RiggerLee

People are changing. Once upon a time 254 lb's seemed like a reasonable maximum. Who would ever need to load some thing higher then that? People have physically become larger since then. 6 ft. isn't exactly a giant any more. It's not even uncommon. And people are fat. Just down right fat. Even the average person caries more body fat then they did 50 years ago. It's not a small percentage of people that we are turning away. And I'm not always talking about obese asthmatics that couldn't even climb into the plane. Some of them are just over the 220 or 230 or what ever your cut off is. Maybe it's time to look at heavier gear. Right now PD has reserves rated up to 300 lb's. We could build equipment for big people. A vector with a large PD opens up options for larger jumpers with out resorting to the extremes of a tandem rig or some outrageously expensive. And if we wanted to go higher we could build even stronger designs. It wouldn't be that much harder to manufacture. And their is no reason for it to be drastically more expensive. I can show you how to build a stronger harness that will not break. With relatively minor changes to a couple of joints you could easily build a harness for... well any one that could possible fit out the door of the plane. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Larry Portman and a couple of other guys used to jump balloon suits before he got all skinny. Their are still a few people jumping with swoop cords. It's not that archaic. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

You people do realize that their are jump suits other then skin tight spandex nylon. Ever hear of a balloon suit? Ever hear of swoop cords. Ever hear of wing, and I don't mean a wing suit. It wont be as easy. Flying these suits is different, it requires different techniques. But he can learn to jump with other people. I've known people of that size that could fly with any one they wanted to. And they weren't 7 foot tall. They were down right round. With the right container. The right reserve. He could do this. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I'm trying to figure out how they built that. Do all of the bar tacks go through all three layers of webbing? Both layers of riser and the dive loop? Are they all done at once? If they fold and sew the end of the riser then sew the dive loop then that means they actually missed two steps in the process on the same riser. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Don't laugh. I've done that. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

A round is totally doable with out a puller. The tolerances are not nearly as tight as a square. It's like a factor of ten between the two. On block, even the gore edges are not that great of an angle. If you're hot cutting them the stretch is even less. A puller is a god send but mainly because it makes the sewing easier. you can have both of your hands in the front which lets you sew much faster and their is a lot of seam in a 28. I would tell you that it's worth looking around for a 112-w-116 just to speed it up. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

But that's basically true of all dating web site. What they are actually selling is hope and fantasy. The reality is that if your not getting laid in the real world then you wont get laid on line. If a woman goes on line, she has the opportunity to be even pickier then she would be in a bar. you're just putting your self in a bigger pool with fewer fisher... fisherwoman. If you really want to get laid, hang out at bars around closing time and don't be picky about what comes up to you. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

And you should know these things, but... Don't pee over the side. Get a piss bottle. When ever a body is found of a sailor that has fallen over on a night watch, his fly is always open. Oddly this never seems to happen to female crew members. Yes a good life boat. But with a good well designed mono hull I could almost say that it's redundant. Almost with out exception your better off staying with the boat. Many a time some one has gotten scared and bailed from the ship. you know what they find? The raft upside down and empty and the boat still afloat. Short of hitting some thing big like a lost container and breaking the hull open you're better off in the boat. A cat may be another story. Also, if you think your well equipped life raft is equipped, it's not. Put together a water tight bail out bag of all the shit that will really keep you alive. Tie it to the raft. Don't keep it bellow. If things go that bad... their wont be time. If you have time to get ready, you have time to save the ship. Know where all the extinguishers are on board. Make sure the are spread out so you have one on your side of the fire. Fire is a bitch. Check the propane and CO sensors. I don't know what kind of stove or fuel your running. Use your blowers. Check the oil pressure alarm. Get a good inflatable life vest. Get a good strobe for it, Hell even sew a pocket to it with a flair. all the standard stuff. Sun screen. A couple of spare hats. Even with a string under the chip your you know you're going to lose one. And if you haven't learned to use one, buy a sextant and tables. It's just old school and cool. It's not that hard once you get the hang of it. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

So I was sent a question. we've been kicking this around for a while. He has some old singer 112-w-140 and 212-w-140 double needles but they are getting tired. He's looking to upgrade to some thing more modern, lower maintenance. Maybe an oiler. Doesn't need any thing fancy. Needle feed, mostly for binding. I'm not really up on newer models. I'm cheep. Any thoughts on newer designs that wear well, are strong, and don't break the bank? Question follows... Hey Lee, do me favor if get a chance sometime . on a Rigger forum or know anyone using Juki's in there shop . ? . I been doing a lot of looking last couple months . Ask if they are anyone they know using a newer model of. ( Juki . LH-3528A ) . it is there ( double needle) model 'without' needle lift split-bar . It looks to be a ( Needle-Feed ) also . with a presser foot that can be trimmed down to get closer to the binder . but until I actually get my eye on a one to checkout I can't be 100% sure . Just trying to digup and get as close as I can to the correct info, before I pop out a couple-k and order one up for delivery . Juki's are Strong and this model looks to be the correct route to start moving into the modern world, as I am getting pretty old & tired of wrenching on old machines. ....thanks ray Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I'm not ragging on you, I just want to make sure I've got this clear. Your partner is not a sailor. You sail but you have no time on a big cruising Cat. It's going to be three couples on vacation and you as the only crew. Your friend says he wants to try this out and learn but he will have his girl friend with him. It goes with out saying that she will consider this a vacation and will expect and demand his attention. Looks like you will be standing your night watches alone. If I'm off base correct me. No shit, I wouldn't do it this way. The first thing I'd do is hire an old salty no nonsense ferry captain to come along for the ride. Some one with lots of time on big cats. Tell your friend it's worth the money. Even if he's just their to sit back in the corner and give you shit about what your doing wrong. Try to get some one that's operated in the area and knows the waters. Make the room. Hot bunk with him. You wont both be down at the same time. I honestly don't think you're qualified to single hand this big Cat alone which is what you are really looking at. I know you're a sailor but a big Cat is... different. At the very least buy a book on cruising Cats. I don't know much about them beyond what I've been told from a friend that used to charter them. he was a captain that taught ASA cruising courses on 50 Cats out of Belize and La Plia. Here are the highlights that I remember. Very stable. Too stable. Unlike a Hobie that will fly a hull a large heavy cat will not heal. Their is no real indication of how much load you are carrying in the rig. They have strain indicators. Load cells in the rigging to tell you how much stain you are pulling. You have to watch them. It's like flying instruments. Imagine if you were in IFR and you were def and could not hear the RPM's on the engine or hear the wind noise. The Air speed, Tac and Altimeter would be the only warning. So people get out in a nice freshening breeze with all their sails up and every thing is fine. As the wind picks up the the boat is moving right along and every thing seem fine. What a great boat. Maybe they turn a little more up into the wind and it's just singing. Then the mast goes over the side. No shit, it happens. Welcome to big cats. The next issue is that the hulls are skinny. Cats have skinny hulls. Other wise they wouldn't be cats just two mono hulls stuck together. The reason they are fast is that the fineness ratio is over... I don't recall. But that's what lets them beat the normal hull speed limitation. It's all about how the quarter wave forms. But the bottom line is skinny. No meat at the front or back. So you can push down on the bow and it will go down. Or push down on the stern and it will go down. Say into a wave. A mono hull has a lot more meat, volume, in the hull there and will resist this better. Also a mono hull doesn't have a deck like a big wing. They make it from mesh for a reason. The way you die in a big cat is to come over a swell into the wind, catch air under the front and the stern sinks down into the wave, remember this happens easily, and the cat lays gently over on it's back. And you will never ever get a big cat back over. No shit, why do you think they all have escape hatches in the belly on the BOTTOM. Who feels the need to put a fucking door in the floor of their boat. Only a cat driver. The best survival strategy is to turn slightly off the wind and ride over the swells at an angle. Draw a line from the leeward stern tip to the windward bow and keep that line into the wind. The idea is to take the wind on the free board of you upwind pontoon. Block as much of the wind from getting under your deck as you can. It's your best chance to ride out weather with out turning turtle. Again, this is just shit that I've heard. I'm not an expert. Find some one who is. As to a captain. It might make the trip a lot cheaper in terms of insurance. Defer some of his cost. Also, their isn't a chance in hell of getting insurance for the two of you for your own cat in open water. You friend may be able to take that kind of loss but you can't. A mono hull, at least you have some chance of getting it back to port if some thing goes wrong. A Cat will be a total write off. A mono, something goes wrong. You weather it out and get a tow. You may have to pay a ransom on the tow but it wont sink and you'll get it home. May have to rebuild a engine but you shouldn't lose every thing. You might even be able to qualify for some kind of insurance on it eventually. Just some thoughts. Beat some since into your partner. If he insist on a cat. Let him go it alone financially. Tell him that you'll just come along and crew for him. I wouldn't take my nest egg to sea in the form of a multi hull. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

If you buy the right boat you shouldn't have to blow all your money. The market in some areas is soft right now. The Houston area was hit hard by the cuts at NASA. Boats in Clear Lake are Cheep. Don't but a Cat. You don't want a Cat for deep water or long trips. Sooner or later you'll hit weather. You can be careful but with long legs sooner or later you run out of luck and Cats don't do well in seas and weather. They wind up up side down way too easy. Not stable enough front to back for big seas, high wind, and too stable side to side. It will come up over a swell into a big gust. Catch air under the front. Lift the nose. Sink the tail. And lay over on it's back up side down. Game over. On the other hand, rather then healing over or turning windward to easy the sails like a Good boat, ie. Mono hull, a good gust will over load the rigging and you'll lose the mast. If you've got too much sail up on a cat, and your head up your ass, the first warning you'll have is when you lose the rig. Don't get me wrong. Cats are awesome but they are what they are. It's not some thing you want to take to sea. don't be seduced by all the room. You can get twice the boat for half the price in a mono hull and have some thing that is truly sea worthy. Buy your self a 50 ft out of some place like Houston. The Caribbean is a great place to start your trip. As to the rest of your money. Or all of it if you decide to go another route. Have you noticed that the stock market just crashed? Good time to look at other investments if you have some cash right now. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

What to do with it? Jump it obviously. I suspect it would put a big smile on your fathers face to look down and see you jumping his old rig. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I don't know what you saw. I've built some things like this for base jumping. I don't know how much shit you want to carry or how often you do it. Over the years I've done it a lot of ways from large belly pack to turning around full size back packs on my chest. You'd be amazed how much shit you can carry even just in your pockets and wrapped around your body under a jacket. One thing you might look at is picking up an older rig with adjustable laterals. You don't see them any more but it really lets you open up the rig so you can wear a lot of shit under it. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

It took me a while to catch on to what you were talking about. As the worst speller in the room it looked perfectly normal to me. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

The clip I saw, they didn't really elaborate on the how of it. But let's think, inflatable elevator? The deal killer on the space elevator is structural. No material strong enough/light enough. But this idea is less ambitious. The word that stands out to me is inflatable. What if you were looking at a tethered balloon? You can do balloons with substantial payloads to 60,000 ft. No one has ever tried to tether one. 60,000 ft of cable strong enough to hold it is heave. But what if it wasn't one balloon but many. A string of balloons? Like a string of Perls each supporting the weight of the cable beneath it. extend that idea to an almost continuous series of balloons along the length of the cable, self supporting it's own weight. An "inflatable" elevator cable? Still lot's of strain, wind loads, etc. I think I'd just use a hand full of periodic balloons along the length of the cable. The cable would get heavier towards the bottom not towards the top like a "space" elevator. And the balloons toward to bottom would have much better lift for their size then the upper ones. What does this buy you? It does get you above a good bit of the thick air. Even if it was just to 18,000 ft you would be above half of it. If you can lift a decent size rocket, it is much easier to launch it from a high altitude balloon. Their is a precedent. Some of the early sounding rockets were launched from balloons. It was a navy program back in the... 50's? Van Allen was part of it. It's how they did the early high altitude studies letting them get their instruments higher then they could with a balloon. Practicality? how much wind drag can you tolerate. How strong is your balloon. It would have to be a lot more then a flimsy plastic envelope. It has to be big enough to hold the section of cable beneath it and to support the payload of the rocket or what ever. The strength of the cable depends on the wind load and the payload. Now add the wind loads progressively on down for each balloon and you have an idea of the progressive strength/weight of each cable. Not saying it would work. Might not get to 60,000 feet but the idea is not as totally rediculas as the space elevator. I don't think you could get enough payload for even a small orbital rocket. Even just the upper stage is still pretty heavy. Honestly if you were trying to do some thing that small I think you would be closer to dropping it with a large jet. High altitude launch is more practical then this. Still interesting thought experiment. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Was it a bad spot? If a neighborhood was in the way of a fire, a few loads of that might stop the houses from catching or at least give fire fighters a fighting chance. I can see it making roofs more resistant to hot embers carried on the wind. You might not be able to save a forest that's dry as kindling but other then the houses, a subdivision doesn't have that much fuel to burn. It you could stop the roofs from catching... This might be the best use of resources. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Am I brain locking? What is this about a knot? I thought I remembered it as a short double ended loop? Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

If it could be done I would like to read it. And I'd buy it, assuming the price was not rediculas. Say under $100. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

If I'm understanding what your saying I'm quite sure no one has ever conceived that much less tested it. Get lots of video and arrange for it's posting should any thing go wrong. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Don't know what happened their. It's like it posted a blank post when I tried to reply. Oh well. Damn, I want to get my hands on that thing. It's hard to see what you're referring to. It's one of those things where you would have to be under it to feel it. It would be helpful if you could articulate it a bit more. I'm guessing that you're not getting more out of him then, "It feels kind of funny." Not supper helpful. Now I really want to jump that thing. I'm just going to take some random guesses and as usual it's right out of my ass. Break input, pitch, yaw, and roll are all tied to gather. I can see a lot of variables in how they would interact with each other and how the canopy would respond and "feel". Pitch. When you pull on the toggles, whether it's one or two, the first thing that will happen is the canopy will pitch back. It's a weird dynamic motion and I can see a number of variables in how it pitches and how it recovers which is a dynamic oscillation. Interesting note. The Icarus guy was playing with modeling this. Small perturbation and larger dynamic movements. I think it would be hard to predict exactly how these factors will change it but some things that come to mind are line length, trim, air foil, aspect ratio, break line location. Basically every part of the canopy. how long the line are, how far your CG is below the cord affect how the canopy pitches as the body dynamically swings out in front as you break. The trim and airfoil figure into the returning force. Aspect ratio affect how the drag increases as it pitches back again feeding in to the force pulling back and pitching the canopy. Where the lines are on the tail affect how much drag you make to begin with. And that's just the obvious shit off the top of my head. What follows is guesses. Don't put much credence in it. I'm making it up. Line length. The longer it is the bigger the motion to change pitch. Long lines will slow things down but you can also store a lot of energy in that long pendulum motion. Para gliders for example store huge amounts of energy in the swing of body under the canopy. Part of learning how to fly them is learning to control that energy. The mass of the canopy and the mass of the air inside the canopy also feed into the ability to pitch the canopy. So what does it actually do? canopies with short lines feel... like a short coupled air craft. very responsive. turns are quicker, snappier. The body returns back under the canopy more quickly. You stay more under the canopy, you don't swing out as much and it snaps back over your head faster. Don't confuse that with response. It's radical, almost like a small pits. Long lines move and respond slower and you return under the canopy slower. You store more energy in a long lined canopy. Again don't confuse that with response. A short lined canopy may snap a barrel roll but that doesn't mean that that energy is stored in the canopy. If you've done big wing overs with a para glider then you know what energy storage is. Too short and it can stall really hard, but that's also trim. Too long and the pitch can be too slow. Ex. student flares high, lets up, canopy surges, flares deep but nothing happens. It dives into the ground before the canopy can pitch back over his head to make lift. Trim. Flat canopies pitch more. They move more easily backwards and forwards. But that's my impression. Most of the flatter canopies I've jumped have been longer lined so I may have the wrong impression. But I think steeper trimmed canopies are more locked in with a greater pitch stiffness. A lot of small high performance canopies are very steep. They are fast and radical but I don't think they actually pitch that easily. And I think people that would dispute this are confusing their responsiveness with the ability to pitch. It's probable for the best. I think they could get into a lot of trouble if they could pitch more easily. I think airfoil really fits here into the pitch stiffness of the canopy in terms of how the CP changes and the return force to the normal trim angle. Aspect ratio. I think it feeds in to exaggerate the drag of the toggles wanting to increase the pitching of the canopy as the body swings forwards and the drag increases. I'm not sure I can say how much it's in their, all of our canopies are really low to begin with and the ones where it's higher have much longer lines so I think it's lost in every thing else. Where I think it shows up much more is with single break input and the coupling of the roll and yaw. Break line location. Ahh here is some thing interesting. Not just because it has a big affect but because YOU CAN CHANGE IT. Of all of these things the break lines are the easiest to change. Trim/line length is the next thing you can alter but any thing else basically means building a whole new canopy. This is probable how you are going to "fix" how it feels. So what can you do with break lines? Well you can move them in and out. you can control how much of the canopy you are distorting. How much drag you are making. Where that drag is, which plays into turning the canopy. With one break input, how much of it is pitch and how much is yaw. If you move your toggle out a rib you may find that you get more turn in your turn and less pitch when you pull down on one toggle. It may be that he's feeling that he's being lifted up and back when he tries to turn. Like it's flaring and stopping when he tries to turn. And when he lets up the canopy surges and dives, rather then stopping turning and planing out. It's a subtle thing. Hard to describe. Really want to jump the damn thing. It affect other things. Like your flair and stall. If you move the toggles out it may be more prone to bow tie for example when you stall it. The out side of the canopy will fall backwards but the center will still be trying to lean forwards. This isn't a bad thing, a lot of canopies are like that. Your AR isn't real high and your airfoil is pretty thick, you may not even see that. I'm going to guess that your fairly happy with the rest of how your canopy flies. Put tabs on the rest of your outer ribs. Start playing with moving the lines around. Try going out one rib. I think you'll find that it turns more responsively and smoother but might require a bit more control stroke. Play with your flair and stall as well. Remember your backing up so you have to re look some of those things. You don't want surprises when you go to flair for landing. I think you're close. I think you have 90% of a good canopy their. But it's going to take some jumping and testing to iron that last 10% out. I was actually disappointed when you hadn't found any thing interesting in your first few jumps. Now I wish I could play with it. Are you keeping records? You need to keep a written record/report on every jump. Every change. You should have a three ring binder or hard drive with a write up of every jump and the film from every jump in a file for it. And the out put of a Data recorder. Like the one at PIA I sent you the like for. No data, no testing. With out records, it's just jerking off. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Is this some kind of x rated satirical remake of Harry and the Henderson's? Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I have a solution to all of this. http://video.foxnews.com/v/4410959426001/lawyer-proposes-trial-by-combat-to-settle-lawsuit/?intcmp=hpvid1&playlist_id=trending#sp=show-clips If this goes through it will be the best thing to ever happen in the history of the country. It will totally change the legal system, and for the better I might add. Personally I think it's all gone down hill since we outlawed dueling. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

http://video.foxnews.com/v/4411697385001/horrified-beachgoers-watch-as-winds-snap-parasailers-cord/?intcmp=hpvid1#sp=show-clips Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

It's actually a 112-w-116 It's made that way. The bottom roller is powered. The top is just a spring loaded idler wheel. You can ret an after market puller like that and cut out behind the machine to fit it. But it's probable cheaper to find an old one like mine. It's silver soldered. I've never seen them tig welded. There are companies that do nothing but build attachments. A tape foot is an easy one and sooo worth it. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

First set of pics is a tape foot. It's the very first upgrade you need to buy for your machine. Perhaps a separate bobbin winder, that should be first. But a tape foot is the cheapest most useful attachment you could add to your sewing. It's just a foot. Put it on any time you need it. Next is a stand to feed the tape from above the machine. Or you can just hang a shaft for a spool of tape from the ceiling above your machine. Next is a couple of simple folders. That is an example of a French Fell seam folder. A little pricey but worth it to me. Paid for it self on the first project. For you... I'd say a simple up turn folder to prep the edges as you sew tape on. And a full roll to finish the tail. You should be able to just feed the tape into the roll as you finish the tail seem. It should be an easy off the shelf item. Last, and this is a bigger one. You will want at some point to get a puller. You could get one installed on that machine but the cheapest way to go would probable be to find a machine with one already on it. They don't grow on trees. Just keep an eye out. Build up a cool machine fund and just have it their waiting in case your dream machine pops up on E-bay or some shit like that. Hot knife. This is the one you want for most things. By that I mean all your fabric cutting. The larger knives are nice. I have like 4 that I rotate through to keep from over heating them. Their really for cutting webbing and heavy fabric, shit like that. You could use it to trim tapes and a few things but you can do even the heaviest cuts on this with your small knife. Work space. Their is an axiom that your work will expand to fill the available area. A project is like a gas not a liquid. I used to have a 5000 sq ft loft. Now I get by in half a 2000 sq ft house. Things you can do. First try moving your table into the middle of a room so things can go off the end with out piling up. Scratch that. First thing is get a bunch of slippery box tape and cover every sharp edge on your machine and stand. No snag points. No sharp junctions, bolts, metal, any thing that could snag fabric. Goal is to make it as smooth as a babies bottom. You'll only have to snag a canopy once to regret not doing this when you rip a hole in it on the last seam. Next thing you can do is to get a table that you can stand behind the sewing machine to support your work. One solution is to get another sewing machine table. Get a blank table top. They mass produce those table tops and then cut the hole for what ever machine is desired. You can just get a blank uncut table and an old ass scrap set of legs. Wala, instant easily removable extendable table surface. I used to have them in between a lot of my machines with their backs to them so two machines shared one spare table. Mine were actually made from some shelving. But if you want to see a table... Four by Eight baby. Fall to you knees and pay homage to my table. Yes I have a small dick but I have a big sewing table and some big ass guns. It evens out. don't even have room to set that one up right now. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com