riggerrob

Those Spekon pilot emergency parachutes look like a nacient communist MIL SPEC, with a European TSO rubber-stamped on top. Up until 2010, I repacked (several times) a stack of Spekon RE-5L PEPs for a quasi-government project in Manitoba. Back then I notice plenty of fraying on the leg straps, especially the lower lefty corner. I even wrote out an estimate of the cost to replace all the harnesses. I would not repack any of those rigs if the trace thread is broken. Never heard back from them. Yes that "saddle" harness configuration is old, but it is uncomfortable. At least it was uncomfortable when I was a student skydiver back during the late 1970s. As for that harness configuration - when I attended the Canadian Army jump school? ... a lot of things were more uncomfortable.

"... It had been 35 days in between jumps ..." ...................................................................................... Skydiving skills are perishable, so the longer between jumps, the more you will have to re-learn. At a minimum, ask an instructor to do a full review before your next jump. If you live in a snowy climate, you would be better off saving your money over the winter, then doing a whole hockey-sock worth of jumps in the spring-time. Please add more detail to your personal profile.

The disadvantage of "stealthy" wind turbines is that fewer civilian aircraft radars will see them and more civilian airplanes might hit wind turbines. What a civilian airplane was doing - that low - will be "difficult" to explain.

Agreed! The primary reason most riggers refuse to repack 20-year-old Phantoms, Pioneer K-series reserves, etc. is because some of those round reserves were made with acid-mesh. Some of that acid-mesh chewed holes in canopy fabric. I would love to see all those round reserves - from the acid-mesh era - disappear into museums. As for square reserves - made of similar material ... few manufacturers publish shelf-life limits. ... and even fewer riggers care. The greatest risk to modern skydivers jumping 20-plus -year old square reserves is stupid, fat, white men loading Micro Ravens at 3 pounds per square foot, then wondering why they don't flare! Hah! Hah! If I were the original poster, I would phone Square One FIRST THING IN THE MORNING to pay for that PD 280 reserve, because you are never going to see that good deal again on a like-new reserve.

.................................................................................... Strong Master 425 reserves are made of 0-3 cfm fabric, similar to "F-111." The earlier Strong tandem reserves were made of comparatively porous fabric, but they should all have been retired by now (if you follow factory inspection guidelines). The last stack of Strong Master reserves that I repacked, were made of high-grade 0-3 cfm fabric that lookedlike ZP from arm's length. I could only tell the difference when I shook the fabric.

"... You want your riggers to get diligent into the nitty-gritty and count stitches ? Surely you don't expect that for $50, do you ?" ...................................................................................... A complete assemble, inspect and pack (on a new rig) costs more than $100 near Vancouver. Then I usually try to fob the main pack job off on one of the staff packers ... to ... er ... get a second set of eyballs to inspect it.

Chris, You succeeded in making the old T&SC chair VERY ANGRY! The new chair is in the process of completely revising how CSPA trains riggers. We have already taught a couple of new Rigger A courses and one Rigger RA1 course. I also taught the first version of the PEP block of instruction (part of the new Rigger RA2 course) during a Senior Rigger course in Switzerland. The new Rigger A written exam is now all open-book, but candidates have to write down WHERE they found the answer. Ironically, looking up page numbers takes - most candidates - longer than a simple closed-book exam. Hah! Hah! We are also formalizing pre-course quizzes and pre-course homework to better familiarize candidates with references.

................................................................................. Clearly you have not done as many jumps with "220 pound" students as me. Hah! Hah! Well manifest told me that they only weighed "220 pounds" (published school limit)????? And I doubt if you have many jumps on F-111 main canopies. Back in the good-old-days, you needed at least 400 square feet of fabric just to slow down the planet.

Most of those numbers are reasonable, with the exception that most schools will only allow first (solo) students to jump canopies loaded around 0.7 pounds per square foot. Similarly, precision landing competitors and BASE jumpers usually limit their wing-ladings to around 0.7.

Yes, One of the problems was that a CSPA Course Facilitator (from Quebec) sent those under-experienced candidates. I will never take his advice seriously again. It was more those candidates slow learning styles that dragged things out. Some were more interested in discussing DZ politics than the finer points of folding reserves. In comparison, during a recent course - in Switzerland - two glider pilots arrived with zero experience packing parachutes, but they worked hard all week (packing ten PEPs each) and by the end of the week passed written and practical packing tests to earn Swiss certification pack emergency parachutes (round canopies only) for glider pilots. The second problem was a long-out-of-date written exam. Part of the problem was the precisely-worded answers required to pass that exam. When you returned, I have already skimmed through all the exams and concluded that most of the candidates understood the material, but had difficulty with the precise phrasing. (How many of you remember how to spell "Gurley Porosometer?") After that course, I refused to teach any more courses to the old exam. Since I was CSPA's busiest Rigger Instructor, the Canadian rigger training program stalled until the Technical Committee got a new chair. The third problem was language. The course language was not decided until the first morning of the course. Given the location of the course - Eastern Ontario - I was half-expecting to teach the course in French. Staff languages included: English, French, German and Spanish. I was deeply disappointed to discover that a lone, uni-lingual, English-only candidate was going to slow down the rest of the class. As it turned out, the slowest (French as mother tongue) candidate decided to write the final exam in English and his answers were all legible. In comparison, I recently taught a rigger course in Switzerland. Spoken languages included: English, French, German, Spanish and Serbian. Since that canton is primarily French-speaking, half of the instruction was in French, 40 percent in English, with a bit in German. Usually I would explain something in French, then scan the class to see if it had sunk in, then repeat it in English or German for the only student who did not understand French. By the end of the second day, another student was usually translating my words into German as I caught my breath. She insisted on writing her exam in English. Similarly, we had one candidate who only understood French, so sometimes I had to repeat fragments of my lectures in French. Naturally, he wrote his exam in French. In case I sound like a multi-lingual snob, remember that I was always at the bottom of my class in high school, and really only learned to speak French after I joined the army. I only learned to speak German during a military posting to West Germany, and I only learned the basics of Spanish after working in Southern California parachute factories for a few years. Bottom line, I am a slow learner when it comes to languages. As for you not having to pack a reserve as a practical exam ... earlier in the week, you demonstrated sufficient skill, that you passed the practical exam by mid-week.

After 100 jumps, the difference would be even greater, because the zero-p canopy would still open hard, but the F-111 fabric will have become more porous and will open softer than it was new. By the time F-111 main canopies had 500 jumps. we started cutting holes in their sliders to "improve" openings.

Quit being so hard on yourself. Any jump you walk away from is a good jump. When you return to jumping in January, just remind your instructors about your lengthy lay-off and ask them to do a complete review of freefall, landing patterns, reserve procedures, etc.

Packing any rig requires unique skills. For example, when packing Vortex your rigger should already be good at closing tight containers. During my last rigger course, we failed a candidate because of poor bulk distribution, in a tight Vortex. He did not put any of the reserve canopy bulk above the closing loop. OTOH Pop-Top reserves (Racer, Reflex, Teardrop, etc.) require special tools and techniques. I started with steel T-Bodkins, but now I only use ghost-loops (hint: ghost-loops are free from the Racer factory). If you are packing Teardrops, then make your own ghost-loop (singular) with a half metre of Cypres cord and an old Maillion Rapide (or any other lump of scrap iron). Teardrops are the easiest Pop-Tops to close, partly because they only have one loop, one cutter, one ripcord pin, etc.

Sadly, most skydivers "blatantly ignore" manufacturers' numbers until they get injured. This reminds me of the first torn-up Raven Dash-280. The junior jumper bought it because - at the time - it was the only reserve rated for his weight. Over the winter he "gained a few pounds." The next time he jumped it, he dis-located his right shoulder and was over-weight, over-speed and unstable when he scared his Cypres. The wounded's lawyer-uncle offered to sue everyone vaguely related to the accident, but when the lawyer was reminded that the wounded was over-weight, that part of the law-suit against Precision Aerodynamics was quietly dropped. Hah! Hah! Precision eventually solved that problem by sewing more reinforcing tapes into their new line of R-Max reserves, then drop-tested them (successfully) with heavier weights at faster airspeeds.

There are steering toggles and flare toggles. The steering toggles are connected to less of the tail than a conventional, single toggle would be, so when steering the canopy at altitude, you're pulling on less of the tail with less effort required. For landing, you pick up the flare toggles as well, and then you're applying full tail deflection for maximum flare power. As mentioned, it's for TI comfort/fatigue. Tandems are hard physical work, and when you do them all day long, fatigue becomes an issue. Being able to get a good, full flare is key to passenger safety, and the dual toggle system helps out in that area. ......................................................................... The other side of the debate is that some TIs cannot count all those toggles ... at the end of a busy day. Back when Strong 520 canopies were fashionable, we used to tie all the steering and brake lines to just two toggles and flew them just fine. It also helped that most of our TIs attended the gym on a regular basis. Even today, I find that four toggles - on a Icarus 366 - are more than I want to bother with in a busy landing pattern. I would much rather have my "eyes outside the cockpit" when other TIS have "more than one definition" of a right-hand landing pattern. Two possible solutions to the same problem: more toggles or more muscles. I would rather build more muscles.

Teardrop reserves are easier to pack. Vortex reserves are more difficult to pack because their side flaps are shorter than Javelin side flaps. When your Vortex is due for a reserve inspection, take it to the local rigger who has packed the most Javelins ... packed Javelins in the most pretty, manner.

............................................................................ There is little incentive to building a stronger canopy, but all certified canopies (e.g. reserves) must still all pass the heavy weight/high speed drop tests. After a canopy has passed the stress tests, then they measure the rate of descent and decide what maximum weight to placard it. Look at the label on any PD reserve and you will see that the smallest ones (e.g. PD113) is placarded for much less than 254 pounds. That is because PD expects the canopy to survive a high-speed opening at 254 pounds, but does not expect a fat (254 pound) guy's ankles to survive landing a PD 113 reserve.

"... student rigs are not "freefly" friendly ..." ..................................................................................... Come on! Freeflying started to become fashionable, and "freefly friendly" students rigs were introduced 15 years ago (e.g. Telesis 2 introduced in 1997). What type of antiquated student gear is your DZ still operating? Maybe you need to move to DZ that up-dates its student gear more than once a century!

If you are bored - under canopy - then you have not explored all the corners of its envelope. Consider that top accuracy - or pond swooping - competitors put hundreds of jumps on a canopy before they take it to a competition.

......................................................................... You are thinking in the right direction. Slowing down the jump platform vastly reduces the hassles during opening. The ideal would be a balloon with a really wide basket. You stand on the ledge, with one buddy holding your left end cell open and your other buddy holding your right end cell open ...

........................................................................ Doesn't the Federation Aeronautique International require you to beat a previous record by 2 percent or 5 percent before they put the new record in the books?

As long as your local rigger replaces all the pile Velcro and installs a main bridle cover, you should be fine. Just don't pay a whole lot. Out of curiosity ... who made the main and reserve canopies?

........................................................................ Correct! Mirages are certified under TSO C23B, low speed category. However that is largely a paper-work limitation, because when they redesigned the Mirage series - during the 1990s - they made their harnesses considerably stronger. Jeff Johnston (sp?) showed me the data from a series of drop-tests they did on PD's tower. The data showed that a ringed Mirage harness easily absorbed all the hard openings in the standard category. Jeff explained that is because Type 8 webbing stretches a bit more than Type 7. Two layers of Type 8 (4,000 pounds plus 4,000 pounds equal 8,000 pounds total strength of the main lift web) end up stronger than one layer of Type 7 (6,000 pounds minimum breaking strength). On a related note, Al MacDonald found that when he started installing hip rings on Sidewinders, his harnesses got 15 percent stronger. This is because the rings allow the upper leg strap to align exactly with the load, instead of taking all the load on the top stitch/end of the upper leg strap.

.................................................................... Larger canopies tend to be slightly more docile, because their lines are longer.

Fixed for you http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Bv_NqiT7pM I know he did not hit his reserve pin, but the title of this thread is : "reserve activation on the door' right?! And I'm sure that someday somewhere somebody will find the way to jam his Racer poptop cap somewhere, break both loops and end up with an open reserve on the tail of the plane ...................................................................... There was a similar accident (circa 1980) when a guy snagged his Racer's reserve ripcord housing on the door handle of a Cessna. As he fell away from the airplane, he ripped the ripcord housing off his harness! This was before it was fashionable to hide reserve ripcord housings inside the yoke. But the moral of the story is: be careful out there, because - if you try hard enough - you can deploy any parachute by dragging it across a door-frame.