riggerrob

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content

    18,726

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    41

  • Feedback

    0%

Everything posted by riggerrob

  1. riggerrob
    Translation from British English: "bungee" = rubber band in North America. In North America, "bungee cord" is the cloth (nylon or cotton) wrapped rubber cords used to close free-bags. A few skydivers also use bungee cord to close their main deployment bags because bungee cord lasts ten times longer than bare rubber.
  2. riggerrob
    I not only want my reserve to "save my life" - I want it to "save my lifestyle" .............................................................................. A "great deal" on an old reserve is only a "great deal" if it saves you more money than the cost of a broken ankle. What does a broken ankle cost in the USA these days?
  3. riggerrob
    ... A basic safety course is what I had in mind ... And yes a couple of free jumps with tandems wouldn't hurt in the future. ................................................................................. Before chasing any tandem, you must convince the TI that you are not going to kill him/her and his/her student. The best way to prove non-lethality is to show the TI a stack of videos where you chased a bunch of free-fliers around the sky, keeping them in frame, lighting, reasonable break-off procedures, predictable landing patterns, didn't kill anyone, etc.
  4. riggerrob
    I would not waste money on that Safety Star reserve. And I have hundreds of jumps on a Strato-Star main. The first problem is finding the manual. The second problem is finding a rigger who remembers how to pack the Strato-Star's funky brakes. I vaguely remember that there were two different ways to set Safety-Star brake toggles. Swift reserve brake toggles are simple in comparison. Fabric strength is questionable. Some riggers refuse to repack reserves older than them. Hint: Safety-Star production finished in 1981 when the 5-cell Swift reserve was introduced (33 years ago). The 5-cell Swift was the first decent square reserve. Bottom line: Para-Flite's 5-cell, square, reserve canopies were the best on the market, but that was 30 or 35 years ago. Much better reserve canopies have been built since. I would never wear a reserve that I was not willing to land on terra firma.
  5. riggerrob
    ..................................................................................... You really only need a walking foot when you are doing container repairs. Then the walking foot helps feed multiple layers oaf Cordura, binding tape, etc. evenly. For mot canopy repairs, you only need feed dogs on the underside. The bad news is that most canopy fabric is too thin for the feed dogs to a get a good grip, so you will have to learn how to hand-feed canopy fabric.
  6. riggerrob
    This one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdT_G5qZggM ............................................................................... That's just bad in so many ways!!!!!!!!
  7. riggerrob
    Source: FAR Part 1 Section 1.1 During civil twilight is still OK by FAA ................................................................................. Everything after this post was written by "mess deck lawyers." First time I met a mess-deck lawyer, I hurled my (partially digested) lunch all over the mess table! Hah! Hah!
  8. riggerrob
    So many Vancouverites hold dual-citizenship .. Maybe 1/3 of Vancouverites were born in the province of British Columbia. Entire neighborhoods in Vancouver only speak Cantonese or Mandarin or Punjab or Tagalo ... Even I moved here after growing weary of Quebec winters.
  9. riggerrob
    Bagpipes
  10. riggerrob
    The first patent for a slider was circa 1945 (Floyd Smith?). But it was several more decades before Ballistic Recovery Systems figured out that a slider needed vents to work with a round parachute. Garry Douris told me about some of the "E ticket" rides he had while testing BRS prototypes with a Cessna 150. Gary said that they figured out the round canopy within less than a dozen test drops, but it took dozens more to perfect the deployment system: vented slider.
  11. riggerrob
    Back when I had only 200 jumps, I realized that I still had a lot to learn: free-fall formations, canopy formations, exhibition jumps, accuracy, coaching, instructing, rigging, piloting, etc.
  12. riggerrob
    ... Other pilot chute locations? The short lived Para Flite Eos had some pouch in the backpad, in the small of one's back? .. ....................................................................................... Some 1970s vintage Security "System" piggybacks (looked like Wonderhogs from a distance) had their soft, main pilot-chutes stuffed in to pockets in the backpad. Para-Flite's EOS (circa 1990) had its throw-out main pilot-chute stuffed in a pocket on the horizontal back-strap. To a user, it felt the same as an ROL, but was easier to pack and had hardly any Velcro to wear out. Back around 1990, we were just starting to learn that Velcro did not have an infinite life.
  13. riggerrob
    Hank Asquito (sp?) curved pin George Quilter - direct bag deployment George Quilter - spiral spring pilot chute
  14. riggerrob
    " ............................................................................... The vast majority of Canadian DZs converted to IAD, throw-out during the 1980s. I would feel like a hypocrite if I dropped IAD students while wearing any other system. Back when I was student, static-lines and 4-pin ripcords were fashionable. My first rig (Six Pack) had a throw-out pilot-chute mounted in a pocket on the belly-band. My second rig (Eze-Flyer) had a throw-out pilot-chute in a pocket on the front of the leg strap. My third rig had a throw-out pilot-chute n a pocket on the rear of the leg strap. My fourth rig had a BOC, throw-out pilot-chute. I have made more than 4,000 tandem jumps, all with the pilot-chute/drogue in a BOC. All my wing-suit jumps have been with BOC. I have dropped hundreds, maybe thousands of IAD students. Since the mid-1980s, I have only taught free-fall students to throw pilot-chutes. Sorry folks, but I am too old and too grumpy to change my pilot-chute throwing habits.
  15. riggerrob
    Sorry, but I do not have exact numbers. Most jump-steps extend straight up from the axle. When they are an inch or two above the rubber tire, they turn 90 towards the fuselage and attach to the landing gear strut after roughly two feet. There is not much point to making a step bigger than one foot by two feet. I have used much smaller steps for tandems. If I am doing PFF with another instructor hanging off the student's right side, the outboard instructor stands on the end of the axle or the outboard edge of the step. The student always takes more of the step than he/she really needs. I get at least my right foot out on the landing gear strut. My left foot might go on the inboard edge of the landing gear strut, or in the door. My left shoulder is usually scrunched up against the top of the door frame, freeing both hand sot hold onto the student.
  16. riggerrob
    ................................................................................... Patience, They will get around to finger-printing everyone at the train station next year. This reminds me of various ways in which I refused several rigging jobs. It was the dog days of August. I had not enjoyed a day off in more weeks than I could remember. Tandem students were lined up back to the parking lot. I did not have time for PFF ground school or the patience to teach the first jump course. Every time I did a jump, the pile of un-packed reserves just got bigger. Sewing projects continued to pile up on the long table. ... so I quoted the high end of retail prices for rigging and refused to quote delivery times shorter than 3 weeks.
  17. riggerrob
    In a perfect world, you would be able to do enough jumps to graduate AFF .. or even better ... complete your USPA "A" License while in Florida. Completing a block of instruction will make it waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay easier for your CSPA Instructors to fit you in when you return home to Ontario. Sure, the first few jumps will go slowly while you review the first jump course, learn how to exit a new type of airplane and learn your way around a new airfield ... but by the end of the week you will be doing four or five jumps per day and telling your coaches to "hurry up!"
  18. riggerrob
    .................................................................................... Only users lose drugs.
  19. riggerrob
    ................................................................................. Even better, quit jumping when you see the load ahead of you get dragged. This reminds me of an incident at Snowhomish 15 years ago. It was February with strong winds from the east. We just watched a solo jumper fracture his heel bone when he caught a rotor generated by the hangars just east of the bowl. There were only two TIs on duty that day. I said "I don't want to risk getting injured in these winds." The other TI said something similar, but it took the DZO ten minutes to make a decision. Eventually - after the both TIS repeated our position three or more times - the DZO sent the students home. Why did it take the DZO so long to decide?
  20. riggerrob
    Drugs work great in the short run, but shorten your competitive career.
  21. riggerrob
    Hint: continue arching until you have a canopy overhead ... descending slowly.
  22. riggerrob
    18 is the minimum age to skydive in most first-world countries because of too many lawsuits. WARNING!: You do not want to read to my entire rant about "why we sign waivers."
  23. riggerrob
    Careful about giving the insurance company too much information. Just ask if they will cover you while skydiving. If you mention wing-suiting, they do not have enough data to accurately determine the risk. If you mention BASE-wingsuiting, they will hang up the phone.
  24. riggerrob
    Did you call Aerodyne? They used to sell replacement line sets for all of the old PISA canopies.
  25. riggerrob
    "$800 per drop" said Sandy Reid. I helped with all the heavy-weight and high-speed drop tests out of a WW2-surplus B-25 bomber. Then I did five live jumps and wrote the manual. I also test-packed most of the Aviator prototypes. ... but that was back in 1994 when Rigging Innovations was drop-testing the Aviator Pilot Emergency Parachute to FAA TSO C23D(?) standards. I suspect that the cost of drop tests has inflated since then. Newer TSO standards also require more drop-test now.