riggerrob

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Everything posted by riggerrob

  1. riggerrob
    Dear nwt, it is illegal to carry a non-TSOed/non-approved parachute in an airplane cabin or cockpit. Even if your pilot emergency parachute is TSOed, it cannot be legally carried in an airplane cabin if it is more than 180 days past its last inspection. The FAA has never issued a TSO for a BASE rig.
  2. riggerrob
    They best pilot-chute handles are the hexagonal carbon fiber tubing sold by a BASE manufacturer (Squirrel?). You can immediately identify them by feel.
  3. riggerrob
    Skratch Garrison visited us in Pitt Meadows several times during the early 2000s. Such a charming, soft-spoken wizard, wise old gentleman.
  4. riggerrob
    Sadly, that day turned out to be a dud in 2021. What started as an attempt to gain votes from the Ethiopian, Ukrainian, Indonesian, Korean, Japanese, etc. diasporas living in Canada didn't even make the front page of many newspapers.
  5. riggerrob
    Communist Chinese expansion into Africa and the South China Sea scares me. I understand that they are struggling to feed all those mainland, han chinese, but dredging the South China Sea is not the answer. Dredging destroys fish breeding grounds and reduces long term harvests. Fish populations will plummet over the next 20 or 30 years (see Grand Banks of Newfoundland for a similar experience.) My suspicion is that the Chinese Communist Central Committee is struggling to feed their population for the next 30 years, but have no plan beyond 30 years.
  6. riggerrob
    Changes in suspended weight definitely change toggle pressure. For example, if I jump the same Icarus 360 tandem canopy with a light-weight student, then a heavy weight student, toggle pressure dramatically increases. With the light-weight student I can practice rear riser turns and rear riser flares before unstowing brakes, Then repeat the control check after releasing brake toggles. I like to practice rear riser manuvers in case I suffer a jammed toggle some day. Knock on wood! OTOH, with a heavy student, any rear riser manuver is like trying to bend a steel crow-bar! Hah! Hah!
  7. riggerrob
    How much coal is in Africa?
  8. riggerrob
    A month or so ago, the Quebec gov't announced that 80 percent of COVID 19 deaths were residents of old age homes. Is that number still accurate? Why don't they publish COVID statistics by age group? Yes, I know that as a Skydiver Over Sixty, I am in a vulnerable age group. ... I just want to know how vulnerable.
  9. riggerrob
    Cute kid! What is mom teaching?
  10. riggerrob
    CSPA quit printing accident, incident and malfunction reports more than 40 years ago for fear that tort lawyers would use those reports against CSPA in court. After 9 years of misery in my (personal injury) lawsuit, I agree that feeding the lawyers is a bad habit.
  11. riggerrob
    Fold an IAD pilot-chute pretty much the same way as you would for freefall, just leave the bridle outside of the fabric. In other news, I always wrap two or three fingers around the pilot-chute adn the rest of my fingers around the lower lateral strap on the student's harness. This allows me to sense and control them while I am checking the spot, etc. The other major point - of IAD - is always releasing the pilot-chute well below the horizontal tail of your airplane. With Cessnas, the simplest way to develop the habit of tossing the pilot-chute below the door sill ... every time.
  12. riggerrob
    Those "ribbons" are packing tabs which come in handy when side-packing a ram-air canopy. You grab all the front packing tabs in one hand and all the rear packing tabs in the other hand, give the canopy a quick shake and lay it on its side. Then you stack line-groups, etc. These days fewer and fewer skydivers know how to side-pack because they only learned how to PRO-pack. There is nothing wrong with side-packing. The last time I worked as a tandem instructor, the DZO side-packed all the tandem rigs while young jumpers teased his antiquated packing methods. Since all the tandem openings were soft and consistent, I reminded young jumpers "Don't mess with success."
  13. riggerrob
    Why does this remind me of the 2011 riot in Vancouver when the home team lost the hockey cup? Rioters taunted police, set fire to police cars, looted stores, etc. The next morning, several were fired by their corporate bosses. Eventually about 2 dozen faced court trials for their participation in the riot. A few were expelled from universities, lost scholarships, positions on sports teams, etc. It is amazing how quickly security camera footage and phone video footage cuts through the legal baffle-gabble, white-privilege excuses, etc.
  14. riggerrob
    She was in the front rank of a violent mob that was committing "break and enter" and she was the first protestor through the broken window. No sympathy for her. Back in "the good old days" Landsknechts and Swiss Pikemen were paid double for fighting in the front ranks, because they suffered the highest casualties. No sympathy for anyone who was in the front ranks of that riot. It is sad how Trump used her as cannon-fodder while he hid. Master Corporal (retired) Rob Warner, 13 years service in Canadian Armed Forces.
  15. riggerrob
    Like SethinMI, I have suffered two herniated discs in my lumbar spine. I tried to ignore pain in my left leg for three weeks, but when my left calf muscle cramped up solid, I discussed it with a doctor. Fortunately the doctor was a sports medicine specialist who diagnosed the problem as a pinched sciatic nerve. To this day, I have to do a regular series of sit-ups and stretches to keep my lumbar spine in correct alignment.
  16. riggerrob
    Rick Horn's "soft" reserve ripcord handle folded under his harness, making it difficult to see or grab. Rick's other problem was the the steep spiral was pulling his harness to one side, making it even more difficult to see his reserve ripcord.
  17. riggerrob
    Definitely ask your local master rigger to check how that harness fits you. It might be a better fit than student rigs. If the laterals are too short, then your local master rigger can replace them with longer webbing. While resizing is also the best time to replace those snaps on your leg straps. Simpler friction adapters have far fewer malfunction modes ... bordering on zero. IF you have a choice, get the shiny, stainless steel friction adapters made by Wichard in France because they are specifically designed for modern webbing. I share your dislike for snaps/hooks on harnesses. The woman in that scary video had B-12 snaps on her leg straps. It appears that her partner accidentally opened one when he grabbed her leg. Only time I have ever seen that!!!!!!!!!
  18. riggerrob
    You and Kathy Reichs. Hah! Hah!
  19. riggerrob
    Skydiving deaths tend to happen during three distinct seasons: winter spring and August. Most of the winter deaths are during boogies at the larger resort DZs in Arizona and Florida. Rusty jumpers party hard and try to blow off rust that is two or three months old. Also, it may be the dead guy's first visit to a large DZ with multiple airplanes, special landing patterns, etc. Springtime sees a second rash of deaths as skydivers who have not jumped since Halloween (end of October) rush out to jump again, often with new gear that they bought over the winter. The third wave happens in August when jumpers are current ... more like over-current .... over-confident while suffering heat stress and fatigue. Hazy August skies limit visibility and increase density altitude.
  20. riggerrob
    Dear tstar, The best skydiving schools (e.g. Eloy, Arizona and Perris Valley, California) have wind tunnels on site and their AFF instructors integrate a few minutes of tunnel time into the AFF Program. I strongly urge you to get a few minutes of tunnel time before your first freefall. As for timing .... December through March can be wet months in Southern California. OTOH they are the best months to jump in Arizona. Please don't wait until summer, because both those DZs get "stinking hot" during summer. Both DZ also hav bunk houses, restaurants, bars, gear shops, etc.
  21. riggerrob
    Dear tstar, I agree with your logic. The emotional training benefits of tandem fade after 3 or 4 jumps. The canopy training benefits of S/L and IAD fade after a half dozen jumps. The freefall training benefits of AFF fade after a dozen jumps. Tunnels are just cool and can extend to advanced skills. But again, tunnel will teach you nothing about steering your parachute. No one system is perfect, it is just "best" at a different level of the learning process. I have taught with all the different systems and prefer the sequence above with a bit of tunnel time before progressing to AFF. I have dropped hundreds of S/L and IAD students. I have done harness-hold jumps with hundreds more freefall students and more than 4,000 tandems.
  22. riggerrob
    Amish domestic terrorists have been know to cut off each others' beards. Hah! Hah!
  23. riggerrob
    Correction: 8 January 2021 is the first Canadian National Day to Remember Victims of Air Disasters.
  24. riggerrob
    The 1985 bombing of Air India flight 182 was only one action in a civil war between Sikh religious groups. The Babar Khalsa sect was implicated in the bombing. Two Canadian Sikhs - who manufactured the bombs - were tried in Canadian courts. Perjury, destruction of evidence, murder of witnesses, appeals, etc. delayed criminal trials. The trials seemed to last forever, but eventually Inderjit Singh Reyat spent 30 years in Canadian jails.
  25. riggerrob
    The 1988 Lockerbie bombing was a straight military hit intended to kill a United States Air Force combat controller who was returning to the USA with results of surveys that they had been doing of airstrips in Libya. The bombs were planted on a Pan Am 747 by Libyan military agents. The fact that 300 innocent civilians died in the crash does not bother African dictators. Remember that back during the 1980s, Libya was at odds with the USA. The USAF launched bombing raids against Libya and dictator Colonel Mohamar Ghadafi.