riggerrob

My experience has been that personal-injury lawsuits can drag on forever and secondary damages - during the lawsuit - can exceed injuries from the initial accident.

In my case, lawyers representing Workmens’ Compensation Board of British Columbia dragged me into a 9-year-long lawsuit versus the usual shit-gun group of defendants. In the end, it hooked down to a dock-measuring concept between WCB and Transport Canada. TC was the only defendant left with “deep pockets.”

During that 9-year long trial, I lost 15 months wages, 60 pounds and my sanity. Discussions about secondary physical damages raise embarrassing questions about why WCB delayed my knee surgery by 2 years.

During the trial, the stresses left me badly depressed and unable to work for 15 months. The loss of wages caused my starvation and delayed recovery from surgery

WCB neglected to inform the judge about 2 counts of intimidating witnesses outside the court …. er … contempt outside the court.

Finally, WCB’s lawyers neglected to inform the judge about the 14 other jump-planes that crashed during the trial. The last crashed jump-plane was owned by one of the defendants.

My advice to David Schilling is to abandons the lawsuit because secondary damages can easily exceed his injuries from the original accident.

Start by building the main building BETWEEN the landing area and the runway(s).
 

Separate the general public from operations areas and give them bleachers and snack bars over looking the boarding area and landing area, separated by a fence that allows them to blow kisses to their tandem friends. Install a souvenir shop beside the snack bar. Install the vertical wind tunnel beside the souvenir shop. Maybe even add a bouncy castle for their kids.

Give manifest plenty of windows that allow them to monitor dressing areas, boarding areas, runways and landing areas. Allow manifestos to listen to the most important airplane radio traffic.

Put the packing hangar and the loft at the far end from the parking lot. Class rooms and hanging harnesses beside or above the packing hangar. 
Add an airplane maintenance hangar on the very far end. The public know little about airplane maintenance and want to know less. The worst of the public freak out when they see a mechanic - with a screwdriver - within a mile of an airplane.

Funny how the regions with the highest birth-rates are now at war: Gaza, Orthodox Jews living in Israel, Nigeria, etc. are wracked by war.

The pattern has not changed since the Bible was written.

The good news is that birth-rates dropped below replacement rates (2.1 children per woman) circa 1970.

Canada now fills that gap in our labor market by inviting in a half-million immigrants per year. Canadian-born, white, English-speaking, heterosexual men are now a minority at the bus company where I work. 

With a side-by-side, grab an outboard rear riser on each canopy and do the bare minimum of gentle turns to point yourself towards an empty field. With that flat glide angle, down-wind, up-wide, cross-wind are all minor considerations.

Dacron line will generate more friction and heat.

The short-term solution is vet-wrap around your Slinks and the upper ends of your main risers. Ask your local horse trainer where he/she buys their vet-warp.

The longer-term solution is closely inspecting your lines, slider and risers every 50 jumps.

On 5/14/2024 at 1:25 PM, skydiverek said:

 

Incorrect emergency procedures.

He should have JUST released the drogue.

 

 

.

Agreed, but part of the problem was that the TI was trained by a TI Examiner who had his rating pulled but he continued training new TIs and forged the name of another TIE on the paperwork. Several of his trainees needed retraining before they could renew their USPA and manufacturer TI ratings.

On 5/16/2024 at 6:30 PM, dudeman17 said:

A bit off topic, but...

Which brings to mind that we haven't heard from Rob in a while. His profile says he hasn't logged in since last September. Does anyone know if he's all right? ../

 

I am fine, just had difficulty logging in with the new security protocols.

I have not jumped much since the last CSPA-affiliated DZ near Vancouver shut down. The only remaining DZO and I have agreed to disagree on the subject of seat-belts. I only did 11 jumps last year and now most of my rigging is for POPS headed to big-way camps in the USA. Having an FAA rigger rating helps.

I would not worry about a 1 inch change in your waist measurement.

Secondly, trying on a rig without canopies will tell you nothing.

Thirdly, measuring yourself is a fool's errand ... er ... worse than a waste of time. (Pun intended) Half of the new harnesses that were sent back to Rigging Innovations (less than 5 percent of production) were measured by the jumper measuring himself alone. You will only get accurate measurements if you hire a tailor or rigger, perhaps one of the salesgirls at Square One/Golden State.

Fourth, if laterals are too long, add a belly band to pull the hip rings into the correct position over you iliac crests.

Meanwhile, Svarlabad Island - in the high arctic - is bragging about their new solar panels. Please keep in mind that Svarlabad only gets a few hours of sunlight per day and only during the summertime because it is above the arctic circle.

Did I miss something?

Wasn't Svarlabad colonized specifically to exploit coal mines?????????

16 hours ago, JoeWeber said:

.... Yes, the King Air is a less expensive platform but, like a Caravan, the landing gear wasn't built for that number of cycles, especially true of retractable gear aircraft,  and you also have the cost of two engines. So your total maintenance must be somewhat more expensive. 

Yes, 60-year-old King Airs can be picked up for a song.

Consider that Beechcraft started building King Airs in 1963 and more than 3,000 have been built. More King Airs have been built than all of the other light turbine twin executive transports combined (BAE Jetstream, Embraer Bandierante, Cessna 4??, Piaggio Avanti, Piper Cheyanne, etc.).

A DZ can pick up a 60 year old King Air for a song, barely more than the value of the instrument panel and the time remaining on the engines. But long-term maintenance is far more expensive on King Airs with their pressurized cabins, retractable landing gear, de-icing boots, IFR panels, etc. King Airs also require hard-surfaced runways 3,000 feet (1 kilometer) or longer.

All those extra systems also make King Airs more complicated to fly, hence not suitable for freshly-minted commercial pilots. Complex airplanes are also more expensive to insure.

When my boss bought a 1960s vintage King Air, I asked him why he did not buy a simpler Cessna Caravan and he replied that his 1960s vintage King Air was the most that he could afford. A few years later he was complaining about spending $45,000 on a landing gear inspection due every 5 years. A few years even later he crashed the King Air because of some neglected engine maintenance.

Bottom line, King Airs are the cheapest turbine jump-planes to purchase and you get what you pay for.

This latest protest lays bare the differences between how Canada handles internal terrorists versus the way other major nations handle terrorists.

Trudeau's weak diplomatic protests are more designed to suck-up to Sikhs who vote in Canadian elections, than any long-term international diplomatic process. Why any Canadian politician is making public statements about an internal Indian political debate is a mystery to me. Traditionally, polite politicians avoid saying anything about the internal affairs of any other country.

China, Israel (Gerald Bull), North Korea, Russia (Prighozin), the USA (Osama bin Laden), etc. all routinely assassinate people who threaten their national security. Some of these assassinations are committed outside their borders.

Canada is an outlier in this pattern because Canada assigns short prison sentences and soon paroles violent political criminals.

For example, during the 1960s, the violent wing of the Front de Liberation du Quebec planted 200 bombs, stole firearms, etc. Alfred Pinisch was a friend of my father and I met him many times before he died in a botched FLQ raid on International Firearms in Montreal.

The FLQ then upped their game by kidnapping two gov't officials and murdered one of them in October 1970. Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau (father of our current Prime Minister) invoked the War Measures Act and ordered the Canadian Army to patrol the streets of Quebec. I still remember Canadian soldiers lurking in an alley behind a federal building in Sherbrooke, Quebec. Eventually, the guilty bastards (mostly native-born Quebecois FLQ) were allowed to fly into exile in Cuba. These days, sun-burning in Cuba is considered a pleasant vacation for many Quebecois who weary of being up to @$$ in snow for many months out of the year.

By 1982, the Canadian gov't had pardoned all the FLQ terrorists and one eventually sat in the Quebec Provincial Legislature.

So, this means that Ottawa is upset that India did not treat Indian-born terrorists - who threaten Indian integrity - with the same gentle hand that Canada treats our own domestic terrorists.

Abandoning political struggles in their homeland should be required of anyone who immigrates to Canada.

On 9/15/2023 at 11:20 AM, piisfish said:

They could dig canals from Murmansk and from Vladivostok  to the Black Sea. That would probably be a 2 weeks Special Digging Operation. 

It has been done before.

Back during the Second World War, the German Navy moved a few submarines from the North Sea to the Black Sea via, rivers, canals and rail. Mind you those were small diesel/electric attack subs, much smaller than current fashions.

1 hour ago, GeorgiaDon said:

....  I wish people would leave their violent conflicts behind and not import them to a country that was so generous as to accept them as immigrants.

Sorry man, but I cannot access either of those videos.

3 minutes ago, JoeWeber said:

Rob,

... most operators with wide ranging experience would agree that a  smooth runner with 500-1500 hours on it is the one you don't think about. Also, my business was leasing engines to operators with FAA approved 8000 TBO's. ... 

That said, this is aviation, our Gods are weak, and too often unavailable so I've already notified my shop that we're replacing accessories this winter.

Yes, the failed engine had more something like 1500 hours past TBO and the other engine was something like 1800 hours beyond TBO and maintenance logbook entries were "smudged." No body mentioned spectrographic oil analysis or vibration studies. Definitely not a "Tier One" maintenance organization. In 2015 the same organization crashed a Caravan.

23 hours ago, JoeWeber said:

Well that's all fine and dandy, for sure, and fast jump aircraft are pretty cool. But even if it was twice as fast as that why would anyone want to jump a King Air when Super Caravans or -34 Otters will get a load to 14K in 12 minutes in comfort and then have a nice big door to make life happy for the jumpers? No time to relax and get comfortable is hardly a selling point for practicing a dive flow, calming a student, or doing a few safety checks. To each their own, I guess.

What?

You want to get comfortable in a jump-plane?

The last time I rode in a comfortable jump-plane was a good 30 years ago. It was in Jan Van Arvitson's DC-3 over California City. It had a sofa near the front of the cabin where I sat with my tandem student. We stood on our hind legs - like gentlemen - to hook up and casually walked (upright) to the door.

I always found the climb to altitude boring.

The quicker the better.

As for briefing the freefall student on the way up ... noisy airplane cabins are the worst possible teaching environment. Better to do the full briefing before boarding and just touch on the key points during the climb.

The better drop zones post local rules, traffic patterns, etc. on the wall beside manifest.

On 10/21/2022 at 11:44 AM, kleggo said:

i'm 5 - 6 minutes into it. Was surprised he did S/L progression in 1994. He did say a small DZ in Canada.

First downsize Furry 220 F-111 to Jedei 120 ZP.  Rock on.

PS. the vast majority of these Exit Point podcasts are quite good.

Jay probably learned at Skydive Toronto. ST's Joe Chow was unique among Canadian DZOs in NOT converting to IAD during the 1980s.

Most Canadian DZs started the 1980s with static-lined, cheapo, military-surplus, student rigs. By the end of the 1980s, military-surplus gear had worn out and was replaced by piggyback containers, hand-deploy pilot chutes, IAD and square mains. By 1990, both CSPA and USAP insisted that all first solo students use large, docile, square mains (e.g. Manta 288).

The shift was driven primarily by a decision - by the US military and Canadian Crown Assets Disposal - to cut suspension lines and leg straps on military-surplus parachutes. The las thing the military wanted was some silly skydiver hurting himself while using military-surplus parachutes for purposes vastly different from their original mission.

A witness named C.W. recently filed a lawsuit against police and Kotanko's estate citing psychological trauma, etc.

C.W. alleges that he was a customer/witness inside Kotanko's workshop when police burst in and killed Kotanko.

It is odd that the lawsuit only mentions C.W.'s initials ... which makes us wonder if C.W. was a police informant?????????

A key question is why police followed Kotanko back from the grocery store and allowed him to enter his gun shop before starting the arrest procedure.

Why does this remind us of the bungled police raid on Waco, Texas????????

A video about this lawsuit had been posted by Runkle at the Bailey on www.youtube.com. Runkle is a Canadian criminal defense attorney who mostly posts about Canadian gun laws. Runkle cuts through much of the ...... legal boilerplate in the initial filing. He also points out a couple of miss-spellings. Hah! Hah!

It has been almost 2 years since Kotanko's death. Let's hope that this lawsuit defies Canadian legal custom by resolving quickly.

After only 100 jumps, we expect little wear on a parachute. Any damage is likely to be caused by sloppy packing or sliding landings. Only a rigger can confirm those types of wear.

I expect your pilot chute spring will still be airworthy. Yes, Rigging Innovations had a problem with their first batch of pilot chute springs (labelled Talon or Skyhook) back during the 1980s, but most of those were replaced for free by the factory during the 1990s. By the mid-1990s, R.I. had sub-contracted Dennis Trepannier to make all of their pilot chute springs and those springs proved durable. Trepannier made springs are powder-coated black (Talon 1 or Telesis 1) or red (Flexon, Talon 2, Voodoo, Aviator and later Telesis). Hint: I worked in customer service at R.I. during the mid-1990s. 

I recently repacked a decade old Voodoo and the spring still had more than 30 pounds of force.

For comparison, the old MIL SPEC for MA-1 pilot chute springs required a minimum of 18 pounds force to compress it to within 1 inch of full compression. Most modern pilot-chutes are in the 30 to 40 pound range.

Where is your local DZ?

When I worked at Square One, Perris Valley, California, the company insisted that all rentals be packed by the full-time packers on the far side of the side-walk ...  because they did not want their equipment damaged by clumsy packing and the mistakes inevitably made by junior jumpers who were just learning how to pack.

Hint" grow a white beard because a white beard makes it much easier to negotiate a seniors' discount.

I would vote for Perris Valley because they have a vertical wind tunnel.

Even a few minutes in a wind tunnel will vastly improve your skills when you get to freefall. 

On 8/31/2023 at 3:51 AM, Phil1111 said:

Earlier that day the child was being punished for eating the shooters food without permission and failing to act as her morning alarm clock. For which the four year old was struck with a sandal. The shooter had temporary custody of the child.

But they had a 9mm after all its Tennessee. In other news from this modern, progressive, republican state:

"When Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee began a push in April to address public safety, his family was grieving the loss of two close friends, both educators killed in a mass shooting at a Nashville Christian school.

His call for millions of dollars to harden school security was embraced by Republicans in the legislature, who flanked him during a formal announcement."

Some one needs to explain to that woman that not all pistols have magazine safeties. Mag. safeties prevent the firing pin from striking if a magazine is missing.

Some one also needs to explain to her that rule one of gun safety is to only point guns at things that you intend to kill.

Not specific to drug prices ... just a general comparison.

The other week I got bitten by a dog, so a (pharmacist) friend suggested a tetanus shot, so I went to the emergency room at the Royal Columbian Hospital, Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada.

At the ER check-in desk they had a sign: "ER visit costs $1300 for foreigners. $300 for non-insured residents of B.C." ER visits are free for B.C. residents with a provincial health care card. The last thing I wanted to do was compare the risk of rabes, distemper, infection, etc. with the cost of a simple visit to a hospital or clinic.  Since my family doctor does not work on Sundays, I went to the nearest hospital.

Yes, service was slow because ER staff took care of me after all those patients who were bleeding or puking or yelling all over the ER. I just sat quietly reading my book until an ER doctor took a quick look at my leg and the nurse gave me an injection. Ten days later, the bite is healing fine with no additional side effects.