mark

Okay, 2 8610-2s required. As to the type of stitch on the closing loop, your problem is with Poynter and the FAA guy who included the question, not the PRH. That question was one of many that were in the test bank well before the new questions were added last October. The reference is in Volume 2, 9.3.17. I didn't find it in the Poynter/Blackmon Rigger Study Guide (last updated in 2000), so if you are using that for test prep, I'd recommend adding your own supplemental material. I agree that we are better off if we are riggers who think, instead of ones who just say "Poynter's is good enough," or "This is the way I do it, therefore it is the best way." Do you have other examples of major errors (in the PRH, not Poynter's)? Cheers, Mark

What exactly is factually incorrect, as opposed to just being different technique? Mark

From my 2003 pdf of the USPA Governance Manual, Section 1.1 Constitution and By-Laws, Article III Board of Directors, Section 4 Impeachment: "Any USPA Director may be removed for cause by a two-thirds vote of the members present at any BOD meeting, provided that such action was contained in the proposed agenda for the metting." I speculate that "members present" means board members, not USPA members present in the gallery. Mark

Do you have a reference for that? AC 105-2c, paragraph 11A. Mark

From the PD Reserve Owner's Manual: "Small snags and holes small than 1/8 inch square (one ripstop box) located further than 10 inches from the closest line attachment may be left unrepaired as long as as there are no more than one in an 10-inch circle. A maximum of three such snags per cell are allowed." Depending on your exact circumstances, the damage you describe may require repair, and maybe not. If it does require repair, PD says: "Any hole or tear up to 10 inches in length may be repaired by a senior rigger as long as the closest area of the completed reapir is at least 1 inch from the nearest seam and at least 5 inches from the nearest tape or line attachment. These are minor repairs." The FAA says a minor repair is anything that's not a major repair; a major repair is one that, if done improperly, might affect the airworthiness of the system. By extension, a minor repair is one that, if done improperly, will not affect the airworthiness of the system. Put the PD instructions and FAA definition together and draw your own conclusions. I think you're looking at a $50 repair at most, and I'd take that over the $800 repair other folks have proposed. If you do decide to throw away your canopy, please throw it my way. I'll be happy to pay for shipping. Thanks in advance! Mark

I learned something today. Cool! (about learning something. Not so cool about the logbook getting deleted.) Mark

I was unaware of this also, as every Neptune I've updated has retained its logbook. Mark

Not a safety issue, but an attention to detail issue: the alternate instructions allow a change in closing order, but not a change in bridle routing or where you might put the pilot chute fabric. If you are putting pilot chute fabric under the bottom flap, you have altered the approved packing method. Mark

I agree. To put it in perspective, one line of 550 could withstand a 25 pounds x 10g shock. If you use two lines, that's enough to take care of loss of efficiency from knots and allow for 15g shock (enough to cause injury), so IF the package itself is secure, it would be easy enough to tie it adequately to a harness. And it would have to be tied to the harness. He would not likely have been successful if he tried to hold on to the briefcase by its handle, or if he tried to hold on to an impromptu handle for a money bundle. I have jumped unmodified canopy-first deployment, and the only times they didn't open hard was when they opened really hard. Mark

Here are a couple: USAPR Dave DeWolf Mark

That's an interesting point, and I agree that he may have had experience with pilot emergency rigs -- but not necessarily as a jumper. Lot's of folks have access to pilot emergency rigs. Air Force loadmasters would be familiar with wearing bail-out rigs -- and they would be familiar with door operation on C-130's and similar. Some would also have been involved with HALO jumps, with freefallers leaving via the ramp. A loadmaster would be a non-jumper, but if those Army guys could do it (carrying rucks and stuff), how hard could it be? Mark

"Easily identified" is not the same as "sufficient information to accurately determine exit point." Determining the exit point in the daytime requires some skill; at night and looking through just the windows on the sides of the aircraft would require wizardry. He might have been able to tell he was between Mt St Helens and Portland, but not much more. He would not have been able to judge accurately enough to rendezvous with an accomplice or a pre-positioned cache. Mark

You sent your rigs to Aerodyne to get a couple grommets replaced? Mark

That's true, but not relevant. The description is of leather street shoes. The common skydiving footgear of the time was boots. Combat boots, Frankenstein boots, RW Frankenstein boots. A few years later, Adidas came out with a couple models of skydiving boots, like high-topped athletic shoes. Still lace-ups, though. So if our guy has some skydiving experience, he wants to wear boots. If he can't wear boots because they don't go with his business suit, he wears lace-up shoes, like oxfords or wingtips. If he's ex-military, he probably has some black lace-up dress shoes in the closet. He doesn't do slip-on leather street shoes because slip-on means means easy-on and easy-off -- that's the point of slip-ons, after all. In all likelihood, Cooper arrived at the surface without shoes. Who among us would want to land a 26' Navy Conical without wearing shoes, even at our home dropzones, let alone off the dropzone and at night? Mark

Yoke: width across the shoulders and length of the pads over the shoulders to the chest strap. "C" is what most men take. MLW = main lift web = harness from 3-ring to hip. For Javelins, this is approximately your height in inches minus your inseam minus 20. For me: 70" tall - 32" inseam - 20 = 18. I should get a C-18 harness, more or less. That's just a starting point. You be a little longer in the legs or torso than most, and C-18 (or whatever) doesn't say anything about how the harness should fit for thin or thick people. Mark

A pilot emergency rig with a tough-to-find ripcord? Not likely. Who would make such a thing? Perhaps he said "tough to pull." That would be more likely -- I have a number of jumps on 4-pin pins-and-cones ripcords, and most of them were 2-handed pulls. As to whether Cooper made it, I'm in the skeptics camp. If he was wearing loafers when he exited the airplane, he wasn't wearing them under canopy. So even if he pulled (pulled stable, pulled on time), the landing is problematic and the walk out is problematic. He could not have spotted an exit point accurately, and so could not have arranged for an accomplice either. As to the absence of a body or parachute, that is not surprising to me. Every year there are canopies lost near major dropzones, never found in spite of knowing very closely where they might be, and in spite of very motivated individuals looking for a $1000 piece of equipment. Further, every year there are many searches for homicide victims, including some that are unsuccessful in spite of the number of volunteers and a pretty good guess as to location. Mark

The reason folks don't think it's a PITA is because you don't charge anything. If you don't value your time, why would they? More: Of course it's a service, but that doesn't mean it has to be a "free" service. It can't be a free service. As you wrote, it still costs you to provide the service, so it isn't free to you. In effect, you are subsidizing your customers. If SSK charges your credit card and then you wait to get paid by your customer, you are making a loan to your customer. Let that credit card balance roll over one month and see if that's a cost-free transaction. If being compensated for providing that AAD service is "making a profit," then any service you charge for is "making a profit." If you provide service to -- work for -- General Motors, is your paycheck "profit," or is it "wages?" Mark

[reply Is this the mark I met this year or oops 07 when I was there for sunpath? Yes. And you would be the guy in the "Infinity" bus? Mark

Nope, I didn't take it that way -- I just couldn't resist pointing out that juxtaposition. And that would be me screwing up. I did a lot of walking after landing rags. Cheers, Mark

I liked this part best: Thanks! Mark

Mounted for pitch control, as opposed to the yaw-control tail roters found on most helicopters. Mark

Do we know "loafers" as opposed to, say, "wingtips?" The one is slip-on, the other laces. In 1971, air travel was still a dress-up occasion. Athletic shoes or boots of any kind would have been unusual, and I can see where someone would want to avoid wearing something that would call attention. Lace-up shoes would be more secure than slip-ons, without being obvious as jumping shoes. Choosing slip-ons would be an indicator of not fully grasping what was involved in making the jump. Mark

Your rigger was correct if he meant it normally takes two weeks while it is at SSK. Shipping time is extra. I've been doing this a while, and the customer service from Airtec and SSK has been nothing short of outstanding. I plan on 2 weeks + shipping because it's been that way for years. That's a rather drastic solution if your rigger is otherwise doing okay. Mark

You can still see the black tracer on black Type 8 if you look closely enough. It does look a lot like just the center of the weave unless you have another color Type 8 next to it to compare. Type 13 (Jump Shack harnesses) has black tracers on the edges, much more difficult to see with black webbing. Type 12 (buffer strips and confluence wraps) has red tracers on the edges. Mark

Most AAD fires are a result of people forgetting to pull. They're conscious, just busy doing other things. For those folks, having a Cypres makes sense -- except for screwing with Darwin. Mark