riggerrob

That sounds like after-market cargo rails in your Cessna 206. Stock Cessna 206 have seat-rails bolted to the floor. I suspect that they bolted cargo rails to the side walls to shorten the flail arc. If you are wondering what they are attached to, you should see bolts attaching them to bulkheads and extra doubler plates over-lapping the bolts ... sort of like the external doubler plates where they bolt on floats or skis or belly panniers for extra luggage.. Please share photos. P.S. I mailed a package to you on Monday.

If they ever ask me - in court - I will plead guilty to vandalism and theft, then give them a long-winded explanation of how it Prolonged my Traumatic Stress Disorder. If they still want to send poor wounded army veteran to jail after hearing that tale of woe ....

Infinities are decent rigs. Vortexes may be decent rigs, and they may pack mostly the same way as Javelins, but Vortex reserve side flaps are too tight, which makes them a %$#@! to pack.

Good point John, I used front-riser dives to earn my Exhibition Jump Rating on a Stiletto 135 and Ariel 150 (Sabre 1 copy). It worked batter for me than the old accuracy approach (deep brakes, letting up, then flaring for landing). I would be reluctant to teach the front riser approach to junior jumpers for fear that they fixate on the target and forget to let up on front risers or flare. I have seen both under big docile student canopies. For junior jumpers, I prefer to teach the method that has them flying a standard down-wind and base leg, then having three options for where to turn from base to final. Then the lesson becomes all about matching different angles to different winds.

I typically wait until 3500 feet before un-doing my seat-belt. Then I immediately Segway into hooking up my tandem student. this is based on the notion that 4,000 feet is the minimum altitude I would bail out with a tandem student. The last time I found my self in a failing airplane, we never climbed above 3,800 feet (?). By the time I looked at my altimeter, we were rapidly descending through 2,500 feet ... faster than I have ever seen an altimeter unwind before! I looked at J.P. hesitating inside the closed door. I looked at my tall tandem student. I looked at my altimeter again 1,800 feet and decreasing rapidly ... And concluded that there was no way I could hook on my tandem student and carry him to the door before we descended below 1,000 feet. I gritted my teeth and waited for impact.

Funny! Gary Douris told me bout a nasty round malfunction traced to an assymetric opening. Investigators blamed the assymetric opening on an assymetric apex. Part of the problem was that a tight bridle prevented the apex from self-centering.

Has anyone seen Eric Fradet recently? Is Eric still jumping? Has Eric taken up any other sports?

Councilman, thanks for the suggestions about "blight" ordinances. As for planting blackberry bushes ... yes, we have them by the thousands in Southern British Columbia. They rapidly re-claim any land cleared by white men, but not plowed or mowed. They are already heavy with green berries. The amount of rain over the next month will determine how many million blackberries we can harvest this year. As for talking directly with the old DZO ... he is an arrogant %$#@! .... who cares little for other peoples' feelings or profits. As for talking to the Aircraft Maintenance Engineer who currently owns the wreckage ... he has told a variety of stories to current DZ staff. Translation: the current owner has no intention of moving the wreckage this year. He is also a self-centered fellow who cares little about anything beyond his own profit margin. Yesterday, I dodged wasps as I wrapped an old tent around the windshield of the wreck. It laid in the weeds along the western edge of apron 3, near the old fuel pumps. I saw several empty spray paint cans with my finger-prints on them. The forward fuselage is all twisted and distorted. The rudder pedals are corroded. At a minimum, those rudder pedals need dozens of man-hours to clean, inspect and re-paint before they can be installed in another King Air. As for seat-belts: FARS and CARS insist that all skydivers wear seat-belts .... however, Transport Canada has their own very narrow interpretation of what constitutes legal seat-belts. When TC phoned me back in October 2008 (2 months after the crash) I quizzed the TC investigator about Jack Hooker, the Twin Otter crash spring 1992, the Beech 18 crash in Hinkley, Labor Day 1992, etc. The TC investigator admitted complete ignorance of the bloody lessons learned by USPA back in 1992! I spent the next couple of hours filling gaps in his knowledge. Back in 2008, TC was 16 years behind the times. Do the math! Since then, TC has remained blissfully ignorant of American attitudes towards seat-belts for skydivers ... or maybe it is just the TC office in Abbotsford, B.C.???? TC has repeatedly given the former Pitt Meadows DZO grief over non-standard seat-belts. By non-standard, I mean any seat-belt not installed by Cessna or Beechcraft. Most stock seat-belts are too short to wrap around skydivers, furthermore, they are often poorly located to restrain skydivers during forced landings. For example, when a loose seat-belt sprained my ankle in May of 2008, I suggested to the old DZO that he install Hooker seat-belts. He angrily replied "They are not STCed!" Reading between the lines, I got the impression that the old DZO had also researched Hooker belts and had been refused by TC. The old DZO was so frustrated about seat-belts that he gave the impression that - if I ever asked him again - he would fire me! When I gave him a copy of the FAA's 1997 report on skydiver-compatible seat-belts, he tried to return it. I insisted: "This is your copy." Two years after the King Air crash, TC refused to allow him to import another King Air. TC's excuse was that it was missing the cocktail table mentioned in a Beechcraft factory parts list. Whether the cocktail table was installed was irrelevant because cocktail tables are a nuisance during skydiving operations. If TC had honestly said that the old DZO was not competent to fly a King Air, I would have agreed. However, TC's sneaky, bureaucratic methods for refusal are cowardly and stink of back-room politics. Some DZs are dangerous places for instructors and riggers who suggest compliance with CARS, FARS, USPA BSRs, service bulletins, best-business-practices, etc. As for attaching seat-belts to chest-straps: may I remind you that most chest strap buckles are only rated for 500 pounds, while most other parachute hardware is rated for a minimum of 2500 pounds. If lawyers get upset by today's post: GOOD! Most of what I have said I have said before during hearings for discovery. Bottom line: no-one cares a fig if they prolong the traumatic stress of the wounded, because they are too busy covering their legal asses with lame excuses.

How do you remove a plane wreck from a DZ? As many dz.commers know, I was injured during the forced landing of a King Air (jump plane) 7 years ago. Two years after the crash, the DZO moved the wreckage onto Pitt Meadows Airport, where I had to look at every time I drove through the gate. Students joked about "that is the plane they used last year" as they climbed aboard its sistership. The DZO is still baffled as to why I quit 2 years after the crash?????? Seven years after the crash, the wreckage is still laying near the gate to Pitt Meadows Airport. Every time I see the wreckage, I cringe. Seeing that wreckage - from the same angle I saw it out the ambulance door after I regained my senses - prolongs my traumatic stress disorder. The aircraft maintenance engineer who now owns the wreckage has a reputation for moving at this own pace. Since the crash, he has stripped the plane of engines, undercarriage, fuel system, radios, fin, seats, seat-belts, the left wing, etc. 99percent of the re-usable components are long gone. The first time he was asked to remove the wreckage, he replied that he would move it as soon as he salvaged the last circuit-breaker. The last time he was asked to remove the wreckage, he replied that he would remove it as soon as he had salvaged the rudder pedals. etc. etc. etc. Translation: he has no intention of moving the wreckage this year. I have contemplated un-bolting the rudder pedals and leaving them laying in the field while we sell the rest of the wreckage to the aluminum salvage yard.The new DZO wants to use the proceeds to buy a keg of beer and host a "survivors' party." However, as an AME the wreck owner has enough political clout to make life miserable for the DZ, so we cannot seriously consider stealing the wreckage, no matter how bad it is for morale of survivors. I have also (twice) suggested to the Pitt Meadows Fire Department that they haul the wreck away to use as a training aid. Initially Chief Chatton sounded keen, but stalled over who owned the wreck. Meanwhile, the wreckage is hosting wasps and rodents and ruining the morale of skydivers. Do any dz.commers know of a graceful way to rid the airport of this eyesore? Creative suggestions welcome ... Novel suggestions welcome ... Evil suggestions welcome ... Cruel suggestions welcome .... Humorous suggestions welcome ....

This is the first time I have heard of a shoulder hook disconnecting after exit. There have been a few incidents involving TIs forgetting to hook hooks before exit. It even happened to me during an evaluation jump. I had many hundreds of tandem jumps and was strapped to the front of an aspiring TI. After he had hooked us together and completed all his checks, I waved the left shoulder hook under his nose until he connected it correctly. Back on the ground, I reported the omission to the Tandem Examiner.

Adding to Skypuppy's comments about hot air balloons ... The first parachute jump in Canada was made in September 1888 during the annual Sherbrooke Fair (my home town). The jumper (Larsen?) was born in Canada, but acquired most of his skills in the USA. He worked the county fair circuit during the late 1880s, like several other balloonists.

I am voting with Jerry Baumchen. A 5 or 6 foot long bridle is plenty enough for round canopies. These days I only pack rounds into PEPs, and all those pilot chutes launch to the full length of the bridle before they hit the floor (zero air speed). I also do not expect pilots to be stable when deploying PEPs.

GQ Security (San Leandro, California) introduced the X-210 main during the early 1980s, shortly before they closed the factory in 1984. The X-210 never sold in huge numbers as a main. I can count on one hand the number of X-210 Reserves I have repacked. They had Type 4 diapers (all lines stowed on the diaper, parallel with a rib seam). Those Kevlar lines will not last 200 jumps. Sounds like your Pegasus will make a great wall decoration. We dug a similar Pegasus canopy out of the attic last week and plan to hang it on the hangar wall. Django's Pegasus was the "hot" canopy when I visited Z-Hills in 1980. It was one of the first 7-cells made of F-111 fabric with I-beam seams. Pegasus set the pattern for 7-cells for the rest of the 1980s. Even the modern(?) Triathlon is just a Pegasus updated with newer materials (ZP fabric and Spectra suspension lines). Pegasus was the first generation of BASE canopies. Pegasus was the second generation of Canopy Formation Canopies. Most third generation reserves (X-210R, Raven, Swift Plus, etc.) look like close copies of Pegasus. Para-Flite followed with the Cruislite a year or two later. I bought my Cruislite in 1984. Para-Flite sued Django for patent infringement (line attachments). Eventually, Para-Flite sued Django out of business. A few months later, Glide Path re-opened production with the Fury, which was just a Pegasus with mini-flare line attachments.

I found a problem with old Long-Softies before I worked at the Softie factory. The problem is that the hook Velcro on the side flaps is sewn all the way to the edge. If the Velcro is not mated properly, it will chew on the canopy fabric. I had to patch two canopies because of that problem. By the time I started working at the Softie Factory, they had added an extra couple of inches to the side flaps, making it more difficult for hook Velcro to chew on canopies. If you insist on re-packing those old Softies, at least sew some 1.5 inch or 2 inch tape along the edges of the side flaps. That extra tape will allow you to comply with the intent of the law, even if you refuse to comply with the letter of the law. Another problem with really old Softies is their lack of riser covers. Eventually sunlight will damage un-covered risers. This problem is not unique to Softies because I have seen similar sunlight damage on Butler, Security and Strong PEPs. When the Softie factory issued that lif- limit, it was a discrete way of saying "our old gear as good as our new gear" but they are scared to say that in front of American lawyers.

............................................................................... Careful who you say that to during a "Rainbow Skydivers" Boogie. You might wake up with a peter-puffer! Hah! Hah!

There is some good advice on this thread about chewing gum, Valsalva, etc. Chewing gum helps keep your estachion (sp?) tubes loose/venting during the climb. You will probably want to do the Valsalva maneuver shortly after opening (after you see a canopy overhead and satisfy yourself that it is steerable, etc.) Some drugs help (e.g. simple aspirin works for me), but be careful about any that warn about drowsiness. If sinus problems continue, visit a doctor who specialises in ear, nose and throat problems. If your sinuses are bothering you, stick to hop-and-pops for the rest of the day. After all, the coolest of high-speed canopy pilots only do hop-and-pops when they are perfecting their MADDDDDD skills just before a competition. Discussing hop-and-pops with a coach will maximize your jump ticket dollars. The only people who get bored under canopy don't hold PRO ratings, cannot stack canopies, are too inaccurate to stomp discs or too inaccurate to fly through the first gate. Bottom line, the canopy skills you perfect during hop-and-pops will keep you alive for the rest of your skydiving career.

I apologize. Sorry if I was a bit harsh in my earlier posts. Granted your post sounded like a long-winded sales pitch. I looked up egoscue on www.youtube.www and found that it is similar to a series of yoga and pilates and physio-therpay exercises that I have been doing for years to keep my herniated spinal discs, dislocated shoulder and knee problems within reason. These sorts of exercises are like self-chiropractic in that they help pull the bones back into correct alignment. Better alignment improves function and minimizes pain (e.g. sciatica). When I slack off on those exercises, my left leg cramps up, my lower spine hurts, etc. Bottom line: stretch or die!

Also look at 2014-vintage "retro" motorcycle helmets. They are about the same size and shape as the Bell motorcycle helmets that were fashionable for skydiving back during the 1970s. ... when I started.

1) Type 13 webbing is also used to make harnesses for Racers, Sidewinders and Slimline PEPs. 2) Supertack comes in at least 3 different strengths, ranging from 30-ish to 80-ish pounds. I will have to look up the exact tensile strengths. 3) A long time ago (early 1990s) Performance Designs used to line Sabre 1s with 500-ish spectra suspension line. It was not very durable, shrinking out of trim within a few hundred jumps (300-ish), so I always re-lined with 750 or 825 pound Spectra. 4) Yes, I have seen tubular nylon webbing reinforcing canopy apexes on rounds, but cannot remember the MBS. Can I look that up? 5) Kevlar reinforcing on cross-braced canopies??? Maybe on Excaliburs, but nothing sewn during this century.

Fixed it for you My 3 PD reserves are all over 20 years old and still in perfect condition. I had a ride on one just last summer and it performed flawlessly. I have no intention of retiring them anytime soon. ............................................................................. Perhaps I should have said: most school harness/containers are worn out after 20 years ... and a few reserve canopies are worn out after 20 years. My personal reserve fits that later description. It is an Amigo 172, sewn in 1994.It has only been deployed twice and has one small patch on the tail. I realize that the re-sale value is close to zero, so I will probably keep it in service for 30 years. OTOH Most tandem and student harness/containers are worn out after 12 to 18 years in service. Strong Enterprises insists on factory inspections of all their tandem gear after: 8, 13 and 18 years in service. Dual Hawks are grounded after 18 years and the older reserves are also grounded, but newer SE reserves can stay in service for more than 20 years. While SE's guidleines are not binding on tandem gear from other manufacturers, I have told more than one DZO "Don't waste your time mailing that 13-year-old Vector Tandem, because I am tired of sewing patches on it!" In other news, I had a few revelations on Sunday. I had been asked to resurrect a pair of closet-queens. One was a 1994-vintage Javelin with soft release housings. When I showed a soft release housing to a keen, young, local rigger, he mistook it for an RSL. I devoted the next 5 minutes to explaining the problems with soft housings and how I had refitted a hundred Talons (Hint: I worked at the Talon factory back in the mid-1990s) and dozens of Javelins. I concluded by grumbling about how I could not find the hard-housing retro-fit instructions on-line. Then I pointed to the (Javelin) main loop anchor and asked him: "What is wrong with this picture?" Blank stare .... So I devoted another 5 minutes to explaining how I was working in the Perris loft the day Dr. James Martin thundered in a half-mile away. While inspecting the Javelin's reserve risers, I finally understood why they issued that confusing letter (a decade or so ago) stating that only FAA Master Riggers were allowed to remove RSLs from Javelins. Yes, was familiar with the problem of exposed (RSL) hook Velcro chewing on the other reserve riser. I have even had to replace risers on a couple of harnesses, because of excessive chewing. Sadly, by the time the letter got past Sun Path's legal department, all mention of hiding exposed hook Velcro was deleted and all we heard was some vague legal mumbo-jumbo limiting who was allowed to remove RSLs from Javelins. This reminds me of a couple of FAA TSO-C23 updates that were mangled beyond recognition by FAA lawyers and refused by the PIA committee that originally wrote the update. Finally, I showed the young, local rigger the chest reserve that I was assembling for a nostalgia rig. He made a flippant comment about "... so you repacked this a hundred times to earn your Master Rigger rating? Hah! Hah!" I replied: "Despite earning my rigger rating back in 1984, I have only packed 60 chest reserves. However, I have repacked more than 300 seat-packs." ... more than 4,000 total ... In conclusion, the most dangerous thing about closet-queens is that young riggers never learned their dangers and cannot find instructions on the inter-web. Grumpy, old, grey-bearded master rigger wandering off muttering to himself ......

Riggerlee, I suspect that you are referring to the problem with titanium dioxide. It was applied to a batch of military canopies (USN conicals?) made back during the 1950s. Titanium dioxide was originally intended as a "de-lustrant" ... er ... camouflage, but if exposed to sunlight, it soon weakened the canopy fabric. The last time (circa 2000) I saw one of those canopies, my inspection stopped at the data panel and I refused to have anything more to do with it. See Poynter's manual for details.

Agreed! I have hundreds of jumps on Sabre 1-135, 150 and 170, but can only count on one hand the number of hard openings. All the hard openings occurred after rushed pack jobs. I suspect that I allowed the slider grommets to slide away from the slider stops as I crammed it into the D-bag.

Did you read the Teardrop manual? Did you ask Thomas Sports Equipment? Did you lay the new d-bag in the main container?

Dear Wendy, Pioneer K-20 reserves were designed for your petite ... er ... anatomy. Rather I was making sarcastic comments about stupid, fat, white men who jumped them. To be fair, I also made sarcastic comments about stupid, fat, white men jumping Micro Raven reserves.