riggerrob

This a genuine photograph, published without the benefit of photoshop. Angles, angles, it is all in the angles. As long as you only photograph the stuntman from straight ahead, you can cut a few slits in the shirt and leave the container completely exposed to the wind.

Your discharge reasons remind me of a decision I made 16 years ago. Sixteen years ago I decided that the last thing I wanted to grow up to become was a fat. lazy, lying, political animal with three or more drug addictions: just like my sargents!

What are the limits to an Australian Packer B's certificate?

Check with your local aircraft instrument shop. You should be able to get used, calibrated aircraft altimeters and vertical speed indicators for less than the cost of new. Also consider the legal aspect. If your instruments have been calibrated recently by a certified aircraft instrument repair shop, then you have a legal leg to stand on the next time a student injures himself. Most of the time all you need is a stack of FAA-recognized documents when you tell a lawyer to f-off! In answer to your second question, I have a genuine FXC test chamber and use it on a regular basis. A dozen of our student rigs have FXC Model 12000 AADs and most older Canadian DZs still use FXCs. The main reason we bought a genuine FXC test chamber is because the boss figured that new aircraft instruments would cost about the same as a genuine test chamber. I have used a few home-made test chambers. Aside from annoying problems with rubber seals, they worked as well as factory test chambers.

On canopy patches, you can cheat by using a steam iron to fold under the edges of the patch before you get near the canopy. Whatever method you use for patching canopies, stick with a variation of Rags' "no pin" method. The old military method will just drive you to drink. Oh, when the DPRE asks you a question that you are not sure of, simply reply "excuse me while I look in the manual." DPREs respect willingness to follow directions, far more than memorization.

I've got dozens of rigging tips, even invented a couple of rigging tools. What would you like to hear? Be more specific in your questions. For example, I have not closed a reserve by hand in years. Instead, I slip an old B-12 snap (gate removed) onto a molar strap, then hang the molar strap diagonally across my shoulders so the B-12 snap hangs in the middle of my chest. The I tie the pull-up cord onto the B-12 snap. This leaves both hands free for steering flaps, temp pins, etc.

Tears. Now the challenge is focusing that sad energy into completing the record so her death was not in vain.

Apparently the secret to enjoying life is working your ass off while you are young, so that you can invest enough for a pension. Once you have a significant sum invested, then you can take to dream job. I go the dream job, (got paid to do 7 jumps yesterday) but quit the Canadian Armed Forces too early for the pension. Oh well, maybe I will get it right in the next life!

In Canadian waters the "best" flotation is a dry suit, with a Mustang floater suit being a close second. Drowning might kill you in Canadian waters, but hypothermia will definitely kill you! I remember what a struggle it was for Canadian Navy helicopter pilots to don their dry suits so I doubt if any skydiver would take his survival that seriously, so we return to basics: checking the winds, looking before you leap and watching where you are going under canopy.

Three points: First, students should be responsible for their own lives. If they are not bright enough to decide - on their own - that a parachute is not landable, then they should not be in the air. Far too few people are willing to take responsibility for their own actions these days. Depending upon a radio instructor to tell you whether or not to cutaway is a cop out. Secondly, billvon made a good legal point. It is a sad state of affairs that nowadays some decisions are based more on the risk of a lawsuit than the health of the participant. Finally, radios are inherently unreliable. A couple of weeks ago, I had a student hanging under a mostly-inflated main that was turning faster than I would want to land. I was worried that maybe he had a tension knot that was causing a turning problem. I was tempted to tell him to cutaway, but bit my tongue instead. He eventually made a soft landing, in the correct field, on his own. After landing he complained that he heard so much chatter from a nearby trucking company that he could not understand what I was saying on the radio. The worst thing I could have done in that situation was tell him to cutaway from a good main canopy. Besides, it is against company policy to tell students to cutaway.

"Not too proud to jump a 210 ..." B.S. At the end of next season you will be walking out of the bowl - after stomping another disc - while they are waiting for their legs to heal. The most important thing - in the long run - is walking away from all your landings.

When I worked at Rigging Innovations, our standards were - (measured from grommet on release housing): minimum 4" on S.O.S. otherwise, minimum 5", preferrably 6" 6" or 7" on RSL side. The key point is making the cable on the RSL side about an inch longer. Note: R.I builds special risers for S.O.S. with extra long cable channels up the back of the rear risers. If the exposed cable gets much longer than 8" then short-armed people may have difficulty getting a long enough stroke. The extra length on the RSL side is to compensate for wimpy, cowardly, limp-wristed cutaways where the coward cuts away really slowly or never finishes his stroke. During a proper, quick cutaway, there would be such a tiny difference between left and right releasing that the "cartwheel affect" would be insignificant.

Yes, I use a stainless steel pack-boy to install Slinks. Using the little main packing tool halves the amount of time it takes to assemble a canopy on Slinks.

Numbers published by canopy manufacturers border on useless, since every canopy manufacturer uses a different measuring method. I only trust numbers published by container manufacturers, (i.e. Rigging Innovations) since they are the ones who take it in the shorts if a canopy does not fit. Secondly, packing a reserve that is one size larger or smaller than a container was originally designed for is not a big issue. Modern containers have through loops that are easily adjusted for minor variations in pack volume and pilotchute springs keep sufficient tension on the pin.

Casch, You have encountered a common problem with BOC and practice pulls. Half the time the main container is empty by the time you get your hand near the BOC. Now that the main container is empty, it is slack. With the main container slack, it is more difficult to locate and grab the practice handle. This problem has killed a couple of tandem-masters during out-of-sequence deployments. Only two solutions come to mind: rushing or a major sewing project. Rushing will create more problems than it solves: de-arching, ripcord fixation, etc. The other solution is to sew plastic stiffener(s) into the main container. We did that at Rigging Innovations when we built the second batch of Telesis student rigs for the British Joint Services Parachute Centers. Like many British solutions, it was a complex solution to a simple problem. Sewing stiffeners into a main container should not be undertaken lightly. Every stiffener changes the opening characteristics. Fortunately, you have a highly experienced Master Rigger at Kapowsin who may be able to help you with the container question. I know that $40 per practice pull sounds like a lot of money now, but may still be the simplest solution in the long run. Perhaps you should devote more ground time to practicing locating the lower corner of the container - where the side strap meets the backpad - then sliding your hand up to the mouth of the BOC. The handle will not be in the same place on every rig. The handle may only be an inch or two higher, but that is far enough to make you miss the handle if you are just blindly groping for it. Furthermore, any rig will shift around on your back. Often the best technique is to deliberately reach too high or too low, then slide your hand towards the handle. So in the long run, a systematic searching method will train you how to pull on a variety of different rigs. And you will jump more different rigs over your first hundred jumps than you will at any other point in your skydiving carreer.

Just like dogs, Slinks will bite you if you do not pay attention to them while they are young. Like all parachute components, Slinks wear out over time. The trick is to look at they every month or so. When they start to show signs of fraying, replace them. Also plan on replacing your Slinks every time you replace the suspension lines (every 200 to 600 jumps).

A bungee pilotchute is fine in the short run. It will give you a small performance increase without complicating packing. Just remember - when doing hop and pops - that your shortest delay will be 6 seconds. If you toss your pilotchute any earlier, you will have to wait until the sixth second before anything happens. Icarus recommends installing a kill-line pilotchute when wing loadings exceed 1.36 pounds per square foot, so wait until then to replace your pilotchute. I have a kill-line on my primary rig (wing-loading 1.6) but still have a bungee-cord pilotchute on my second rig (wing-loading 1.4). Both work great, but I plan to build two new kill-line pilotchutes this winter.

Newer Sabres (Mk 1) have larger sliders than the first Sabres that they built. I have not heard of any formula, but George Galloway said "with a larger slider, the canopy starts to inflate earlier, but takes longer to inflate." Slider size is just one variable in a long list of what affects openings. If you ask for slider size on a specific model (i.e. Stiletto 135) I should be able to measure what is laying around my shop and post the size.

How tall are your tube vents relative to the height of the ribs?

Try calling Mr. Farrington at the Infinity factory. He will be glad to build you a container for a medium-sized reserve and a tiny main. I have also discussed your dilemma with Al MacDonald at Flying High. Al is open to the concept and has already worked out the major problems.

For custom made, top quality Air Blades, contact Chris Kelly at: Wind Sign P.O. Box 188 2095 Goetz Road Perris, CA 92570 Phone: (909) 657-2676 FAX: (909) 657-3747 www.windsign.com Since Wind Sign Inc. is co-holder of the Air Blade patent, Chris is the only person - other than Reggie - who can legally build air blades. All the rest of them are building illegal, unlicensed copies and are spreading bad karma. Apparently Reggie is out of the country. so the only people who are legally build air blades are Wind Sign Inc.

No, starting with a tandem is not manadatory in Pitt Meadows. However I believe that starting with a tandem is a good idea because it helps students over that huge psychological first step. The nature of student business has changed over the years, but the weather has not. Before I arrived, the majority of first-timers did IAD, but now most first-timers go tandem. There are two reason we retain the IAD program. First, the brighter students insist on jumping alone their first time. Secondly, from now until May the clouds hang low along the coast and we are doing well if we can climb high enough for IADs,\. It is tough to take tandems seriously over the winter. er rainy season here.

Gale, You did not say how much you weight. A huge Manta with a tiny student hanging underneath it does not really flare, it just "mushes" towards the ground, usually slow enough to stand up. I could spend the next three pages speculating about what you are doing wrong, but you would be better off asking Sean or Al to video-tape your next few landings.

Pfaff 230 series machines work great for light weight repairs. I sewed together a couple of main canopies with mine. The trick is finding an old - cast iron old - machine that will pull E-thread (Z-69). that requires a needle in the 18 to 22 size range. There is also a European standard for measuring needles, I think that means size 110 for pulling E thread. Don't be swayed by salesmen who show you how their favorite machine will sew through leather. Also bragging about whether a machine can hem jeans is also irrelevant. A machine that will gracefully hem jeans is far tougher than half the machines that riggers use. When you go shopping, take along a spool of E thread and some Cordura samples to test the machine.

Your comments aobut pumpkins reminds me of an embarrassing accident 20 years ago. Despite the DZO's admonition to "take the spot long" a bunch of freefalling fools took a pumpkin with them. They lost it around opening time and it punched through the roof of a farm building. Fortunately there was no-one inside the building. That is the fastest way to convert a "nice guy" into a "farmer McNasty!"