riggerrob

Years ago, Parachutes de France proved that their soft links were stronger than the stitching holding the end of the riser together. P. de F. sold soft links for several years before Performance designs introduced "S;inks." Structurally it is very simple. If you start with 1,000 pound suspension line and wrap it multiple times, it quickly adds up to more than the strength of a steel connector link. As for wear and tear, I don't expect any soft link to last longer than a set of lines (300 to 600 jumps). It should be standard practice to replace soft links when you replace lines. The first report of a failed Slink was related to a slider with a rough edge. Sorry, but if you jump a slider with rough grommets, you'll get no sympathy.

Three factors mitigate against equipping fighter pilots with ram-air parachutes. First, certify ejection seats costs millions of dollars and takes many years. Since it takes so many years and millions of dollars to certify an ejection seat, I doubt if the US Air Force will specify ram-airs in any ejection seat until a 1990s graduate of the US Air Force Academy's skydiving program becomes a senior procurement officer in the Pentagon. Secondly, there is a political reason the US Navy does not use ram-air canopies in their ejection seats. Back in the early 1980s, a brilliant engineer named Manley Butler did a bunch of high speed test drops with ram-air canopies at the US Navy's parachute test facility on China Lake, California. Mr. Butler proven that ram-air canopies could open softly at high airspeeds and could be tailored to open quickly at low airspeeds, provided you used enough reefing lines, cutters, timers, etc. He also proved that ram-air canopies could be tailored to land softly, even when the pilot is unconscious. Mr. Butler may be a brilliant engineer, but he is not politically astute. After he p****d off his colleagues, they quietly dropped the ram-air project. The final factor mitigating against ram-airs in ejection seats is that pilots are an arrogant lot, who refuse to believe that they can mess up bad enough to ever need a parachute. This is the same logic that compels civilian pilots of 1.5 million dollar P-51 Mustangs to quibble over the cost of low speed parachutes. Trying to explain to them the advantages of wearing high speed parachutes or spending even more money on ram-air parachutes is worse than an annoyance. I have worked for three different factories that manufacture Pilot Emergency Parachutes, but have burnt out on explaining low-speed, vs. standard category vs. high-speed, etc. to pilots who just don't care. If you want my personal opinion, all Pilot Emergency Parachutes should be big squares, just like we give the first jump students.

As for the student worrying about landing on you: remember that she was terrified before she left the plane and you just provided a convenient focus for her fear. Any tandem instructor worth his salt could gracefully land beside you. As for her being so scared she never makes another skydive, don't feel bad. The vast majority of tandem students will only make one jump in their lifetimes. I have had 14 tandem reserve rides and landed more damaged tandem mains than I care to remember. Most of the time, students are clueless until you tell them, especially if it is a high speed mal. I knew I was getting bored when I pointed out a broken line to a tandem level 2 student, told him to pull the red handle and arch some more!

Since side spins are a freefall problem - before you toss the drogue - I doubt if it makes any difference whether you are jumping a Sigma, Vector II, Strong, Racer, Eclipse, Galaxy, etc. tandem rig. I have only experienced one side spin. The student pulled his knees in front immediately after exit. Next thing I knew we were on our sides accelerating rapidly! After 90 degrees of rotation, I responded by jamming my heels into the tops of his knees. We stopped spinning and flopped belly to earth. When I relaxed enough to toss the drogue, his knees dropped again and we flipped onto our sides. I jammed my heels into his knees again and flipped us belly to earth again, followed by a rapid drogue toss. When I relaxed again, he dropped his knees again, so we spent the rest of the freefall with my heels jammed into the tops of his knees. I never told him how close he came to killing us both and he probably never figured out the bruises on his knees. Nowadays I do everything I possibly can to plan a stable exit and 95% of my exits are stable. I have also learned to ignore students' legs and concentrate on flying my body. The farther I extend my arms and legs, the more leverage I have, so when students get unstable, I do a huge "X" arch and ignore them.

2 points: First, on one demo, a friend wrapped a welder's spat around his ankle. The welder's spat is made of fireproof material and is designed to prevent sparks from falling inside their boots. Spats also protect a foot or 18 inches of your lower leg. There are two ways to avoid stains and burns. The first is to use a tame type of smoke, like the Superior Skydivers Smoke sold by Para-Gear. The second method is to trail the smoke cannister on a chain after you open.

He! He! Your mom was probably referring to a Cypres or Astra AAD. If she has the Para-Gear catalog open she might as well orderone for you. Trivia: a British company did experiment with an AAD that included a "hot pin" to melt the closing loop. Apparently the electrically-heated pin was an attempt to avoid infringing on Cypres patents. Mind you, when FXC introduced their Astra AAD, they referred to a stack of patents related to reefing line cutters.I believe that rigger Allan Hewitt showed it at the 1997 PIA Symposium. Unfortunately the Guardian AAD never went into production.

The most famous skydiver I have ever packed for was retired President George Bush Senior, in 1997. I also packed for Angie Everhart who made the cover of Playboy? The most famous skydiver I have ever jumped with is Bob Sinclair. I sure hope we get old episodes of the "Ripcord" TV series back in circulation. By the way, does anyone know where to rent to the 1960s vintage movie "The Gypsy Moths" starring Burt Lancaster?

Pitt Meadows has had a DZ on and off since the 1960s. I must get Don Richardson to write down his recollections of flying jumpers back in teh 1960s. For many years they took off from Pitt Meadows Airport, but landed on the polders north of town, until Semi-Ah-Mo golf course took over the unltra-light field they landed on. When I moved to Pitt Meadows in 1999, we jumped on Pitt Meadows Airport from a Beech 18 and a fleet of Cessnas. A couple of years later the Beech 18 was sold to some Oregon jumpers and replaced by a Beech King Air. with the same number of seats (14) but half the time to altitude. During the last four years, we have added a couple of student rigs and a dozen tandems. In 2002 we helped Dunville, Ontaio get its start, but that is a whole other story.

Back in the days of F-111 canopies, the tandem malfunction rate was pretty bad, something like one every 300. Mals included: hard pulls, bag locks, streamers, line knots, slider hang-ups, torn fabric and more broken lines! I have 14 reserve rides after problems with F-111 tandem mains and have landed more damaged F-111 tandems than I care to remember?! Malfunction rates also vary widely from one DZ to the next and one packer to the next. Fortunately sloppy packers don't stay on the pay role very long. Since we standardized on SET 400s our malfunction rate has dropped dramatically. Much of that improvement can be attributed to softer openings which break fewer lines, tear less fabric, etc. Nowadays we average less than one malfunction per thousand on SET 400 canopies. Our worst malfunction in 2002 was an end C line wrapped around another C line, two cells in. It flew so badly that I landed it! Ha! Now it seems that one instructor has all the mals, mostly un-explained high openings. As long as you take good care of your gear and pull handles in the correct sequence, your malfunction rate should be less than one per thousand jumps.

Sorry about that dude. I would have sent you metric specs if you had asked. Precision is one of the few companies that publish both english and metric trim charts. Fortunately I have both types of chart and both types of measuring tapes. Hint, the quickest way to measure the health of a lien set is to compare the A lines. Start by tying the risers together and applying 10 or 20 pounds of tension (5 or 10 kg for the metric dudes). compare the A lines. If they are symmetrical, good. Now measure the difference between the longest and shortest A lines. When the difference approaches 3 inches, I recommend replacing all the lines. Hint, by the time you start replacing the fourth line, it becomes as expensive to replace all the lines. I agree with you that it is not cost-effeftive to replace entire line sets on old F-111 canopies.

Ssitaluv, you could see the Hollywood sign from "the roof" over Perris if SoCal wasn't so smoggy. A hitn to all the new jumpers: learn how to pack. Packing is the best-paying job on the DZ. Packing will easily pay for your trailer and all the cheesy mac you can stand.

Find the PIA or Rigging Innovations chart that lists canopy volume.

Woolite in the USA Zero in Canada. Stop reminding me that I have to wash a dozen rigs today.

It is a question of dollars. If a DZO is forced to chose between equiping all his student gear with 11-year-old Expert Cypri or equiping a few with (rarer and more expensive) Student Cypri, the choice is obvious. For example, at Pitt Meadows, we have FXC 12000 AADs and Manta 290 canopies installed in rigs used by first jump students. After they have demonstrated decent canopy control (after a minimum 6 jumps) they transition to rigs containing FXC 12000s and Skymaster 230 canopies. After more instruction and more good landings, they transition to rigs containing Expert Cypri and Hornet 190s. The Hornet 190s are also rented out to visiting jumpers. The main reason we use FXC AADs is because we have had them forever, along with an expensive FXC test chamber. Until recently, used FXCs were far less expensive than Cypri. Cypres prices have only gone down as older units approach the end of their 12 year life span. Scum-sucking lawyers may berate you about the choice of Expert vs. Student Cypres, while they completely ignore the Expert Cypres vs. no AAD dilemma that rages through every DZOs head.

Raven II line trim specs Spectra Base NCA 324.8 NCA to NCB 8.6 NCA to C 27.7 NCA to D 50.6 NCA to T* 22.0 Base A 326.1 A to B 9.3 A to C 26.3 A to D 48.9 A to T 21.5 BL to Tog 65.8 These numbers were transcribed from a FAX sent by Precision Aerodynamics 01/30/1996 11:53 It says Inches converted from metric. * With deployment brakes set, assuming standard riser configuration

Alouette 2 or Alouette 3? I used to turn wrenches on Sikorskys, so you'll have to type louder for me to understand you.

I cannot relate directly to your compressed vertebra, but 12 years ago I did compress a spinal disc bad enough to herniate it. The resultant pressure on my sciatic nerve caused my left leg to cramp. Since soft tissue heals slower than bone, I recovered slowly. For the first year, I mostly lay there and moaned. The drugs did not make any difference. Fortunately the situps and stretching exercises recommended by the physiotherapist helped pull my spine back into alignment. I was physically unfit the next summer, so only did a handful of jumps. The following winter I discovered aerobics and the winter after that I taught myself how to swim. The sports made all the difference in the world. The disc never fully healed, but it works okay as long as I keep my torso muscles in tone to hold my spine in alignment. Since the injury I have packed 2,000 reserves, done 3,000 tandems and lost count of how many mains I have packed.

Reminds me of attending high school in Quebec during the (1970) October Crisis. Every time someone had a difficult exam, they would phone in a bomb threat!

Only people who have done a bunch of jumps on round mains should be allowed to jump round reserves. Hint, I have done 70 jumps on round mains including 3 malfunctions), deployed three round reserves and sold my last round reserve in 1985. I have not dropped a student with a round reserve in the last four years and my boss has made it clear that I am not to pack anymore round reserves in his loft. That whole snivel, snivel, snap opening sequence on rounds scares me. Pilot Emergency Parachutes usually contain rounds because most pilots are ignorant and arrogant. They are arrogant because riggers burn out trying to explain the advantages of squares to pilots who don't care. These are the same pilots who wear low speed parachutes while flying high speed airplanes. Will someone please explain what good a low speed round canopy will do if it shreds on opening? Skybytch, I strongly disagree with your former boss. Teaching round steering procedures to first jumpers _ when your DZ does not have round reserves - is worse than a waste of time. It is worse than a waste of time because it clouds students' minds with useless information. As for students visiting other DZs with different student equipment: first of all I discourage the practice. Secondly, the second DZ is responsible for re-training visiting students on their gear.

And that "solidified smog" really hurts when it hits your un-protected face in freefall, unless you have a beard.

Tehee! Councilman is right. My 1985 vintage Mirage has two reserve pins and a main pin cover that is part of the right main flap.

Relax. As long as you keep your lines dry, cold weather has little affect. Remember that most of the older parachute materials have passed exhaustive cold weather testing by the military. Military jumpers routinely do HAHO jumps that include opening at 25,000 feet where it is always below freezing. Velcro is one of the few older parachute materials that is affected by cold - making it stiffer to release. Oh and some types of plastic stiffeners crack easier at minus 30 degrees. So don't slam your gear around when jumping in minus 30 weather. What am I saying? Slamming gear around, or getting it wet are dumb practices in any weather.

I use a locking pull up cord and just tie a large, ugly knot in the bottom end. I leave the locking pull up cord loose until the canopy is in the freebag and one side of the safety stow is stowed. Then I reach inside the freebag to push canopy fabric away from the locking pull up cord. Now I tighten the 'cord, stow the lines and lay the freebag in the container. Finally I slack off the locking pull up cord, untie the large ugly knot and use it to pull the closing loop up through the freebag. Steel T-bodkins disappeared from my tool repertoire a long time ago.

Haw! Haw! That is terminally silly.

Hint, most North American riggers are bored this time of year, so bored that many of them are planning on travelling to the PIA SYmposium so they can rub elbows with other riggers and discuss stitches per inch and other tittilating subjects. They will be glad to replace your BOC, etc. during long winter evenings. What they hate is the flood of repairs that always lands in their laps the day before the DZ opens in the spring. Hint, worn out BOCs should be replaced during the winter. Expecting to catch them during pre-boarding checks is way too late.