riggerrob

Turkey was a valuable trip-wire during the Cold War. Since Turkey and Norway were the only NATO countries bordering the USSR, they were handy for listening in on Soviet radio traffic. Remember that the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis was sparked by the recent forward-positioning of NATO (American-made and controlled) nuclear missiles in Turkey and Spain. Since the USSR did not enjoy having NATO nukes that close to their border, Soviets responded by forward-positioning nukes in recently-communized Cuba. NATO and the USA pushed second-hand weapons on Turkey to use them as cannon-fodder in case the Soviets wanted to finish invading Western Europe. On the con side, Turkey is the only Muslim-majority nation in NATO or the EU and Turkey has always had its own distinct foreign policies. I suspect that Turkish foreign policy is based upon their glory days during the height of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, when (1683) they conquered all the way to the gates of Vienna (old, German-speaking Holy Roman Empire). The United Nations and NATO have had to expend considerable effort to prevent Turkey and Greece from going to war over ancient border disputes in Cyprus, the former Yugoslavia, etc. We suspect that plenty of back-room negotiations (NATO, EU, UN, etc.) will never be made public.

I lost count between quadroon and octroon.

I helped package up the last few CF-104 that the CAF sent to Turkey near the end of the Cold War. One of my (technician) colleagues had previously served in the Canadian Army's United Nations Mission to Cyprus. He had a low opinion of Turks, so used to spray-paint a Greek flag inside very panel before he screwed it shut. Years later, Turkish technicians were still finding little Greek flags inside their second-hand CF-104s. Hah! Hah!

It is standard practice for Canadian soldiers to pay for lost equipment ... in peacetime. When I left the Canadian Army Reserve I had to pay out my own pocket for some missing uniforms.

sorry brenthutch, I am not quite understanding your last post. Are you implying that more than a million refugees have fled Ukraine? How many Ukrainian refugees applied to come to the USA?

I find it amusing when North Americans try to impose North American policing standards or Geneva Convention notions of polite behavior on Third World countries. Russian Army attitudes towards warfare have always been different than Western European norms. The Russian Army willing accepts hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers dying to achieve an objective ... casualties that horrify Western Europeans. Genocide is still common in slavic - and cultures farther east. For example, Canadian soldiers fighting in Afghanistan were harshly criticized - back home - because their dark sense of humor offended a delicate Canadian Army chaplain. You need that dark sense of humor to survive the horrors of terrorist battlefields. You also need to hire chaplains with tougher senses of humor ... senses of humor that more closely match their congregations. Some of those Canadian political/legal wranglings became farcical. For example, paying to ship an entire court halfway around the world to visit the scene of the crime - in Afghanistan - years after the alleged crime was committed (Captain Robert Semrau (sp?).

Not so much Pakistani berry-pickers as it was Punjabi-born grand-fathers and grand-mothers picking berries in the fields surrounding Pitt Meadows Airport. Those Sikhs were raised on farms in the Third World, making them much physically and psychologically tougher than Canadian-born teenagers. It also helps that many British Columbia farms are owned by Sikhs who immigrated from the Punjab. But silly me, there I go religiously stigmatizing people based upon their religion instead of their country of birth. Much of the Punjab region was incorporated into Pakistan after it separated from India in 1949. Pakistani Muslims promptly encouraged millions of Hindus, Sikhs, etc. to move out of Pakistan. Given the Pakistani gov'ts' subsequent reputation for honesty, rule-of-law, fair elections, transparency tolerance of Taliban, etc., it is a wonder why anyone would want to remain in Pakistan. (sarcasm alert)

I know many licensed jumpers and instructors who earned rigger ratings back in the day, but no longer repack their own tight Javelins. Many also only instructed for a year or three before retiring their instructor ratings. They brought their tight, fashionable tiny Javelins to me because they knew that I would do a better pack job, considering that I was the busiest rigger in town. None of them regret the time and money they spent on learning how to rig.

I suspect that large numbers of Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964 ergo 58 to 76 years old today) retired during COVID-19, reducing the numbers of workers. This labor-shortage is only going to get worse until it bottoms out circa 2050 when the last Baby Boomers die off. This labor-shortage will force first-world nations to import more and more workers. Labor-shortages have forced British Columbia to import berry-pickers from Mexico for the last decade or so.

I just use my fingertips to strip away rotted rubber. Rubber rots out after 3 years in the California desert. A related problem is that rubber reacts chemically with brass grommets ... even nickel-plated brass grommets.

Since King Air jump-panes are used considerably differently from their original design mission, Beechcraft forbid the notion of operating past TBO "on condition." When Beechcraft originally developed the King Air (from its piston-pounding Queen Air predecessor) they expected it to fly 2 to 4 times per day with a hour or 4 of cruising between landings. OTOH King Air jump-planes do 3 or 4 landings per hour and rarely cruise ... just the opposite of the original mission. Jump-planes do hundreds more cycles per year than originally planned, hence moving parts wear out far faster.

May I also suggest that you include a few West German exceptions. My landlord was exempt from military service because her was a long-serving member of his village's volunteer fire department. I often saw the volunteer fire department training teenagers in basic fire-fighting techniques. West Germany also excluded most medics: nurses, x-ray technicians, physio-therapists, surgeons, EMTs, etc. from military service. After their horrendous civilian casualties during carpet-bombing raids, they understood the value of pre-trained civil defense staffs.

Two bottom buns? I was born with two bottom buns! What does that make me?????? P.S. My sister was also born with two bottom buns. What does that make her?????? Hah! Hah!

One measure of a society is how it challenges/employs its angry young men. Does the society leave angry young men to fight out their difference sin a mosh pit? ... sad loners shooting up their schools? ... bar-room brawls? ... violent robbery? ... drug-selling street gangs shooting each other over turf? ... as soccer hooligans? ... stealing sheep from the neighboring tribe? ... enslaving the neighboring tribe? ... raping the neighboring tribe? ... massacring the neighboring tribe? ... invading a neighboring country? ... religious missionaries to deepest, darkest Africa? ... religious wars/jihads/crusades to re-claim the Holy Land? ... Peace Corps? ... Green Peace? ... Olympic sports? ... skydiving?

Canadian gun laws restrict pistol magazines to 10 rounds and long gun magazines to 5 rounds. But there are so many loop holes (.22 caliber rifles, shotguns, etc.) that citizens have lost respect for the law. For example, Communist-surplus SKS carbines are readily available - partly because they are popular with natives who hunt for a living in Northern Canada - but AK-47s firing the same ammo are prohibited.

The best operators find problems during the their regularly-scheduled Monday morning inspection (licensed aircraft maintenance engineer).

If that were published in Canada, it would be Trudeau's Liberals using tax-payer money to pay for printing, TV ads, radio ads, newspaper ads, internet ads, etc. to remind voters of what a great job their elected officials are doing. Since I know that they are trying to deceive or distract me, I immediately change the radio station. I have developed an allergy to "feel good" statements by politicians, lawyers, palliative care nurses, etc. of all shapes, sizes and colors. I already know that they are trying to distract or deflect me, I just have not figured out what is today's bias, so I quickly change the radio station.

If authorities worry about false "red flag" reports, they simply need to impose an automatic "X" week long prohibition on the informant. ... plus heavy fines for false reports.

Thanks for the reminder guys. I just replaced a (missing) screw on my metal-handled hook knife and it is going back into its pocket on the shoulder of my harness.

Listen and watch quietly. How deep is the tread on the tires? Is paint cracked? Is rust or corrosion visible? If manifest routinely reminds the pilot to top off the fuel and oil ... that is a good habit. If the pilot does a pre-flight inspection before the first students arrive every morning, that is a good habit. If he/she stares at the fuel sample for a few seconds, that is a good habit. If he cleans all the dead bugs off of the windshield, that is a good habit. If he promptly orders fresh bugs, that is a good habit. If the pilot compulsively "dips" the fuel tanks every between loads, that is a good habit. If he keeps a spare can of oil handy, that is a good habit. If he reminds everyone to fasten seat-belts before taxiing, that is a good habit. If the pilot reminds everyone to sit quietly until above 1,000 feet, that is a good habit. If he consistently keeps instruments "in the green" that is a good habit. If the pilot leaves notes for the mechanic every Sunday evening, that is a good habit. If a mechanic routinely looks over the airplane (formally called a 25 hour inspection) every Monday morning, that is a good thing. If the mechanic washes used oil from the belly, that is a good habit. Most of those habits are visible to a casual observer. Remember that most piston-pounding jump-planes are more than 25 years old and based upon even older technology, so they require more maintenance than your 5 year old car. While turbine-engined jump-planes tend to be younger, and can go longer between inspections, they have been around-the-block and their airworthiness depends upon the diligence of the last mechanic. The brightest DZOs treat their airplanes as long term investments - like retirement funds - and keep the value up by constant maintenance.

Perhaps all the bleeding school children will motivate Americans to introduce universal mental health services ... federally-subsidized. It is doubly important that gov't funding for mental health is blind to patients' incomes. Maybe they even need to "push" mental health services to lower-income brackets, minorities, children-of-single-mothers, immigrants, etc. to ensure that it reaches those most in need the earliest. Once federally-subsidized mental health care has gotten a-foot-in-the-door, perhaps the second round of funding can address physical health problems and chronic pain issues that drive some (un-treated) patients to self-medicate with street drugs. Gov't attitudes need to change to the notion that knee surgery this week can prevent a dozen other problems later in life. If a person is physically healthy, they are more likely to be mentally healthy and they are more likely to seek gainful employment.

Dear silstabilo, Avoid talking about BASE for the first few days on any new-to-you DZ. After a few days of quietly listening, you will figure out which instructors are "BASE-friendly" and which staff are "BASE haters." A simpler answer is telling them a half-truth about wanting to perfect your precision landing skills in hopes of qualifying for an exhibition team. Landing in tight stadiums requires many of the same canopy skills as landing a BASE canopy on a tiny sand bar below your favorite bridge. Aim to stand up most of your landings ... to reduce the risk of injury. IOW, flying final approach in deep brakes may result in more precise landings (ala. classic precision landing technique) increases the risk of hard landings and injury. Take a hint from the organizers of the first BASE precision landing competitions who awarded full scores for stand-up landings, but deducted points for sliding or tumbled landings. You are still going to need to review Parachute Landing Falls - with an instructor - since you will inevitably tumble a BASE landing or two. But still plan for fully flared landings. Tracking is another skill you will want to perfect from airplanes before trying it off a cliff. Good point about avoiding wearing out your Black Jack prematurely. You can develop most of the same canopy control skills on a large (say 260) student canopy. A few weeks in advance, phone ahead to reserve 2 or 3 student rigs. The school rigger may need a few days to collect parts from various corners of the hangar and another day to assemble and pack your rental rig(s). If they have a busy student program, they may ask you to pay up front for rig rental.

Good point. We knew about this problem 40 years ago when I wrote an article for CANPARA Magazine. Back then some one suggesting adding a piece of cardboard to a hook knife sheath to prevent the two blades from "chewing" each other. Also consider that cheap plastic handles are liable to allow the two blades to separate and jam around a piece of webbing - or suspension line. Far wiser to invest in a knife with a solid fiberglass or metal handle. A cheap, plastic hook knife is a huge improvement on nothing, but wise jumpers invest in hook knives with metal handles.

Well written. I was one of those kids who was relentlessly bullied and contemplated carrying a gun to school. Part of the reason that I contemplated that desperate measure was that no adult listened seriously to my complaints about bullying. A more likely response was a spanking. I never understood how a spanking was supposed to reduce the number of problems facing me???????? So I suffered in silence.

Dear SkyDekker, I disagree. While spelling and word meanings are similar, there are subtle differences between North German and South German pronunciations. North German dialects: Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Icelandic all require new mouth muscles. Danish requires a new set of lip muscles. OTOH Really Southern German dialects (e.g. Austrian) are far more musical than formal High German. Dutch requires a specialized set of throat muscles. Some of my Dutch relatives joke about their language being "not so much a dialect as a throat ailment." Hah! Hah!