riggerrob

Traditionally, junior jumpers would buy a case of beer and share it with everyone. Senior jumpers would share "no shit there I was thought I was gonna die" stories as informal education.

Much or that "drone porn" comes from simple, short-range, commercial drones that are too small to bother installing GPS. The simplest drones operate purely on short-range, line-of-sight radio signals.

Are you implying that American murderers, domestic terrorists and bumbling idiots have killed more Americans than the Taliban?

Sandy Reid was the best boss I ever had: knowledgeable, flexible and willing to share his experience in making parachute harnesses and containers. I learned a lot about parachute rigging while working for Manley Butler, but even more when working for Sandy Reid.

I ws under the impression that the American ban on parachuting through clouds was written circa 1964 when a bunch of skydivers drowned in Lake Erie. The story starts with a bunch of skydivers doing high altitude (above 20,000 feet) from a World War 2 surplus B-25 Mitchell bomber. When clouds closed in below them, they asked an air traffic controller to help them spot. Unfortunately, ATC followed the wrong airplane - Beechcraft Bonanza. When the Bonanza was over the chosen drop zone, ATC cleared them to jump. Unfortunately, the B-25 was really over Lake Erie. All the jumpers landed in the Lake and most drowned. Since then, navigation avionics have improved considerably, but no civil servant (e.g. ATC) wants to involved with a decision that might kill some one, so jumping through clouds is still banned in American airspace. OTOH I have done dozens of jumps through clouds, dating back to 1980. Most of those jumps were made in other countries. We had good pilots - who knew how to read VOR or GPS systems, so that my longest walk was from the far end of the runway. Ho hum!!!!!!

Merry Christmas Ron, But what I am really praying for is peaceful skies over Ukraine. One rumor has it that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is considering switching their Christmas celebrations to December ... like the Roman Catholics (e.g the Poles who live next door). This will completely separate the Ukrainian Orthodox church from the Russian Orthodox Church. However we suspect that many older Ukrainians will continue to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ in January. Yeah! Two parties for the same religious figure!

Dear lippy, No offense intended. I got a NAFTA visa to work as a technical writer when I worked in the USA. Apparently my employer (Rigging Innovations) could not find any one else with my combined skills as an FAA Master Parachute Rigger, CSPA Instructor, USPA Instructor and print journalism diploma. The fact that a previous job included writing technical manuals for MBB Helicopter of Canada helped with my visa application.

Those immigrants are flooding into North America to compensate for low birth rates in Canada and the USA. They are flooding in to work nasty jobs (e.g. cleaning, picking berries, construction laborer, etc.) that native-born North Americans are unwilling to do. The difference between Canadian immigration policy and American immigration policy is that Canada openly and honestly welcomes a half million skilled immigrants per year, favoring those of working age with a decent income. Immigrants earn points by completing university, earning professional credentials, speaking both of Canada's official languages, etc. Ironically, immigrants are far more likely to be bi-lingual or tri-lingual than native-born Canadians. The only problem is that their other language is likely to be Africaans, Arabic, Aramaic, Bulgarian, Cantonese, Croatian, Dutch, Farsi, Finnish, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Kurdish, Mandarin, Nigerian (another dozen languages), Polish, Portugese, Punjabi, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Tagalo, Ukrainian, Xhosa, Zulu, etc. ... and those are just the immigrants that I work with every day ... Over their working lifetimes. those skilled nurses, dentists, doctors, engineers, etc. will repay the federal gov't (Ottawa) with income taxes that exceed their re-settlement costs. OTOH The USA treats immigrants like criminals. By allowing the great unwashed masses ... your poor, your tired ... the USA is importing only low-wage-earners who become little more than a slave class. Exploiting poor immigrants is not a uniquely American problem. See the book "Rat People" about poorly-documented day laborers living in cellars of major cities in mainland China. Most of these "rat people" came from poor farming towns in the interior of China who moved to the big city in search of work or higher wages. Corrupt landlords rip them off at every opportunity ... even if they are only forced to pay high rents for un-healthy cellar apartments. They are too poor to get state=sponsored medical care or educations. How does this differ from the way the Charles Dickens' London was bursting at the seams a couple of centuries ago. See "A Christmas Carol."

comrade Carlson warns about the chaos that will ensue after regime change in Russia. Has anyone told him about the current chaos in Ukraine? ... many thousands of citizens starving and freezing in the dark because Russian missiles have damaged electrical generating plants, etc. In two minutes, I just watched my annual quota of Tucker Carlson. UGH!

Also handy for confirming that your (tandem) drogue is out and fully inflated.

Dear sfzombie13, Sailors will tell you that you need a rag to inspect steel cables. There are two methods of inspection. First, you can slide the rag along the steel cable to check for broken strands. Secondly, you can slide your bare hand down the cable, then use the rag to staunch your bleeding hand. Hah! Hah!

Yes, but if you slide down it fast enough, it gets hot enough to melt nylon ... er ... the nylon gets hot enough to melt ... you know what I mean.

I scored "54 Scary" on USPA's survey. I have a Pilot 169 for my 190 pounds (naked), more than 7,000 total jumps over a 45 year span. Mind you, the majority of those jumps were on tandems ranging form 520 to 330 square feet. Since I quit jumping during COVID, USPA made an accurate assessment. I have no intention of returning to jumping until the nearest DZ changes their policy on seatbelts. I am too old and too scarred to repeat that lesson.

When you perfect this HUD, offer it to motorcycle riders. They will buy thousands and return your investment.

Insulting allies, raping, looting and pillaging recently "liberated" territories are all war crimes committed by poorly trained, poor disciplined and poorly led common soldiers/conscripts. We wonder if a professional NATO army would commit the same atrocities.

"Don't be careful. Be competent."

Agreed. One of the problems with puberty-blocking hormones is that they prevent puberty, but also "sterilize" preventing patients from ever bearing children.

Why does that remind me of a story from the Bible? A well-established carpenter named Joseph who took in a teenaged fiance named Mary .... but under old Jewish tradition, they did not have to marry (in the synagog) until she delivered a child. The goal was to match fertile young women with older, well-established men who could well-afford to raise children. This same logic applies to Muslims and Mormons taking more than one wife. The Mormon practice of polygamy was also driven by high male mortality rates during their bloody expulsion from the Mid-West and on-going battles with native Utes, etc. who were reluctant to give up land to these pale-faced new-commers.

HEY! I resemble that remark. I celebrated my 22 birthday while on course at CFB Borden. I was banging a chick who was in her late teens. We never discussed her age or condoms or any other form of birth control or sexually transmitted diseases. Since that was back in the days when sex was safe and skydiving was dangerous, I also did my first 50 skydives that summer.

Dear Georgia Dan, I have also noticed aracialism in advertisements in recent years. By "aracialism" I mean models who cannot be specifically identified as being genetically purely European or purely African, purely East Asian, etc. Most are on the vague, sliding scale of "afro-Americans" who range from 100 percent African genes to those who contain almost no African genes, but have been labeled "black" due to antiquated American notions of "one drop of African blood makes you black." Very few of these models can be specifically identified as Nigerian or Somali. We most commonly see slender models with pale skin, black hair, dark eyes, and vaguely epicanthic folds around their eyes. These vague features mean that they might be identified as European or East Asian?????????

My impression is that minorities - including LGBTQ+++ - were under-represented in the past. Now they are over-represented. Sometime in the future, the numbers of minority characters in media will eventually match the numbers of LGBTQ++ in society. These waves and changes in fashion are tough on an old fart like me who remembers when "gay bashing" was a fashionable pass-time in high school.

Dear Wendy, A former girlfriend explained to me that immature men are attracted to minor teenaged girls. These immature men (say 23 years old) are not mature enough to attract twenty-something women, so hit on young teenaged girls. Consider how many 16 year old girls are impregnated by 23 year old men.

Vultures will cheerfully clean up after we "bounce." Hah! Hah!

This discussion is timely as I am organizing my affairs to make it easier for my nephew to execute my estate after I am gone. I knew two elderly gentlemen who refused food and liquids after being diagnosed with cancer. I watched my own mother die in hospital. She signed a do not resusitate order a few months before her death. I last visited my father in a nursing home a month before he died of cancer, etc. It was sad the way he lost his mind in later years. An old friend has recently been diagnosed with early stage dimentia. It is sad to see a previously bright friend lose his short term memory. I do not want to linger, nor do I want to be a burden on my nephew. So I must collect and sign the appropriate papers for MAID. Hopefully, that day is another 20 years in the future.

Dear Stumpy, Execution is more expensive than life in prison because ^%$#@! lawyers drive up the cost of execution with lengthy mandatory appeals, etc. ^%$#@! lawyers also drive up the cost by trying to make execution "humane." I suspect that "humane" means less trauma for prison staff ... the same reason that the SS switched to gas chambers during World War 2. It seems that too many SS prison guards suffered PTSD when they simply shot Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, communists, political prisoners, etc. Hah! Compared with what? Compared with the ways that their victims suffered? Police and soldiers have long had rifles capable of executing someone quickly and inexpensively. I believe that a handful of the worst serial killers deserve execution because they are too crazy to ever be rehabilitated.