riggerrob

.............................................................. The only way to keep the price under $100 is to publish the book electronically. Next question is how to compensate me for the hundreds of hours to translate technical documents from French to English.

We are straying from the original question. The best instructors teach "must know" information during the first jump ground school, then add additional layers of "should know" information over the next 24 jumps. "Could know" information is layered on around the Bon fire or while reading USPA accident reports. Bottom line too much information can easily overwhelm a first jump student so the best instructors limit FJC information to " must knows" and later add layers of "should knows."

..... returning to the original INTENT of the regulation: FAR 105.4064 Alterations of the auxiliary [reserve] parachute. .... B. Harness .... The harness is considered to be part of the auxiliary [reserve] parachute. .... May be altered by a master rigger ... any alteration that affects the strength or operation of the auxiliary parachute ... ............................................................................ Bottom line, FARs consider altering a chest strap an alteration, because if done poorly the chest strap might fail, the user fall out of the harness and misery ensue. A common error would be falling to fold and sew the best strap end to prevent it from accidentally disconnecting from the buckle. Some chest strap ends can be zig-zagged on a Singer 20 U sewing machine, while others need to be sewn with 5 cord routed through a (class 6 or 7) harness machine. The finished alteration or repair must copy the materials and stitch pattern originally installed by the factory. Only master riggers, major lofts and factories invest in huge harness machines. Alterations and major repairs are only supposed to be done by master riggers. As for people whining about Poynter's manuals being out-dated or The FAA PRH containing a few minor errors .... may I suggest a third alternative: Eric Fradet's "Manuel's du materielle d'au jour d'hui." Fradet's manual is beautifully illustrated and clearly written - in French. A few years back, Eric offered me the opportunity to translate his 600 page manual into English. How many of you would pay for a 600 page rigging manual?

........................ Please post a photograph. What Minimum Breaking Strength (or Safe Working Limit) are they rated for?

After the Twin Otter crash in Missouri (?) the FAA issued a report frowning on "single-point" restraints. What they really meant to say was that single-point cargo tie-downs were not strong enough. The FAA was trying to say that if you anchor skydive restraints to cargo rails, you need DOUBLE-STRENGTH CARGO ANCHORS.

Yes, Younger jumpers need to be reminded of the Perris crash, the Hinckley crash and the Pitt Meadows crash. Strange how young jumpers at Pitt Meadows never heard of the King Air crash even though the wreckage is still laying within sight of the loading area. On a more cheerful note: yesterday we jumped from an A-Star helicopter at Pitt. We flew with all the doors removed. The pilot was strict about weight and balance and seat-belts. Old skydivers grumbled while younger jumpers devoted their attention to learning the finer points of seat-belt usage. It helped that all the original seats were still installed.

...................................................................... A local dz uses Icarus 330 and 360 tandem mains. They stow the upper 2 feet of steering line in rubber bands. The rubber bands are looped onto C line attachment tapes. This reduces to risk of tail burns to zero. I also like the way the rubber band holds all the tail lines centre rear as I wrap the venter cell around the canopy, roll it and lay it on the floor. It is reassuring to feel that lump of steering line as I stuff it into the d-bag. Similarly when packing SET canopies, steering lines that are not stowed at the bottom, get the excess steering lines stowed in rubber bands so that they end up the same length as the stowed brake lines. Again, stowing loose steering lines reduces the risk of line-overs, burns, tension knots, etc. To quote Bill Booth: "When packing a ram-air canopy, you are mainly packing the lines. Once the lines are straight, it is going to open."

What if you sewed a zipper along the edge of a riser cover, from the shoulder yoke down to the main pin cover? If you wanted to get really fancy, you could continue the zipper all the way back up to the other shoulder. Mind you, that configuration would not keep the rain out. As for the harness .... I would cut off 90 percent to reduce weight and install conventional, 1 inch wide, plastic buckles on the new shoulder straps.

Cost varies widely depending upon how much your body size differs from that of the original owner. Hip and chest rings can vastly simify the process, since the rigger only has to replace one or two pieces of webbing. The cheapest is a longer chest strap. Again, start by asking your local rigger to measure you according to the harness manufacturer's order form. It is impossible to self-measure accurately. FAX that order form to the factory with a letter attached. Ask the factory how the harness should be modified to fit you perfectly and ask for a quote for the factory to re-size the harness. Then show that response to your local master rigger and ask him/her if they can do the sewing quicker or cheaper.

Yes Jerry, Another trick is fold the aft end over multiple times, until it is as thick as the (fabric, tape and binding tape) edge on the original. Sew across the folded edge multiple times until it is as stiff as the original. The most critical dimension is the width of the hole the cord exits. This "fold the bejesus out of it" method vastly reduces parts count and inventory and the number of sewing machines required.

PD slider tape works fine for slider channels. It was even the production standard for a South African-made (?) canopy.

Ah... got it.

When riding in single-engined Cessna's, the first restraining method involves routing the regular seat-belt between your belly and the harness. The second method involves buying skydiver-compatible belts from Hooker Harness. Route the male end of a Hooker under the hip of your parachute harness and clip it into the female hardware. Grab the strap end and remove slack. If civil aviation authorities refuse to allow you to install Hooker belts, ask them why they have learned nothing after 1992!

Chasing tandems might be "legal" with a D license, instructor rating, recent group freefall experience, etc. but USPA, the manufacturers and most DZOs discourage the practice. Hint: the first (... or second) tandem fatality involved a "chaser" docking so hard that he broke the TI's neck! The second tandem fatality involved a solo canopy trying to build a formation with an open tandem main. He docked so hard that he entangled with the tandem main canopy. The TI released his entangled main, but was unable to activate his reserve. Both fatalities occurred before Cypres was invented. We will learn nothing by repeating those mistakes. Most TIs do not want the additional risk of being chased by unknown jumpers with unknown skills. Finally, few tandem students remember seeing the extra jumper during freefall.

Sticky rip-stop tape was invented to patch down-filled sleeping bags. I also doubt that it is acidic, however I have seen many cases of it holding California desert grit against delicate canopy fabric. After a few years the adhesive dries out and ripstop patches fall off.

Repeating what I said earlier .... you problem is probably leg pads sliding upwards during opening shock. Leg pads have an annoying habit of sliding below your crotch while you sit in the airplane. The key to comfort is ensuring that leg pads are high in your crotch before exit. Ask a local instructor to show you how to adjust leg pads so that they ride high on your crotch before you exit the airplane.

Does anyone have packing instructions for a Tanka Rogallo reserve? Pictures are better since I cannot read the Cyrillic alphabet. Can anyone share stories of jumping a Tanka Rogallo reserve? How does it compare with a PZ-81 reserve, Paradactyl or Delta 2?

... I pack mostly PEP's ..., lots of Strongs with various Strong Lopo's (mostly midlite, won't pack a lite) .... .................................................................................. Why do you dislike Strong Lopo-Lites? How would you compare the various generations of Strong Lopos, Lopo-Lites and the current-production Mid-Lite?

That patch looks like it was done with sticky ripstop tape. Ripstop tape is largely "passé." These days I only use ripstop tape for patching drogues, but as packers and TIs take better care of drogues, I get asked to patch fewer and fewer drogues. Trivia: why was sticky ripstop tape invented?

Mr. Rasmack, My point is that unstable exits and malfunctions are so rare with IAD and hand-deployed early freefall that it is difficult to find damning video. As for the Norwegian suggesting combining soft pilot-chutes and static-lines: that is doing it the hard way, with lots of extra fiddly bits and an extra second or two for the student to interfere with deployment. The greatest advantage of IAD is that the canopy reaches line-stretch before the student can tumble enough to interfer with deployment.

If you want mega-statistics, ask CSPA Headquarters. They will probably ***pass your question on to CSPA's Coaching Committee ... or maybe the membership committee can tell you how many first-jump students jump in Canada every year. Most Canadian IAD students do hanging exits from Cessna struts. Yes, hanging exits require a few practice climb-outs on the ground. The big challenge is training old instructors to climb out with their students. Hah! Hah! I have dropped hundreds of S/L, IAD and accompanied freefall students from a wide variety of aircraft. I have also done 4,000 tandems. IAD is by far the best way to drop solo students. Teaching them to throw their own pilot-chutes (from BOC) prevents a dozen transition problems as they progress.

Canadian dzs converted to hand-deploy pilot-chutes for all students starting 30 years ago (early 1980s). All first-jumpers used Instructor /assisted /deployment, then they did a few practice pilot-chute throws (with instructor still holding their pilot-chute), then their first freefalls were done with the student tossing his own pilot-chute. The greatest advantage of IAD is that it lifts the d-bag too quickly for a clumsy student to interfer with deployment. Clumsy IAD end up with lie-twists. IAD also reduces clutter in the airplane with nothing for the instructor to fumble with after the last student has exited. Equipment-wise, the only difference is that IAD student containers have an extra pilot-chute pouch sewn vertically on the left side flap. This extra pouch reduces clutter in the airplane and allows us to stuff in simulated pilot-chutes before take-off. Early on, we used pilot-chute pouches sewn to belly-bands, but gradually converted to pouches on the back of leg straps and eventually bottom of container. We teach students to lay the palm of their fright hand on their right buttock, then slide it up to the lower corner of the container, wrapping their fingers around the pilot-chute handle, etc. BOC has the advantage of starting with the student's handle at the correct angle to the wind. One set of gear simplifies packing, manifesting, transitions, etc. I am not quite sure what the Norwegian is mumbling about??????

Funny how Units had a reputation for slow openings. I only did one jump on a Unit .. pulled the ripcord at 3,000 and was open by 2,000. Other than that it flew fine. Then I bought a Cruislite and enjoyed hundreds of jumps on my Cruislite. Modern jumpers derisively refer to Cruiselites as "Bruiselites." Hah! Hah! Sounds like Unit openings have now returned to the height of fashion. Units were fashionable circa 1980. Ask Ray Ferrel (Action Air, Davis, California) for the details. GQ Security quit building Units shortly before they closed their factory in San Leandro, California (near San Francisco). The GQ Security factory closed because they lost a bid on a military contract.

Collapsing the pilot-chute (for canopy formations) was the second function of a #8 grommet. The first function was crown line reefing on Para-Commanders .. sort of like grabbing the tail after the horse has already run through the gate! Hah! Hah! Para-Flite tried top-skin reefing on squares, but that only lasted a couple of years before they converted to bottom-skin reefing and eventually slider reefing.

If that hole was only through the ZP fabric, I would ignore it. For holes in stabilizers - near slider stops and line attachments - I just scab-on a single-layer patch of PD slider-tape. I fold the edges under to hide the hot-cut edge. Sew 2 rows of stitching around the edges. If I don't have any PD slider-tape, I might substitute Type 4 webbing (3 inches wide).