riggerrob

Why is it that when you: trespass, rape, loot, pillage, plunder, vandalise, abduct, etc. in your home town, you are branded a criminal, but if you do it in someone else's home town, you are a hero? Despite 13 years in uniform, I was never able to wrap my mind around that concept. Nor was I ever able to understand homophobia in the military. Will someone please explain?

This reminds me of a long-standing debate: "can gliders and skydivers operate safely at the same airport?' The answer is yes, provided everyone agrees on procedures, follows procedures and flies with their eyes open. I have seen gliders and skydivers share airspace over several Canadian and European airstrips. I have also seen a long-running feud over California City.

Remster, I have to agree with you: you get what you pay for. Unfortunately, I am so old that they "grandfathered" me in as a CSPA Coach 1. I did the Coach 2 Course in 1989 and again in 2000. Since my boss paid for the course, I don't remember the exact rpice, but the Coach 2 Course cost around CAN$125 plus a bunch of jump tickets. The stepped approach works better for me. I have a small brain and it can only absorb limited amounts of information at one time. It is difficult for us to compare Canadian and American coaches because USPA has made so many changes recently. The last USPA course I attended was a BIC given in 1989 and it was roughly equivalent to a CSPA Coach 1. Would an American please post a brief outline of the USPA Coach course? What are the duties, responsibilities, priveleges of a USPA Coach? Is there more than one level of coach within USPA? We cannot have a serious debate if we don't start with facts. Remster, in the long run the Americans always come around to doing things the Canadian way. Initially they stubbornly resist any new idea. Then it takes them a few years to re-write the history books. Once they "discover" how something is really an American invention, they adopt it with great gusto and enthusiasm. Just look at French links, Para-Commander, ram-air parachutes, AADs, direct bags, relative work, sit-flying, PFF, IAD, etc. The list is long. For example, IAD was invented in Georgia or Alabama back in the mid-1970s. USPA quashed the idea for many years - like they tried to quash AFF - then Tom MacCarthy toke the idea north to Gananoque, Ontario, Canada. Canadians perfected IAD, then re-introduced it to the USA circa 1990.

First of all, a pilotchute packed neatly into a Spandex BOC is almost idiot-proof. Secondly, if you want to get fancy, start by reviewing BOCs designed for AFF. Thirdly, if you still want to get complex, review the Sorcerer BASE rig and the Advance skydiving rig. Hint, the Advance resembles a Javelin, but it is built in France and the reserve container is radically different.

An easier way to get a rough idea of how a small reserve flies is to test jump the same size of Triathlon. The Tri is also a 7-cell.

Your DZO is nothing but a greedy, money-grubing capitalist. He just wants to keep you alive so he can sell you hundreds of jump tickets next year. The greedy bastard also wants to sell you a faster canopy next year. The he is going to try and sell you a smaller container to fit your new main. The down side is that he does not want to risk you shutting down his business for half a day with ambulances and police cars and fire trucks parked on the runway. The DZO also does want a lawsuit raised by the family of a student who follows your bad example. Those DZOs are sneaky bastards. They figured out a long time ago how to suck your wallet dry. Hook turns interfere with their capitalist plots. On a personal note. I was threatened with grounding twice when I was a young jumper. The first threat came after a low pull. I became far more altitude aware after that! The second threat of grounding came after a hook turn under a Strato Star. I paid far more attention to wind socks after that. The end result is that threats of grounding changed my ways and I am still skydiving 22 years later. Do you want to be skydiving 22 years from now?

As for tearing off the reserve container when you deploy in a standup. It is not unique to Wings. I have repaired Flexon, Talon, Sidewinder, Strong Tandem, Telesis and Vector contianers that were deployed at unusual angles or by "non-conforming students." I have also mailed a couple of Javelins back the factory for the same repairs. Beginning skyboarders are also bad for tearing containers. Any time you deploy any container - in a position that risks snagging a main riser under the corner of the reserve container - you risk tearing the reserve container off the pack tray. The only containers that seriously address this phenomenon are the EOS and the latest Sidewinders. Older Sidewinders can be retro-fitted with side flap extensions to reduce the risk.

To reiterate everyone else's posts. Reserve containers are extremely reliable these days. As long as you pull the silver handle at a reasonable altitude, you will soon have an inflated reserve overhead. Internal pilotchute versus exposed pilotchute makes miniscule differences in launch time. One flap, versus two flaps, versus four flaps over the pilotchute also make miniscule differences. One question I am wondering about is how many grommets the loop has to slide through. 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, or 12? And do we count Cypres cutters as grommets? Counting grommets makes for a marvelous theoretical debate, though I have seen no difference in deploying reserves on the ground.

Some Supplementary Type Certificates - for jump doors on Cessnas - require the pilot to wear a parachute when the door is open. This is primarily because of the risk of a pre-maturely open parachute tearing the tail off the airplane. Many pilots of twin-engine jump planes chose not to wear parachutes because they are too far from the door to exit in an emergency. The cockpit door in a Twin Otter does not count, because it is too close to the propeller.

Come on, even your grandmother can sew patches on a jumpsuit.

Sounds like a logical procession to me. For comparison, at Pitt Meadows, we start students out with Manta 290s or Skymaster 290s. Most are jumping Skymaster 230s by the time they graduate PFF. By the time they write their A Certificate Exam, most have transitioned to Hornet 190s (still in student rigs). When they buy gear, it is usually a Triathlon, Sabre or Hornet in the 190 - 150 range. The market for used F-111 canopies has dropped off dramatically here, so we still have a few decent F-111 canopies gathering dust.

Pockets on D-bags used to be popular in So Cal. The side is probably the best place for a pocket.

Jeez! Your boss sounds like some of the senior NCOs I used to work for in the Canadian Armed Forces. They could never explain to me why we did things this way. When I pointed out a problem and suggested a solution, they would rudely say "Sorry old chap, but that is just not the way we do things around here." Then a year later, when they decided to implement my suggestion, they would do it in the rudest possible fashion. They would never hold an orders group or post a schedule on the wall. They would announce the new policy in the rudest possible fashion, as in "Corporal, why the F aren't you doing such and such?" "Because sir, you never told me, nor did you write it on the wall." They also had an annoying habit of lying to me, then expecting me to trust them, respect them and want to grow up like them. After too many years I told them to take thier job and shove it. These days I am earning a fraction of my old salary, but I work at a DZ and the boss lets me change anything I want in the loft. Changes on the instructional side come slower, mainly because it takes a while to get other staff members up to speed. Bu the greatest stress reliever at my current job is that senior staff members can actually explain why the F' we do things the way we do.

If you were wearing an old style Strong tandem harness and the belly band was too tight, that can press too much on your belly and cause nausea. Next time ask your tandem instructor to leave the belly band a bit looser. As for nausea in general, it will pass. Part of the uncertainty is caused by doing something totally new. Part of it is fear of the unknown. The more you know about skydiving, the less uncertainty and the less quesiness. When you know what the next step is, it won't surprise you.

Mr. Viking, How much do you weight? What size of canopy have you been jumping lately? How comfortable are you with that canopy? Have you flown all the exercises in the Basic Canopy Flight 101 textbook with that canopy?

The most common scenario for a Cypres "misfire" is: buddy tossed his main pilotchute below 2000'. Main canopy opened really slowly. He whistled through 1000' in a standup, staring at his slider. The vertical body position exposed the Cypres (hidden by the reserve container bottom wall) to higher than normal air pressure. The Cypres read this is 750 feet. The Cypres got scared. The Cypres told the cutter to cut. Bottom line is, buddy tossed his main pilotchute below 2000'. No sympathy here.

bill von and Kris are correct. With PCA assist, the static-line, pilotchute, bag and lines are dragged over the student's shoulder, making them easy to grab. Most paniced students have enough muscle to hang onto a pilotchute, sleeve, or d-bag. They do not have enough muscle to hang onto a direct bag. Since the whole PCA set up is longer, it gives the student an extra half-second to backloop off the step and interfer with deployment. A major advantage of IAD is that the piltochute deploys straight behind the student, making it impossible for all but the clumbsiest of students to grab it. Kris, was correct. If you have the world's clumbsiest IAD student on your load, then you hang onto the pilotchute until the d-bag is beyond his reach. None of these three systems is perfect, but I believe that IAD offers the fewest opportunities for human error.

Your old pilotchute is stretched out of shape. The easy way to build pilotchutes is: mark and rough cut the top skin and mesh. Sew on reinforcing tapes and handle. Lay the mesh on top of top skin, good sides together. Cut around the skirt with a hot knife. Two rows of stitching around skirt. Flip pilotchute right-side-out through hole in bottom. Size center-line, attach bridle, etc.

councilman24, Read the f'n label. If it is a Raven III, it is not a Dash M. Assuming that the original poster weghts less than 150 pounds naked, then he can practice most of the classic (3 cm disc) techniques under a Raven. III Hard-core accuracy competitors usually load their canopies around 0.7 pounds per square foot. The Raven III would also be decent BASE canopy provided the original poster is fairly light.

Dolphins are simple. Dolphins work. Dolphins are inexpensive, leaving you more money for jump tickets. Those extra jump tickets will keep you current. Currency equals long life span. Next topic of conversation? In that category, I would chose a Genera because it has slightly better pin covers.

Ha! Ha! Ha!

Who's been burying freaks in the sand?

Yeah, I made a few jumps on prototypes. It was designed to be a low cost alternative to Sabre Mark Ones, and a pretty close copy.

Whether you buy a skateboard, ski or BMX helmet, just make sure it will stay on your head when things get really windy.

If you are wondering about the history of any used gear sold by Square One, ask to see the inspection report. I filled out hundreds of them when I worked there. A score of 4 or 5 means that you will get more than a thousand jumps out of the rig. A score of 3 means that you won't win fashion points, but it is airworthy. A score of 2 means that it will last another season or two. A score of 1 means don't waste your time. Other reputable lofts will provide similar inspection sheets on request.