riggerrob

I only remember one price from Aerodyne's new line. They are asking US1600 for a harness/container. That puts it closer to American prices. Too bad, PISA's canopies may have been under-priced, but they flew great! Since their TSO application is incomplete, it will be a few months before they start selling reserves or harness/containers.

Defending myself against a flame. My decision to stick with a metal reserve ripcord handle is an informed decision based on 25 years of skydiving experience. During that time I have jumped mains deployed by static-line, IAD, ripcord, pull-out, belly band throw out, front of leg throw out, rear of leg throw out, BOC and hand held when I jumped off a bridge. Every time a new system is introduced, I look it over, then go return to some variation of throw out. As for reserve ripcords, I have packed thousands with metal handles and dozens with soft handles. Thank you but I will stick with metal handles on my personal gear and all my students will wear metal handles. In the long run, the type of handle is less important than currency. And we are talking about currency on emergency procedures. Here comes the sales pitch for USPA Safety Day. Yada! Yada! Yada!

Rigging Innovations uses MDS plastic in thicknesses ranging from 20 thou to 40 thou. 20 thou is used where you need flexibility i.e. riser cover tuck tabs and 40 thou is used in high load areas like reinforcements around container grommets.

All good advice above. Back when I jumped F-111 nine cells, I used to roll the nose 4 and 4. But in the long run I concluded that nose position only made a minor difference in openings. Slider position and rubber bands make the biggest difference. Start by quartering the slider and pushing it hard up against the stops. Then I wrap the tail around and roll the bejezuz out of it. I doubt that rolling the tail makes much difference in how the tail opens, but rolling does help hold the slider in place while I stuff the canopy into the bag. Rubber bands are also very important for soft openings. Use lots and keep them tight.

Prone harnesses have been used by hang glider pilots for decades. Para-glider pilots prefer supine harnesses, where they are seated, but leaned so far back that they could be reclined in a Barcalounger. Neither harness provides much protection in a bad landing. Para-glider pilots started adding spine protectors years ago. Their spine protectors sort of look like an external plastic spinal column, like you find on motorcycle racers and BASE jumpers. The most recent advance in para-glider harnesses is massive Cordura air bags under their butts. These air bags have air locks (please don't flame me Brian Germain) so they passively inflate after launch and slowly deflate on impact. With a bit of thought, air bags could be streamlined so they reduce aerodynamic drag during high speed blade running. Given the choice between prone and supine, I would rather wear a supine harness so when I mess up a landing, I can absorb most of the impact with my legs, instead of my face.

It is okay for astronauts to jump, just not when they are scheduled for a mission. Back in the late 1980s, I remember dispatching Roberta Bondar (sp?) for an IAD jump.

An audio altimeter is a good idea, but with three caveats. Never allow any new gadget to distract you from you primary goal: pulling. Audio altimeters are good for this because they are basically set and forget. Secondly, set your audio' for slightly below normal pull altitude. I used to play a game with myself called "beat the beeper." When I got really good at the game, my audio went off during line stretch. Thirdly, fear causes deafness. So don't expect to hear your audio altimeter the first few times you jump with it.

He! He! Another opportunity to publicly disagree with councilman. If he watched my "Packing a Ram Air Canopy into a Pilot Emergency Parachute" seminar at the 1997 PIA Symposium, he would have seen me clamping the canopy. For a detailed look at how I use clamps, read the Aviator or Talon 2 packing manuals on Rigging Innovations' website. I gave up on using weights to pack ram airs after the freebag got really "heavy" on a couple of occaisions. Funny, I still use weights when I pack round parachutes into PEPs.

Back in 1979 my main streamered. I pulled the silver handle on my chest. I lived. 'nuf said. The next time I buy a reserve ripcord, it will be a small metal handle, with the exposed loop just big enough for my thumb and a thick winter glove.

bill, Forget about selling Skyhooks as "safety" devices. Safety is boring. Tell those cheapskates that a Skyhook will make it easier to find their freebag. He! He!

My recollections of PIA Symposium 2003: Military Convergence Skyhook Swimming pool Good weather Glen Bangs contribution to 2 squares out study Travelling faster than my luggage. Military presence was way up at this year's Symposium, which is good. The military industrial complex should pay its way in our sporting sandbox. It also means that manufacturers will be less sensitive to the mood swings of skydiver purchasing patterns. Convergence. It seems that skydiving manufacturers are converging on common patterns. They seem to be converging on two container patterns and a handful of canopy designs aimed at a handful of niches. Even the Russians and East Germans seem to be copying Vectors. Though the Czechs introduced a new AAD that sort of looks like a Cypres, but all the components are in one box nestled in the pack tray. The sly old fox Bill Booth is not resting on his laurels. The inventor of the hand-deploy pilotchute and 3-Ring release just introduced the Skyhook - the fastest RSL on the market. The Adams Mark Hotel has a fitness room and swimming pool on the roof. My fondest memories of the Symposium were swimming laps as the sun rose. Weather was great in Jacksonville. Temperatures varied from frost in the mornings to 75 degrees in the afternoons. Floridians may have grumbled about the frost, but it was heaven for skydivers from more northerly climates. At the final banquet, we got to tease USPA's new President, Glen Bangs about his contribution to the two squares out study. To Mr. Bang's credit, his main was out before he scared his Cypres. Travelling to the Symposium was a long, drawn out process, with way too many frivolous security checks, but I cannot complain too loudly. I travelled so fast that I arrived in JAcksonville way ahead of my luggage! Ha! Ha!

councilman, May I suggest two topics for speakers at the 2005 PIA Symposium? International Riggers' Standardization Program Hand-Mounted Video for Tandem Instructors

Hornets are great canopies. We have been renting Hormet 190s to our PFF grads for years now. Several of them bought Hornet 190-170-150 with great results. Too bad PISA is halting Hornet production. We all hope that Aerodyne can build a close aerodynamic copy of the Hornet, too bad they will not copy Hornet prices.

Skyhook: Bill Booth's most recent contribution to this style of RSL is the Collins lanyard. If a skydiver wearing a Skyhook-equipped Vector cuts away from a partially inflated main, the RSL (attached to the right main riser) pulls the Collins lanyard (to ensure that the left release cable is pulled), then the RSL pulls the reserve ripcord, finally the RSL pulls on the Skyhook (a stainless steel hook sewn to the freebag bridle) to lift the freebag off the jumper's bag. If there is no main out, pulling the reserve ripcord (or scaring your Cypres) results in a normal reserve deployment, as if the Skyhook was never installed. In this scenario, the reserve bridle disconnects at the Skyhook. Basically, it is a race between the main riser and the reserve pilotchute. Whichever pulls first lifts the freebag off the jumper's back. Judging from USPA's 2002 fatality report, at least 2 more jumpers would be alive if they had worn some sort of RSL. Booth's Skyhook just happens to be the quickest RSL on today's market.

Back in the good old days, we used to patch T-10s with duct tape so we could do an extra couple thousand jumps.

Hi Buzz, How long does this military contract last? I ask because I have some spare time during the winter, but am fully employed during the sunny summer months in British Columbia. What are the chances of a short-term (i.e. 2 or 3 months) employment contract? Rob Warner FAA Master Rigger Tandem, PFF, etc. Instructor retired military

It does not matter whether a reserve is certified under TSO C23b, C23C or C23D, it still has to satisfy the minimum requirements of 254 pounds at 150 knots. C23D allows manufacturers to certify reserves to heavier weights or higher airspeeds. The wiser manufacturers downgrade weight limits on their smaller reserves because they do not expect the ankles on a 254 pound skydiver to survive landing an itsy bitsy, teeny tiny Micro Raven 109 down wind, in the toolies surrounding Denver after he has scared his Cypres.

Those risers were built to a pattern that fell out of fashion a decade ago. Assign them to the trash can.

Your X210R reserve was built by GQ Security in San Leandro, California, near San Francisco. Security was originally an American company, while GQ was a British company. Circa 1980, GQ bought Security so they could bid on a US Navy contract. When the military contract fell through, they closed the doors of thier factory in San Leandro. Pity, Security was one of the pioneer manufacturers of skydiving gear. Their Unit main canopies may have taken forever to open, but by the early 1980s they had introduced their X210 series of CReW mains and just before they closed shop in 1984, Bill Gargano designed a whole new series of canopies for them, Too bad we never got to try Gargano's canopies. Returning to the original thread, I have packed a few X210R reserves. Some had diapers and others I just stuffed into freebags. Hint, if your X210R still has a diaper, follow the manual exactly - using little straps, etc - because any other method is slower and sloppier.

It is possible to iron the wrinkles out of canopy fabric, just keep your iron on low heat. Why you would want to is another question. Like most rigger apprentices, you are trying too hard to be too perfect. Eventually you will learn what is important and what is insignificant. Wrinkles in fabric are insignificant.

Both methods work and both cost about the same in the long run. At Pitt Meadows, we encourage students to do PFF in the summer, but when the weather turns "British" in the autumn, we recommend traditional IAD progression (similar to S/L progression) because they can still do hop and pops during gloomy winter days. If a student can only afford to do one PFF jump per month, then I steer them towards traditional progression. Impoverished students tend to do better with traditional progression because they can afford to do enough S/L jumps to stay current.

Hi Bill, Thanks for cutting through the BS. Bill Booth's Skyhook is a simplified version of Eric Fradet's system used on the Advance skydiving H/C and the Sorcerer BASE rig. Bill's contribution is a small, stainless steel hook that connects a main riser to the freebag bridle. If there is no main out, the reserve pilotchute stretches out the freebag bridle and disconnects the main riser from the skyhook. Then the reserve deploys like most other reserves. Even if they are no longer fashionable, RSLs would still have saved 2 or 3 American skydivers last year. Booth's Skyhook has the advantage of deploying quicker than any other type of RSL, making it more difficult to tumble through the reserve risers and interfer with reserve deployment. In an era when container designs are converging, that sly old fox named Bill Booth is staying ahead of the young pups by making serious innovations. In a side conversation, Bill Booth hinted that his Skyhook may help satisfy one of the requirements for a high speed reserve. Any current reserve manufacturer could build a high speed reserve tomorrow if he did not have to satisfy the "3 second rule" at the low speed end of the envelope. Since a Skyhook shaves about a second off the time to line stretch, the Skyhook makes it possible to design a reserve that opens softly at high airspeeds, but still deploys quickly at low airspeeds. When asked when his high speed reserve system would hit the market, Mr. Booth chuckled and replied "whenever Bill Coe builds the canopy." My hat is off to Bill Booth.

A Master Rigger can only modify reserve toggles if he has authorization from the original manufacturer, or he can get some sort of supplementary type certificate (alternate TSO). The only way i can see that working is if he "substituted similar TSOed components" (i.e. Wings reserve toggles) and sewed on Wings style toggle keepers. Usually this is more of a hassle than buying a new Wings container.

Sounds like my back-up rig: a Mirage that I bought new in 1985. There are more important things to worry about than faded labels. For example, there is a perfectly airworthy original Talon on my DZ with a faded label. I just repack and sign it as per normal and leave the serial number slot on the packing data card blank.

To earn a TSO, manufacturers must demonstrate consistent openings at a minimum of 254 pounds and various airspeeds. Wise manufacturers downgrade maximum weights on smaller reserves because they did not believe that ankles would survive landing at heavier weights.