riggerrob

I was mainly referring to the bird strike tests done on jet airplanes. For example, when Canadair designed the CL-41 Tutor jet trainer (circa 1960) they fired chickens at windshields at 300 knots to prove that they could survive bird strikes at typical training speeds. Note that military airplanes frequently fly at high speeds (almost supersonic) at low altitudes. Meanwhile civilian airplanes are limited to less than 250 knots below 10,000 feet. Slowing down helps air traffic controllers think as fast as airliners.

You come from the country Europe? ................................................................................... Mr. ednarob was born in Belgium, but has lived in Canada for many years.

................................................................................... That reminds me of a service bulletin (CW03-01) issued by Capewell, requiring inspection of cracking ripcord pins. Apparently the problem started with changing to a different alloy of stainless steel. Ripcord pins are swaged (squeezed) onto cables much the same way that end fittings are swaged onto aircraft control cables. Most ripcords are made of aircraft quality control cable.

Reminds me of the ancient Capewell 2-shot system. 2-shots were rusted solid by the time I learned to freefall in 1979. Hah! Hah!

A decade or so ago ... er ... so long ago that I was flying an F-111 canopy. I was hanging under canopy with a tandem student. Below I saw an eagle circling in a thermal rising off a construction site, so I flew over and followed him for half a turn. He glanced over his shoulder and turned away promptly, far tighter a turn than I could follow.

Frozen chickens will definitely penetrate a windshield, while thawed chickens only penetrate windshield s part of the time. A few engineers learned that the hard way! Hah! Hah!

Most of the piston-pounding Cessnas that I jumped from had exposed aileron cables running across the cabin ceiling. I often gazed at those control cables while riding to altitude. I can also see the ends of tail control cables during a walk-around. CASA is telling us that cable end fittings are the most likely place of failure.

I recently saw a photo of United States Marines doing static-line jumps with reversed 3-Ring risers. There was an RW-1 ring sewn to the bottom of the main riser and the rest of the 3-Ring mechanism was on the harness. The main container was slightly smaller than a T-10 and did not have a dedicated back-pad, rather padded shoulder straps floated near the risers. It looked like the main container was held closed by something other than break-cord. Can any one confirm if this is a production configuration? Can anyone tell us what type of canopies are installed?

Do the control cables look as old as the wings? The Australian Civil Aviation Authority recently announced that they are going to require replacement of all aircraft primary control cable fittings at 15 years. In the last seven years there have 48 reports of failed control cables. The root of the problem seems to be that SAE-AISI 303 Se and 304 stainless steel swaged fittings are susceptible to stress corrosion cracking. Stress corrosion is also called fatigue. Stress corrosion occurrs much quicker within smell of salt water. CASA is giving Australian aircraft owners three years to replace cables. Back in 2001 the (American) NTSB urged the FAA to implement repeated inspections of control cables. Who knew we would be flying jump planes long enough to wear out control cables and pulleys? In similar news, Australian airplane owners are moaning about having to replace seat-belts every ten years. I am not sure if that seat-belt "life" was written by Cessna or by CASA. When you consider all the wear and tear that tourists subject seat-belts to: UV light, friction, walking on, beach sand, salt water, vomit, sweat, etc. I can understand why commercial seat-belts can wear out in 10 years. OTOH seat-belts in a privately-owned airplane, only flown to church on Sundays, hangared, etc. could easily last 30 years.

Agreed second-hand luggage will always be cheaper than buying the materials to sew your own. I have sewn a dozen gear bags, but did not bother to save the patterns. Start by thinking that airline carry-on luggage is 21" x 14" x 9". Draw those dimensions on a piece of cardboard and see if you rig will fit inside, then think about pockets. over-lap on zippers, shoulder straps etc. For shoulder straps, just copy the shoulder straps on your most comfortable back-pack/day-pack.

I just shoved my rig in a large gear bag and strapped the gear back to the rear seat of my motorcycle. Mind you, I did need to buy a small, steel tube, seat extension/luggage rack. A shorter gear bag would have alleviated the need for the extension.

The other beauty of thinking in nautical miles is that nautical miles are much easier for mental math. Since a nautical mile is 6040, it is easy to ignore the 40 feet and then you can quickly relate 6000 feet to the 60 seconds in a minute or the 60 minutes in an hour when calculating "distance travelled" in your head. For example an airplane travelling at 100 knots covers 100 nautical miles per hour.

I disagree. I wrenched on Sikorsky Sea King helicopters for 6 years and learned to spot common signs of lazy maintenance: dirty oleo struts, puddles of mysterious blue or pink fluids under parked airplanes, ill-fitting cowlings, etc. However, we can agree that ex-military helicopter maintainers can be miserable at spotting FAR violations. I once tried to read the Canadian Air Regulations, but soon concluded that they were written by and for the liars ... er lawyers who hold most of the seats in parliament. IOW CARS are written by Vogons, and most mechanics will revert to chewing off their own legs in desperate attempts at escape. Footnote: Vogons are ficticious alien bureaucrats in the sci-fi book and film "The Hitch-Hikers' Guide to the Galaxy."

Where did they do those canyon jumps?

I always wait to mention radios until after I have taught students how to steer and land on their own.

***No AAD is "TSO'd". AADs are unregulated (almost) ... ....................................................................................... Ten or 15 years ago, the Parachute Industry Association looked into writing a Technical Standard Order covering Automatic Activation Devices. Airtec (aka. the Cypres factory) offered the exhaustive test procedures they used when developing the Cypres 1, then challenged other AAD manufacturers to publish their test procedures. No other AAD manufacturers were willing to share their test procedures. PIA's project stalled. Back in reality, local riggers are bound to follow federal air regulations, which always loop back to "in accordance with manufacturers' instructions." Ergo, if a container manufacturer bans a specific model of AAD, then no rigger can legally install that AAD in that container. IOW If a rigger installs a brand "X" AAD counter to the container manufacturer's instructions, he has ignored "best business practices" and stands alone in court.

"... When you have a class of 20 first jumpers, sometimes with nationals of 4 or 5 foreign countries in the same group ... Simplicity is the key....." ..................................................................................... Also remember to confirm that the student has learned something. For example, many times after delivering the tandem speil to Japanese students, I have asked "wakureemashta?" They all nodded and replied "Hi!" But when I asked them to demonstrate and arch, they just stood there ... blank stares. Part of the problem is cultural. Many Japanese students are reluctant to admit that they do not understand a lesson for fear of embarrassing the instructor.

...................................................................................... We are still talking about seat-belts because it is part of a cycle. Many young skydivers only jump for three years before they move on to marriage, careers or other sports. Lessons learned long ago need to be repeated every few years before young jumpers start repeating mistakes invented by their fore-fathers. We need to discuss seat-belts every few years to remind young skydivers of what happens when airplanes malfunction.

The best method teaching varies with the student. Some students learn best by listening. Others learn best by reading. Others learn best by staring at pictures. Others learn best by watching video tapes. All students benefit from ground rehearsals (experiential learning). Good instructors glance at students and quiz them to discern which teaching method works best for each student. When teaching a class including several students, good instructors encourage students to read the key points before entering the classroom, then he/she shows pictures and video, then tells them, demonstrates and finally has the student practice a few times on the ground before they ever get near an airplane. For example, yesterday a surgeon told me to do "five finger exercises" to rehabilitate my knee. I stared back at him blankly. Then the surgeon drew some numbers on the board, asked me some simple math questions and counted on his fingers. Because the surgeon took the extra time to describe a bit of theory, his explanation stuck in my short-term memory. I copied his white-board notes onto paper. The next day I took my new knowledge to the gym to burn it into mid-term memory. It also helped that the surgeon took the extra time to teach the concept to a medical student.

Let's be really clear on terminology. Normally the dividing line between tapes and webbing is 1 inch wide and 1,000 pound tensile strength. The only MIL SPEC/PIA SPEC webbing less than 1 inch wide is Type 1 webbing, most commonly used for reserve line attachments. Type 3 tape is the most popular for main line attachment tapes. Type 3 tape is available in variety of widths and 3/4 inch wide Type 3 tape is the most popular size for binding containers.

Early Strato-Clouds also had ropes-and-rings on the bottom skin, but they packed about 30 percent larger than Strato-Clouds with sliders.

***... Personally, I psychopack. ...." ...................................................................................... The most important step to psycho-packing is the ROLLING , because rolling squeezes the air out while keeping the canopy neatly organized. The roll helps keep the canopy organized as you shove it into the bag. I learned to roll canopies a couple of years before psycho-packing was invented.

Dealing with over-confident (huge ego) students is similar to teaching arousal control. We start by rating arousal on a scale form 1 to 10, with 1 being barely awake and 10 being so excited that they can barely see anything. By arousal control, I mean teaching the student how to get his/her arousal level in the 5 to 7 range where the best learning occurs. Under-confident students can be encouraged by reminding them that they just performed most of the steps correctly and will improve the last skill if they just focus on "variable X." If an over-confident student keeps missing key steps during the later steps of ground training, you need to remind them that they are not going to jump until they can do the ground rehearsal (aka. dirt dive) perfectly - without prompting - before they will be allowed to jump. The most important instructional skill is knowing which students to refuse. I can count on one hand the number of first-jump (static-line or IAD) students that I have refused, but I have refused dozens of tandem students because they were too fat or too weak or had old injuries that never healed properly.

Video the goat rodeo confusion surrounding seat-belts. Show your video to DZ management and threaten to show the same video to the insurance company. If the insurance company ignores you, offer to show the video to civil aviation authorities.

Look at the airplane. Is the paint younger than the skydivers? Is there a small puddle of oil under a piston engine? Is there no puddle under a turbo-prop engine? Are there any dings in the propeller? Do all the fasteners on the cowling close properly? Is the nose oleo strut clean? Do the tires still have tread? How thick are the brake discs? Are there any dents in the wing tips? Are there any fuel leaks under the wing? Do the fuel caps fit securely? How many dents in the right-side horizontal stabilizer? Is the windshield bug-free? How many instruments are still accurate? Does the door close easily with only one hand? Are there any exposed sharp edges near the door? How many seat-belts? Are the seat-belts long enough to wrap around skydivers? Are seat-belts anchored to the floor slightly aft of the jumpers? Are there mats or carpet on the floor? Those are all maintenance items that a pilot is supposed to inspect every morning, before his/her first flight.