riggerrob

I have seen a few metal cutaway handles, but never really understood why anyone would want one. The whole reason for having three different shapes of handles on a rig is to remind you that they have three different functions. That way, tactile sensitivity backs up any decision your conscious mind is making. Use all your senses on every skydive.

It took me ten years to get good at packing Racers. The first thing I did was toss all my steel bodkins in the trash can. Then I made a pair of temporary loops out of Cypres cord. Temp loops start with a lump of scrap iron (i.e. ring off an old riser) then I tie on a loop somewhere between 2 inches (Power Racer) and 8 inches (Tandem). To simplify tool control, I tied my two temp loops together - with 8 inches of slack between them. To further simplify tool control I fingertrapped and sewed pull-up cords to the temp loops. The first step - of packing a Racer - involves inserting the temp loops beside the ripcord pins and pulling them up through the pack tray, Cypres cutters, freebag, flaps, etc. much the same way you would pack a Vector. A recurring theme during the folding and bagging and closing sequence is constantly trying to creat and maintain a "crater" in the middle of the pack job so the pilotchute will have a "divot" to sink into. Late in the process, I wrap my molar strap around the pilotchute - to compress the spring - and finish folding the bridle. Then I route the pull-up cords through the real closing loops and everything (temp loops, pull-up cords and real closing loops) out beside the ripcord pins.

Killington politics sound much like Quebec politics. Both threaten to sucede from the union as ploys to get better roads, sewers, etc. Now that Quebec has made the rest of the country officially bilingual and gotten the lion's hare of federal gov't contracts, they have no need to sucede. As for this official bilingualism foolishness ... French is useless in most Vancouver neighborhoods. Punjabi, or Cantonese or Hindi or Mandarin are far more useful languages. If the Vermont statehouse just allocates more tax dollars to roads and sewers near Killinton, they will stop whining about suceding.

Different strokes for different folks. Sounds like your friend has a high thresh hold for excitement. Either that, or he has far too much invested in his Ford racing car to take on another expensive sport. Oh, the vast majority of people who do a tandem jump only ever plan to do one jump in their lifetime. Just like - back in the days when static-line was fashionable - the majority of static-line students only planned to do one jump in their lifetime.

I'll get to it when I get to it. Now stop rushing me!

San Diego, California Monterey, California San Luis Obispo, California Santa Barbara , California The California Coast has by far the best weather. Having lived in Perris, Elsinore and California, I have to admit that the weather in Palm Springs would be decent, maybe this white man just got tired of living in the desert.

1) where was it located? Aerodium, along the Trans Canada Highway, between Montreal and Quebec City. 2) did you find it useful? Helped cure my problem with backsliding 3) useful as a training tool, or just for fun? Mainly a training tool, but I only visited it once ... 15 hour drive from my apartment 4) does your DZ have one, or is there one being built at your DZ? No and no 5) was it cost effective for you, or would you rather use your money towards skydives? Saved me hundreds of dollars in wasted jump tickets Note, that wind tunnel closed many years ago. It may have been crude, but it helped cure my worst bad habit.

18 reserve rides total. I packed two of them, the rest were packed by other people. My first reserve ride came after another freefall student packed a rental Crossbow. Clearly he had not learned the finer points of clearing stabilizers. My second mal was my fault. The closing loop was too long for my new main canopy and I experienced a horseshoe mal shortly after exit. The other jumper bumping into me in the doorway dislodged a pin that was already loose. That was also my first save as a new rigger. My third mal was an experimental canopy packed by someone else and I completely missed the country, landing in a French swamp. Then I had a string of 14 mals on first-generation tandem canopies, all packed by other people. My last mal was a spinner under a Diablo - that I packed - clearly a shoulder position problem during deployment.

Bill Booth has owned that Lake amphibian for years. Now that is a cool airplane!

Parachutist magazine ran a series of articles on opening a DZ a couple of years ago. Back issues of the magazine should be available from USPA headquarters.

By one thousand feet, you should have chosen your alternate landing area.

They should definitely pay for repairs to the door. Breaking and exiting are so un-cool! On another note, why don't the casinos make BASE a betting sport?

How about "strongly recommending" a minimum of a half-shell Pro-Tec, then telling people "no helmet=no raffle prizes." Subtle economic pressure may work better.

If space is an issue, then buy a container that is 1/2 inch thick at the bottom and 2 to 3 inches thick at the top. Both Butler and Rigging Innovations build rigs that size, while a good rigger can "cheat" while packing a Softie to get the same dimensions.

Often the cruelest, most miserable revenge is to walk away quietly, leaving them treading water in their own emotional cess pool.

I believe A lot of people feel insecure so the make themselve feel superior by belittleing others. There also is this thing about power and control if you let them they will. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The scientific term for that sort of shallow person is "invalidator."

Btw we got about 75 jumps out of these birds and they never took off staight up or hovered on exit. Something about the loss of efficency and extra power required. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> It is called "translational lift." As soon as forward airspeed exceeds 40 knots, the rotors stop behaving like a bunch of skinny blades flying in loose formation. In forward flight the rotor starts acting like one big wing, dramatically reducing power requirements and fuel consumption. The flip side is being able to take-off at much greater weights for the same horsepower. For example, a typical light helicopter may only be able to hover (out of ground effect) at 5,000 feet when its ceiling is more like 8,000 or 10,000 feet.

Slider-catchers -sewn to risers - offer the best of both worlds. While working for Rigging Innovations, I installed a few sets of the tuck tab style and Sandy Reid reports that he has been selling lots of them lately. More recently I have installed a few triangular slider-catchers.

Sorry dude, but SONY's TRV 22 has a completely shape than their PC9. TRV 22 is low and long compared with the high and tight PC9. The more logical replacement for a PC is the current PC101. Both the PC101 and TRV22 are popular with freefall videographers (both hand-mount and outside videographers). Though TRV22 offers the best dollar per pixel value, it does not fit in older PC-style D-boxes.

Nice explanation Ryan, however I still believe that stuff hanging out of containers is an invitation to premature deployments that tear the tails off of airplanes. Several harness/container manufacturers offer specialized CReW versions. Ryan even has set of patterns for CReW Reflex in his loft. The CReW Reflex includes extra-wide riser covers and extra snag-reduction flaps protecting the reserve pilotchute.

"Elliptical" is such an over-used word these days. "Elliptical" canopies - specifically designed for students (P.D. Navigator http://www.performancedesigns.com/navigator.htm and Icarus Student ZP-7 http://www.icaruscanopies.com/canopies/StudentZP7/index.htm) - have been used successfully by first jump students for years now. What is the fuss? These canopies have carefully de-tuned steering lines that produce light toggle pressures, gentle turns and foregiving flares. When designing student canopies, line configuration is far more important than planform (aka. ellipticallitiness).

Your best bet is talking to woman who has plenty of experience at fitting harnesses to a variety of different sizes and shapes of women, like Brenda Reid at Rigging Innovations (aka. Talon factory) or Nancy Lariviere at Jump Shack (aka. Racer factory).

sundevil, You are making this way more complicated than it needs to be. "Finger tight plus a quarter turn" is a close approximation of the official torque value for Maillon Rapide connector links. It is a simplified "hand-draulic" method of measuring torque that works well 98% of the time. With practice, any decent technician can get within 5% of official torque using his "calibrated elbow." The only people who crack Maillon Rapide links are people not bright enough to understand "finger tight plus a quarter turn." Asking them use a complicated torque wrench is only asking for more trouble.

linestretch, What type of airplanes are you operating in Guam? Seat/butt interface can make a huge difference in which style of pilot emergency pararchute (PEP) harness/container you buy.

p-124 aviator with a PD reserve (yes it's legal). Square reserve, new technology container. Container from RI and reserve from PD or shop around PD dealers. If I needed a bail-out rig, that is what I would buy. Derek >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Derek, Why the foul attitude towards Precision P-124A canopies? I am biased in favor of P-124A canopies because I test-packed most of the Aviator prototypes, worked on most of the heavy-weight, high-speed drop tests, did 5 live jumps and wrote the packing manual. The "hands off" landing of the larger P-124 canopies is a function of the steering line configuration. Steering lines on the 290 are tied to connector links at the 3/4 brake position. I have landed it down, hands off several times, with nothing but dust to show for my bungled landings. The 290 also has extra control lines - leading to steering toggles - that provide limited control range. Yes, those steering toggles are good for steering, but they do not contribute much to flaring, or to be precise, the steering toggles only contribute to flaring at far higher altitudes than senior skydivers are used to. Oh, wait a minute, junior jumpers instinctively flare about five times higher than healthy. Guess what, you have to flare P-124A-290 about 5 times higher than normal to make a difference! In my experience, the P-124A-290 lands so softly that flaring contributes more to amusing the jumper than any meaningful reduction in rate of descent. Besides, at 12.1 feet per second, the 290 lands so much softer than any round canopy (18 feet per second with a 28 foot C-9) that flaring is not a big issue. As for comparative rates of descent, we all know that the amount of energy disipated in any landing is a function of the square of the velocity, so when you land a P-124A-290, your legs only have to disipate half the energy of a C-9. The other novel feature of the P-124A-290 steering lines is that they provide an easy pull to shoulder level, then a dramatic increase in tension below shoulder level, which is fine. Since pulling the toggles to shoulder level gets the canopy as close to stall as you ever want to go, there is nothing to be gained by pulling toggles below your shoulders. P-124A canopies in the 212 and smaller have conventional steering lines that result in a stall when you pull them below your waist line. The only logic that I can see to the smaller versions of Aviator is an appeal to the egos of pilots who are also skydivers. When canopies get much smaller than 230 square feet, canopy volume decreases at a slow rate, but container bulk does not decrease, so you end up with essentially the same total volume. In conclusion, yes the P-124A-290 is a boring canopy to steer, but if I have just wrecked an airplane, I want a boring parachute.