riggerrob

Engine failure above 4000' (my normal hook up altitude): toss drogue release handle in back of cabin, exit and toss drogue immediately. Note: this technique works well on Strongs, but is not recommended on Vectors because Vector drogues are designed differently. Rob Warner 2200 tandem jumps, mostly on Strong

Forgive my lack of rigging knowledge but what's the difficult thing about building tandem drogues and how would a square drogue address the problem? Gus: end quote It depends which tandem drogue you are comparing it with. For example, Racer drogues are only slightly more complex than your average kill-line pilotchute. Vector drogues are more complex ballutes, while Strong drogues are a hopelessly complex design with dozens of parts and more curves than I can count. Strong drogues are the most stable - from the photographer's perspective - but prohibitively expensive to manufacture and a nightmare to repair! The beauty of square drogues is that you can build one using only 4 flat patterns and a total of only 7 or 9 flat pieces, with zero curves.

Thanks dudes, Sharing trim specs is a great idea. Currently I am waiting for PISA to mail me a line kit for a Heatwave 150 and plan to install it as soon as I return from PIA. I have trim charts for dozens of other canopies, just tell me which ones you want me to post.

Yes, shipping a canopy to the manufacturer is the best way. A close second is asking your friendly local rigger to install a factory line kit. Asking him to build a complete line kit starting with just a trim chart and a spool of line is over the head of most field riggers. Stating from scratch works fine on large rectangular canopies. I have built line kits for a bunch of Sabres and Triathlons starting with just a trimchart and a spool of line, but as canopies get smaller and more complicated and tolerances get tighter, I prefer to install line kits supplied by the factory. For example: last year I installed factory line kits on a Triathlon, a couple of Sabres, three Stilettos and a bunch of SET 400s. Right now I am waiting for PISA to ship me a Heatwave line kit.

There are two types of ZP fabric: Gelvenor and everybody else's. Gelvenor fabic is heavily calendarized with a bit of silicone to seal it, while other manufacutrers mainly depend upon silicone sealing. The end result is that Gelvenor fabric is less shiny, less slippery and easier to pack. Gelvenor fabric is used by Aerodyne and several other manufacturers. I am not sure which type of fabric Atair uses. It would be okay to substitute either fabric for small patches. The FAA expects all Senior Parachute Riggers to able to sew small patches on canopies as long as they do not involve seams. In practice, fewer than half the part-time riggers are current on canopy patches, so they wisely try to fob off difficult patches on full-time riggers. Full-time riggers usually go on to acquire Master Rigger ratings along with all the sewing machines and repair materials. Certainly any repair involving opening a seam should be sent to a Master Rigger. While a Master Rigger may legally replace ribs and even entire cells, by that point it becomes more economical for the factory to do the repairs.

This sore knee is slowing me down, limiting my attendance at Tae Box classes, so I have vowed to concentrate on strength and stretching exercises until the orthopedic specialist looks at my knee next month. Bicycling is one of the few aerobic exercises I can do without my knee hurting, so I have gone for a few hour-long rides this year. I really should try to ride every non-rainy day. Yesterday I did a four sets of chin ups and a few stretches. This morning you folks made me feel so guilty that I stepped away from the computer to do push-ups until my arms started burning. Has anyone figured out what affect push-ups have on abdominal muscles?

Two hints: First apply for Officer Candidate School as soon as possible, so they will treat you better. Secondly, keep your mouth shut about any skydiving experience when you attend Airborne School. The ultimate laugh will be asking your instructors to sign your USAP logbook after they pin jump wings on you. Ha ha!

NSA sounds as legitimate as Canadian Organization of Professional Skydivers (COPS).

Yes, the less you say at airports the better. If they ask about your Cypres, it is an altimeter. If they ask again, it is an electronic altimeter. If they ask for more detail, you mumble something about opening the reserve. If they ask for more detail about how it opens the reserve, you mumble something about a tiny guillotine. If they ask more about the guillotine, you say that it is electrically activiated. Usually they will run out of questions before you run out of answers. The trick is to give them only a little information at a time. Oh, and customs officers love to use the "embarrassing silence" to extract more information from you. The best solution is quietly wait for their next question. Many times customs officers have almost gotten to the embarrassing questions, but they ran out of patience before I did. Hah hah! It is all a head game when dealing with airport officials. Usually the man with the most patience wins.

quote" Assholes are very hard to shut down. " end quote. He he! This reminds me of a DZ long, long ago and far, far away. We had been on a wind hold all afternoon. I was the first up with three static-line students. The wind drift indicator malfunctioned, so I had to guesstimate the spot. My first student landed in a big, grassy field on the south side of the runway. This was not our normal landing area, but he landed a long way from any obstacles. I adjusted the spot and my second student landed in the grass on the north side of the runway, much closer to our regular landing area. I adjusted the spot again and my third student landed beside the bowl, on the north side of the runway. After I landed, another jumpmaster loudly chewed me out - in front of students - for being such an "asshole" and landing my students so far out. He took the next load up and they all landed farther south than any of my students. By the time the chief instructor took up the last load, it was so dark they had difficulty seeing the arrow. His students landed so far away I could not even see them! I kept my mouth shut and left early while they picked their students out of the trees that bordered the south edge of the airport. Sometimes the best way to shut down assholes is to say nothing. He he!

Yeah, I have given a few talks to whuffos about skydiving. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, try starting with a video. Also take a long a fully-dressed skydiver and have them stand there quietly while you point out all the safety features. You know, things like one hand for beer while the other hand holds a bong. Oh sorry, I got off topic there. The toughest part is keeping a straight face when they start re-counting popular mis-conceptions.

What angle are you pulling the bridle? Remember that most rigs are designed to deploy in a stable, belly-to-earth position. Any time you change the angle, you vastly complicate deployment. Oh, and an 80 pound pilotchute can compensate for an awful lot of stiff flaps.

My main motivation for building square pilotchutes was to find an easier way to build tandem drogues. I quickly concluded that square pilotchutes worked, but they were far more labor intensive than round pilotchutes. You would only see a cost savings on larger drogues. Since tandem manufacturers have a really bad attitude towards after-market parts installed on their rigs, my project ground to a halt. I can understand their attitude since it is too easy to build parts without understanding how they interact with original parts. To obtain a Supplementary Type Certificate for after-market drogues, you would have to convince the FAA that you know more about tandems than Strong. Hah! It is difficult for field riggers to compete with the guys who see hundreds of faded, frayed and filthy tandem rigs every year.

Look in Poynter's Manual for Dacron stretch rates. I suspect that the main reason Dacron-lined canopies open softer is that thicker, stiffer Dacron lines take a fraction of a second longer to slip through slider grommets. This logic is similar to the notion that a thicker rope equals slower rappelling. This is highly un-scientific, because slider performance is very difficult to measure.

Down-sizing a Vector I or Vector II from a 150 to a 129 is easy, just shorten the closing loop until it takes 17 -22 pounds of tension to release the pin quote:Quote"Thanks for the info guys, the problem is that I have one of the very last Vector 1's! It is in fantastic shape for its age after being closeted for so many years. " end quote. Your Vector I is probably still airworthy. The only thing you should have to check - in the short run - is the reserve pilotchute. The reserve pilotchute should have been replaced with a Vector II pilotchute a long time ago. Other than that, just replace the Velcro on a regular basis and it should be fine for belly-flying. For free-flying, you will probably want to upgrade it to a BOB with a bridle-hider flap. Oh, and most older Vectors are easy to update for Cypres installation. Ignore Airtec's instructions for irestrofitting a Cypres in a Vector I since no-one in their right minds is still using Vector I pilotchutes. Go straight to the Vector II Cypres retrofit instructions. As soon as I get some spare time, I plan on updating the Vector I that is gathering dust in the corner of my loft.

Provided the fabric is in good shape, it is probably cost effective it to re-line your Sabre. Expect to re-line a sport canopy every 300 to 600 jumps. When I re-lined my Sabre 170, openings improved a little and the turf surf got 50% longer with the same approach. To determine how much life is left in your fabric, start by examining the center tail, near the orange warning label. A few tiny hoes are normal. Too many holes may mean a patch is in order. Next inspect around the bridle attachment. Frayed cross ports are an excellent indication of canopy condition. Alittle fraying is normal after 1000 jumps, but tears that extend all the way to a seam are bloody expensive to repair. Anyways, your friendly local rigger will cheerfully inspect your canopy and tell you whether it is cost effective to re-line your Sabre. Most of the time, re-lining a ZP canopy is cost effective and will make your canopy fly like new for a fraction of the cost of new.

Yes Cypri have "high pressure gas powered" guillotines to cut the closing loops. Fortunately the high pressure gas is completely contained and you cannot even smell the difference after you scare your Cypres. They have used the same technology on helicopter rescue hoist guilotines for the last 50 years with zero escape of hot gases.

Please share those Hornet trim specs with the rest of us. Masybe we need to establish a separate page where riggers can share trim charts, etc.? Sangiro? I have a few dozen trim charts I will cheerfully share. Another idea would be a separate page where riggers can share common wear problems, common repairs. Comments? The PIA Rigger's moderated forum sort of does this, but it is under-subscribed.

Funny, Smiley has the same problem with the flip-out screen on his Sony PC 101, but he was waiting until the end of the skydiving season before he sent it in for repairs. Fortunately the British Columbia Sony repair center is at the base of the Port Mann Bridge, so he can hand deliver it.

Thank you, but I will be quite happy to hand-carry my kayak to the water.

The quickest way to tell if a line set is worn out is to compare the difference across the A lines. When the outer A lines get 3 inches shorter than the center A lines, it is time to replace the entire line set. At 400 jumps, your Spectre is probably due for a complete re-line. The new lines will improve openings and your turf surf will get 50% longer with the same approach.

FAI, USPA, CSPA and the FAA don't publish guidelines for reserve canopy life. They defer to canopy manufacturers. I think that Performance Designs are the only manufacturer to publish hard guidelines on reserve canopy life. After something like 20 deployments or 40 repacks, you are supposed to return your P.D. reserve to the factory for inspection. Most riggers refuse to repack reserves that have more than 20 jumps or are more than 20 years old. Older reserves usually fall out of fashion before they wear out. For example, since young riggers are no longer taught how to set the brakes on 5-cell Swift reserves (built 1981 to late 1980s), few of them will repack 5-cell Swifts anymore. When you consider that the Swift was the first decent square reserve and it was introduced in 1981 (22 years ago), it is little wonder that most riggers refuse to repack reserves older than they are. Another factor is round reserves. Round reserves dominated the market until (the Swift was introduced) 22 years ago. Also consider that most of the round reserves built during the early 1980s were light-weight, low-speed pieces of s**t, many of which suffered from acid mesh problems. It is little wonder that fewer and fewer riggers want to repack round reserves.

Many packing manuals, service bulletins, etc. are available on-line. For example: http://www.aerodyneusa.com/pacin.html http://www.rigginginnovations.com/info/service.html http://www.relativeworkshop.com/main.html And most of the parachute manufacturers' web-sites can be found on the PIA yellow pages: http://www.pia.com/links.html Just remember that packing manuals are written with a Senior Rigger pre-level. Poynter's Manuals are still the best starting point for aspiring riggers. You should also buy the Rigger's Study Guide co-authored by Dan Poynter and Mark Schlatter.

This is the first I have heard about vented pilotchutes for skydiving. However, I plan to attend Bill Booth's lecture on pilotchutes during next week's PIA Symposium. I will post what I have learned in early February. For a while now, we have been pushing the edge of the envelope in terms of round pilotchute design. The first step is tightening manufacturing tolerances (i.e. sewing reinforcing tapes on the bias of the mesh), but I have been wondering when we will reach the limits of round pilotchute technology. I have experimented with square pilotchutes, but since they have a more parts, square pilotchutes are more difficult/expensive to build.

I don't care who the pilot is or fancy the GPS is. When the green light comes on I ALWAYS hang my head out the door to look for other airplanes and confirm the spot. If I cannot see the DZ, I remain in the airplane. Hint, you can reduce stress levels by pre-spotting. Pre-spotting means keeping your eyes outside the airplane for the last two minutes before the green light comes on. That way you have most of the picture before you open the door. Once the door is open, you only have to confirm that there are no airplanes underneath you and floaters can start climbing out.