riggerrob

I published articles about hook knives back in the 1980s (Canpara) and the 1990s (Skydiving), see if you can find the old issues. Jack the Ripper knives may be cheap, but their sheaths are %$#@!. At a minimum install a stiffener in the stock sheath, so that the blades don't chew on each other. But you would be wiser to buy an aluminum knife made in Perris or Elsinore. Also listen to the CReW Dogs, most of whom mount knives near their chest straps or 3-Ring covers. kmcguffee has a good point, don't tie anything to yourself with a long lanyard. For example, a buddy of mine went in on a demo because they lanyard from his smoke grenade was trailing behind him in freefall.

Relax. Five second delays are on of the tougher stages to learning freefall. Half the people that learned via the traditional method had difficulty with practice pulls or 5 second delays. Buddy's suggestion about locking your legs will probably help. Just remember that any arch starts from the hips. On later freefalls, no-one really cares if you flop around the sky for the first five seconds. The debrief will sound something like: "Tripped over your shoelace? Ha! Ha! No big deal. The key points are that you arched out of it and pulled at the correct altitude. Now let's discuss those turns ........"

AADs are just fancy altimeters and that is how I describe them to security personnel. Keep life simple for the simple people.

Yes, you are legally allowed - correction, legally required to lengthen the loop a little when packing reserves in dry climates. Hint: most cold weather is dry weather. The FARs are quite clear about ripcord pull forces not exceeding 22 pounds. If they do, then you are legally required to open the reserve and install a slightly longer loop.

Early Sabres are not inherently hard opening, they are just un-forgiving of sloppy packing. You can convince any canopy to open hard if you pack it sloppily enough. How you stow your rubber bands can make a huge difference in how hard your canopy opens. This summer one of our up-jumpers shredded a Stiletto (a canopy with a reputation for soft openings). After one glance at his d-bag, I told him that I suspected that the problem was that he had not double-wrapped his rubber bands. Not that I am innocent by a long shot. Recently I got lazy while stowing the lines on a Diablo (another canopy with a reputation for soft openings) and it spanked me on opening. I also know that if you use longer-than-factory bungees on a Strong tandem, even the sweetest SET 400 will "remind" you.

Sorry Howardwhite, but Racer never did figure out the secret to building one-pin Pop-Tops. John Sherman experimented with a one-pin Racer circa 1990, but he could never achieve a reasonable pull force with a flat cap. The problem is transferring the load from the center loop out to the edges. The other reason is because Racers utilize a rather "dated" freebag design that requires above average skill to form a large enough "crater" for the pilotchute to sink into. It took me ten years to learn how to pack Racers gracefully and part of that process was learning to throw my steel bodkins in the trashcan (because they are not compatible with Cypri or Tandem Racers) and build my own temporary loops. Europeans had learned the secret to one-pin Pop-Tops 5 years earlier, so they built Teardrops with domed caps. The other reason I don't own a RAcer is that I am not willing to pay the extra money for a two-pin Cypres. If you ask me politely - at the 2003 PIA Symposium - I will show you another way to build a one-pin Pop-Top that is way easier to pack.

To summarize: FXC 12000 uses a bloody big spring to pull the reserve ripcord pin. Sentinel uses a "thingy that goes POP" (never use words like explosive or gun powder near airport security personnel) to pull the ripcord pin. Along the way, Sentinel built 2 or 3 different types of pin pullers, but they all work basically the same way. Cypres and Astra use a "thingy that goes POP" to cut the loop that holds the reserve container closed. Loop-cutter type AADs have nothing to do with ripcord pins. Heck! You could glue or even weld the ripcord pin in place and a Cypres would still save your sorry buttocks! A wimpy, limp-wristed, half-assed pull on a ripcord handle will not interfer with any of these AADS saving your silly buttocks. Most AADs are compatible with most RSLs, though I am suspicious about Sentinel mini-pin-pullers and RSLs.

My first choice of the Javelin clones would be WINGS because it is the easiest to pack. Second choice: Voodoo. Hm! Wonder if I am biased because I used to work for R.I. Of the Vector/Centarus clones, Infinity is my first choice, but I really want a close look at the new chest strap configuration on the new M-class Vector 3/Micron or whatever they call it. If tight finances were an issue, I can buy a custom Sidewinder for the same price as a stock Dolphin or Genera.

Sorry folks, but I am not bright enough to understand why you are bashing hybrid canopies made of two different fabrics. P.D. has been building hybrid tandem canopies (i.e. EZ-384) since the mid-1990s, with excellent results. EZ-384 canopies seem to last about as long as the all-ZP canopies built by other manufacturers. The primary advantage of hybrid canopies is that it is easier to squeeze the air out when you are packing. Since most of the lift comes from the top skin, I cannot see a disadvantage to building the bottom skin out of F-111. It is nice if the end ribs and stabilizers are also built of F-111, just to keep air pressure in. No-one cares about the porosity of inner ribs because they are purely structural.

Yes. When installing lines on links/risers, install the Maillon Rapide links on the risers with the openings facing inboard. Attach the outer AB lines to the links first, then work your way inboard. The non-cascaded A and B lines (on the center cell) are the last lines installed before you close the links Now repeat the process with the CD lines. Tighten the links as far as you can with your fingers, then use a wrench to tighten them another quarter turn. When attaching the steering lines, bemember to route them through the rear slider grommets AND the steering guide rings before slipping them onto the steering toggles. The last step in assembling a canopy is asking a knowledgeable friend to double-check your work.

Airhead, Your best plan would be to book a winter vacation at a Florida DZ. Complete your AFF and A license in Florida (or some other warm state: this comment was solely intended to assuage the politically correct). When Michigan DZs re-open in the spring, be quiet and polite. Show up, pay your money, make your skydives and go home. Some skydivers have incredibly thin skin, and will take offense at anything you say on-line. For example, I just had to apoligize on-line for something I said to skreamer. I never questioned his logic, he just took my comments the wrong way. Most skydivers have short attention spans. With luck they will forget the political hissy fit by spring time. My advice - after 25 years of skydiving - is to avoid DZ politics. I have seen far more people burnt out and ostracized over politics than over sloppy flying.

Vis-a-vis riser covers opening too soon. On many rigs, if you pack too much bulk too high in the reserve container, your riser covers are guaranteed to open pre-maturely. Note that I said "many" but not all. For example, if you don't pack enough bulk in the top of a Reflex, it will develop ugly wrinkles. If you buy too big a reserve for your container size, it will require god's gift to rigging to make it look pretty, much less keep the riser covers closed. To make a rig look pretty and keep the riser covers closed, you really need a rigger who is familiar with all the subtle tricks of packing that particular brand of reserve container.

Sorry skreamer, I was not questioning your logic vis a vis prices.

Removing #0 stainless steel grommets is so difficult that I have never attempted cutting stainless steel slider grommets. With steel that tough you run a high risk of tearing the fabric. In this circumstance, I would rather sew up a new slider with brass #8 grommets. Alternatively, call the manufacturer and ask if they make sliders with more than one size of stainless steel grommets. There are two or three sizes of stainless steel slider grommets in popular usage.

Skycat has a good point about cordura grips being more durable. I am really tired of sewing grippers back on with extra re-inforcements. When you order grippers, make sure there is extra fabric where the ends of the groppers are sewn onto the suit. While we are on the subject of reinforcement, please do your local rigger/seamstress a favor and order all new jumpsuits with double knees and double butts. Knees and butts always wear out first and they are a pain to patch.

That Japanese-made Diamond, low-profile 0.3 wide angle lens is also available from www.flyers-pit.com for an introductory price of US$140. I intend to a buy as soon as I figure out what diameter I need.

A pair of Vortex !! rigs showed up at Pitt Meadows yesterday. Quality looked high. My only criticism would be the less-than-perfect fit of main riser covers, but they were half as bad as early Javelin riser covers. Oh, and I preferr the main pin cover on Vortex. So I suspect that half the Vortex bashing comes from brand-name snobs who have a "friends don't let friends drive Fords" mentality.

Several of our local jumpers wear ski/snowboard helmets made by Boeri/Bieffe/Bole. etc. with great results. They look way cooler than Pro-Tecs and provide better protection than Gath helmets.

Sometimes soft housings will result in a difficult cutaway. Most people have already replaced their soft housings with hard housings. It costs less than US$100 and can be done by any Senior Rigger. This whole problem surfaced when I was working at Rigging Innovations 1994-1997. R.I. was the second company to introduce soft housings, while Sun Path/Javelin was the first. The problem first arose with Javelins. After listening to anecdotal reports and doing a bunch of suspended harness tests, I concluded that most of the difficult cutaways were caused by mis-routed cables, specifically the left cable where it goes around the back of the neck. Installing the left cable in a Javelin required 5 steps, 6 steps on a Flexon, which was more than the average skydiver could figure out without a manual. In comparison, there are only one or two steps to installing a cable in a hard housing. Since the average skydiver ignores manuals (and early Javelin and Flexon manuals were !@#$%!), we were building rigs that were not skydiver-proof. By mis-routing the left cable on a Javelin, I was able to increase the pull force from 5 pounds to 25 pounds! While at R.I. I retro-fitted hard housings to hundreds of Flexons and '94 Talons. We mailed out hundreds more retro-fit kits. The Talon 2 was introduced (in 1997) with partial hard housings, but now all R.I. rigs are built with full hard housings. The short term solution is to install your cables "in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions" and limit your jumping to lightly-loaded canopies. The long-term solution is to order a new set of hard housings from Sun Path and have your rigger install them as soon as they arrive. The hard housing retro-fit can be done without opening the reserve.

I can see the logic of a cameraman (to check record light) or tandem instructor (to check drogue) wearing a mirror, but cannot quite see the logic of a solo jumper wearing a mirror. Most mirrors have blind spots. When I driving a car, I never trust mirrors and half the time I turn my head to double-check before changing lanes, etc. A solo jumper has far more flexibility to turn his head and look over both shoulders, or as our Finnish friend suggested, do a barrel roll.

That first-generation floating view-finder looks a bit too big and crude for my tastes, but it is definitely a step in the right direction. What I want is a HUD that flashes green numbers from 13,000 feet down to 4,000, yellow numbers from 4,000 to 2,000, red numbers from 2,000 to 500, then turns black! Because you really don't want to see what you are going to hit. Ha! Ha! Oh, and that 0.3 wide-angle lens looks ready for the market NOW!

I have packed a few Raven -MZ reserves. Yes they take a little longer to pack, but by the time I have all my clamps, molar strap, etc. wrapped around the canopy, there is not much difference in technique. You just have to be patient enough to let the air seep out before doing the next step in the packing process. New ZP and F-111 fabric fly about the same, so I do not expect much difference in flare characteristics. Any reserve that has more than 20 jumps should be taken out of service. I suspect that the main reason Precision started building reserves with ZP fabric was to gain some experience before F-111 disappears from the market. And trust me, as soon as the military figures out that ZP fabric is a better investment, F-111 fabric will disappear. As for tearing characteristics, I have only seen two torn reserves. The first was on an over-weight (360 pounds), over-speed (205 knots) drop test. A human would have survived the landing. The only torn reserve I have seen occurred when an over-weight, over-speed, jumper was unstable when he scared his Cypres. If you are going to make that many mistakes, then you run a high risk of tearing any canopy. He survived with multiple fractures.

In Canada we jump a mixture of Canadian, American and South African-made parachutes. Quality is great no matter where the gear is made. All of our students and half of our licensed jumpers jump Sidewinder containers made in Canada. Sidewinders wear like iron! We have had great results loaning (South African-made) Hornet 190 canopies to our PFF graduates. The quality of materials and workmanship is first-rate on canopies made by PISA. Speaking of materials, Gelvenor (a South African fabric manufacturer) makes high quality zero porosity fabric that is easier to pack than anything made in the USA or UK. American gear is the most expensive for two reasons. First, they have the most experience and secondly, the American dollar has be over-inflated for too many years. The chief advantage of buying American gear is brand recognition and high re-sale value. Since Wings containers are easier to pack, I would buy a Wings before buying Javelin. I have not re-packed any Vortex containers, but at arm's length they look to be similar in design and quality to Javelin and Wings.

If you are having difficulty focusing on a chest-mounted altimeter, try mounting it a bit lower on the main lift web. You could sew a pillow mount onto your harness, or use one of Pat Works plastic mounts that we discussed last week. The big advantage of Pat's mount is that it can be quickly removed to avoid damage in transit, packing, etc.

Saw Warren Zevon play live in San Luis Obisbo the last time I was in California. The man is brilliant! When he accompanied himself on the (whatchamacallit machine) he laid guitar tracks upon guitar tracks upon guitar tracks ... you get the idea.