riggerrob

This question arose on the INCIDENTS forum about a fatality in Spain 10/14/2022. What is the current fashion in minimum docking altitude? What is the minimum docking altitude for a junior jumper doing his/her first few canopy formation jumps?

Boeing just delivered the last 747 freighter and shut down the production line.

This reminds me of an equipment selection exercise that I assigned during a rigging course a few years back. I said "Your customer is a junior jumper who did his first jump in May and now has 40 jumps. .... His objective for the end of next season is to jump a wing-suit from a famous tall cliff." Only one rigger candidate clued in that BASE jumpers usually stick with large canopies only loaded at 0.7 pounds per square foot. Hah! Hah!

Hanlon's Razor reminds us that "if an act can be equally attributed to cruelty or stupidity, stupidity is the more likely answer." Mind you, if I ever have to use Hanlon's Razor to analyze someone's actions, I will never do business with them a second time.

Hah! Hah! That reminds me of a conversation with a junior jumper as to why it was unwise for him to do "X" with less than 200 jumps. Me: "Would you like to hear the half-hour explanation?" Junior jumper: "No, never mind, I'll just wait a few more jumps.

The 200 jump minimum was written by wingsuit manufacturers about 20 years ago, back when wingsuits were rare, few second-hand wingsuits were available, manufacturers certified all the wingsuit instructors and manufacturers had some some say in who could buy wingsuits.

Returning to the original question: minimum opening altitudes are more about old jumpers telling young jumpers "Death lurks in that corner." Old jumpers learned those lessons - the bloody way - 50 years ago, so there is nothing to be gained by repeating mistakes made by long-dead skydivers. I respect the Canadian Air regulations and CSPA's BSRs because I have read hundreds of accident reports and know that those rules were written in blood.

Wendy makes a good point. If we compare the rate American Second Amendment, rates of gun ownership in the USA and the number of people suffering gunshot wounds in the USA ... the rest of the world shakes our collective heads and asks WHY? Something like 15 years ago, CSPA briefly considered implementing a similar set of canopy experience restrictions, but the problem was that too many young jumpers were already on the wrong side of the red-line and would whine that they could not afford to buy a larger canopy this season.

Please be cautious about using the "w.a.r." word.

Part of the problem is Mr. Poutine's unrealistic demands during negotiations. some of his demands remind us of Mr. Molotov's demands of Poland and Finland during 1939. Mr. Poutine would like Ukraine to dis-arm completely and allow Russia troops to be stationed on Ukraine soil (West of the Dnepro River), etc.

Dear cbrowsky1, In encourage you to chat with an instructor or canopy-coach about re-trying rear-riser flares and stalls. Perhaps you just need a gentler technique and more awareness of airflow over your canopy. For example, pull rear risers to the edge of a stall, they gently raise them a couple of inches (5cm) to resume slow flight. Again, consult a local canopy coach before re-trying rear-riser stalls.

Please don't blame President Biden for crack pipes. Crack was a major problem long before Biden got elected Vice-President. Conspiracy theorists will tell you that the CIA introduced crack to Los Angles many decades ago as a means to oppress the black population. I struggled with the whole concept of supervised injection sites when I moved to a suburb of Vancouver, Canada more than 20 years ago. Then I drove a city bus through the dilapidated Downtown East Side for a few years. I started with a conservative attitude towards street drugs, but my attitude changed as I learned more about addiction. Many times I saw ambulances in front of the Portland Hotel. That experience convinced me that supervised injection sites are a good idea. Yes, many tight-assed, morally upright citizens see drug addiction as a moral weakness. But, a small percentage (maybe 5 or 10 percent) of addicts are so emotionally or physically damaged that they will never be able to hold a steady job. They self-medicate with alcohol or marijuana or hashish or heroin or crack or .... I should know because I was a drunk for 20 years. After X-number of years of consuming street drugs, their minds are fried and they can barely function. They can only function in a gov't subsidized neighborhood with flop houses, single-room-occupancy hotels, warming centers, soup kitchens, supervised injections sites, etc. Vancouver's DTES is less violent - than many major American cities - because homeless addicts do not have to compete for scarce food, lodging, etc. Brown nuns, Mennonites, Portland Hotel Society, Sikhs, Union Gospel Mission, United Church of Canada, etc. all provide charity to the down-on-their-luck, homeless. Supervised injection sites are a public health matter, similar to regular health checks for prostitutes. ... and plenty of addicts in Vancouver's DTES turn tricks to support their drug habits. Public health nurses offer their services to prostitutes to limit the spread of AIDS, crabs, goneria, HIV, hepatitus, herpes, lice, syphillus, etc. to the general public who only venture into the DTES for a "bit of fun" on the weekend. Bottom line, offering free crack pipes is a short-term solution to a long-term problem with mental health. Until the developed world provides mental health support - to the bulk of their populations, right-wing critics have no right to criticize those medical professionals who hand out clean needles or clean crack pipes.

Who fired the first shot?

I would not consider it a Nanny State Rule since it was written in blood before bureaucrats meddled with standards. The industry agreed on consensus before rule-makers got involved. That rule was written in blood by a bunch of dead skydivers whose egos exceeded their abilities. After reading a few accident reports, leading wing suit manufacturers agreed on the 200 jump minimum. Since - back then - wing suit manufacturers were the only ones training and certifying wing-suit instructors, it was an easy decision. A few decades earlier, the same logic was used to insist on a 200 jump minimum before jumping a camera. Young jumpers are astonished when I tell them that my first few camera jumps included a bulky video camera bolted to my helmet with an even bulkier Video Cassette Recorder strapped to my chest. Freefall video never became reliable until all the components could be crammed into a single box. Pioneer BASE jumpers (early 1980s) also agreed that skydivers needed to demonstrate a minimum of 200 precision landings before jumping from fixed objects. Back during the mid-1980s, tandem manufacturers applied a similar logic when they required a minimum of 500 jumps and 3 years in the sport before becoming tandem instructors. OTOH BPA bureaucrats are extremely conservative. I had an inkling of how bureaucrats think during my brief tenure on the CSPA's Technical Committee. Bottom line, junior jumpers simply do not know what they do not know before 200 jumps. It is about demonstrating basic life-saving skills - during simple skydives - a few hundred times. They need to prove that they can keep themselves alive during a minimum of 200 jumps before adding any additional complication.

The RCAF operated a specially modified CT-133 Silver Star trainer to test ejection seats. It has based at CFB Cold Lake, Alberta and assigned to the test squadron. They fired ejection seats out of it multiple times. Now that CT-133 have reitred ... Martin-Baker operated a similarly-equipped pair of Gloster Meteors for many years.

There is no requirement for civilian parachute riggers to jump. The FAA lumps parachute riggers in with aircraft maintenance technicians and mechanics. OTOH military riggers might have to jump as part of their quality control system. The keep them honest, many armies require their riggers to do a few jumps every month. Typically, this is with parachutes that they packed 119 days ago (assuming a 120 day repack cycle), that will go "out of date" if they are not jumped. The Canadian Army insists that all their parachute riggers stay current on static-line jumps and those riggers that are freefall qualified also have to do a few MFP jumps. Passing the Basic Parachutist Course (2 weeks of push-ups followed by 2 days of static-line jumps) is one of the courses that a Canadian Army rigger must pass before he/she is fully qualified. The Royal Canadian Air Force has a different attitude, not requiring riggers to jump the ejection seats that they repack.

Odd how that story - about USA recruiting - is illustrated by a photo of CANADIAN service women (an RCAF major, an RCAF flight sargeant, ??? and an RCAF corporal)... maybe trans???? Secondly, people who were born male and stay male through puberty tend to grow bigger, stronger, faster, etc. than those who grow to adulthood as females. Male bones also tend to be denser, therefor more difficult to break. These size and strength advantages may not mean much in push-button warfare, but their greater strength comes in handy for infantry, armor, artillery, field engineers, etc. Even just re-suppling ships (e.g. food) requires many hours of man-handling boxes in the 20 to 40 pound range. Since girls who grow to adulthood as girls tend to be smaller, weaker and slower, they are less attractive to army recruiters.

There have always been a handful of neo-nazis in the Canadian Armed Forces. Most are impressionable teenagers and young men who are searching for their "tribe." Young men sometimes do stupid things (e.g. Adolf Hitler tattoos) but Senior NCOS rein in the worst of their foolishness. Since neo-nazis tend to be bullies, they do not get promoted very high or very fast in the Canadian Army. Most of these rebels-without-a-clue are bright enough to keep their mouths shut while on base. They also keep their sleeves rolled down to hide their more obnoxious tattoos. Loud political statements are frowned upon while in uniform. The majority of Canadian soldiers tend to be slightly conservative ... er ... slightly right-wing, but no where as hard-core right-wing as KKK, Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, neo-nazis, etc.

Dear Orphan Blue, Ideally skydivers would get an additional block of canopy instruction before they fly every new canopy and before they write the exam for the next license. That block of instruction should start with BillVon's list of "things to know before you down-size" including sign-offs by senior instructors, canopy coaches or S&TAs simply to keep overly-ambitious jumpers honest. Canopy skills are complex and perishable and change with every different canopy, ergo we need more formal instruction at every level.

WO! Finally something that Slim King and I can agree upon. Mind you, Western supporters of Ukraine will only be happy after Russian soldiers retreat behind pre-2014 borders. In a slightly later post, me mentions WALLIES funding 300,000 Afghan police an soldiers, but only - perhaps - a third actually in uniform/service. This is typical of poor, corrupt, third World countries. It reminds me of a memoire written by a Brit sent to oversee a tea plantation in Ceylon/Sri Lanka during the 1930s. He was reminded to always count the number of farm laborers because the foreman would traditionally try to claim an extra two ro three laborers and pocket their wages. As for Russian destroying 90 percent of Ukrainian bridges during the first day of fighting. That would have required more precision guided munitions. It appears that Russia fired off most of their PGMs during the first week - without destroying all the bridges in Ukraine. Soon shortages of PGMs forced the Russian Army to resort to carpet-bombing or inaccurate artillery dropping hundreds of shells on farmers' fields. Meanwhile, Ukrainian propaganda shows a single missile destroying a Russina tank trying to hide in shrubbery alongside that same farmers' field. Mr. Poutine would have been wiser to accumulate another two or three years of PGM production before invading Ukraine. As the USAF demonstrated towards the end of the Vietnam War, you need PGMs to reliably destroy bridges.

Perhaps he suspects that his jump might "bust" a few Federal Air Regulations, so he posts under a pseudonym. No need to post your naughtiness where everyone - including police - can read it.

That graduated learning method made more sense when we flew piston-pounding Cessnas that struggled to climb above 7,000 feet on a hot, hazy August day. It has been phased out because turbine-engined airplanes only like to make a single pass at 13,000 feet. Slowing down and re-configuring (e.g. lowering wing flaps) is considered too much of a nuisance by DZs that operate big airplanes. Just look at the couple of solo jumpers who exited low and hit the horizontal tails of King Airs at Lodi. Many CSPA DZs still use a graduated, stepped syllabus to teach students. They start with a tandem then do an IAD or three. Perhaps a few minutes in a wind tunnel, then a half-dozen jumps with PFF Instructors and a few more jumps with coaches to complete their A Certificate. No single training method is best, they are just best at different stages of the learning process.

If this is a lawyer on a scouting mission, he can take a long hard suck on my ... hot knife.

Eventually right-wingers stray so far that they complete the circle and look like hard-core (Russian style) communists. Meanwhile the most fanatical of left-wingers complete the circle and start to act like (Nazi style) fascists. The average observer cannot tell the difference. If you watch long enough, it all looks like a big circle. ... perhaps a big wave. History may not repeat itself, but it often ryhms. Add to that the notion that poorly-disciplined soldiers on both sides tend to be thugs who rape, loot, pillage, stampede and burn with little knowledge of politics.

1991 saw huge changes in skydiving gear: electronic AADs, square reserves, zero-porosity fabric, zero-stretch suspension lines, hip rings, tuck tabs, BOC, etc. 1991 was during the transition period from round reserves to square reserves. The acid-mesh problem hit around 1986 so skydivers rushed to replace their round reserves with square reserves. Acid-mesh deteriorated round reserves and pilot-chutes, but not square canopies. Also consider that most schools had converted from military-surplus rounds to new-made square mains, so some students had never seen a round in the air. Both USPA and CSPA changed their BSRs to include "large, docile, square mains" by 1991. Schools hung onto their old, round reserves until around 2000. By 1991, major dealers (e.g. Square One in Perris Valley, California) quit selling new round reserves and only grudgingly accepted old round reserves on consignment ... because they knew that were selling slowly.