riggerrob

If your Softie is clean and has minimal wear, you MIGHT convince a local rigger to repack it. Faded harness webbing is often half as strong as when it was new. It all depends upon condition. When I worked at Para-Phernalia (aka. Softie factory) we refused to repack most pilot emergency parachutes more than 20 years old. After 20 years of regular usage, they were usually faded, frayed and filthy. There was also the matter of the earliest Softies being rather crude and subtle improvements had been added over the years. If you rSoftie is only 24 years old, it was made in 1998 after all the major bugs had been worked out of the original patterns. As an aside, I also quit repacking round parachute canopies that were manufactured during the 1980s because to the acid-mesh hassles. Yes, I am familiar with the FAA-approved process (bromocreasol green and tensile testing) for returning them to service, but after testing a thousand or so, I lost interest in the process. When I worked for Butler, we rarely repacked PEPs more than 20 years old because the Southern California desert was harsh on PEPs. National and Pioneer also published retrospective notices telling riggers to not return to service their products more than 15 years old, but that was mainly to ground round canopies suspected of suffering from acid-mesh. When I worked for Square One at Perris Valley, California, loft policy dictated that we not repack parachutes more than 25 years old.

Sounds like the original poster raised his rear risers or toggles too quickly. The key to recovering from stalls is to GENTLY raise your toggles or rear risers. I teach junior jumpers to practice stalls by slowly pulling toggles down to their hips until they feel the canopy rock backwards. To recover, I teach them to raise toggles to belt level and pause for a few seconds until the canopy is definitely flying forward, then raise toggles all the way.

Do the tandem. Over the last 40 years, I have taught with all the popular methods: static-line, IAD, tandem and accompanied freefall. But I can only count on one hand the number of first-jump students that I have done AFF with. Few Canadian schools offer first-jump AFF. Instead, they offer a mixture of tandem, IAD, tunnel and accompanied freefall. Tandem is "best" at helping students over all the emotions of a first jump. IAD or static-line is "best" at teaching canopy control. Tunnels are "best" at teaching the basics of stable freefall. AFF combines all those skills. No single method is "best." Rather, each method is "best" during one phase of training. I even worked a few days at a skydiving school in Ontario where they offered first-jump AFF, but they slipped a "free" tandem jump into the program.Typically students spent the morning in the classroom. At lunchtime, they did their "free" tandem, then practical ground school exercises (rehearsals) all afternoon followed by an AFF jump in the evening. I also worked at an American skydiving school that offered first-jump AFF, but Saturday's ground school always ran late, so they had to come back Sunday morning to jump. Most of those AFF students said - after landing - that they were borderline overwhelmed and wished that they had started with a tandem. Your emotions are perfectly normal. Even the brightest and bravest students (think US NAVY SEALS) are often emotionally overwhelmed as they approach the door. A simpler dive with help you get over that emotional hurdle with less risk.

Remember that few of those Ukrainian female soldiers were first-line shooters. The bulk of these October-released Ukrainian female soldiers were medics, truck drivers, mechanics, signallers, blanket-stackers, etc. Modern, mechanized armies have very long tooth-to-tail ratios with up to 4 support soldiers for every shooter. For comparison, during World War 2 (Great Patriotic War) the Soviet Army suffered such heavy casualties, that by the time the captured Berlin, their ranks were 25 female.

"Time for you to head home now." Anyone who mixed alcohol with brandishing a gun would get the bums' rush from my apartment. I would take the police approach. When mature police officers host parties, they insist on everyone leaving their car keys with the host and locking up guns. At the end of the evening, the host decides who is sober enough to drive home. If they think far enough ahead, they leave guns at home. These days, few Canadian police officers carry guns while off duty. Many just lock their guns at the police station at the end of their shift. It is almost impossible for a Canadian civilian to obtain a concealed-carry permit.

That reminds me of an old Wonderhog that showed up at Perris Valley, California circa 200. Since manifest always sent visiting jumpers to Square One's loft, I (as the rigger on duty that day) did a quick external inspection along with confirming that the packing data card was in date, etc. The rig was from out of state. It had no AAD and still contained a round reserve, but scariest thing was its military-surplus, anti-wind, blast handle. Because of hard pulls - when pulling at the wrong angle - both CSPA and USPA had banned those metal reserve ripcord handles long before I earned my first rigging certificate in 1984. USPA had banned blast handles for many years, but eventually dropped that BSR (?) after they disappeared from most American DZs. USPA dropped the BSR to avoid cluttering their BSRs with trivia about obsolete equipment. Anyways, this visiting jumper adamantly insisted that it was his god-given right to jump a blast handle. After a half-hour of debate (including the visiting jumper, an instructor from PV Skydiving School and myself) he still insisted that he wanted to jump with his blast handle. I even offered to install a more modern D-handle ripcord for free and he still refused. Eventually, the instructor and I quit in frustration. The visiting jumper reminded me of modern "sovereign citizens" who insist long and loud about their god-given right to operate differently than the rest of society. GRRRRRRRR!

Ihave worked with both roll-up and slide-up doors on Cessna U206. I found the roll-up nylon door to be awkward to operate with only one hand. Think of a tandem instructor who has finished tightening all of his student's straps. OTOH slide-up, clear Lexan doors are much easier to operate with only one hand.

I have hundreds of jumps on Sabre 1 135, 150 and 170. I have sewn slider extenders (e.g. front lips) on dozens on Sabre 1s to soften the openings a bit. I especially liked the lip made of slider tape (invented by Weird Wayne out of Arizona). Remember that Sabre 1 was the first zero P fabric canopy on the North American market and it opened exactly the way 1990 jumpers wanted it to open. This was back when piston engines were still fashionable and it seemed to take all afternoon to climb to 12,500 feet. Yes, openings were firm, but you wanted that when you tossed your pilot-chute at 2,000' (USPA minimum for D licensed jumpers). I also have a half dozen jumps on Sabre 2 170. Softer openings were the biggest difference. The only time they opened hard was when I packed sloppily. Slider firmly up against the stops is the most important part of packing a Sabre.

That container looks like it was jumped hard in the desert and put away wet. Start by paying a Master Rigger to inspect it. If he/she determines that it needs more than the (rusted) RSL rings replaced, it is probably not worth the cost of repairs. Those rusty rings scare me and compel any rigger to minutely inspect all the hardware, especially where that hardware is hidden by webbing. Any rust in the webbing usually requires replacing the webbing ... an expensive job. Then it needs a bath. The Cypres is old enough to retire. That Raven 181 can only safely be jumped by people who weigh in the 160 pound range ... for a total suspended weight of 181 pounds. Anyone foolish enough to load a Raven at more than 1 pound per square foot should ... invest heavily in medical insurance.

What language is the background song?

Looks like Russia is going to lose control of their most important 2014 objective. They need access to the Dnipro River (Ukrainian spelling) and Kherson to divert water to Crimea. The Crimean peninsula is in a "dry" part of the Ukraine and needs irrigation for farms to be successful. As to whether Ukraine will ever regain control of the Crimean Peninsula ... consider how many different groups have fought over that peninsula: Sythians, Greeks, Romans, Ottoman Turks, Poles, Crimean Tatars, Czechs, German Nazis, Lithuanians, Swedes, Soviets, White Russians, Tzarist Russians, Ukrainian nationalists, Ukrainian anarchists, etc.

My how times have changed. It used to be that professional journalists and other media professionals self-censored. If a topic was too riscque, they avoided mentioning it in public. In other countries, a dirty look from the Queen could get them banned from covering major events. Talk about a professional dead-end!

Yes. Most of the DZs I have enjoyed were a 90 minute drive from the center of a major city: Montreal, Halifax, Chicago, New York, etc. Only Moncton and Kamloops were a mere 10 minute drive from downtown. One disadvantage of Pitt Meadows being only a 60 minute drive from downtown was that skydivers did all their errants on a Saturday morning, did a few skydives, then drove home for the evening. Few stuck around to drink beer and socialize after sunset. Part of the reason is the need to jump outside of Class B airspace (read "B" as "big airport serving a big city") because air traffic controllers don't like bungling amateur skydivers clogging up their smooth flow of dozens of airliners per hour. One skydiver opening high can mess up their traffic flow for ... well it seems like forever ... for ATC. Yes, we had a few ATC who were also regular recreational skydivers at Pitt Meadows.

Hardly a "private meeting" about abortions. Our conversion happened at the end of a town-hall meeting - still in the hall - with a witness at arms' length. My opinion is the same as the majority of Canadians and even our current prime minister. It was his father: the late Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau who announced "gov't has no role in the bedrooms of the nation." Imagine that, a Liberal advocating small-gov't. Hah! Hah!

Last time I checked, all major religions encouraged their members to give charity to widows, orphans and the poor. That sounds like a limited form of socialism.

wow! When did the definition of "radicals" get changed? I was under the impression that conservatives wanted to ban abortions, but liberals/radicals didn't. The last conversation I had with a sitting politician - on the subject of abortions - was the sitting Member of the House of Commons (Canada) representing Maple Ridge. He was a long-standing member of the Canadian (federal) Progressive Conservative Party and was rewarded with a seat in the House of commons, albeit, a back bench. When he suggested re-opening the debate on abortion, I reminded him that Dr. Henry Morgentaler had forced the issue more than 50 years ago and that the Supreme Court of Canada had decriminalized abortion more than 40 years ago. I told him that re-opening the debate was worse than a waste of time, and if he did, I would not vote for him a second time. That was the last time I heard him mention abortions.

The average American voter is overwhelmed by political propaganda, commercial advertising, Kandy Krush, cute kitten videos, the war in Ukraine, thier @$$hole neighbor, The National Inquirer, kids soccer games, dinner with the in-laws, puppy teething, etc. and simply does not have the time or energy to devote to seriously researching political issues. Traditonally, most voters did not consider minor issues because they voted the same way their fathers and grandfathers and great grandfathers voted. I grew up in a confused household where my father always voted conservative and my mother always voted liberal and they never discussed politics in front of the children.

Why was Hillary Clinton hated? I never heard the explanation why.

I watched Pitt Meadows shut down a few years ago. Troubles started with a jump-plane crash, followed by a feud with airport management, urban sprawl and NIMBY. Troubles started with a King Air crash in 2008. Since the King Air was the first (circa 2002) turbine airplane based at Pitt Meadows, the DZ had to buy its own Jet A fuel truck. A few years later (circa 2010) the airport bought its own Jet A fuel truck and tried to convince the DZO to buy fuel from them at their rates. The DZO refused. Stop to consider for a moment that small airports' only sources of revenue are fuel sales and tie-down rental. When Pacific Independent Group of skydivers first started jumping near Pitt Meadows (circa 1980), they could not even get permission on land on the airport and instead had to land on farms just to the North of Pitt Meadows Class C airspace. Pitt Meadows is overlaid with Class B airspace as part of standard airliner arrivals at Vancouver International Airport ... the second or third busiest airport in Canada. Eventually, a pushy DZO convinced Transport Canada air traffic controllers that they were safer to land on the airport, near the VOR beacon. Urban sprawl and NIMBY started by limiting skydivers from loud partying in the evenings. We have seen this problem at many other small airports where people bought farms and retired to the quiet countryside, then got annoyed at skydivers partying loud, or loud airplanes, etc. Urban sprawl also saw hundreds of houses built down on the river bottoms near Pitt Meadows Airport. This never made sense from the perspective of climate change or annual spring flooding, but real estate agents eventually convinced Pitt Meadows city council to grant building permits on a flood plain. I have seen spring flood waters rise to within a few feet of the tops of the dykes surroudning Pitt Meadows Airport. Incidentally, PMA is almost at sea level adjacent to the Fraser River. The Agricultural Land Reserve designated PMA as agricultural or aviation ONLY. This did not stop real estate developers from filing innumerable applications for building permits or land-exchanges. Finally, the nature of PMA changed over the years. When I arrived in 1999, PMA was a sleepy gentlemens' flying club sponsored by the city. New PMA management decided to convert the airport into an industrial park similar to Arlington, Washington. Over the years, they buit suburbs and an industrial park closer and closer to PMA. The impending pilot shortage also saw the construction of more flyign schools .. primarily to provide airline pilots for the asian market. After the first DZO left in a snit over fuel prices, a couple of other consortiums kept the DZ going for a few more years, but the last straw was an ATC decision to ban parachuting anytime runway 18/36. Since winds rarely blew from the north this was not an issue in earlier days, but the year that the ban was introduced, winds blew from the north for an unusually large number of days and skydivers often sat on the ground for 3 weeks straight. I have seen similar politics shut down another half-dozen small airports in other provinces and other countries.

Skydive Kamloops originally landed at Scadam (sp?) Flats (circa 1980s) a few miles from Kamloops Municipal Airport. Then they rented a house on the airport and landed on the airport for many years (since 2000 and probably earlier). However, in recent years, urban sprawl has closed many alternate landing areas around the airport. There was also a problem with a junior jumper getting lost and landign too close to a Boeing 737 that was taxiing for take-off. Any delay to a scheduled flight costs hundreds of dollars in jet fuel. All those factors combined to force the Kamloops Airport to ban skydivers from landing on the airport. Lacking a convenient LZ near the city, Kamloops skydivers shut down.

Urban sprawl, DZOs retiring, NIMBY, COVID-19 all conspire to force DZZs to close. Skydive Kamloops originally landed at Scheidam Flats (circa 1980s) a few miles from Kamloops Municipal Airport. For a good 50 years, every May long weekend (aka. Victoria Day, the last weekend in the month) Kamloops Skydivers hosted thier annual May Meet which was the traditional season opener. KS often flew in big-name coaches, load-organizers and big airplanes (Cessna 208 Caravan, DHC-6 Twin Otter, Fokker F-27 Friendship, etc.). Then they rented a house on the airport and landed on the airport for many years (since 2000 and probably earlier). However, in recent years, urban sprawl has closed many alternate landing areas around the airport. There was also a problem with a junior jumper getting lost and landign too close to a Boeing 737 that was taxiing for take-off. Any delay to a scheduled flight costs hundreds of dollars in jet fuel. All those factors combined to force the Kamloops Airport to ban skydivers from landing on the airport. Lacking a convenient LZ near the city, Kamloops skydivers shut down.

How many of his (priest's) sons serve on the front line with the Russian Army?

Have you ever noticed how many hours birds devote to cleaning and oiling their feathers?

Is it wise to substitute the next larger sized d-bag? This really a Master Rigger question about "substituting similar TSOed components."