riggerrob

CARs insist that all jumps be made in accordance with DZ Ops manuals and CSPA ( or similar national organization like CAPS) BSRs. The difference between CSPA BSRs, CAPS BSRs and USPA BSRs the the thickness of a photo-copy. Similarly, the difference between CARs and FARs is the thickness of a photo-copy. Canadian DZ ops manuals loop back to CSPA BSRs, which loop back to CARS, so that any time you disobey a BSR, you are also disobeying a CAR. TC likes BSRs because as long as BSRs keep fatality rates low and keep skydivers from interfering with airline traffic, TC does not have to bother with the finer details of skydiving. Remember that CARs were written by Vogons. CARs start with "All flying activity is prohibited in Canada without express written permission of the Crown ....." So if a practice (e.g. single-parachute jumps) is not mentioned in CARs, it is automatically forbidden. If it is not mentioned in CARs, it is almost impossible to obtain written permission from TC. Without written permission from TC, single-parachute jumps are illegal in Canadian airspace.

Even more bizarre is that the RCMP firearms manual specifically bans "bullpups," but - ironically - semi-automatic (Israeli) Tavors and (Chinese) Norinco Type 97 bullpup rifles are considered non-restricted in Canada. Canadian citizens only need a Firearms Acquisition and Possession license to buy either rifle. The Norinco Type 97 is a civilian version of the Type 95 rifle carried by the Chinese Peoples' Liberation Army. Tavors and Type 97 rifles fire the same 5.56 mm NATO ammunition as American M-16 rifles and M-4 carbines, but the longer barrel improves muzzle velocity and accuracy. Both rifles have barrels more than 18.6 inches long, but are only about 29 inches long in total, shorter than a banjo! Tavors sold in the USA are manufactured in the USA to avoid import restrictions.

If a re-make of Point Break means the same as it did in the early 1990s, it will mean that I can quit the "real" economy" and work for another ten or fifteen years as a skydiving bum: sewing, packing reserves, writing for SKYDIVING Magazine, hucking tandems on weekends, teaching the first jump course, tossing pilot-chutes for IAD students, teaching the basics to Accompanied Freefall students, etc.

... and if a competition judge accuses Anais of wearing an illegal weight vest (on her way to the swoop pond) she can reply: "But it's only a team jersey! ... a team jersey ...."

Yes, you will see more Kodiaks hauling skydivers in the future. More Kodiaks are part of the cycle of jump-plane purchases as older jump-planes wear and out and become cost-prohibitive to maintain, they are replaced by younger (higher initial purchase price) airplanes that are less expensive to maintain and burn less fuel per jumper (lower cost per hour). For example, piston-pounding Beech 18s and DC-3s were "the" most glamorous jump-planes during the 1970s and 1980s, but as Beech 18s required expensive spar reinforcements and (WW2-surplus) radial engine parts defame scarcer, they became increasingly expensive to maintain, ergo less reliable. During the 1990s, they were replaced by 1960s-vintage King Air A and B90 along with DHC-6-100 Twin Otters. When the wings on -100 Twin Otters "timed-out" they got new wings or were replaced by younger Twin Otters. As 1960s-vintage King Airs wore out, they were replaced by younger King Airs or simpler single-turbine airplanes: Porters, Turbine-engined single Otters, Caravans, PAC-750s, Kodiaks, etc. Keep in mind that hardly any of these airplanes were originally designed for skydiving .... Porters were designed to land on glaciers high in the Swiss Alps. Single-Otters spend most of their lives on floats or skins, hauling trapper and prospectors out of wilderness lakes. Most Caravans haul parcels for overnight couriers. PAC-750s are merely the latest in a long line of crop dusters built by Fletcher, Cresco, PAC, etc. Kodiaks were designed to deliver Christian missionaries to pagan tribes deep in Third World jungles. ..... King Air being the worst example, but they were old and inexpensive .... inexpensive because they had already been flogged through several careers hauling executives, scheduled passengers, charter passengers, cargo, midnight mail, etc. so that by the time skydivers were willing to pay for them, their cabins were too old to pressurize, their de-icing boots could no longer de-ice, their instrument panels were too old for flying in clouds and they destined for the bone-yard. By the time a (1960s-vintage) King Air was cheap enough for skydiving, owners were also seriously considering breaking it up for parts. When a DZ buys a King Air, they are basically buying the time remaining on the engines and the instrument panel. The old King Air airframe is tossed into the bargain for free. More than one DZ has bought and old King Air, swapped the engines to his (in-service) airplane and pushed the hulk into the weeds to serve as a red-neck spare parts department. In the end, the high cost of maintaining and insuring retractable undercarriages dooms King Airs. Hopefully they will be replaced by Kodiaks that are much better suited to the task of hauling skydivers.

Egoscue

Hi, It has been a few years since I taught at Skydive Long Island ... and I am unlikely to back for a few years yet ... meanwhile I am still struggling to recover from a plane crash 6 years ago. "The Back Pain Book" helped a lot and friends are complimenting me on walking straight a mere 6 months after knee surgery, but I still need more coaching on posture and I am waiting for the surgeon to phone to schedule a second round of knee surgery. What was the secret word in your video???? Limping skydivers want to know.

Have you trained with scuba divers and practiced the Valsalva Maneuver in a swimming pool?

Drugs are a distraction from the true healing process, which involves healing broken bones, ligaments, tendons and strengthening torn muscles. The OP was mostly a sales pitch, but there was one key word: "..... escue?" Did that word sink into anyone's short-term memory?

..... Speaking of subrogation, it wouldn't have been just your health ins carrier that had the right to subrogate. Once your MV carrier paid on your UM/UIM claim, your MV carrier did have the right to pursue subrogation against the other guy to get its money back from him, since it was his fault. ......................................................................................... Subrogation has become the newest swear word in my vocabulary. As many of you know, I got dragged into an eight year long personal-injury lawsuit after a King Air crash. Victims' mental health gets forgotten after eight years of courtroom wrangling. Eight years of courtroom wrangling has done far more secondary psychological damage than a year's work-place bullying or the original accident!!! The latest foolishness involves Great West Life demanding that I reimburse them for my rehab expenses .... During a period when they routinely refused my requests for help.

Similar incident occurred at Waterville, Nova Scotia during the early 1980s. We were still using military-surplus harness-containers with chest-mounted reserves and FXC 8000 AADs. The mains were sleeved C-9s and T-10s. A small woman (5'2" and 110 pounds) Harrell-rolled off the (Cessna) step and wrapped the sleeve around her. Her reserve deployed about 1,000' and she landed softly.

I use them to anchor the apex ........

Forget stalking the Valkyrie model ... I want to know how she made her scale armour?????? Shiny! Shiny! Oh! Oh!

Before you jump that Para-Commander, ask the oldest, greyest jumper to explain it to you. After you pull the Capewells apart, lubricate them with graphite (pencil lead), then practice a few more times. After you tire of the smell of dusty, musty old nylon, go out back and roll around in the grass for a while. That grey-bearded old jumper will explain why you should keep your elbows in front of your face, but you won't clue-in until after you whack your elbow a few times. Meanwhile, his old buddies will laugh at you while they rub their old scars.

Three weeks is a long time to suffer without a reduction in pain. If you completely tore through a ligament, it will never heal without surgery. For example, seven years ago, I tore three knee ligaments during a plane crash. I did not get a complete night's sleep for two months after the accident, because knee pain kept waking me up. I gritted my teeth and "took the pain" while struggling through two rounds of physio-therapy and another 300 tandem jumps before admitting that I was never going to be as strong as I was before the accident. Six years after the accident, I finally found a surgeon who knew how to repair my "interesting" torn ligaments. If your toe still hurts - after three weeks - get an MRI and ask for a second opinion from another foot surgeon.

Centuries from now, your lost audible is going to confuse some archeologist!!!!! Hah! Hah!

I used to challenge myself to play "beat the beeper." I tried to time my skydive so that I only heard my Dytter Mark 1 during opening. I backed that game with: timing, cloud altitudes, a visual altimeter on my wrist and eye-balling the ground. By mid-summer, I was consistently hearing my Dytter during line stretch.

A review of dz.com classified ads revealed that similar reserves are offered for $400 to $500.

.................................................................. Definitely include leg straps in your "last chance check" or "3 of 3s check" or whatevertheheck you call the check you do five minutes before exit. The key is to ensure that leg straps ride high up in your crotch, firm up against your pelvis, because they will end up high in your crotch after opening shock. If they have to travel, they will leave bruises that are difficult to explain to your wife/girlfriend/significant other ......

Andy, Please do not take my criticism of lawyers personally. I avoided contact with lawyers for the first 50 years of my life, then got dragged into two unpleasant lawsuits. The first lawsuit dragged me into divorce court ..... need I say more? The second lawsuit will probably drag on 8 years after a plane crash. Eight years of reminders only prolonged my traumatic stress disorder.

Please keep this THREAD going. The most important parts are sharing your "lessons learned" with junior sewers and riggers. You are struggling with "work arounds" that grumpy, old, grey-bearded Master Riggers learned decades ago. Please share your "work arounds" with every one.

Holy anti-Muslim propaganda Batman! That spokes-woman is not bright enough to distinguish between "refuges from country X" and "country X politicians spouting anti-American propaganda." Has she considered that refugees lost respect for propaganda? She is part of the problem, because she spouts extremist propaganda. I live near the US border, in a port city that welcomes thousands of Christian, Muslim, Bhuddist, Jewish, lapsed communist, etc. refugees every year. The vast majority of those refugees are tired of the political/religious/economic struggles in their homelands. The vast majority of refugees just want to find a job, raise a family, pray in peace, etc. The vast majority of refugees have concluded that politicians create more problems than they solve. Politicians are the un-wanted off-spring when lawyers are allowed to reproduce. Ewwww!

....... The FAR doesn't say; "if it is installed and turned on". It says, "If installed" ........ There is no exception to jump with an AAD not maintained according to the manufacturer's instructions if it is turned off. Derek V ........................................................... Correct Derek, When you start slicing the law that precisely, you take the first step down a slippery slope. Most skydiving fatalities are found in a smouldering crater, at the bottom of a slippery slope. Investigators follow a chain of mistakes to the smouldering crater. For example: the first fatality at Pitt Meadows involved a Cypres 1 with expired batteries (probably calendar). The first mistake was some one advising her "just don't turn it on." The second mistake was jumping borrowed gear with unfamiliar handles. The third mistake was fumbling for that unfamiliar handle all the way to impact. She made a chain of mistakes and died. Her first mistake was trying to "fudge" the legality of out-of-date Cypres batteries. Barracks lawyers are wasting their time trying to slice the law too finely because professional lawyers can slice the law so finely that the law becomes transparent. IOW by the time a professional lawyer finishes slicing the law, you can no longer see the original intent of the statute. For example, dragging out a personal injury lawsuit for 8 years. Maybe, just maybe, 8 years after an accident, the wounded are tired of being reminded. Maybe, just maybe lengthy court proceedings prolong their traumatic stress disorder. Maybe, just maybe, professional lawyers do more harm than good. Maybe, just maybe that is why I refuse to waste time with barracks lawyers. Simple answer: the last Cypres 1 retires in 2015, so we will see zero Cypres 1s in 2016. .... and the oldest Cypres 2 also retires in 2015.

Similarly, some riggers "adjust" the inspection date so that the repack "expires" the same day the Cypres "retires." If the customer chooses to jump it after that, he is assuming additional risk and absolving the rigger. He is absolving the rigger because he is ignoring the rigger's professional opinion and he/she is ignoring the Cypres manufacturers' maintenance schedule, which means that he is also violating the civil air regulations because most country's civil air regulations loop back to " in accordance with the manufacturers' instructions."

Faster canopies equal faster closing speeds. Faster closing speeds equal greater blunt force trauma when you hit another jumper. Remember that energy increases with the SQUARE of the velocity, hitting something at 40 mph involves 4 times the energy of hitting it at 20 mph. How many of you have dismounted a bicycle at 20 mph? How many enjoyed that dismount? How many have dismounted a bicycle at 40 mph? ..................