riggerrob

When I asked a Parachutes de France official - a few years back - he replied that his firm wants nothing to do with Canadian and American lawyers, ergo, they do not sell directly to Canadian or American customers. However, he would cheerfully mail his products to your "cousin" in Mexico or Europe. Hee! Hee!

Yes, Ingratiate yourself with local riggers and lofts. Don't try to undercut their prices. The best a new rigger can offer is pick-up and delivery service to a few close friends. But that only works in the short run, to get your foot in the door. You will soon tire of friends" banging at your door late Friday evening with "rush" repacks. Don't worry, that phase only lasts a few months, then you will become as professional as all the other local riggers. In a perfect world, you will apprentice in a loft for the first year after you earn your rigger's rating. Start by offering your services one or two evenings per week. Once your skills are known, local professional riggers may even welcome your help during the busy season.

I have three different suits for PFF. With fast falling students, I wear my sexy. skin-tight, Spandex, 4-way suit with booties. For average-sized students, I wear my loose fitting tandem suit. If I can't fob off the slowest-falling students on a smaller instructor, I wear my biggest, baggiest freefly suit.

Yeah! Whatever mountainman said.

I would assemble most square reserves with P.D. Slinks. If anyone challenged me, I would get all arrogant and remind them that I am a pompous FAA Master Rigger. Besides, I have fewer lawyers to worry about in Canada. Thank God! Yes, P.D. has been shipping canopies off links for a while now. They attach the bottom of the lines to silly little plastic zip ties, then toss in a set of Slinks or Maillon Rapide links. This is probably a plot to sell more Slinks because I suspect that it is cheaper to pay Honduran ladies to make Slinks than it is to buy stainless steel from the French (Monty Python accent).

Two years ago, Bill Dause purchased all the assests of Stunts Adventure Equipment Limited. Since then. patterns for all the Eclipse models have been gathering dust in Lodi. Last year Bill Dause told me that he was not planing to open the Eclipse production line. Last month, Master Rigger Pete Swan told me that those patterns were still collecting dust. The only other angle I have heard of was (Eclipse designer) Shooby Knutson opening a shop to manufacture replacement handles, deployment bags, etc.

Both containers are good and the Teardrop is the best of the Pop-tops, but if I had the cash right now, I would order a Wings, if only because the Wings reserve is easier to pack.

Double-sided BOC retrofit kits are available for Rigging Innovations. They are almost as easy to sew on as regular BOCs. I few years back I retrofitted all 14 of the Perris Skydiving School's 14 student Telesis rigs over the course of one week (Monday to Friday).

Back in the 1970s and early 1980s I did about 70 jumps on round canopies. Most of those jumps were on military surplus canopies, but I did manage one-and-a-half jumps on a Cross-Bow. The half jump concluded with landing a non-steerable 24 flat round reserve. Sold my last round reserve in 1985. Did my last intentional round jump in 1986. I don't think the German Army was too happy that I suffered a partial inversion and burned dozens of holes in their T-10. Hee! Hee! My last round reserve landing was also in 1986. I completely missed the country and landed in a French swamp. Hee! Hee! Repacking round reserves represents 1% of my rigging business these days. Frankly, I repack more round canopies for pilots than I do for skydivers. My boss finally banned round reserves from Pitt Meadows last year. Exceptions will only be made for visiting jumpers who attend boogies at Pitt Meadows.

The FAA can fine or imprison (non-licensed) people who violate FARS. For example, the FAA fined Steve Magnuson US$500 the SECOND time they caught him repacking his own reserve and forging a rigger's signature.

Soft release housings were only manufactured for a few years (circa 1991 to 1995). They were only available on a few rigs like: Flexon, '94 Talon, Javelin and Teardrop. After that the better manufacturers standardized on hard housings. Most rigs manufactured with soft housings have long since been up-dated with hard housings.

Re: Slinks on non-P.D. reserves. If Performance Designs were smart, they would sell Slinks to anyone with cash, publish installation instructions, then say "you are on your own." Trying to control their use after sale is a hopeless legal nightmare that P.D. would be wise to avoid. The main reason other reserve manufacturers have not approved Slinks is that they would have to repeat drop tests and at US$800 per drop, they are in no rush to repeat tests so they could add to P.D. profits. Slinks are a graceful substitute for Maillon Rapide links. Which gets us to the whole debate over who can determine substitution (the FAA term is "compatibility"). Substituting reserve pilotchutes is a more complex question and should only be answered by people who fully understand the variables, like container manufacturers or Master Riggers. When I worked at Rigging Innovations, Sandy Reid turned a blind eye to the few original Talons that came through our loft with Vector 2 reserve pilotchutes. Since the Vector 2 pilotchute is similar to the pilotchute TSOed for the original Talon, this was no big deal. On the other hand, Sandy would have grounded any Talon coming through with a Vector 1 (weak spring) or Javelin (cap too wide) pilotchute.

First of all, I have never heard of a broken harness ring of any sort. My experience includes working at Rigging Innovations from 1994 to 1997. Remember that R.I. was the first company to build ringed harnesses and we learned a lot of lessons the hard way before anyone else started licensing our harness ring technology. Yes there were a few problems with soft RW-1-82 3-rings, but that was a heat-treating problem and RWS gracefully addressed that problem with a Service Bulletin and screw-in RW-6 rings. I have only seen a handful of BENT hip rings. These were the early stainless steel rings only installed on the first few hundred Flexons. All the owners of bent hip rings complained of painfully hard openings that twisted their necks so badly that they had to take time off jumping for a few weeks to heal. The worst bent hip rings I ever saw were Ton Falzone's who shredded a canopy and has complained about his neck injuries ever since. The problem was that hip rings, Spectra suspension lines, Tube Stows, z-p fabric and wing loadings greater than 1 pound per square foot all arrived on the market at the same time. Some people found out the hard way that old packing methods did not work with newer technology. As soon as people re-learned the lessons about keeping rubber bands tight, etc. harness rings quit bending. Frankly, you run a greater risk of falling out of a ringed harness than of having a ring break on you. The most likely causes of falling out of a harness are too large a harness or forgetting to tighten your leg straps. Finally, as for Rhino adding an extra piece of Type 17 webbing to the bottom of the main lift web: that would be a minor modification, but it can only be done gracefully when the harness is manufactured at the factory. Now I don't want to tell Wings how to run their production line, but it would seem to me pretty simply to substitute Type 17 webbing for the current 1 inch wide Type 4 tape buffer that is already found in most ringed hip joints. Buffers are extra layers of webbing that rub against hardware instead of the structural webbing. Buffers are made from "any old scrap webbing laying around the shop" and are usually not included in TSO tracking paperwork. But who cares, their sole function is the absorb abrasion, so the structural webbing remains intact. The only disadvantage I can see with substituting Type 17 for Type 4 is the change in bulk may make it more difficult to sew.

"I'm sorry about our waffling on Iraq. I mean, when you're going up against a crazed dictator, you wanna have your friends by your side. I realize it took more than two years before you guys pitched in against Kaiser Wilhelm, but that was different. Everyone knew he had weapons." I suspect that most of the hard feelings on this string were created by comedy that "does not travel well." Sorry folks, but if you do not understand the political background, you will never get the joke. For example, I only catch some British political humor and most Australian political satire goes completely over my head. OH, and another critic was accurate in stating that the Canadian Armed Forces may not have many guns, however, some of those guns are mighty accurate. Just the USMC who bailed them out of some embarrassing ambushes in Afghanistan last year. Oh, and I understand America's disgrace at loosing Olympic gold medals to Canadian hockey players, especially GIRL hockey players. It makes perfect sense to ban softwood lumber imports in retaliation. Only a handful of Canadian lumberjacks suffered in comparison to the millions of middle-class American consumers who have to pay more for houses. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot! Ha ha! Oh and Canadian lumber exporters have been busier SINCE the USA imposed higher tarifs on softwood. Ha ha! Of course the only reason Prime Minister Jean Chretien cared about the softwood lumber dispute was because he t'ought it was an erectile disfunction problem in Quebec. Oh, and I find it really scary that American comedian Robin Williams speaks BOTH of Canada's official languages better than our own Prime Minister.

In California in worked with Terresa Tran, Annie Helliwell and what's-her-name. Terrisa was a fine Senior Rigger until she went in on a BASE jump. I cried at Terrisa's funeral. Annie is one of the best riggers I have ever had the privilege of working with. Annie is also a DPRE and administered my Master Rigger test. Then there is Eileen what's-her-name from Wisconsin and Kelly what's-her-name who has been running Strong Enterprises' loft for longer than I can remember. Anyways, I have several female riggers over the years, most of them good. They tend to develop neater techniques than guys because they lack the muscle to "force" containers closed.

Sunday morning after the AGM snow still carpets the ground, but now it is raining heavily. Some much for the plans about a Board of Directors freefall formation! Unfortunately I was too busy packing reserves to sit through boring meetings. Fortunately the AGM banquet turned into a pretty good party! CSPA's new President (Pierre-what's-his-name-from Quebec) and Vice-President (Brian-what's-his-name-from-Manitoba) were introduced. Speeches were blessedly brief and they handed out stacks of awards including the Glenn Masterson Memorial Trophy for "jumping since dirt runways were invented" to Dr. Tony Mercer who has served on more CSPA committees than most of us can spell. Past President Mary Watson and her husband Ken were both honoured along with past Coaching Committee chair Dr. Tom Pfeiffer and Joe Ablitt who has served on the competition committee for longer than anyone can remember. Numerous awards for long-time CSPA membershiop, thousands of jumps and too many hours of freefall were awarded to various smiling attendees.. By the time they pinned all my awards on me, I looked like a Russian general, with tiny gold pins for a total of: 15 years, 36 hours of freefall and 4,000 jumps. Procrastination on paperwork finally paid off! Hee! Hee!

Don't wear convertible pants, you know the ones that convert from long-legged to shorts with the zip of a zipper. High speed air is liable to open that zipper permanently.

Wait until you can run up and down stairs without pain.

Educate, not regulate.

Get the surgery done now, before the busy skydiving season arrives. Oh and I have installed a couple of left-handed BOCs for people with permanent injuries to their right arms. One guy had a shoulder dislocation and the other guy left a few fingers in Viet Nam.

Yes, that website provides a realistic sample of questions on the written test."The Rigger's Study Guide" by Dan Poynter and Mark Schlatter is also an excellent aid when preparing for the FAA written exam. Heck, just buy a whole stack of books from Poynter as you will need them sooner or later. The FAA oral test will have to be all off the top of your head, but the examiner will limit his/her questions to material specifically covered in the FARs and common rigging practices. The Senior Rigger practical exam is the only time you are allowed reference materials. When you are packing the reserve, you MUST have a copy of the manual open beside you. DPREs are not supposed to ask "trick" questions. The closest I have ever come to a "trick" question was during my FAA MAster Rigger exam, when the examiner slipped in a few samples of non-approved materials. I quickly identified the certified materials, but kept coming back to the questionable samples. After I wasted a few more minutes, she said "these materials are not approved, let's move on to the next question." The silliest question I ever heard was from DPRE Dave DeWolf. When he asked me how to repair a cotton harness, I replied "send it to the museum." Dave reminded me that cotton harnesses should be re-sewn with cotton thread. This question is valid according to the FARs, but in 19 years of rigging, no one has asked me to pack a rig with a cotton harness.

Even though they are normally supplied by canopy manufacturers, connector links are in that grey area between being canopy components and container components. P.D. Slinks are approved on P.D. and Precisions reserves. Several container manufacturers - including Rigging Innovations and Wings - have approved P.D. Slinks for reserves. Also remember that FAA MAster Riggers are allowed to substitute similar TSOed components.

Aerospatiale A-Star Alouette 2 Beech 18, Queen Air and King Air Bell UH-1 Boeing Vertol Chinook Breezy Britan-Normal Islander Cessna 172, 180, 182, 185, 205, 206, 207, 208 and 412 DeHavilland Cariboo and Twin Otter Dornier 27 and 228 Douglas DC-3 and C-47 Lockheed C-130 Kockertalle Bridge Maule Pilatus Porter Piper Cherokee Six Shorts Skyvan

Let's discuss different philosophies for teaching students how to recognize malfunctions. Some instructors try to get students to memorize the names of 43 different types of malfunctions. I believe that those instructors are wasting time. My personal teaching style devotes most of our time to teaching students what a good main canopy looks like: rectangular, lines straight, etc. My lesson on emergency procedures consists of: "if it does not look like a good main parachute, pull more handles." Then we spend a half hour practicing "pulling more handles" on the ground. I know that someone is going to flame me for giving an overly-simplified description of my first jump course. So bring on the flames! Hee! Hee!

Buy new risers dude.