riggerrob

Part of the problem is that hip rings allow the container to move around far more. The only thing that will keep the hip rings in a fixed position (e.g. covering the iliac crest) is some form of belly-band. It is easy to slip an after-market belly-band onto hip rings.

Coral has always been an inspiration. If she can smile that broadly - from a wheel-chair - then I should STFU anytime I get the urge to whine about my sore knees.

I have never seen any parachute hardware - jumped in North America - that was corroded so badly that it had lost structural strength. The biggest problem was cadmium or chromium-plated hardware that the plating had rubbed/cracked off and the under-lying steel was rusted so badly that it was starting to fray the webbing. The fastest corrosion seems to occur in the Amazon basin of Brazil. All the iron in the acidic soil can ruin the finish on cadmium-plated steel in two or three years. I have had to re-harness a pair of Telesis student rigs and a pair of Softie pilot rigs because there was no corrosion-protection remaining after three years. So I only recommend stainless steel hardware to Brazilian customers. For every-one else, SS is more of a fashion statement.

"... Plus it's not as slippery as SS which I've seen some complain about in their leg straps. For me the extra $$ is not worth it." ....................................................................................... Also remember that most of the old-school/Military Specification/PIA Spec cadmium-plated hardware was originally designed for the cotton harness webbing used back during World War 2. Half of the slippage problems have been caused by modern harnesses being built of thinner, slipperier webbing (resin-coated Type 7 or Type 8). Aerodyne's solution was to tell riggers to sew an extra layer of Type 12 webbing (onto leg straps) to bulk-out the buckles.

I heard that European mills switched to stainless steel because of the high cost of disposing of toxic waste remaining after the cadmium-plating process.

Another option is to so the skydive with his regular main canopy, then discard it in the building. For the BASE jump, he could simply tie his (regular skydiving) reserve bridle around the balcony railing and leap off. Deployed in this configuration, the reserve would inflate in 2 or 3 seconds, allowing an exit from as low as 175 feet. From 175 feet, his canopy ride would last less than 10 seconds, too short for most observers to ask "What the??????" Jumping into a dark alley would help as well as having a boring coloured canopy. The latest colour - of urban camouflage - is called "wolf." It is a boring shade of grey that "averages" background colours downtown.

Look for grey hair in their beards.

................................................................................. Last time an observer wanted to ride-along at Pitt Meadows, she was refused "because our insurance does not cover observers."

Great idea! After Pitt Meadows ran out of freefall instructors, they were fortunate that a wind-tunnel operated near Vancouver for a couple of years. They sent all their IAD/traditional freefall students to the tunnel and noticed a dramatic improvement in progression.

Some of the Supplementary Type Certificates for jump-doors require the pilot to wear an emergency parachute. Logically, any passenger remaining in the airplane should also wear an emergency parachute.

............................................................................ No! USPA shouold nt lower pre-levels before jumping hand-cam. New TIs need a least 100 tandem jumps - to burn basic survival skills into longer-term memory - before adding any more gadgets (e.g. cameras).

Is it a mini-riser only issue? ................................................................................ Mostly. The vast majority of snapped, solo risers were mini-risers (1 inch wide, Type 17 webbing) sewn to mini-rings and attached to RW-7 or RW-8 harness rings. Those are the risers that require the tightest manufacturing tolerances. Thankfully, that problem disappeared from the factory floor 20 years ago.

Agreed! The scariest, snaggiest camera set-up that I saw last year was a pair of GoPros, side-by-side, on a swivel-mount, above a glove. ... far more likely to snag than any of the fabric gloves that I sewed for Sony PC-1, HC-42, etc.

Never heard that term around where I am. It appears to be what I've seen called a "flip through" on your 3-rings. ................................................................................... First time I heard the term "lock-down". Silly you and me! Hee! Hee! All these years, I have been calling the "flip-throughs." This past summer I straightened out dozens of "flipped-through" tandem risers.

Broken mini (1 inch wide, Type 17 webbing) main risers were a big deal back around 1990. That was because mini-risers require much tighter manufacturing tolerances ... so tight that you cannot "eyeball" the tolerances. The Parachute Industry Association recommended reinforcing the bottom of mini-risers in 1993. In 1998, 3-Ring Inc. published exact dimensions. Since then, broken mini-risers have become increasingly rare. Anyone still jumping (20-year-old) non-reinforced mini-risers is a dinosaur.

The simple answer is to buy a new line-set from Performance Designs. That will save you a week of head-scratching and ensure that you new lines are the correct lengths. I quit cutting my own line-sets when PD started making elliptical canopies. The tolerances on tiny canopies are tighter than I can eye-ball. I never was very good at math.

I think this is a good point - the skyhook on UPT I've seen with and without hesitator loops and grommets in place. I pack it according to the manual BUT nothing says it has to be upgraded to the latest. Hence you may have a V1 with the inherent problems still present. That said, I'm sure If the owner wanted it updated they could send it back to UPT. However the versioning of various systems is something to consider. Most traditional RSL haven't changed much in years.... I guess this is the price you pay for having the latest stuff. ................................................................................. If it contained a light-weight (e.g. less than 250 square foot) reserve, I would not care. OTOH heavy-weight reserves (e.g. tandem) should have hesitator/staging loops installed, because of the risk of them pulling Colins lanyards .. after you have already made a series of mistakes on your way to the scene of the accident. Remember that staging loops were fashionable on Wonderhogs - back when 26 foot diameter LoPos were the fashionable reserves, then staging loops fell out of fashion when reserves shrank to less than the size of your ex-wife's lacy under-pants. But the problem reared its ugly head when tandem reserves exceeded the weight of 26 foot LoPos.

................................................................................ Add: white loop breaks because it is badly frayed because you dragged it across the ground too many times and kept it in service long after it was visibly frayed. This malfunction scenario raises another issue: longevity. There is a "bath-tub" curve with all new technology. Everyone's first generation is crude, usually only stays in production for a year or two and often has a Service Bulletin to correct a malfunction scenario, that never crossed the designer's mind in his worst drunken nightmare. Ten years later, a young rigger is asked to repack a first-generation "gadget." He cannot find the original manual nor the Service Bulletin - because the factory updated 90 percent of the first generation in short order. The only way to find replacement parts is to steal them off a grounded, not-updated, first-generation rig. Holy built-in obsolesence Batman!

Results vary ... depending upon head size, nose size, goggle size, etc. Remember that the goggle channel was originally designed for snow-boarding goggles. You will only get an accurate answer if you test-fit n Benny and your favorite goggles.

Buy the Benny and spend the money you saved on jump tickets. This advice comes from a guy who owns two Bonehead helmets, a Sidewinder (camera helmet), another obscure camera helmet, an HS2, two leather frap-hats and has worn out more ProTecs than he can count.

.................................................................................... The last reserve - that I refused to repack - was a round canopy sewn during the acid-mesh era (1980s). Otherwise, I just remind jumpers to only load their gear in accordance with manufacturers' instructions. For example: the last jumper - that I advised not to buy a Micro Raven - bought it despite my sarcastic comments about "stupid fat white men jumping Micro-Ravens." The next spring he made a series of mistakes on his way to an -off-airport landing. He stalled his Micro-Raven and broke a bunch of bones. The resale value of Micro-Ravens dropped radically! As long as you load your Tempo within PISA's recommendations, I see no fuss with you keeping it in service for 20 or 25, maybe even 30 years.

And what could you possibly learn from him?

.................................................................................... IOW you need to be a full-fledged idiot to pack a no-pull on a Spandex BOC. The disadvantage is that Spandex BOCs need to be replaced every "X" hundred jumps.

I prefer nails.

Agreed! The message varies with the audience. First jump students get a simplified answer. OTOH people with more jumps than me on tiny canopies are more likely to hear "go ask Jay Moledsky."