riggerrob

Man oh man, that's the funniest thing I've read all day. It DOES make for a hilarious mental pic, that's for sure!! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Hah! Hah! Hah1

.................................................................................. Struth! Even his parents said that he was an idiot. Sounds like Australian parents are brighter than most North American parents.

Rider is a beautiful dog. He reminds me of a young black that I recently met while on crutches. Like all Labrador Retrievers, she was curious and friendly and playful. She was insisted on tickling me by licking the back of my strong knee. A week later I found myself back on surgery to clean out an infection in my left knee. I woke up too soon and suffered a lot of pain for the first half hour. The memory of her TICKLING helped get me through the worst of the pain as I sobered up. It looks like the worst part of recovery is behind me, helped by a loving and generous black lab.

Dang! Another great man dies too young. Listening to "Click and Clack" was as entertaining and informative as reading "The Compleat Idiot's Guide to Keeping Your VW Alive."

.................................................................................. If a DZ does not routinely use seat-belts, I vote with my dollars and jump at a DZ that does use seat-belts.

I went as a wounded warrior in a kilt and limping on crutches. Flirted with the nurses for a while and woke up with a throbbing pain in my left knee. Fortunately they gave me lots of pretty-coloured pills to dull the pain. Never got a buzz

Old MIL SPECs used to say how many dropped stitches were allowed per canopy or per foot, etc. Those tolerances should also be written in the factory's quality control manual. If it is only a few dropped stitches, any Senior or Master rigger can easily over-sew. If there are lots of dropped stitches or they are dropped in corners that are difficult to over-sew, mail it back to the factory. Most factories prefer to hear about these sorts of quality control problems early and directly. Most factories are so embarrassed that they fix those sorts of problems for free. When I worked for Butler, Para-Phernalia and Rigging Innovations, I devoted many days to (no-charge) Service Bulletins. Most of the time, the factory also paid for return shipping. Factories also want to know if more than one canopy was affected, so they can decide whether or not to issue a Service Bulletin. Factory's primary goal is to correct quality control problems before anyone gets hurt.

"... a shooting in Riverside County, California. ... some of the information ... that the shooter was wearing body armor, was based on media reports at the time which have turned out to be inaccurate,” Honda said. “The errors in this reporting were repeated in the materials that we used to prepare for Wednesday’s press conference. We should have done a better job of researching ... The early and inaccurate news reports used were published by NBC Los Angeles and The Press Enterprise. ... That's right. The Congressman didn't even have his facts straight. Now, there's a fucking surprise. ................................................................................... The surprise is that he trusted the Riverside Press Enterprise. The other surprise is that I used to read the Press Enterprise when I worked in Perris Valley, California. Maybe California needs to hire more Canadian-trained journalists. For example, Canadian media got the story of the soldier shot at our National War Memorial accurate and early and did not need to publish any retractions. Even more amazing was the famous American journalist (Anderson Cooper?) who did accurate on-the-street, same-evening reports from Ottawa. He was standing on a street corner half-way between the National War Memorial and the Parliament Buildings.

................................................................................. Invite neighbors to your BBQs. Just remember to clean up promptly and keep it quiet after midnight. I did tandems with the owner and daughter of the largest farmer near Pitt Meadows Air Port. We were always polite and always stuck to his roads, when driving to retrieve skydivers who landed "out." Something as simple as closing a gate behind you will keep you on the good side of farmers.

If you go to www.youtube.com, then to "Pressurized FLC 2013" you will see several gadgets to simulate exits. Maybe an afternoon on those toys will de-sensitise you to exits.

Bingo. You have projected your fear of heights to a fear of falling through skydiving. Identify the problem and a solution will follow. Talking to a professional counselor/therapist will help. Good luck. ~R+R ............................................................................... May I suggest that you are over-anticipating the dropping feeling? It is similar to people not expecting to be able to breath in free-fall. Silly, but scary. If the inaccurate perception is allowed to continue too long, it will drag down your fun in the sky. Now the challenge is to re-program your brain to expect the familiar, re-assuring "laying on a water bed" sensation the second after you enter the wind tunnel. Multiple sports psychologists (John de Rosalio, Brian Germaine, Rob Laidlaw, etc.) have written about re-programming your brain. Another therapy might involve a rope swing. Grab the rope. Leap off the bank. Giggle. Splash down in the water. Repeat until thoroughly soaked. Then compare those sensations with the feel of the wind as you exit the airplane.

... I'm more on the fence about the body armor issue. If enough cops get shot by criminals wearing protective armor, I think a reasonable argument can made that these things should be made illegal. Also when the armor is too heavy it compromises the wearer's ability to move, and it's not comfy when hot. so, it's apparently another 'where do you draw the line' discussion on how much big brother do you want then? .................................................................................. May I suggest drawing the line at the 70 pounds of armour? That 70 pounds should be a MINIMUM. Police should be able to fine, arrest, imprison, "beat like a rented mule" any bad guy caught wearing sissified, lady-like, light-weight, concealed, pistol-only body armour. However, bad guys who are tough enough to wear the 70 plus pounds of armour routinely worn by American, British, Canadian, etc. troops hiking in the mountains of Afghanistan, should be treated differently. A heavily-armoured the bad guy should be allowed to go free. The bad guy would be required to wear full armour, all-day, every day in the heat of a Miami summer. If the bad guy can still run away from the cops in full body armour, up a steep hill, then he stays out of jail. How is that for perverse old-soldier logic? Hah! Hah!

................................................................................. ... or phone Al MacDonald at Flying High Manufacturing in Alberta. If you phone him in the morning, he might ship parts the same afternoon.

There were actually three jump-plane crashes back in 1992. A twin Otter crashed in Perris Valley, California in the springtime. 16 out of 22 Perrisites died in that crash. Labour Day, a Beech 18 flipped, crashed and burned near Hinckley, Illinois killing all on board. A Westwing Beech 18 ground-looped in Arizona. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured in the Westwind accident. The FAA was shocked by the carnage, lack of seat-belts and poor maintenance on jump-planes. The FAA quietly told USPA elders to "clean up your act or you will not enjoy our new legislation." Over the winter of 1992 - 1993, most DZs cleaned up their jump-planes to more closely obey long-standing air regulations about maintenance and seat-belts. Since old piston-pounding Beech 18s, DC-3s, etc were getting too expensive to maintain, they quietly retired from the skydiving fleet. As for seat-belts ... fortunately a retired jumper named Jack Hooker had already sewn up a few prototype skydiver-specific seat-belts and they were installed in a Cessna 182 based at Hinckley, Illinois. Over the winter of 1992 - 1993, Hooker sold thousands of seat-belts and USPA made seat-belts fashionable for skydivers. The FAA quietly backed down, now that skydivers were following regulations. Jack Hooker's seat-belts may not be perfect, but they are a huge improvement over anything invented by NATO or the Warsaw Pact during the Cold War. However, seat-belts only reduce flail arcs and center of gravity shifts when they are snug. Young skydivers need to be reminded to snug down seat-belts. Maybe USPA should launch a campaign to make snug seat-belts fashionable for take-off.

I was forced to take this year off for knee surgery. The forced vacation came after 37 years and more than 6,000 jumps. I even worked (teaching the first jump course, S/L, IAD, PFF, tandem, rigging, driving the fuel truck, etc.) full-time in the skydiving industry for 18 years. Yesterday, my surgeon said that I would be able to resume running up and down mountains in a few more months, but cautioned me against returning to skydiving with a metal plate in my knee.

Tuesday, Prime Minister Harper spoke at the funeral of Corporal Natahn Cirrillo as the Argyl and Sutherland Highlanders Regiment buried him in Hamilton.

Monday, Victory Square was guarded by a retired Royal Canadian Navy helicopter mechanic.

Sunday, Victory Square was guarded by a grey-bearded old tanker.

A bald, retired paratrooper guarded Victory Square on Saturday. He had three medals, one of which looked to be for service in Afghanistan.

You can substitute Vector 2 reserve pilot-chutes. You can substitute a reserve ripcord from most other reserves certified under TSO C23B or later. You can substitute cutaway handles from most other rigs. You can substitute 3-ring main risers from most other containers. You can only install an RSL or free-bag made by Flying High. Rob Warner CSPA Rigger Instructor FAA Master Rigger

... E) The Koran, like the Book of Mormon, was but the dictation of a cunning sociopath whose goals were power and an endless supply of strange pussy. .................................................................................. Please explain how that makes those authors better than L. Ron Hubbard

The media in Vancouver tell us that the only civilians wearing bullet-proof vests while driving around in their armoured SUVs are evil, wicked, mean and nasty drug king-pins. Canadian police are trying to use armour as an excuse to arrest drug-dealers.

............................................................................... Relax. Some of us old farts prefer to have all comments on one subject on one thread. Having all the comments on one thread makes it easier to research a topic. We don't care if there is a year or three gap between postings.

Good ones. I didn't eat the instrument panel, but the next day I was sore everywhere the seat belt touched my body. Without seat belts, I probably would not have made it. I encourage every jumper to use them on every jump. Just be sure they are tucked out of the way before you jump, especially when exiting small aircraft. ................................................................................. Bill, Thanks for the quick response and kind advice. Can we add seat-belts to the 19 Sacred Commandments to Tandem Instructors.``

................................................................................ Agreed. Para-Gear tape folders are great for binding thin components like d-bags. But when you start binding multiple layers of Cordura, the inboard stitch sometimes misses the edge of the tape. OTOH if you buy a tape folder for thick materials, it will sew gracefully and few people will notice the extra 1/64 of an inch of free-floating (tape) selvedge edge when you bind thin components. Bottom line: err towards buying too "thick" of a tape folder.