riggerrob

Adding to councilman's advice. While you are keeping your head up, pick a landmark on the horizon and keep focused on it. Relax. Breath. Wiggle your toes and fingers. Most turn problems are caused by tightening one leg or arm more than the other. Taking a fortnight off is not the best course of action. When you return from a long lay-off you will have to re-learn some of the skills you forgot in the interim. As for hiring an AFF instructor .... You are already past the most difficult stage. You have already proven - repeatedly - that you can save your own life. At this stage you would be better off hiring a freefall videographer to chase you in freefall. Often video will show an assymetry that is not obvious to you or to the instructor sitting in the airplane. Out of courtesy, you should ask your instructors to recommend a particular videographer who has chased freefall students before. Then ask your instructor to review the video with you after the jump. Chances are the video will show a minor arm or leg assymetry that can be corrected by relaxing, or maybe by doing a few toe taps. Finally, your problem is minor and you will soon get over it. As soon as you master deliberate turns and your increased confidence allows you to relax more, the problem will disappear. Most of us overcame minor turn problems and you will too.

Congrats on surviving your reserve ride. I never understood the old dogma about pumping brakes to open closed end cells. In my experience holding toggles at waist or hip level for 5 to 10 seconds is the best way to open closed end cells. Fully stalling the canopy just complicates the problem. As for learning how to flare a 7-cell similar to your reserve, try borrowing a Triathlon. The difference between F-111 and Zero P should be insignificant on a properly maintained reserve.

Let's see? A hard pull on a 4-pin ripcord led to an unstable opening and a scar on my upper lip has never fully healed. PD-360s compressed my spine so many times that a disk herniated and every once in a while my sciatica acts up. Stalling on a Strato Star into the peas sprained my left ankle and it never fully healed. etc.

kallend, This thread is primarily aimed at licensed jumpers. quote:"How would that apply to a student on a first jump, or a tandem passenger; people who simply don't have the knowledge and experience to understand the risks in the first place? Do you believe that a tandem master or AFF instructor has an obligation to such people? " end quote. Yes, first jump students place their lives in the hands of instructors. First jump instructors have an ethical obligation to minimize injuries to students. But good instructors quickly shift that responsibility to students over the next half dozen jumps. Here is a new dilemma for you: If a tandem student student has his legs correctly positioned for landing, then relaxes them at 50 feet, and the instructor breaks the student's ankle when he sits on it (while trying to do standard butt slide landing), who is responsible for the fracture?

Yellow journalism will not shut down dangerous dropzones. Back in the mid-1990s the CBC ran an expose' on "Drop zone of Death!" The DZ is still operating.

Your problem is that early rigs built by Thomas Sports Equipment never achieved (US gov't) FAA Type Standardization Order (TSO) certification. To the best of my knowledge, only some - but not all - recently manufactured TSE Teardrop Superfly containers are TSO'd. Since th eTSO system is about quality control and traceability, only the original manufacturer could apply a TSO stamp after the fact. I doubt that TSE saved all of those records.

Sniff! Sniff! Thinking happy thoughts about a strong, healthy "Kitty" walking out of vet's office in a few days.

DHC-3 Single Otters are among the few single-engined airplanes with cabins large enough to extract the maximum profit from PT-6A engines. Too bad they were built decades before PT-6As were perfected! Single-engined Otters were originally built with radial engines that were way too small for their weight. The Otter's huge wing enabled it to take off from tiny lakes, but it could not always climb out of the valley! The other problem with the original radial engines was that they wore out. It was only when engine parts started getting expensive that bush pilots started re-engining single Otters with turboprops. Since the 1970s several companies have STCed turbine engine retrofits for single Otters, making them almost as good as Twin Otters. Turboprops vastly improve reliability while the extra horsepower helps with take off and climb. Vazar started by installing PT-6A turboprops on single Otters back in the 1970s. Viking - at Victoria International Airport - still does that upgrade. A company in Texas was installing Garret turboprops in single Otters. A Garret-engine single Otter flew skydivers in Texas for a while, until it was done in by a dust devil. The most recent single Otter upgrade is done by a company in the interior of British Columbia that installs Walter turboprop engines. The Walters are Eastern European (can't say "communist" anymore) copies of Pratt and Whitney's PT-6A series.

After a week of clear, cool weather in Vancouver, it looks like we are in for a bit of rain. This winter cough! cough! has turned out way milder than previous years. Returning to your original question, I have been jumping a 1997 Talon 2 with hip rings (FAST) since it was built. I like the hip rings because they help large me to fold into small Cessnas. Like Bill Booth, I always thought that chest rings were more fancy than we really need. The primary advantage of chest rings seems to be that you can really reef your chest strap tight for head down skydiving. Bill sees the primary advantage of chest rings as more shiny stainless steel to impress your skydiving buddies. Now that several manufacturers have perfected contoured shoulder yokes, I believe that chest rings will decline in practicality. I may be just a touch biased towards ringed harnesses since I worked at Rigging Innovations from 1994 to 1997, when we worked the bugs out sizing Flexon and Talon 2 ringed harnesses.

Quote: "QuoteThanks for replying, and for all the advice. Though i was wondering about the whole poptop debate, are there any inherent problems with poptops? what is the other method of deploying the reserve?" end quote. He! He! You just opened a huge debate that has been running for almost 30 years, ever since Dan Poynter invented the Pop-top circa 1975. Remember that when Dan introduced the Pop-Top as a chest-mounted reserve, most skydivers were still jumping military surplus containers and the Pop-Top was a huge technological leap forward. Its through loops made the Pop-Top half as thick as other reserves, putting the last man in a 10-way speed star team several feet closer to the door, shaving several seconds off competitors' times. Also with the ripcord laying against his chest, it was almost snag-proof. When piggybacks came into fashion in the late 1970s, John Sherman introduced the SST, which was little more than a Pop-Top chest pack sewn onto the top of a simple main container. Early SSTs were the thinest piggybacks for several years. When the Racer introduced a tapered reserve container circa 1979, it was thinner again and set the standard for all other manufacturers. Racers were the best containers on the market as long as round reserves dominated the market. Sadly, Racers did not keep up with the times because they never re-thought the design when square reserves and Cypri were introduced. As for inherent problems with Pop-Tops .... most problems are related to sloppy packing. Since the pilotchute is fully exposed, it requires more skill to pack it neatly and get it to nestle into the container. It is easy to see which riggers are current on Pop-Tops. Their pilotchutes are flush or slightly sunken into the container. Customers also help determine whether Pop-Tops can be packed neatly, If you ask a rigger to pack a huge reserve into tiny container, it is going to look ugly. End of discussion. Since Pop-Tops require specialized skills to pack, few riggers are good at packing them/ Heck it only took me a decade and several sets of trashed steel bodkins to learn how to pack Pop-Tops. Now I use my own home-made tools because steel T-bodkins are not Cypres-compatible. Which brings us to the next point. Racer design peaked in the late 1980s, when Jump Shack perfected the top flap. They have never really addressed the issues of square reserves or Cypres. Jump Shack President John Sherman is a brilliant engineer, but a bit on the stubborn side. He may have taken my advice on simplifying the Racer Tandem, but I doubt if he is willing to listen to my ideas on simplifying solo Racers. He! He! Since then, a couple of companies have introduced one-pin Pop-Tops (Teardrop and Reflex) which are easier to pack, but still require specialized skills. Both designs have room for simplification that would make them easier to pack. Oh, and Jump Shack habitually refuses to consider how dry desert air increases pack volumes, so if you follow their guidelines, you will always struggle to pack a Racer in the desert. The simple solution is to lie on your order form. For example, claim that you want your new Racer to fit a Raven 181 when you really own a Raven 150. quote:"what is the other method of deploying the reserve?" end quote. Basically the other method involves covering the pilotchute with one (Dolphin), two (Javelin, Wings, etc.) or more flaps (Vector, Talon and the rest of them) and placing the ripcord on the outside of the container. Granted most other designs require fewer tools and are easier to pack, but it took a long time to perfect pin covers for external ripcords. Let's face it, container design is easy. It's the pin covers and riser covers that are difficult. From a practical point of view, all reserve pilotchutes work the same. You pull a ripcord. The pilotchute launches and the next thing you know, you are hanging under the most beautiful reserve on the planet!

Where are this week's Thursday boobies? (*)(*)

Sounds like the USS Constitution was fighting a war on drugs, er, was it a war for drugs?

Yes! Drunken Premiers should suffer the same fines and jail time as any other convicted drunken driver. As for that Russian Embassy staffer who drove over the lawyer in Ottawa a few years back. Didn't he get his peepee whacked by a Russian court?

I still want the special harness that will allow me to take two Japanese girls at the same time. With them strapped side-by-side, the most amusing part of the dive would be listening to them yammering at each other right after opening. Ha! Ha!

listo certainly is dogmatic! Too bad his side lost the argument in Gananoque, Ontario in 1979. Most Canadian DZs followed suit in the mid-1980s. Too bad it took most American DZs another decade to catch up. A little Canadian jingoism there on my part. Ha! Ha! Back in 1979, Tom MacArthy revived an old American concept when he introduced IAD to Gananoque, Ontario. Along with IAD, Tom introduced hand-deploy pilotchutes for all his freefall students. Tom also did harness-hold jumps with early freefall students. In the long run most Canadian DZs followed Tom's lead with IAD for first-timers and PFF for first freefallers. Main pilotchutes have migrated from belly-bands to BOC. There are two reasons why most Canadian DZs still run PFF parellel to traditonal progression. First, the old school method is better for cash-strapped students. Secondly, over the winter, many DZs are lucky to get 4,000 feet. Finally, as a pompous FAA Master Rigger - who packed retired President George Bush's reserve in 1997 - I am not convinced that main ripcords are inherently better. I see ripcords presenting six possible problems, while BOC present a half-dozen other possible problems. In the long run I prefer BOC for its lower maintenance.

That scary incident with SOS occurred back in 1984, befrore RSLs became mandatory for students. Before the incident I questioned the value of RSLS. Nowadays I refuse to dispatch students without RSLs.

At a properly-run DZ, fully-rated instructors are so busy with students that they do not have time for coaching. USPA coaches take over when students have 8 or a dozen jumps. Smart DZOs give junior jumpers a price break on coach dives to keep them involved, so they will complete their "A" Licenses, stick around, buy gear, etc. Junior coaches often volunteer their time and get free slots. As they improve their coaching skills, they get slot-plus-$5, etc. The best coaches get discounted gear and "subsidized" slots on 300-ways. It is all a cycle. Smart DZOs encourage junior coaches so they will have another crop of instructors two or three years down the road.

Plenty of packing manuals are now published on-line. Find them on manufacturers' web-sites by going to www.pia.com and search through the yellow pages. Also go to the Australian Parachute Federation's web-site and look under publications for the only complete list of service bulletins http://www.apf.asn.au/apf_services/sb.asp.

Yes, it would be nice if every "D" License holder knew the basics of assembling a canopy. On the other hand, if they did understand the basics of rigging, I would be out of a job. It seems that modern fun jumpers just want to come out for two or three jumps on a sunny Saturday afternoon and leave all that sweaty, dusty packing to professionals. Excuse me if this makes me sound like a money-grubbing capitalist, but the more money they leave at the DZ the better.

Zero is the Canadian substitute for Woolite. I just washed ten student rigs with Zero and now they look half as old.

SOS made sense back when the vast majority of one-jump-wonders went static-line. The logic was they were not bright enough to pull two handles to save their lives. THank God that most of these one-jump-wonders now go tandem! Oh, and one of my students proved that you can mess up even an SOS. He pulled his handle far enough to release his main risers, but when he felt resistance (reserve ripcord pins) he quit pulling and waited for Mr. FXC to save his life.

Okay, If we raise the bar for static-line instructors to obscene levels, where are we going to find entry level instructors? Rob Warner S/L, IAD, PFF and Tandem Instructor

Why is it that two of my uncles never returned from RCAF missions over France, but I still needed a visa to visit France? The really scary part was when I had to explain to a French border guard - in french - how to read a visa issued by the French Consulate in Baden-Baden the week before!

quote:"I do think its a good idea to include some degree of rigging training in the new 'D' license certification." end quote./reply] Mr. Gravitymaster, I agree with you. A couple of years ago I suggested including basic rigging skills in CSPA's new licnese, but my suggestion never got past committee. Ideally you should be able to hand any "D" License holder 4 connector links and a canopy and he would be in the air an hour later.

Is anyone else as angry as me about the fact that Inderjit Singh Reyat was only sentenced to 5 years in a minimum security prison for his part in the 1985 Air India bombing that killed 329 people, 1/3 of them children? This murderer got off with a light sentence because he claimed that he only expected the explosives to be used against property in India. Hah! Canadian justice moves so slowly that sometime we wonder if it moves in reverse! The real reason Reyat got such a light sentence is that he agreed to help the crown convict a couple of other bombers. There is also a huge banking scandle related to this bombing. The Canadian public are screaming for life in prison, but he may enjoy his freedom by the end of this year! He may even be elijable for day parole by the end of this year! If Reyat is sent to the Ferndale minimum security facility, just east of Pitt Meadows, he will be able to perfect his tennis and golf games when he is not jogging. Personally, I believe that his sentence should be 329 years in the worst jail in the Punjab! Or maybe he deserves Peruvian justice, like imprisonment in a high-altitude jail,. one of those jails where more people die of altitude sickness than beatings. You may ask why I am so incensed by this travesty of justice. Well, there is a large Indo-Canadian community near Vancouver, Heck, if you exit too early at Pitt Meadows, you land in the Sikh-owned berry farm across the road from our bowl. Hint, if you are going to kill a few hundred people, arrange to get tried in a Canadian courtroom.