riggerrob

I did a bunch of jumps on Pioneer Hi-Lifter 370s and PD-360s back when they were fashionable as mains. Many of those jumps were with well-nourished Bavarians. Back then I weighed closer to 180 pounds. Openings were the worst part. Flare? .. not spectacular.

.................................................................................. I vaguely remember most of the Mirages being built with slotted RW-1, RW-7 or RW-8 harness rings. I do not know if any Mirages were built with the wrong (RW-2 sized) harness rings.

................................................................................. Mini 3-Rings were introduced by Para-Flite in 1981. Para-Flite used a specialized (machined?) round harness ring. It looked like an RW-2 ring, but was thicker and harder. A few other manufacturers tried to copy the Swift harness, but suffered bent RW-2 rings. By the mid-1980s, Parachutes de France had introduced slotted mini-rings. The Parachutes de France harness tings were as thick as RW-8 harness rings. Para-Flite's Swift harness-container contained a few other innovations. For example, the reserve container included 2 pins, but they were spaced vertically (like a Racer) versus the horizontal spacing on most previous reserves. Most Swifts were made under sub-contract by the Annex. Para-Flite went on the sell a variety of military free-fall rigs with vertical, 2-pin reserve containers: MT-1XXXXXXXXX, etc. A few years later (early 1980s), the Annex introduced the Rapid Transit, Mirage harness/container also with a vertical, 2-pin reserve container, but the difference was that the pins laid against the wearer's spine. That did not work consistently with wimpy MA-1 springs, so (circa 1990) the Annex issued a service bulletin requiring them to be updated with outboard pins. Meanwhile, the Anenx had developed later Mirages (e.g. Lady Astra) with more conventional outboard, vertical, 2-pin reserve containers. During the late 1980s, they also licensed National to build 2-pin Mirages.

The UPT chart says that a 109 reserve would be "full fitting" in a Vector 304.

I agree with you that the wind tunnel is the best training tool our sport has ever seen, but until my DZ requires tunnel time prior to AFF, I'll be taken plenty of "never flown their bodies before" folks out the door on their Level I. Does your DZ now require it? .................................................................................. When there was tunnel in Vancouver, Pacific Skydivers required all free-fall students to do a few minutes in the tunnel.

Would you mind clarifying this, not all of us have the luxury of having a tunnel closer than a 6 hour flight away ... do you mean you would not want to start AFF with them? I realise the tunnel is a great tool and I am planning a trip to one next year but it is hardly necessary for progression. I would guess most experienced skydivers did not learn in tunnel ................................................................................. I am saying that I would not take a student for his first accompanied free-fall (e.g. AFF) unless that student already had a few minutes in a wind tunnel. A wind tunnel is such a huge improvement on old methods, that I wonder why anyone would want to learn the old way????? Sure, I learned the old way, but that was the hard way. I did my first (un-accompanied) free-falls back in 1979, a couple of years before the first wind tunnel opened in Quebec. I also jumped from Beech 18s, pulled 4-pin main ripcords to sleeve-deploy, military-surplus round canopies, etc. If anyone asked me to jump that today, I would laugh and reply: "The museum is over there!" Hah! Hah!

Weather is a huge issue. April to August are the HOT months in deserts (Dubai, Arizona, etc.). I a have done a thousand or more jumps in the Southern California desert summer, but it was gruelling. I found 8 tandems per day to be exhausting, but in the cooler weather of Washington or British Columbia, I can easily do a 12 a day. Luxuries like swimming pools and air-conditioned classrooms help, but moderate weather is still better. Also consider that a wind tunnel can turn a rainy day into a training day. Now that wind tunnels are widely available, I would not touch a freefall student until after he had a few minutes in a tunnel. You should also consider breaking up your vacation into 2 or 3 separate weeks. First week do a tandem (or 3) and a bit of tunnel time. Second vacation, do most of the AFF program (8 jumps at most DZs, depending upon how quickly you learn). Last week, do a bunch of coach jumps to complete your A license.

Sounds like a huge waste of time and altitude. If I was still in freefall below 1,000 feet, I would simply pull the reserve ripcord handle. Below 2,000 feet, simply toss my main pilot-chute.

Good point about faded, frayed and filthy labels invalidating the FAA TSO certification. There was an angry debate - on an Australian forum - about Cessna setting a 10 year life on seat-belts. Private pilots were upset because their belts would easily last 20 years when flown once a week, always hangared, etc. However, if you were flying tandems of a salty, ocean, beach, storing the airplane outside, etc. you would be lucky to get 5 years out of a set of seat-belts.

................................................................................. That shackle seems to favour harnesses with hip rings. The 1997 FAA crash test simulation was done before hip rings became popular/norm. Some even joked that Rigging Innovations was trying to bias the tests to favour harnesses with hip rings, since not every factory was sewing hip rings back in the mid-1990s. We joked aobut simply installing belts with Quick Ejector Snaps in the airplane. People with hip rings would be secure, while people with older harnesses ... could buy new harnesses from R.I. Hah! Hah! Maybe we need to re-think skydiver restraint systems now that hip rings are the norm. ???? Maybe we need both seat-belts and hip ring shackles. As long as there are more restraints than jumper, it might reduce confusion during boarding and buckling. ???? Though I still favour "one belt per jumper" as a way to balance the airplane. Opinions????

billvon, You and I are going to have to agree to disagree on this subject. Hooker's skydiver specific seat-belts have been tested by the FAA. Back in 1997, I helped with a PIA/FAA simulation that involved Hooker belts and simulated skydivers on the FAA's crash test sled in Oklahoma City. After viewing video of the third simulated crash, we "got it!" Hooker's belts prevent you from flailing around the cabin. In a peculiarity, Hooker's skydiver specific seat-belts are manufactured under FAA TSO C22 (seat-belts), but are not STCed to install in popular jump planes??????? I am not sure if the lack of STC is a Canadian or American problem. I have tried the alternative ... and it only took 6 years to find a surgeon who knew how to fix my "interesting" knee injury. More recently, I have been seen snapping tandem student side straps to cargo rings. One major tandem manufacturer said that they would not forbid the practice nor would they condone it. Their objection was more legal than technical. Using tandem side straps as restraints blurs the border between FAA TSO C22 (seat belts) and C23 (parachutes). Lawyers could argue that border for a decade. The other problem is the high cost of testing.

Strong offered both long and short student risers over the years. I found the long risers easier to attach to the instructor's harness.

Please try to re-send that picture of "elasticated straps." Loose restraints only shorten your flail arc. Zero flail arcs are best. Holding shoulder straps of another jumpers accomplishes NOTHING. The best place to wear a seat-belt is between your belly and your harness ... the same place you wear a set-belt in a car. Wearing a belt across your lap does the same thing as a car seat-belt. It still works if the airplane tumbles, because then the belt/harness combination prevents you form flailing all around the cabin. Take it from some one who has been on the bottom of a "dog pile": 20 seconds to clip a seat-belt is easier than a 6 year search for a surgeon who knows how to fix an "interesting" knee injury.

Clothes driers eat odd socks, but they only eat even-numbered socks. If you try to dry a pair of green socks and a pair of blue socks, the drier will eat one of each colour. It is part of driers' normal diets.

Good list. My only comment to the author is that he mentions only the slider as the reefing system to tame the opening shock of ram-air canopies, failing to mention that ropes-n-rings were standard on canopies like the Strato Star before sliders superseded them. ................................................................................ Yeah! Ropes-and-rings were adapted from round cargo chutes and ejection seat technology. I made about 50 jumps on early Strato-Clouds that had ropes-and-rings. They were a BITCH to pack. My fingers bled every time I closed them. The only up-side to ropes-and-rings was the soft openings even after the Diamond Track. Other manufacturers experimented with a variety of other reefing systems: hydraulic. The only alternative that made any sense to me was an X-slider connected to the pilot-chute via long bridle. Some style competitors used double-length bridles to soften openings.

..................................................................................... You probably also enjoy the 6 months off work.

Hint: start with sticky, rip-stop tape (Para-Gear).

Your packer will hate you.

The key - to reviving kit-parachutes - is local CNC shops with computer-driven, cutting tables. www.makerlabs.com in Vancouver has CNC cutters for paper, leather, cardboard, plywood, sheet steel, etc.

That's prettier than my first kit-canopy. Your sewing is also more precise than mine. Now get out and jump it!

***... differential shrinkage, example: the A line on a tandem shrinking more then the B by enough to suck it through the grommet. .... ................................................................................. Agreed! I tried that once and cut it away. Lesson learned: 5 inch difference across the A lines is too much!

..................................................................................... Good girl. BOC became fashionable for photographers during the early 1990s. This fashion came on the tail of the growing popularity of tandems. Since many TIs worked part-time as videographers, they did not want to bother remembering a different deployment system when they were down-and-dirty. BOC also reduces risk of entanglement with large (knee length), detachable camera wings.

... For example, collapsible PCs are frequently omitted from student gear because there is one less thing to go wrong. .................................................................................. Collapsible pilot-chutes add another wear-point. Also collapsible pilot-chutes do not significantly improve performance of lightly-loaded student canopies .. typically 0.7 pounds per square foot. Remember that experienced skydivers did not adopt collapsible pilot-chutes until wing-loads exceeding 1.3 ... became fashionable.

.................................................................................. That is because many schools that loan BOC throw-outs to their students also offer IAD jumps. It takes twenty seconds to convert a rig from BOC to IAD (e.g. if the clouds come down). Any other conversion must be done on the ground with spare parts, lots of space etc. Trust me because I was jump-master during the whole conversion from military-surplus static-lines to spring-loaded main pilot-chutes to belly-band-mounted throw-outs to BOC process. BOC is by far the best student gear for a busy school. Folks, can we agree that the pull-out crowd figured out the correct handle location during the mid-197s, but it took the rest of us a couple more decades to see their wisdom? Twenty years later (2014) the capitalist market has decided that BOC throw-out is the best system.

In other words, do a bunch of things that aren't necessary with a PO? ... ................................................................................ I watched a woman have two hard-pulls and two reserve rides on the same day, because she did not understand that she had to pack a pull-out pilot-chute's base in the same corner of the container as the handle. Dough!