riggerrob

...... Drive faggotty electric cars. ... ............................................................... What? You don't believe that egos (personal image) don't drive car purchasing decisions? Surely you jest?????

...... serious question: Are students/recruits who grew up fist-fighting, but have had no formal, professional martial arts instruction, more "trainable" by professional martial arts instructors? Shouldn't a good instructor be able to train any student from scratch? ....................................................................................... Professional instructors can train most students ..... The best instructors are willing to fail a few students to maintain the credibility of the program/academy/police force. Most police recruits can be taught new martial arts skills ..... However, there is a lengthy screening process that starts with applications, aptitude tests, etc. and police academy instructors have to be willing to fail 10 or 20 percent of every class during the first week. Academy instructors have to fail the most violent 10 percent of recruits, because the martial arts training will not "stick" and they will revert to bashing heads after a few months or years on duty. As for the most timid 10 percent of recruits ... they deserve to fail early or rapidly get promoted to desk jobs.

..... Environmental groups are suing to stop future oil wells in the gulf, and pretty much every oceanic-related industry/business/university/etc in Florida and along the Gulf cost is monitoring the ongoing situation with new data arriving daily. ......................................................................................... Not just along the Florida coast ...... Meanwhile a variety of environmental groups are trying to block exports of oil, gas and coal from Canada's West Coast. Many fear another "Exon Valdiz" style oil spill. I fear that Canada will sell all our fossil fuel to Asia. After we have sold all our fossil fuel to Asia, they will leave "the white bastards to freeze in the dark."

... wind farms are being built ... ............................................................................................ What is your reaction to applications to build wind turbines around the Grand Bend, Ontario DZ?

We are seeing a diversification in fighting skills depending upon which neighbourhood you grew up in. When kids are raised in poor or working class neighbourhoods they learn early how defend themselves with fists because they know that parents and teachers and police will not lift a finger to defend them. OTOH kids from " nice" neighbourhoods are discouraged from fist- fighting. Since kids from "nice" neighbourhoods are more likely to get hired as cops (e.g. no criminal background of petty thefts) some day they might patrol a beat in a poor neighbourhood where disputes are normally settled with fists. If the "nice" cop lacks fist- fighting skills, he/she will be too quick to defend him/herself with a Taser or gun. Solution: recruit police from a wide demographic and teach them a wide variety if take-down skills.

Sorry, but I see this as three separate debates: arming police, armouring police and droning police.

Sorry, but I was under the impression that the primary goal of these forums was to reach consensus on best-business-practices. We try to learn from other peoples' mistakes. We dissect trails on mistakes leading to their accidents in our efforts to avoid injuring ourselves. Sure we use dark humour and schadenfreude smuggness to distance our egos from their stupidity. At the end of every debate we delight in telling ourselves "I am too smart to repeat his mistake." For example, reading USPA Accident, Incident and Malfunction reports has cured me of a few bad habits.

............................................................................. God did not write the American Constitution or the Bill of Rights. Both those documents were written by long-dead white men. They wrote both those documents for a vastly different country than the modern USA. That was long before the industrial revolution, long before steam locomotives, long before breach-loading fire-arms, long before magazine-fed rifles, long before machine guns. Back then the worst drug dealers imported tea without the appropriate tax stamps. Back then some of the authors of the Constitution and BOR investing in tea importation business. Their primary motivation was to arm local militias to prevent British soldiers from meddling in the tea trade .... tax stamps or no tax stamps. By that logic the American Constitution and BOR were both written by out-law drug dealers who wanted to entrench their "God-given right" to arm their gang members against the British government's tax-enforcement officers. B You really need to read the Federalist Papers...... ..................................................................... I don't have time to read the Hansard. When am I going to find time to read the Federalist Papers ?

Agreed Fully-automatic pistols never became fashionable because even the biggest and toughest infantrymen could not hit the target consistently. Uzis are better because they are more likely to put three bullets on the target. Stens are better (for kids) because they are longer and more muzzle-heavy, making them easier to keep on target. Bipod-mounted medium machine guns even better because kids lack the muscle to turn them away from Down-range. Finally, tripods are best because you can weld arc-of-fire limits in to the tripod. In the end, the type of mount does not matter, because the next time I see "kid" and "automatic weapon " on the same range, I will run away.

Drugs flow Northwards across the Mexican border while guns flow Southwards. The reverse happens across the Canada/USA border. The only difference is that Canadian drug dealers are better shots and (most of the time) only shoot other Canadian drug-dealers. Canadian police merely lean back and keep score.

The FAA updated an Airworthiness Directive on the PT6A-114and -114A engines installed in Cessna Caravans. The AD requires recurring bores old inspections of compressor turbine blades. The AD must be done by the end of October 2014. This is not a new problem. Pratt & Whitney and TC have been calling for bore scope inspections since at least 2007. Also remember that the 2008 crash of a Twin Otter jump-plane in Missouri was caused by a turbine blade failure.

Moderators ..... Can we link/combine this thread with earlier threads about 206 doors? Do we need a separate thread about Jump-Planes? Can we aim the new thread primarily at pilots, mechanics and DZO to help them share best-business-practices?

Did you ask Nevada Airlift?

Classic "Capewell" releases were originally designed to allow jumpers to release one side of their canopy if they were being dragged after landing. I have even seen European military (French?) that only had a release on one shoulder. The Capewell factory never expected their releases to be used before landing. The first few skydivers who used their Capewells to release from malfunctioned mains. Even with regular cleaning, oiling and tuning Capewells were still difficult to use in the air. This led riggers to improve Capewells with R-2, R-3, Tapewell, etc. updates. Then other riggers started thinking outside the box with Chrysalis, YES, Strong Wrap and finally 3-Ring. About 30 years ago, capitalist skydivers agreed that Booth's 3-Ring system was the best for skydivers. Meanwhile Capewells still work well for their original mission.

Moderators .......... Can we ease separate this thread. The first thread should deal with classic S/L . The second thread should deal with HALO and HAHO.

Can we agree that side-ways PLFs produce the fewest I injuries? .... Forwards PLFs scrape more knees and hands. Rearward PLFs are the worst because of spinal compression and whacking the back of your head.

Agreed "Drone" is the original military term for an airplane with no pilot aboard. Early target drones were crude, barely capable of flying a simple tragectory ... little more than expensive artillery shells. As drone software got more sophisticated, manufacturers tried hanging fancier names (UAV, UAS) on them. Media stuck with the term "drone" because the public already understands that "buzz word." Meanwhile the best and brightest military minds (bleeding edge of technology) are probably happy with public ignorance. Think about it, everything the American public sees on TV, the Taliban discuss after evening prayers. Ergo, the less the American public knows about "drones" the less the Taliban know about drones.

...................................................................................... Insignificant numbers. Military jump-masters hate skydivers because they require excess time to re-train. Armies prefer to teach any skill from zero.

0.8 Aviator (pilot emergency parachutes) are factory-set at roughly half-brakes. Pulling down on a steering toggle results in 3/4 brakes. Flaring an Aviator slows your rate of descent a bit. The main advantage (to flaring an Aviator) is reducing forward speed. Few pilots have enough muscle to stall an Aviator. Even no flare landings (Aviator 280) are softer than MIL SPEC rounds because of the ANGLE of arrival. If you land an Aviator 280 no-flare, hands-off, down-wind, in the desert weeds surrounding Lake Elsinore, you easily slide off the excess forward speed. The key word here is FORWARD speed, because the angle of impact makes a huge difference. Human beings are pretty good at absorbing forward impacts, but ask any old para-trooper how much he enjoyed PLFs to the rear!!! Expect a long string of profanity!!! Haha! Haha! During the 1980s I was a static-line jump-master while the skydiving industry transitioned from rounds to squares. I accredit the vast reduction in student injuries to the change in ANGLE of arrival. If anyone wonders where I got my opinions about Aviator 280 canopies ???? I evolved those opinions while jumping prototypes during the "live" phase of the TSO drop tests.

AADs also make work simpler for the coroner. If they find an intact corpse laying beside a open reserve, the investigation and autopsy are much easier. In recent years, there have been a couple of a fatalities where skydivers died of heart attacks in free fall and their ADDs saved neat corpses. IOW if the deceased lands under a fully-inflated reserve, far less "screaming and shouting and running abouting" interferes with your buddies enjoying an afternoon of skydiving,

Subrogation.

............................................................................ Poynter's Manual contains some good drawings show how to pack a Butler/MIL SPEC/Waters 4-line release.

.... Ill be safe about it. Lots of thermals this time a year at my home DZ....... ................................................................... Your logic escapes me. Thermals plus any canopy equals danger. The only difference between thermals and dust devils is their speed of rotation. Choice of canopy makes little difference if you fly through a thermal or dust devil. The world's fanciest canopy will not save you if you fly through a strong dust devil. The smartest skydivers avoid flying near thermals and dust devils. Both thermals and dust devils can kill you. The only certainty is that coyotes will enjoy cleaning up your mess.

Nice job on the new leg pads. Just remember to back-stitch, bar-tack or ziz-zag where the outer leg pad ends.

............................................................................ Best answer so far. Another hint: what happened the last time the Royal Newfoundland Regiment was left alone with a keg of brandy? There was a keg of Brandy????? Saint Bernard dogs are famous for carrying small kegs of brandy tied to their collars. The brandy is to revive avalanche survivors. Yes, I was using a stereotype: keg of brandy dangling from a St. Bernard's collar. I also stereotype Swiss as being great archers, yodelers, alpenhorn blowers, cheese-makers, clock-makers, etc. Other days stereotypes get me into trouble.