riggerrob

I have done thousands of tandems from Cessna 205, 206P and 206U. From the 206P, I just sit with my back against the instrument panel and put my left foot on the step. As I get up into a crouch, I slide my right foot to the corner of the door ... What specifically are your TIs complaining about?

Tensile standards vary from one manufacturer to the next. The key thing is applying the same tension to all lines. One Master Rigger used to use "one circular saw" hanging off the end of the table to tension lines while he marked and cut them.

Master Warrant Officers

Going above 12,500 feet without supplemental oxygen is ... silly ... The sad part is that most skydivers are too ... confident .. to recognize when they are hypoxic.

.................................................................................. Agreed! Even a 7-cell Swift Plus has brake lines that are easier to stow.

Judging from the photos, it is a 4 point, 3 inch long WW stitch pattern. Yes, it looks weird, but when was the last time anyone complained about a Mirage MLW failing? The French would call it a "WMW" stitch pattern. Hee! Hee!

Please complete your profile. The last time I bought a line kit from Para-Flite/Airborne Systems was six or seven years ago. If you have general questions about repairing Para-Flite canopies, many older Master Riggers - like me can answer them. I do not remember Para-Flite publishing any shelf lives or service lives for their products, however, remember that they were made before ZP fabric became widely used and few Para-Flite canopies were designed to be loaded more than one pound per square foot. No-one expects Para-Flite's F-111 canopies to last more than 600 ... maybe 800 ... jumps. I have plenty of line trim charts for Para-Flite canopies. If you want to re-line old Para-Flite canopies, ask Mel Lancaster or Pete Swan.

I don't understand his right hand position. It would make far more sense to keep both arms wide for stability during opening.

Sure, why not? An adult should be allowed to do whatever they choose to do so long as their actions do not put innocent persons in harms' way. The way I see it - let Darwin take care of them and God will sort it out. I don't think there should be seatbelt or helmet laws for the operator of any vehicle. But passengers should be required to wear helmets and seatbelts. ........................................................................ The problem is that when helmet-less riders got injured ... under the old plan, they expected the county tax-payers to pay their medical bill. It is unfair to stick your neighbors with huge medical bills. Now with Obama-care, they will expect federal taxpayers to pay their medical bills. In most other industrialized nations, everyone pre-pays for medical insurance. Ergo ... you should only be allowed to ride helmet-less if you have already paid for huge amounts of medical insurance.

.................................................................................. Try listening to Professor Elemental.

I just stand an eight of an inch in front of them and TALK to them in my drill sergeant voice. I don't even bother using profanity. I don't bother speculating on their ancestry. I don't bother speculating on their sexual practices. They don't enjoy those 30 seconds any more than I enjoy limping for 30 days. The last woman - who knocked me off my bicycle - was last seen pleading guilty on front of a judge.

Exactly. The trucker never saw him coming. Attached is the screen capture. I do 4-5000 miles a year cycling, and a cardinal rule is to never pass another vehicle (parked or moving) close enough to be caught by an opening door. That is even dumber on a motorcycle. .............................................................................. Same rules when you are driving a city bus. Give the idiots at least 4.5 feet (130 cm) to be stupid. You would be amazed at how may people step out of the left sides of their cars into moving traffic ... without looking. Why more of those idiots are not dead is a mystery to me????????

That "high altitude, high speed" provision in the FARS was written back during the 1950s, when the United States Air Force was learning how to fly B-47, B-52 etc. nuclear bombers to Russia. To avoid anti-aircraft artillery, they were flying at the previously unheard of altitudes of 40,000 or 50,000 feet. Eventually the Hustler bomber flew supersonic at those altitudes. The USAF developed a range of pilot emergency parachutes specifically for exiting crippled bombers at 50,000 feet going Mach 2. Those parachutes were specifically designed to open slowly, many thousands of feet below cruising altitude. Read Poynter's manual, Volume One for a partial list of high-speed, high-altitude emergency parachutes. OTOH any parachute that soldiers routinely jump out of standard military transport airplanes (C-130, C-141, C-5, C-17, Greyhound, etc.) overlaps the civilian Standard category.

I totally agree with this option ......................................................................... Voting with woppyvac

Perhaps Obama is procrastinating on the Keystone Pipeline because he is looking at the 30-year energy picture. Perhaps Obama is reluctant to sell all of North America's oil reserves to the Asians. China could easily burn through all of Alberta's oil sands in 30 years ... and not even burp. Then the Chinese will led the white bastards freeze in the dark. OTOH if Obama limits oil exports now, our grandchildren may still have oil remaining in North America 30 years from now.

Let's compare the current confusion in the Ukraine with historical confusion in Estonia. Estonians have historically resisted "Christianisation" whether Teutonic Knights were trying to impose Roman Catholicism from the West or Russians were trying to impose Eastern orthodox Christianity from the South East. Eventually, Russia Tsar Peter the Great pushed Russian influence far enough North that they were able to dredge a Port at St. Petersburg ... right next door to Estonia. Estonians stubbornly clung to their Finno-Urgic language and traditions. Estonia was forcibly absorbed into Communist Russia. During World War 2, thousands of Estonians joined the German SS ... not because they were fascists ... rather, they were trying to push Bolsheviks farther east, away from the Estonian border. Estonia suffered about 250,000 casualties during WW2 and in the immediate post-war years as Stalin punished them for backing Germany. When Russia occupied Estonia, they moved in thousands upon thousands of Russian-speaking soldiers and sailors and administrators. Fast-forward to the collapse of the Berlin Wall, thousands of Russian-speaking immigrants had lived in Estonia for a generation or three, controlling the country from their upper-middle-class positions. When Estonians regained control, they wrote a new constitution that required voters to read and write Estonian. The Estonian Parliament even imported an Estonian-speaking Prime Minister who had spent the intervening few decades in Canada. What an outrage! Russian-speaking Estonians were not sure which was worse: losing their communist pensions or losing their power. The same thing has recently happened in the Crimean provinces of the Ukraine. Ever since the Crimean War (mid-1980s), Russia has expanded its military presance on the Black Sea by importing thousands upon thousands of ethnic Russian sailors and soldiers to the Crimean. Eventually, ethnic Russians out-numbered Ukrainian-speakers in the Eastern Provinces of the Ukraine.

The third version of the story comes from a Ukrainian-born skydiver. Back during the 1980s, he joined the Russian merchant-marine, but jumped ship ... er ...swam ashore in Vancouver. He still fears Russian communists because he cannot see a difference between the historical excesses of Tsarist Russia and Communist Russia and Putin-ruled Russia. Then his rant turned racist, when he said that Putin is not even white, rather Putin looks more like a Mongol. "And you look at Stalin ... he is not white either. Sure Stalin may have gotten his start in Georgia, but if you look closely, his family is not from Georgia. Stalin killed or deported how many million Ukrainians in the purges leading up to World War 2? What happened to all the Crimean Tartars deported during WW2?

It is amazing how many different versions of the story you hear from different people. For example, when I asked a Belarus-born co-worker, he said that Russia was perfectly to its rights to pressure the Ukraine. Russia historically fears invasion from the West. Russia has been invaded by: Vikings, Poland, Sweden, Estonia, France (circa 1800), Turkey, Germany (1914 and 1941) and more times by the Mongol Hordes (starting in 1223) than we can count! Currently, Russia fears that a Western-biased Ukraine will invite NATO to base troops on Ukrainian soil, far too close to Russia for comfort.

The other issue is that Russia supplies Western Europe with the bulk of its natural gas. ergo NATO is reluctant to push back too hard, for fear that they will freeze in the dark.

Hey, unfair to Exxon. Exxon now admits that AGW is real. They'd make blood sacrifice to Baal if there was a buck to be made. .............................................................................. So how do we make a buck off of global warming? Real estate developers are already talking about adding "decorative water features" to condo developments immediately east of Main Street. They quietly forget that neighborhood was tidal mud flats a century ago. If sea levels continue to rise, that neighborhood will return to fetid tidal swamp. I figure that I can make my first million dollars by selling Venice-inspired, Renaissance town-homes on the old mud flats. We can add romantic second-story foot bridges for a few million more. Then I can make a few million by leasing out a flotilla of gondolas to ply the "romantic water features." ... perhaps wholesaling cheap straw hats? ... bespoke straw hats? ... perhaps a school to teach opera singing to gondoleers? ... a shop building high-end, custom, racing gondolas? Then I can make a few million selling sump pumps to people who were silly enough to build houses at sea level in Richmond. Then I can make my next million dollars building dyke between Richmond and Surrey. Then I can make my next million dredging out the "historic drainage" between Chinatown and downtown Vancouver. Then I can make my next million offering ferry service across the Carroll Street Canal. Then I can make my next million by building a bridge across the Carroll Street Canal. Next thing you know, I will be selling ocean-front properties in Chilliwack! Hah! Hah!

Tension. Tension the line before cutting. With enough tension any sharp tool will cut Dacron suspension line. Tension prevents the rope from "escaping" the sharp edge of the cutting tool. With enough tension, I can cut rope between a smooth anvil and a smooth-faced hammer.

................................................................................ That is because most modern sport rigs have electronic AADs. You would be ... er ... silly ... to use anything other than Cypres cord (for a reserve closing loop).

The problem with ethanol is that it rots some rubber hoses, gaskets, etc. in older fuel systems/older airplanes.

...All inner ribs are f111 type material. What are the pros/cons of this?... ...................................................................................... F-111 has the same strength as ZP fabric. Porosity is un-important in inner ribs. Remember that most other manufacturers increase geometric porosity by cutting cross-ports through inner ribs. Higher porosity ribs (and bottom skin) make it easier to squeeze air out of canopies when you pack.

I sure have done first aid on a lot of those people. ............................................................................ Do they listen when you tell them to wait quietly for the ambulance?