riggerrob

Who started this silly rumor about a 6 year life on a reserve canopy?
In 18 years as a licensed rigger, I have never heard of a 6 year life on any parachute component.
Operational lives of parachute components are usually "on condition" unless the manufacturer specifies otherwise. As long as rigger inspects it and is willing to sign for its airworthiness, it can be returned to service.
I have never heard of PISA specifying component lives.

If you worry about harnesses sliding off your shoulders while head-down, then order a custom-made harness with chest rings. Tell the factory that you want a tight fit and crank the chest strap down tight.

Protecs are inexpensive. They protect my ears from the 3D buckles on tandems, while protecting the rest of my head when loving students slam it into the door frame.
I would like to wear a full-face, but Bonehead says that I have the second largest jaw they have ever seen!

20 high speed deployments is a reasonable life for a reserve canopy.
Various manufacturers assign various "lives" to various components.
For example, after 8 years, Strong Enterprises requires all tandem gear to return to the factory for re-certification. After 8 years, the reserve cnaopy is usually in good shape, but the harness/container is faded, frayed and filthy. Strong does all repairs and updates and returns the rig with a large bill.
Airtec insists that Cypres batteries be replaced every 2 years. Cypri must do a pilgrimage to their birthplace when they are 4 years and 8 years old. Cypri retire when they reach their 12 th birthday.
Whoa! That sounded like religious dogma!
Various military users apply various lives. Shelf life is usually 10 to 15 years. The Canadian Army used to limit static-line canopies tot 100 jumps. The US Navy ties its ejection seat parachute repack cycle to aircraft maintenance schedules, ie. 2 year inspections or X number of flying hours.
For parachutes that the manufacturer has not specified a life, you have to make an educated guess based on wear patterns. For example, Butler Parachute systems refuses to repack most pilot emergency parachutes more than 20 years old.
Adventure sports Loft (in Perris, California) is reluctant to repack sport rigs more than 25 years old and rarely touches any parachute more than 30 years old. When Square One managed the loft, they rarely touched skydiving gear more than 10 years old. This because nylon deteriortaes rapidly in the California desert. Ten years of serious skydiving (300 jumps per year) reduced harness/containers to scrap after 10 years.
The other factor is obsolescence. For example, I really don't want to have anything to do with round reserves built during the acid mesh era; late 1970s to late 1980s. I also don't repack non-steerable reserves or round reserves without diapers. And if your pack-opening-bands are slack, expect to get laughed out of the lfot!
But this is the first time I have heard about a 6 year life.
When in doubt, ask the manufacturer.

This thread would flow better in the gear and rigging forum.
PS, when you take your Dolphin for repack, ask the rigger to close it with the bottom reserve flap covering the pilotchute, like a Javelin.

Two pints, er points.
Talk about your Freudian slips on the keyboard! Ha! Ha!
First, breathing exercises vary depending upon whether you are trying to psych yourself up or calm yourself down.
If you are trying to psych yourslef up, breath quick and hard. Blow hard on the exhale. Make primal noises while you exhale.
On the other hand, if you want to calm yourself down, take slow deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. Slow breathing oxygenates your body and forces your mind to slow down. You can only truly slow your mind if it is empty. I do slow breathing exercises with tandem studnets and surprise, surprise, most of them arch.
Robin Heid says that breathing exercises work because you can forcus on fear or breathing, but not both at the same time.
Another airplane exercise - that I do with tandem students - is wiggling fingers and toes, because when you relax small muscles, you also force big muscles to relax. This wiggling fingers exercise easily transitions to freefall. When they see me wiggle my fingers, they wiggle their fingers, which reminds them to wiggle their toes, reminds them to breath through their noses and reminds them to look at the horizon.
Take it from a compulsive worrier: you have to empty your mind to skydive well. This is the same reason I enjoy aerobics and flying. To fly well, I need 100% of my mind checking airspeed, altimeter, wings level, rpm, landmarks, airspeed, how are the engine instruments doing? etc. Any extra thoughts just clutter up my scan.
Jim Slaton put it a different way. He finds that complex freefalls require so much brain power, that he cannot focus 120% on canopy flight. So the last few weeks before a blade running competition, he doesn't bother with freefalls, he just does hop-and-pops.
The other side of that would be the person who is trying to take their freefall skills to the next level. They chose a moderately-loaded canopy with a "tame" reputation (ie. Spectre). As they are walking out to the plane, they watch windsocks and mentally plan their canopy ride. Then they put that plan on a shelf in their mind. After opening, they pull the canopy flight plan off the shelf and fly the plan. This process demands a minimum of thought about the canopy flight, leaving more brain cells to think about freefall moves.
To sum up: skydiving happens too fast for you to think your way through through every move in the sky. The more pre-planning you do, the less you have to think in the air. Pre-planning things like your canopy ride frees up brian cells for better things.
Do breathing exercises to empty your mind shortly before exit. then get out there and do it!

Riser length is directly related to arm length.
For example, skydivers with short arms tend to jump 17" or 19" risers.
On the other hand, I have long arms (6' tall) and usually jump 21" or 24" risers.

Hint, if its your reserve wrapped around the tail, cut your reserve risers.

Racers are more forgiving than most containers - when it comes to mis-matched mains - because the closing loop is longer and anchored to the pack tray. This gives you more loop to play with.

skybytch was right.
Infinity and Wings are the best on the list, with Javelin a close thrid.

I patched a couple of Raiders - for Vernon - over the winter and have one or two more Raiders waiting for patches in my loft.

If it is a "well know fact that chest mounted altimeters are inaccurate due to a burble," how come this is the first time I have heard of this burble in 25 years of skydiving?
Granted sit flyers sometimes suffer altimeter inaccuracies due to chest-mounted burbles.
Altimeters are basically training wheels until you develop a sense of timing and learn to "eyeball" altitude. By the time you have learned to eyeball altitude, you have worn a visual altimeter for so many hundred jumps that you feel naked walking to the plane without it.
Bellytive workers and freefall instructors should wear visual altimeters for the benefit of others on the jump. Bellytive workers normally read the altimeter of the guy on the other side of the formation.
Freefall instructors at Perris always wear wrist and chest altimeters, for two reasons. First, students instinctively drop altimeters on concrete, so you always need a spare altimeter on the plane. Secondly, the student can read the instructor's altimeter.

lummy,
The latest Precisions Service Bulletin does not relate to bottom skin reinforcing tapes - or lack thereof.
SB211 ??? referrs to the little white line attachment tapes that are bar-tacked (a fancy stitch that requires a fancy sewing machine) to the bottom skin. For a brief period (1997 to 1999) Raven-M reserves were built with light-weight, Type 3 tape for line attachments. This worked great during the Raven-M and P-124A drop tests. But later there were a few complaints about line attachment tapes tearing. The only torn Raven-M that I saw was the result of an over-weight, overspeed "marginally stable" skydiver who scared his Cypres.
The service bulletin calls for sewing a second bartack through the line attachment tapes. I would be much happier if they replced the line attachment tapes with the stronger Type 1 tape that they used before 1997 and after 1999.
Now that tiny mains are fashionable, many skydivers naively believe that they can exceed placarded weight and airspeed limits on their reserves. Not a wise move. You may get away with exceeding limits for a while, but sooner or later you will get bitten.
Placarded limits are based on test drop data and skill level. For example, all reserves must prove that they can survive deployment speeds faster than 150 knots with 254 pound exit weights. TSO C23-E and F give manfacturers the option of certifying reserves to heavier weights or higher airspeeds.
Most manufacturers placard small reserves with smaller numbers because they do not expect heavy jumpers to survive landing tiny reserves. PD even placards their reserves for different weights depending upon user skill level.
If you try to sue a manufacturer because your over-loaded reserve failed, the judge will take one look at the placard and laugh you out of court!
Your next reserve should be placarded for your exit weight (including helmet, goggles, jumpsuit, harness, etc.)
In the long run, container manufacturers will clue in the concept that skydivers like me may be willing to jump small mains (ie. my Sabre 135), but they still want medium-sized reserves (ie. my Amigo 172)

Yes, you can apply an iron to parachute nylon - at low heat - and it will not damage the fabric.
However, I doubt that most glues will stick to slippery, silicone coated nylon. Heck they make waterproof tents out of Zero-porosity parachute fabric.

Two updates:
First, the guy who forgot to flare his Crossfire 119 only cracked a vertebra. Fortunately all his nerves are intact. He is young, tough and heals quickly.
Secondly, the tandem canopy that was supposedly long overdue for a re-line: I stood it up near the bowl today.
Enough alibis.
Flare before impact.

Raven-M reserves have folded seams running spanwise across the bottom skin, connecting line attachment points (like Swift Plus reserves). However, Raven-Ms do not have spanwise reinforcing tapes like: PD, Amigo or Tempo reserves.
We used to think that span-wise seams provided sufficient reinforcement. They used to be strong enough, until people started over-loading reserves and deploying them unstable while exceeding placarded air speed limits.
It is rumored that the new Raven Max series will include span-wise reinforcement tapes.

Flare before impact!
Didn't they teach that on the first jump course?
Three weeks ago I was lecturing an arrogant junior jumper about down-sizing before he learned how to flare his existing canopy properly. He responded with his usual alibi: a list of old injuries, his high threshhold of pain and the attitude that if he killed himself, it was his problem.
While I was arguing with him, we got a phone call about a woman who hook-turned herself into the morgue.
Next thing I knew, I was inspecting the harness they cut off her at the hospital, with an Royal Canadian Mounted Police Staff Sargent looking over my shoulder. The main canopy was fine, but it was not over her head when she hit the planet.
Yesterday I counselled a couple of tandem instructors to flare a bit earlier. One of them came back with the alibi that it was not his fault because I had not re-lined his favorite canopy. Dude, you flared late!
Next load I watched the other tandem instructor do a beautiful hook turn on his Crossfire 119, and fly straight into the planet! No flare. I sprinted out to find him breathing, but complaining of a sore back. His alibi was that he lost a toggle. Sorry dude, but both your steering toggles are still tied onto your steering lines.
The last three weeks have been rather stressful.
Enough alibis.
Flare before impact!

Wrap your ripcord handle in the ugliest color tape you can find. You know, the garish, un-natural colors that riceboys use to upholster their rides.

Go back to the basics.
Clean your machine, especially the lint under the tension spring on the bobbin case.
Oil it.
Say nice things to it.
To figure out which way to install the needle, Stare at the hook underneath. Remember that the hook is supposed to pass through the small scarf in the needle.
Remember that 90% of sewing machine problems can be cured by fixing a mis-routed thread.

Three points:
First, skreamer has the right idea about teaching the kid how to pack so he can pay for his own skydives. Maybe he will learn a thing or two working at the DZ for a couple of years.
Secondly, age 18 is a crude way to measure maturity. I have kicked 40 year olds out of the S/L course because they were not mature/brave/bright enough to handle a simple S/L jump. Those students usually get fobbed off on the tandem instructors. Waiting until 18 gives you one more reason to tell the ugly, repulsive, greedy, scum-sucking. bottom-feeding, low-life - did I say scum-sucking? - ambulance-chasing lawyers to fuck off!
Thirdly, I have done tandems with underage students. It happened in the mid 1980s, long before the rules were clearly defined in Germany. The first girl was big for her age (13) athletic and surrounded by relatives who also jumped. That same day, her mom, dad, older brother and aunt all did tandem jumps. Both student and instructor enjoyed the jump.
My second 13-year-old student was the opposite. She was petite, maybe 100 pounds. She had had clearly been pushed into jumping by her alcoholic, beer-gutted, obnoxious, ex-paratrooper father. She was scared stiff for the entire dive. At 5,000' she took a death grip on my left thumb. Remember, this was on an early Vector, before Cypri were invented. Neither of us enjoyed the jump and I vowed never to take another 13-year-old on a tandem!
Folks, learn from my mistakes. Don't take 13-year-olds on tandems.

To continue with steve's comment about military round parachutes without d-bags: they were unreliable without d-bags. During the Second World War, British paratroopers had direct bags and they cheerfully jumped without reserves. American paratroopers didn't have d-bags, so they really needed reserves.
The other point is that military rounds are unreliable without some method of preventing the skirt from blowing under. Back in the 1960s, the British introduced anti-inversion nets, which vastly improved reliablity. More recently, several manufacturers of military S/L chutes have perfected sliders, which also prevent the skirt from blowing under and out the wrong side.
In the present day, BASE jumpers have found that squares without sliders suffer far too many (steering) line-overs. Their solution is a tail-gate which prevents the steering lines from wandering during deployment.

What would happen if every skydiver devoted 10% of his brain cells to planning his canopy ride?
Half the people who hook turn themselves into the hospital never planed to hook turn, they found themselves at low altitude without a plan.
Hopefully we will grow out of the antiquated USPA notion that everything you could possibly know about canopy flight should be taught in the first jump course. Students are only going to grasp half of what is said in any lecture. The key to is to space out canopy knowledge. Teach basic canopy survival skills in the first jump course, then - over the next 24 jumps - space out a series of exercises that include stalls, front riser turns, rear riser turns, rear riser flares, angle control, etc.
If every skydiver devoted 10% of his brain cells to the canopy ride, they would all walk away.

Ask your instructor to phone the Ausy dropzone and ask some questions about their student gear. We are gradually moving towards one world standard for student gear in the skydiving world. Chances are that student gear in Oz has all the same handles in the same locations, so it will be an easy transition.
As to your body position, chances are that you are flying with your knees too wide. Ask your instructor if you should do some "heel click" or "toe tap" exercises on your next skydive to improve leg awareness.
Like the other poster said, invite a freefall videographer on the dive. You will learn more on a dive with video than you will on three dives without video.

That whole "respect property ownership" is a dicey issue in a sue-happy capitalist society.
On the one hand, a manufacturer is not allowed to destroy unairworthy gear, but on the other hand, a manufacturer can be sued because of worn out gear.
Several times when faded, frayed and filthy old Talons came through the Rigging Innovations loft, my first instinct was to chop them into little bits and send the owner a letter saying that his rig was no longer airworthy. I was motivated by the notion that not all skydivers are bright enough to heed a manufacturer's warning about gear being worn out.
The other problem is that in a capitalist economy, there is always one more dis-reputable rigger farther down the road. If a skydiver searches long enough and hard enough he can find a rigger who will pack anything. Ironically it is rarely young jumpers who play this weird game. More often it is penny-pincing older skydives - the type that make "Air Trash" look good - who know that rigger at the end of the road.
In the end I compromise and offer to do hundreds of dollars worth of repairs to ratty rigs, or try to steer them towards inexpensive, airworthy gear. In the end, I return one or two rigs a year, dis-assembled, with a signed note saying that I refuse to repack them because of the following defect. Hopefully the note will cover my butt if I ever get called into court.
Thanks for reading my rant.

AR-7, hmm! Sounds like the predecessor to the Triathlon.