riggerrob

.... The pilots need to have their act together. Used to do a lot of 10 ways out of Cessnas back in the day. With one inexperienced pilot in the chase plane one day he completely messed up the formation on exit, was slow to power off and lost sight of the base plane, and then allowed the chase plane to drift over the top of the base. .... The inexperienced pilot was axed from flying formation loads, mainly because he'd ignored the briefing about this very scenario ... .................................................................................... The quickest way for a pilot to get "sent home" from a FAST clinic is to continue flying a blind approach to a formation. Formation And Safety Training camps are hosted several times a year by the North American Trainer Association. They run separate FAST camps for different types of airplanes. For example: only T-28s are welcome at one camp. A second camp might only welcome Beechcraft T-34 Mentors, while a third camp only welcomes T-6 Texans.

...... Maybe I suffer with "man the fuck up" ........................................................................... "Man the fuck up" really messes with bureaucrats. Their entire triage system is based on how loud the patient whines. Bureaucrats cannot see the difference between "patient quit whining" versus "patient is healed."

TI error. Pulling handles in the wrong sequence. Sigma's disc reduces the risk of an out-of-sequence deployment, but does not eliminate the risk.

Odd! The official report lists one parachutist suffering chest injuries, but no mention of your spinal injuries. Make sure that your injuries are carefully documented, in the event that you need to file claims for compensation later in life. BPA remains steadfast in their conviction that hang-ups are a greater risk than crashes.

Sew the inboard row of stitching first. Sew straight until the very edge of the fabric, then reverse two or three stitches. Turn the corner and fold the tape. Sink your next stitch into the (45 degree folded edge). The closer that stitch is to the folded edge, the neater the final product.

A mocked up side flap containing 2 layers of Cordura and an MDS stiffener.

Are you willing to share the details with us? I will understand if you find the memory too painful. At a bare minimum, are you willing to share "lessons learned?"

Over the years we have heard 3 different opinions about bridle length on free-bags. The first opinion held that the bridle should be longer than reserve suspension lines to allow the reserve to open even if the reserve pilot-chute wrapped around an ankle. For comparison, PD176 reserve A lines are 10 feet long. Circa 2000, Bill Booth told us that you only need a 13 foot bridle to correctly sequence a Skyhook MARD. Now Mr. Sherman tells us that we only need an 8 foot bridle. Hmmmmm? Do we hear a fourth opinion?

....... last that I knew, Strong Entr were using Type 12 webbing, Cond U(n-coated) for their reserve bag bridle line material. ..... Correct! And Racer uses (3 inch wide) Type 4 webbing for free-bag bridles. I suspect that is to reduce the number of different types of webbing in inventory.

............................................................................... I am struggling to see the logic behind red straps that long. Granted, they prevent people from crushing the pilot, but they ignore the other end of the balance envelope 'cus they allow everyone to slide too far to the rear. If everyone slides too far aft, then the airplane is un-balanced: easy to stall and impossible to recover from a stall/spin. We have lost too many jump-planes and jumpers in stall-spin accidents. I am also struggling to understand how that long a red strap could prevent flail type injuries: bouncing off the ceiling, wall, floor, repeat???? I am completely baffled as to how that long a red strap could prevent a dog-pile at one end of the cabin????? Inquiring minds want to know?????

.......................................................... Yes! Thanks for providing video. Why are those red straps so long? How do they prevent skydivers from flailing around the cabin? How do long straps prevent disastrous shifts in balance?

They experimented with a variety of line stow methods before settling on the line stow pocket and Safety-Stow. Para-Flite did all the early development work because they were the first to certify square reserves during the late 1970s. During the early 1980s, Gargano (Hobbit) and Security (X-210R) both introduced square reserves with diapers. Riggers were already familiar with diapers as they had been standard on new round reserve sew during the previous decade. They used Type 4 diapers with all the lines stowed in MIL SPEC rubber bands. Diapered squares could be quickly packed in to any existing container without modification, buying free-bags, etc. Only the Racer factory continued to experiment with free-bags. The first few Racer Free-bags were closed with MIL SPEC rubber bands and all the remaining lines were also stowed in rubber bands. Then they made Racers with Safety-Stows (and line stow pockets) for a couple of decades. Around 2000(?) the Racer factory introduced the Speed Bag with an extended closing flap that has holes for a dozen MIL SPEC rubber bands. All the rubber bands are locking stows so there is no line stow pocket. Most free-bags are optimized for the low-speed edge of the envelope with only two locking stows and the lines laying loose in a pocket. Pockets are the best way to deploy lines at low speed. Just ask your local BASE jumpers or canopy formation guys.

If you wanted to continue discussing a closing-loop-release, I was thinking in terms of a shallow plate that would slide into existing rigs (Javelin or Vector). The plate would contain most of the electronic "guts" and a semi-permanent pin that the closing loop is tied to. When you scare the AAD, it retracts the pin, releasing the closing loop. Both MARRS and FXC have experimented with cutters laying in the pack tray, but eventually decided to use the AAD pockets already provided by Cypres. A British firm also experimented with a hot-pin AAD that would melt or burn the closing loop when it got scared.

Good habit

Why don't FAA FSDOs have to do refresher training like DPREs?

This related to speculation about the recent tandem accident in Cape Cod. I answered: "once" to my own poll. I was doing tandems out of a cargo-door Cessna 206. I got one ass cheek off the door sill when I felt the seat-belt. Hauled my ass (and my student's ass) back inside the plane. Removed the seat-belt and exited on the second pass. Caveat: Lawyers are free to quote this thread as long as they pay me royalties. Royalties start with video-tape of them going three rounds of "smash mouth" with another lawyer. They are not allowed to harm para-legals in the process. They are not allowed to harm legal assistants in the process. They ate not allowed to harm legal secretaries in the process. They are not allowed to harm hired-guns in the process. They are not allowed to harm law students in the process. They are not allowed to delegate ...

Yes! I used an excel sheet to manage the school gear when I was the rigger at a couple different big DZ's works like a charm. I never got good enough with excel to have it send out emails, but that sounds really hot! I like the idea of switching over to a fully electronic format, especially since my workplace can then have those records on file as well.... .......................................................................... Hee! Hee! It worked the same way back when paper logbooks were fashionable. Every time I finished working on a school parachute, I submitted a work-order/invoice to manifest who duly entered it in a massive parachute maintenance log. I suspect that the primary function of the pretty paperwork was to impress Transport Canada, who spend several days (every year) pouring through piles of paperwork. TC must have been impressed with the paperwork, because they never looked at a parachute. But when manifest got confused, they always looked in my (paper) rigger's logbook! Hah! Hah!

Caution! Some 30 years ago, some skydivers were dirt-diving a pumpkin pass to celebrate Halloween. I suggested that they take the spot long to avoid houses near the airport. They took the spot over a nearby tobacco farm. They lost the pumpkin and it fell through the roof of a tobacco-drying barn. Their careless act instantly converted a Farmer McFriendly into a Farmer McNasty!

................................................................. Warp IIIs are also great training aids for teaching them how to sew on replacement Velcro. I am trying to remember .... does a Warp III have 2 miles of Velcro or 3?

Good point.

.......... JerryBaumchen well I'm talking about a late 80's era square reserve. one of the super raven's ............................................................... Since Ravens were never mentioned in the acid-mesh recalls, there is no requirement to test them for acidity. Zero square reserves were mentioned during the acid-mesh scandal.

.................................................................... Yes, waiting around a court-house is much easier duty than walking a beat. However, police chiefs much prefer camera evidence, because bad guys are more likely to plead guilty if you have video evidence of their bad behaviour.

Cameras are less expensive than lawyers. More cameras equals fewer arguments in court. Fewer arguments in court means fewer lawyers.

Yes, Councilman I had the same experience. I pull-tested a hole in a white, round reserve. It was made from two different batches of white fabric. Some of the panels looked like they were made of MIL SPEC LoPo-ish fabric and they were fine, but the other panels looked like they were made of some sort of coated fabric ... not quiet water-proof enough for tents, but definitely coated more than F-111. The coated fabric failed at less than 30 pounds. I only ever pull-tested a hole in one square reserve. It was made by Para-Flite .. Safety-Flier (?). Any ways, it was made of white, pre-F-111 fabric. Since the canopy was so small and so old (made in the late 1970s), I did not bother trying to revive it. Rather I told my boss to sell him a Raven.

........................................... Who made that reserve? When did they make it? Does it have meshed turn windows? Was the mesh ever tested for acid? Was it mentioned in the acid mesh recalls?