riggerrob

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Posts posted by riggerrob

  1. "Tested to FAA TSO standards" is distinct from "manufactured in accordance with FAA TSO." A production certificate requires annual inspections of the production line, The chances of the American FAA issuing a production certificate to anyone manufacturing outside of the USA are slim ... bordering on impossible ... simply because of the cost of travel for FAA Inspectors.

    Mind you, most of this legal debate is irrelevant to the original poster who is Russian. Russia never bought into FAA standards. Instead, Russians rely on a series of old Soviet military specifications.

  2. One example is the PD176 Reserve that failed porosity tests at Performance Designs' factory. They sent it back with a note saying that it is no longer airworthy. Since then, no rigger has dared touch it, so it is effectively grounded.

    It might be possible to "repair" repair it to airworthy status, but that would require replacing all of the top skins, which is more labor and dollars than the cost of a newly-manufactured reserve.

    Let's be honest, the only people that are doing that level of "repair" are restoration shops that haul RARE corroded wrecks out of Papua-New Guinea jungles in order to jack up the data panel and build a new airframe underneath it. By the time they complete "repairs" they have installed new spars, new ribs, new skins, new hinges, new control cables, new hydraulics, new tires, new radios, freshly-overhauled engines, etc. Wealthy warbird collectors are only willing to do that for RARE airplanes that sell at auction for upwards of $1 million. Think P-51 Mustang or Spitfire whose production lines closed in 1945.

    For another comparison, look at all the restoration work done on the muscle cars auctioned by Barret-James: new engine, new transmission, new upholstery, new glass, etc. until little remains of the original.

  3. All good advice above.

    Protect yourself by having any purchases inspected by a well-known loft before it shipped across the border. A complete inspection of harness, container, AAD and reserve is the same as the cost ($80 to $100 Canadian) of a regular reserve inspect-and-repack. Expect to pay another $30 for for a main inspection.

    An independent loft will tell you honestly whether any second-hand gear is worth four dollars/yen/yuan/euros/etc.

    If the equipment needs any repairs (e.g. new line set) you are best to have the Australian loft do the work before the gear crosses the border.

    • Like 2

  7. 1 hour ago, CygnusX-1 said:

    Want to increase voter turnout? Let me download an app on my phone and vote that way. Why is it good enough for me to be able to purchase items from say Amazon and not get my order screwed up or have someone else buy stuff in my name? Why can Amazon do that and the US government not? And yes I know there probably are cases out there where identity theft occurs. Hell I can even access my financial information on line and I care WAY more about that then any politician.

    And as matter of record, I have never voted in my life and I'm now over 50. I have one very good and sound reason for that: There has never been an election/ballot/etc. where if I had voted, it would have made any difference in the outcome. NOT ONE! It wouldn't have mattered if I voted R or D or I or G. Never has an election come down to 1 vote in my district, state or even city. There has been "close" elections, but even in those elections whoever thinks they are ahead at a specific point in time will go to court and attempt to stop the count. Thereby invalidating my vote if my vote was not counted by that time.

    Fine!

    Don't vote.

    But by not voting, you also lose the privilege of complaining about whichever politician gets elected.

    • Like 3

  8. On 1/23/2023 at 9:56 AM, wmw999 said:

    In the late 70's, rainbows were very popular as canopy patterns. I don't believe it was a statement in those days...

    Wendy P.

    I jumped a rainbow Strato-Cloud for a few years and my jumpsuit had rainbow decorations .... lonnnnnnng before rainbows were associated with gay people or lesbians or trans people or LGBTQ+++++++

  9. Voting is mandatory in some Scandinavian countries ... I forget which.

    They treat voting the same way they treat jury duty.

     

    Personally ... I believe that if you don't vote, you should be forbidden to criticize any politician that does get elected. You had an opportunity to say your piece on electing day.

    • Like 2

  10. 20 hours ago, murps2000 said:

    I’m curious which model Abrams we are sending. I thought the depleted uranium mesh armor was classified tech.

    Yes, but enough Abrams were damaged in Iraq that Russian and Chinese engineer spies understand what the finished armor looks like. The only thing they lack are the finer points of how to manufacture laminated armor.

  11. Terror has always been a tactic in warfare.

    The difference is that Russia openly uses terror to this day, while Western nations are more subtle in their use of terror. Russians still kill off most of the military age men and sell the remainder into slavery/Siberia, burn all the buildings, rape all the cattle, stampede the women and sell the children into slavery. I would like to know how many live Ukrainian soldiers surrendered in the rubble of Mariupol ... and how many will still be alive to return home after this war??????????

  14. If you can afford to buy a second rig .... SURE!

    Just ensure that its handles are in the same place and that the main canopy is similar in size and handling to your primary main canopy.

    If the second main canopy differs from your first, then install different-colored risers to remind you when you are under canopy.

  15. Just now, riggerrob said:

    Why are you worried about getting a non-airworthy rig back?

    Why are you wasting time on this "legal" argument? 

    Jerry knows how and why I love and respect lawyers and how much I want to become a lawyer when I grow up. Hah! Hah!

    Your money is far wiser spent on surgeons, ambulance drivers, mechanics and riggers.

    Since the factory has determined that the harness is non air-worthy, no rigger can legally repack and return it to the air. Shipping an non-airworthy harness to another country only benefits the shipping company.

    As for where to do harness repairs, the factory can do the job quicker and neater than any local rigger. The biggest hassle with factory repairs is the cost and time to ship it to the factory. Sinc ethe rig is already at the factory, that question is nul.

    Finally, some factories forbid major repairs outside of the factory because they have seen too many sloppy repairs done by outsiders who lacked the machines, patterns, materials or skills to do repairs properly.

    My advice comes from an FAA Master Rigger who used to make those sorts fo decisions at Rigging Innovations. I re-sized or repaired dozens of Talon, Telesis, Javelin, Vector, Racer, etc. harnesses.

     

  16. Why are you worried about getting a non-airworthy rig back?

    Why are you wasting time on this "legal" argument. Jerry knows how and why I love and respect lawyers and how much I want to become a lawyer when I grow up. Hah! Hah!

    Your money is far wiser spent on surgeons, ambulance drivers, mechanics and riggers.

    Since the factory has determined that the harness is non air-worthy, no rigger can legally repack and return it to the air. Shipping an non-airworthy harness to another country only benefits the shipping company.

    As for where to do harness repairs, the factory can do the job quicker and neater than any local rigger. The biggest hassle with factory repairs is the cost and time to ship it to the factory. Sinc ethe rig is already at the factory, that question is nul.

    Finally, some factories forbid major repairs outside of the factory because they have seen too many sloppy repairs done by outsiders who lacked the machines, patterns, materials or skills to do repairs properly.

    My advice comes from an FAA Master Rigger who used to make those sorts fo decisions at Rigging Innovations. I re-sized or repaired dozens of Talon, Telesis, Javelin, VEctor, Racer, etc. harnesses.

  17. On 1/20/2023 at 10:38 AM, Phil1111 said:

    Already underway:Poland signs deal to buy 2nd batch of Abrams tanks 366 all together.

    The Abrams tanks in storage are the older M1 with the 105 gun. They don't have the independent commanders thermal and the digital sighting. They can be upgraded however.

    Yes BUT updating thermal sights means at minimum finding those sights in US Army warehouses, Secondly manufacturing new thermal sights. At worse, re-starting a production line for thermal sights. All of those options take months or years ... years that Ukraine lacks as they are being pummeled by Russian artillery, missiles, etc.

    Curent Ukrainian tanks fire Soviet-pattern 125mm ammo.

    All the NATO tanks fire the same 120mm ammo. Any new Western tanks will also need a new supply train to push 120mm ammo to the front.

     

  18. Scary!

    Sooner or later, some bunch of rabid election-deniers are going to over-throw a recently-elected gov't in the Third World.

    The only thing worse is the way that politicians manage to convince the working class to do their dirty work for them. See the American Civil War when white, lower-class men did the bulk of the fighting and dying, but after the war those "white trash" got displaced by recently-freed slaves.

    I can say "white trash" since I am of Scots-Irish descent and was raised in the Appalachian Mountains, albeit the North end of the Appalachians, in Southern Quebec.

  19. Granted, Spaniards did own a few slaves back when they ruled California. Mind you. most of those slaves were native North Americans ... so insignificant numbers of black slaves in California.

    Now that white "Americans" control the state ... how can they be held responsible for sins committed by a previous administration???????

    Usually the slate gets wiped clean after a war changes the administration ... changes ownership.

  20. Over the last 40 years, tobacco consumption has declined, especially after they started printing pictures of cancer on cigarette packages. Now even long-time smokers step out of their houses to smoke.

    Perhaps similar warning pictures on bottles of alcohol will make alcohol less fashionable.

    I probably would never have started drinking if I had been warned of all the health risks. I drank heavily for 20 years, but now have been sober for 25 years. Now I suffer from permanent liver damage.

    Back then I routinely drove home from the bar but never got charged with DUI, though I do remember three conversations with police officers who stopped me on my way home from the bar.

    As the American Prohibition on alcohol sales a century ago proved that trying to ban alcohol is a fool's errand. The Bronfman, Molson, Kennedy, etc. families all made their first million from selling alcohol to thirsty Americans.

    The sin taxes charged in Scandinavia also do not dampen thirst for alcohol.

  21. PD Optimum was certified under a one-time FAA waiver for a hands-off descent rate of "more than X feet per second." PD talked the FAA into accepting a flared landing as an alternative way to reduce rate-of-descent.

    A member of the PIA standards committee told me that will never happen again. PIA worries that an AAD will save the jumpers' life, but then he will be badly injured during an unconscious un-flared landing.

    So you might "legally" load a PD Optimum reserve more than 1.3 pounds per square foot, but the laws of man must bow to the laws of physics. 

    • Like 2

  22. 4 hours ago, JoeWeber said:

    Add this to the list. In fairness, if someone, even a DoorDash Driver, attempted to deliver a meal from Chili's Restaurant to my home I'd be irritated. But in some parts of the United Gun Club of America decorum necessitates that the entire family come out armed and charging firing shots.

    It's not the laws it's the culture.

     

    Ridiculous!

    How will they react when Door Dash bans their drivers from delivering to their neighborhood?

  23. On 1/14/2023 at 2:03 PM, kallend said:

    Yes!  Not a single western nation that has imposed strict laws on gun possession has gun violence lower than the USA.  Not Germany, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Canada, ....

    Go re-read Canadian statistics on gun crimes.

    Canadian gun laws may not be perfect, but they do limit gun violence. The majority of guns used to commit crimes in Canada were smuggled in from the USA.

  24. On 1/13/2023 at 5:10 AM, sfzombie13 said:

    sounds like it may be time for the next innovation in skydiving container design.  know any container manufacturers willing to change the industry?

    I am willing to do sketches, patterns and prototypes, but I lack an attention span long enough for full-scale development.

  25. 2 hours ago, NickDG said:

    When Mains started getting smaller in the early nineties I was jumping a Stiletto 135 with a Raven 170 reserve. And the thought struck me we are now building container systems the wrong way around. The smaller main should be in the top pack tray with the larger reserve on the bottom.

    I've always thought your reserve should be big enough to land you (in relative safety) if you're unconscious and the brakes are still stowed, but nobody thinks like that anymore.

    Of course, I'm also the guy who thinks 'gut' gear will someday make a return to the skies. Think about that in terms of modern materials and how much more we know now. Instead of packing two parachutes into a tight package on your back the two canopies could be 'spread out' to the point your rig profile, especially for freeflying, would practically disappear. We also learned, from BASE jumping, that parachutes tend to work better when not packed down to the density of a brick and stuffed into a small container you need a tool to close. 

    Moe Villetto built a stealth BASE rig designed to be worn under your street clothing to get by security guards on high profile jumps. Like if you wanted to, I don't know, day blaze the Empire State Building. I think he called it, "The Blade." And as innovative, slim, and form fitting as that rig was - it's the various ways Moe is coming up with to pack a square that is interesting to me. He found ways to spread them out so it seems like they aren't even there.

    Another advantage to gut gear is you aren't grounded when your reserve needed repacking. You'd just borrow a reserve from somebody else. In fact why even own a reserve parachute at all? They should be hanging on hooks at the drop zone where you just grab one and pay the day rate.

    However, for the new 'Gut Gear' (we'd need a much better name) to work skydivers would have to give up using deployment bags. And that's okay, again BASE jumpers have been doing terminal speed openings for the last 40 years or so without deployment bags. And it works fine. You just need a Tailpocket on the canopy to control things. Also D-bags do cause malfunctions sometimes, so there's that.

    One issue I can see is that BASE jumpers, in general, are very careful packers while, also in general, skydivers are not. But that is somewhat mitigated by the fact skydivers hire professionals to pack their mains and those guys & girls can easily learn a new trick or two.

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    That reminds me of a discussion ... er ... drunken bull-session ... many years ago.

    Given that scared students instinctively curl up in a fetal position and military paratroopers are taught a modified fetal position for static-line jumps, I opined that skydiving students would cheerfully sit-fly if that was what we taught from the start. That led to sketches of a front-mounted main container and a back-mounted reserve.

    When sketching the front-mounted main container, I added an "apron" to simplify donning. The apron also helped conceal the harness, risers, etc. that might clutter up a cockpit.

    This apron came in handy when I sewed together a lap-type pilot emergency parachute harness/container.

    Since the back-mounted reserve could extend the full length of the spine, it could also be made very thin. For comparison, long-back pilot emergency parachutes are routinely only an inch or two thick.