riggerrob

Harbour Air and MagniX enthusiastically added a new partner: Skydive Vancouver, to their progrm that will convert HA’s Beaver floatplanes to electric power. HA and magniX proudly announced that Skydive Vancouver has agreed to host Beta testing at their private airstrip near Abbotsford, B.C. SV already hauls skydivers in their Pilatus Porter and Quest Kodiak, but waiting lines have gotten longer as SV increases in popularity with fun jumpers. ”We felt bad bumping fun jumpers” explained DZO Jerry Harper. “We value our fun jumpers and go out of way to make them happy. A couple of years ago we installed a swimming pool and last year year we warmed up the jaccuzi. The girls are polishing the stripper pole and now we welcome the electric Beaver to reduce wait times.” ”Do you see all those solar panels on our hangar roof?” continued Harper. “With all that charging capacity, we can generate all the electricity we need on site. This will provide fun jumpers with fast, quiet rides to altitude free of guilt trips surrounding fossil fuels.”

Warning! Speculation! The old PIA canopy measuring method measured chord in a straight line from trailing edge to top leading edge. That method was quick and easy on rectangular canopies, but awkward and inaccurate on tapered canopies. Performance Designs uses a simpler method that only measures the bottom skin. The PD method always produces smaller areas than the same canopy measured by PIA methods. IOW PD canopies always “fly ten percent bigger” than PD’s size numbers suggest. Several other manufacturers eventually adopted PIA’s method. So that might explain why Aerodyne publishes miss-matched numbers. Smarts also have more reinforcing tapes in their tails.

If stored in their original plastic bag and shelved in a cool, dry, dark warehouse, parachutes can easily last 30 or 40 years. How it is used after it is placed in service makes a huuuuuuuuge difference. If students drag it through sand, thorns, barbed wire fences and leave it laying in the sun all day, you are lucky to get more than 1 year’s service/

Start by lurking local TIs on the ground. After observing for a while, ask a few questions about why they do some things slightly differently than their colleagues. Watch them harness a dozen or more students, then ask them to teach you how. Most will welcome your help on a busy day ...... mind you, professional TIs still inspect student harness 2 or 3 more times ..... even if they were adjusted by another TI. Get your aircrew medical a few months ahead of time. Get the manual early and read it a couple of times. Learn how to pack tandems. Learn how to inspect common wear points. Frequent the tandem forum on www.dropzone.com. and watch as many tandem videos as you can. Read all the tandem accident reports.

That 1990s accident occurred at Pitt Meadows. The Cypres 1 batteries were more than 2 years old overdue for replacement. Like most overdue batteries, they still had enough power to do the usual start-up routine. A rigger advised her that it would be perfectly legal to jump if she left the Cypres turned off. She struggled with an unfamiliar pull-out all the way to impact.

Stunts’ factory closed around 2,000 because of a slump in the skydiving market. Last thing I heard (March 2001) Bill Dause owned the Eclipse TSO and patterns, but he never resumed production. Eclipse rigs pack the same as Vector 2. Most Vector 2 spare parts arecompatible with Eclipse.

Instead of installing a SMALLER domed slider, I would keep grommet spacing the same, but cut holes in the slider. Once you determine the best size of hole, you could sew mesh over it.

Sandy Reid invited me to “peer-review” the first version of the FAA manual. I “peer-reviewed” Eric Fradet’s manual ..... all 600 pages, in French ..... and found only one minor variation from Poynter, military manuals, etc. The French tend to use the term “pod” for all types of deployment bags.

Yeah! I have provided expertise in four cases. The first was when Dan Poynter asked me to inspect a student rig that hit a building on an airfield. Simple. The Second involved the RCMP asking me to inspect a rig involved in a fatal accident. Simple. The third involved analysis of the risk posed by wind turbines one statute mile from a DZ. Even though there have been no reports of any incidents, the project proved politically disastrous for me. The last involved a personal injury lawsuit launched two years after a plane crash. The case proved financially and psychologically disastrous when my secondary damages (knee surgery, lost wages, etc.) - during the trial - exceeded my losses from the crash. Eleven years later, there are still a variety of loose ends (e.g. wreckage still on public display). Disastrous! Out of four contacts, two proved disastrous! The next lawyer - that approaches me - will get a punch in the teeth!

The simple answer is to only load your first rig at one pound per square foot. When calculating wing-loading, weigh everything you will be suspending under that canopy: yourself, shoes, helmet, clothing, harness, reserve canopy, etc. Err on the side of caution. When in doubt, buy a canopy slightly too large. Large canopies deliver you to the scene of the accident slower. Slower means limping away from a poor landing. Limping is cheaper than all the other alternatives. By the time you are bored with that canopy, you will have almost 200 jumps and will be contemplating wing-suiting. You will be to wear a docile canopy during your first wing-suit dive! Handling - at the same wing loading - really only changes below 150 square feet because their lines are so short.

Check out "The HU Band" on youtube.com Awesome ancient Mongolian folk songs, throat sung accompanied by traditional instruments with a heavy metal beat! Brilliant cinematography too boot!

What about the Great Wall of China? How well did that wall keep Mongol Hordes out of China?

Funny! 50 years ago I remember US gov’t propaganda complaining about the Berlin Wall and the CIA quietly funding a tunnel to help German civilians escape to West Berlin. Why the change of gov’t propaganda? Why are walls now a good idea?

————————————————- Most pilot-chutes-in-tow are caused by miss-routed bridles. ..... specifically if the bridle is routed under a flap between the pin and the BOC. Most containers will still open even if you confuse left and right flaps. Whether they close the bottom or top flap first is determined by where the closing loop is anchored: pack tray, mid wall, bottom flap, top flap, etc.

Carrie Radison, June 1957!

Ah! The summer of 1969! The first time we ever saw hippies in our conservative, Southern Quebec town. They were at the bus station in Sherbrooke, transferring to buses headed for lower New York State and the Woodstock Festival. At age twelve, I was too young to join them. Besides, my conservative father would never have given me permission.

He quit flying his body to fly the camera. The pilots’ equivalent is “dropping the airplane to operate the radio.”

From where does this theory come? ———————————————————————————— Aeronautical engineering textbooks and pilot ground school text books.

Most school canopies are made of two different types of fabric: ZP top skins and the rest F-111 (or a similar low-porosity) fabric. Since most of the lift (60%) is developed by the top skin, only the best fabric is sewn into top skins. ZP flies great even after a thousand jumps. Low porosity fabric makes it easier to squeeze air out, allowing quicker packing. Lopo fabric on bottom skins makes little difference to performance because bottom skins are pressureizd from both sides.

Visit your local gear store and try on half dozen models of googles. Once you narrow down the selection, take them for a test-drive in a car. Get your buddy to drive down the highway as you hang your head out the window. Remember that freefall is twice as fast as highway speed limits.

Ask the rental shop about adding a temporary belly band. The belly band can easily loop through hip rings and pull them forward. This will reduce the “waist size” of the harness ... reducing sideways slop in freefall. Belly bands are popular on large student rigs and huge military free all rigs. Also consider adding a bungee cord to pull both leg straps towards your buttocks. Free fly bungees are standard on harnesses manufactured during the last 25 years.

CSPA requires reserves to be packed by CSPA or FAA riggers. This is a pragmatic policy considering how many Canadian skydivers spend their winter vacations at American skydiving resorts.

Bill Booth said: “There is no need to install a reserve closing loop more than 4.5” long [on Vector 3, Micron or Sigma].” It is amazing how many different reserve containers close neatly with 4.5” loops. I measure Cypres loops from the disc to the top of the loop. I don”t bother with pre-stretching Cypres loops. I just tie them .5” too short with the expectation that they will stretch the last .5” as I close the reserve container. I found that Micro Sigmas are easier to close with 5” loops.

Halloween night, I was waiting for a bus along East Hastings Street in Vancouver. I shared a brief chat with the Great Lewbowski. A stout woman with a first-year-lesbian hairdo stomped by followed by a wino. The wino put a lot of effort into his costume with a long tangled wig, five-o’clock-shadow, greasy trench coat, one pant leg too short and shoes that were down-at-the-heels. Then a middle-aged couple - dressed as police officers - strolled by. A diabetic was injecting his daily dose of insulin, but why in a trash-strewn alley? A nun in a brown habit greeted everyone with a smile and kind words. A guy dressed like a meth head tried to bum a cigarette off me. His hair was ridiculously short. He was too young to shave and was wearing those baggy grey sweat pants they issue to prison inmates. Then a short guy dressed like a Doberman sniffed my leg. He really nailed that costume with droopy ears, a slobbering tongue and sleek black hair. Then an adult wearing a pink ballerina outfit roller-skated into the middle of the intersection and directed traffic.