviation medical specialist certified by Transport Canada, etc. Start by asking local pilots where they get their medicals updated. You need at least an FAA Class 3 medical, the same as an American private pilot.

I had good results with Wiley X combat prescription sunglasses. Those snug-fitting frames are designed for motorcycle riding, so do a good job of keeping wind off of your eyeballs.

I can think of two accidental deployments involving snagging an RSL. The first was a static-line student who was not mentally capable of handling the stress of a solo jump. The chief instructor put him out on a static-line jump anyways. After his main opened properly, he searched for the red steering toggles. Every other student grabbed the red steering toggles hanging near their ears. Instead, he fumbled around and pulled red RSL that was velcroed to the yoke behind his neck. He landed his round reserve in the trees beside the bowl. GRRRRRR! The second accidental deployment occured with an early production Telesis 2 student rig. During an unstable main deployment, the student snagged the RSL and pulled it. Rigging Innovations promptly changed the RSL coverage on the Telesis 2. I doubt if any Telesis 2 are still in service as it was soon replaced in production by the Telesis 3.

The awkward point about not marking the non-airworthy component is that some cheap-skate skydivers will ask two or three riggers before they find one who will pack it. Chances are, the "guilty" rigger is junior and never heard the full story. Then the "guilty: rigger is left trying to explain why he packed something after two or three more senior/experienced riggers refused.

I have been at terminal velocity at 1500 feet. It scared me when I lost sight of the horizon in my peripheral vision. It scared me before I did the math. After doing the math, I realized that I was dangerously close to impact. Much closer than if I had done a hop-and-pop or BASE jump from 1500 feet.

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.