riggerrob

Camoflage colours should blend into the background. Black camouflage disappears on moonless, rainy nights. Neon green camoflage disappears into the graffiti covering inner city neighborhoods.

That leg-strap friction-adapter is rated for a Minimum Breaking Strength of 2,500 pounds, 10 to 20 times your weight. Before you break that hardware, you will need to open HARD, assymetrically, so that you put the entire opening shock on one leg strap. An opening that hard will dis-locate your hip and probably break your femur (the largest bone in your skeleton). You will be glad the opening knocked you unconscious! IOW Parachute harnesses are built stronger than humans. Time currently wasted worrying about hardware would be better spent learning how to pack neatly, so that you never suffer a hard opening. If you are still worried about slippage ... that is a legitimate fear. However, at the first sign of slippage or fraying, you should take you r harness to your local rigger. The fix is easy, simply sew another layer of webbing over top of the existing leg strap. Aerodyne published that fix so long ago that I forget the date ... jut know that I have sewn that "fix" onto leg-straps made by: Aerodyne, Flying High, Relative Workshop, Strong Enterprises, Sun Path, etc.

... Jerry Baumchen PS) Edit to add: About 40 yrs ago I got a letter from Jim Rueter, V-P at Pioneer at the time, telling me that the typical "L" bar connector link, while rated at 3,000 lbs, was good for over 10,000 lbs before it would fail. Just adding to the knowledge base. .................................................................................. Agreed Jerry, I suspect that 3,000 pound Minimum Breaking Strength is based on a "worst direction" loading. I can cite plenty of types of hardware that will hold much heavier loads than their published MBS. For example, if you can hold a light-weight, cold-stamped steel chest strap buckle perfectly on the webbing, it will hold a 2,000 pound load, but only 500 pounds if end-loaded, so it is only rated for 500 pounds.

............................................................................... Yup! I am old. I freely admit to being old ... 57 years old. I have also survived 37 years worth of skydiving. You don't get old in this business by being stupid.

Play nice. Mail them your urine sample. Mail the bottle next week.

Re-habilitation is s slow process. Returning to skydiving before your shoulder is 100 percent might kill you. Six years ago, I dis-located a shoulder during an airplane crash. After five months and two rounds of physio-therapy, I was cleared to return to work. I still needed another three months of push-ups, chin-ups, stretching, etc. until my shoulder was strong enough to do tandems. It was most of a year before the pain in my biceps subsided. I did about 300 tandems the year after my dis-location. When I went to visit a tunnel after that, tunnel staff gave me dirty look even though they knew that I had survived 300 tandems since the crash. If you have problems with dis-location, find a physio-therapist who will teach you a bunch of strengthening exercises. Once you think your shoulder is strong enough, go visit a tunnel, but be gentle in the tunnel. during your first few visits. Gradually up the roughness as you gain proficiency in the tunnel. Wait until you can do hard-core maneuvers in the tunnel and have bounced off the walls a dozen or more times. If there is no more pain or instability, then ask your doctor to write you a script to return to skydiving.

................................................................................... Mr. Styahigh, You sound rather arrogant. Can you tell us what was fashionable for reserve closing loops before Cypres cord? Can you tell us what Racer used instead? Can you tell us what was fashionable for reserve closing loops back during the 1960s? .............................................................................. Mr. Stayhigh, Here are the answers to the quiz: Type 3 nylon suspension line, aka. gutted 550 cord. Racer used Kevlar cord back during the 1980s. Racer specified un-coated Kevlar suspension line. For bonus points, why did Racer specify UNCOATED Kevlar? Back during the 1960s, brass cones were fashionable for closing reserves.

............................................................................... Toggle hoods are nice, but if you forget to pull the "cat's eye" BELOW the steering guide ring, those beloved toggle hoods get torn off. Guess how many times I have re-sewn my own toggle hoods????

I still believe that half of "brake fires" are caused by sloppy packing. I have stopped dozens of junior packers and told them to take a second look at their steering lines. I have even packed a couple of "brake fires" for myself. My short-term solution was to pull down on a rear riser to stop the spin from winding up. The long-term solution was to tug every steering line AFTER I set the brakes.

Crumple zones it is all about crumple zones. .. it is the same reason DZs install swoop ponds ... to gradually decelerate people falling out of the sky.

Canadian Air Regulations define "sunset" as 30 minutes after the center of the sun (disc) descends below the horizon. I have legally (CARs) done tandem jumps when we had less sunlight than this video. Judging by the contrast and surface detail still visible, that tandem jump was done when they still had enough sunlight to avoid obstacles, time the flare, etc. At worst, they touched down at official sunset (CARs). What is the fuss?????? I am not sure what the original poster is complaining about. What is his political agenda?

WARNING, wandering off topic ... .... I do this for a living. I design parachute parts ... reverse engineering 1950s ejection seat parachute components. ... ............................................................................... Reverse engineering is a fascinating process. I have only reverse-engineered an ejection-seat chute from a 1950s-vintage Folland Gnat jet trainer. During the process, we reduced the parts-count ten-fold. Which systems have you reverse-engineered?

The only stupid question is the one you don't know the answer to when a planet is roaring up at you.

You are over-thinking the problem. The only way to truly find the answer is to practice it under your own canopy ... light to medium wing loading ... start with a rectangular canopy ... above 3,000 feet ... clear of other traffic ... If you survive your first test-flight, then repeat the maneuver with progressively smaller and faster and more tapered canopies. Please report back to us what you learn.

Why is anyone surprised? The CIA, FBI ... and a variety of "Other Governmental Agencies" have been flying "electronic intelligence" airplanes over Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, etc. for more than a decade. Who do you think is paying for all those antenna-festooned King Airs? More than a decade ago, Al Queda and the Taliban quickly learned that cell phone conversations were soon followed by Hellfire missiles or rude visits from men with black faces, stun grenades, flexi-cuffs, sand bags, embarrassing questions, and a variety of lethal weapons. This latest revelation will only force criminals to adopt another form of communication.

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Minor correction: Canada also decided to boycott the World Meet in South Africa. the 1983 World Cup of Skydiving was hosted by Claresholm, Alberta (near Calgary). The meet was heavily sponsored by provincial and federal governments and several major Alberta-based corporations. All that sponsorship helped ferry in a Twin Otter. Both US civilian teams competed plus the U.S. Army Golden Knights. Australia, Mainland China, U.K., Zimbabwe, etc. sent relative work teams. Canadian teams took gold in both 4-way and 8-way.

Same thing happened when I was driving a bus along East Hastings Street in Vancouver. A ... (insert derogatory comment) .... pedestrian stepped in front of my moving bus, forcing me to stomp on the brake pedal. One woman grabbed for the post near the back door. Unfortunately, she grabbed too close to another woman's face. The second woman interpreted this as an attempt to punch her ... even though the offending hand was firmly wrapped around the post. As soon as I saw the fight, I opened the rear doors and both fell out. Both combatants were "less than sober." I hate to sound racist, BUT they also both belong to a race that does not hold its liquor well. That race lacks a digestive enzyme that breaks down alcohol. Some people can handle their liquor and others can't. Wise people know which category they fit into.

Bad habit. I have more than XXXX cutaways, but always look, look, peel, peel, peel. pull, pull. Most of the time, I feel the reserve lift off my back before I get the reserve handle more than an inch (2 cm) off the harness. Sure I have had to repack a few reserves with kinked reserve cables, but my habits have kept me alive this long and I am too old, to stubborn and too grumpy to change my cutaway habits this late in life.

............................................................................... One disadvantage of sewing loops is that it makes them stiffer ... and more difficult to slip through grommets. That is why I never use finger-trapped - and sewn - bottom ends of old suspension lines for closing loops. Maybe that only makes a difference with spring-loaded pilot-chutes ...

If you cannot tie knots, tie lots! Hah! Hah! Seriously, as long as the knot - on the bottom of a closing loop - is bigger than the grommet/washer, type matters little.

That para-gliding pin makes sense. It would reduce accidental deployments by creating a minimum pull force. The key difference between para-gliding reserves and skydiving reserves is that para-gliding reserves lack springs to create minimum pull forces. Did I ever tall you what a hassle it was to re-close a Russian Air Force Surplus seat pack that had to spring in the pilot-chute and worn-out pack-opening bands? Hah! Hah! Have I ever rambled about obsolete parachutes? Hah! Hah!

It is probably snow, if you jump in winter. If you jump in the desert, it is probably alkali dust.

What is the advantage of a remote control? Remember that video cameras only became practical/cost-effective for free-fall photographers after all the different components were integrated into one box that could be bolted onto a helmet. Messing with extra remote controls just adds more "silly bits" to forget on your way to the airplane.

For starters, how about something like this? https://www.gotbelts.com/non-retractable-lap-belts/m.products/78/view/24 http://www.seatbeltstore.com/product-p/ju010400.htm