riggerrob

Yes, I wrote that old post before Precision introduced their R-Max series of reserves. Since then I have jumped a tiny R-Maxonce. I forget the exact size, but I loaded it to the corner of the weight and experience chart. That was when I weighed 5kg lighter than today. That R-Max opened and turned fine, but stalled when I pulled toggles below my bottom ribs, so I flared slightly less than that and enjoyed a soft, one knee landing. Bottom line: R-Max fly fine when loaded more than 1/1 and are strong enough to survive opening at the corner of their loading chart.

20 years is a realistic time to retire harnesses and containers. After 20 years, containers and faded and frayed and have been surpassed by newer technology. OTOH Reserves are protected by containers and can last decades longer, especially if they are rarely deployed. 20 years was also an excuse to ground reserves that have been surpassed by newer technology: Spectra suspension lines, span-wise reinforcing and wing-loadings more than 1 pound per square foot. The last major revolution in skydiving gear occurred around 1990. Performance Designs introduced the first reserves designed to be loaded more than 1/1. Since then, a dozen other reserves have been designed for wing-loadings exceeding 1/1: Amigo, Angelfire, Optimum, R-Max, Smart, Tempo, etc. For the last few years, PD has been testing their old reserves and the majority pass factory tests (porosity, tear strength, etc.) and are factory-certified to return to service. 15 or 20 years was also an excuse to ground round reserves that were built during the 1980s and suffered from acid mesh. Many of those round reserves were packed into pilot emergency parachutes and their containers are badly faded after 20 years. As for rumours about defective Tempos? HAH! I have packed hundreds of Tempos and have "saved" more than a dozen skydivers. Only one complained about UN-commanded turns on a Tempo 250, but he was the same guy who complained about UN-commanded turns on his main because he had not adjusted his main lift webs evenly (adjustable student harness).

Bump-stocks have always been prohibited in Canada. After the Las Vega massacre, Trump is mumbling about restricting bump-stocks. Why did the US gov't ever allow sales of a gadget that converts semi-auto rifles into (crude) light machine guns? Beyond "range toys" or "converting money into noise" I cannot see any practical use for bump-stocks.

Yes, Aerodyne's coloured line attachment tapes make it easier to learn how to Pro-Pack. A few of my customers marked their LAT with toluene-based felt pens. Those canopies lasted hundreds or thousands of jumps. I never saw a difference in wear patterns or longevity. Similarly, I have repacked dozens/hundreds? of reserves with contact info written on wide, white bridles. Never saw any difference in wear patterns.

A couple of Rogallo reserves were certified in former Warsaw Pact (communist Europe) Telka and PZ-81. I have both in my closet.

Which canopies were in the Emergency Racer?

A canopy will turn a full 360 degrees, given enough time and altitude. Built-in turns was a problem during the 1970s and 1980s, but as manufacturing tolerances improved, bailout-in turns got smaller and smaller. OTOH Jumpers are inherently unbalanced ..... assymetrical. For example: my right shoulder is smaller (weaker) than my left shoulder. An unbalanced human will induce a slow turn. The canopy is flying in a block of air and only cares about airspeed. The canopy has no clue that the block of air is sliding across the ground. Since it has no magnetic compass, the canopy does not know when it changes heading relative to the planet. Most turns - during landing flares - are caused by uneven toggles.

Oregon Aero sells helmet liners that absorb significant amounts of shock. They are made of several different densities of Astronaut foam. As to why modern skydivers wear full-face helmets .... back during the early 1990s belly-flying competitors were turning serious numbers of points with teammates' knees swinging past their faces with mere inches to spare. With full facial protection, they could confidently fly a few inches closer to the centre of the formation, shaving a fraction of a second off the time to build the next formation.

Does anyone have a spare pair of West German Paratrooper Wings from the mid-1980s? Either cloth or metal will work. I earned Brinze Wings while jumping in Altenschstad (sp?) during February of 1986.

If you have back issues, forget about becoming a TI. Lots of TIs retire after a year or three because of bad backs, bad knees, bad shoulders, etc. I have found that hanging more than 400 pounds of human meat under a tandem is difficult. Since I weighed 180 or 190 pounds for most of my jumping career, I only took students up to 220 pounds (100kg). The difference was that I took big students all day, so manifest kept me in the fast rotation and I consistently did 8-12 jumps per day. I have only jumped with one student who weighed 270 pounds. Most of his extra weight was muscle! He was a retired rugby player, with thighs like tree trunks! So I was not worried about breaking his leg bones. We had a fast freefall, hard opening and ended with a firm slide landing in wet grass. Once I had proven my machismo, I cut back to students no heavier than 220 pounds. Most of the schools - that I have worked - limit students to 220 or 230. Most were too embarrassed to charge a fat tax. The plus side was that big guys tip better and often buy the video.

During the 21st century 'bounce and blend' revived as digital camoflage

Jalbert Para-Foils pre-date both Para-Flite and Django. Domina Jalbert patented double-skinned, ribbed, ram-air canopies during the early 1960s. Jalbert used large flares to attach lines and smooth the airfoil. Jalbert eventually licensed North American Aerodynamics to use his patents while building Para-Foils. A side benefit is that large flares stabiliz airflow near the stall, so Para-Foils dominated precision landing competitions for decades. Even newer PA canopies designed by John Eiff (Challenger Classic and PD Zero) resemble Para-Foils from a distance, but when you get close you see only 2 keels per rib. Ribs still use 4 or 5 suspension lines, 2 lines (A & B) are attached to the front keel. Keels do an even better job of smoothing airflow near the stall.

If you still have 28" of loose lines, try stowing the remaining left line group in a small rubber band on the left side of your d-bag. Same on the right side. Distance - of un-stowed lines- from the d-bag to top of risers should end up the same. As little as 6" of un-stowed lines is okay with this method. This method works great with static-lines because it lifts risers slightly earlier and slightly reduces the risk of a main riser snagging on the a corner of the reserve container. Armies tie (80 pound break cord) risers to d-bags for the same reason.

6' tall and 200 pounds, but my doctor told me to lose another 20 pounds. I lived in a VW Wesfalia camper for a couple of years. Sometimes slept with my feet hanging off the end of the bed. I also sleep well in hammocks.

Have any DZers slept in teardrop trailers? I ask because I want to sleep at the DZ Saturday evenings, but my car will only tow 2,000 pounds with a maximum of 500 pounds on the tongue.

At a minimum, 1 AFFI should stay at the landing field, watch the student land and debrief them. Some busy DZs assign a specific instructor to steer students back by radio. They are also responsible for accounting for all jumpers and ensuring that they return to the packing area.

Back in 2008, I dislocated my right shoulder during a plane crash. My achromatic-clavicular ligament tore completely and I sprained the top end of my biceps. It healed slowly, but I gritted my teeth and worked at physio-therapy. I did my first solo jump 6 months after the accident, but it was 8 months before I could resume doing tandems. But it was a full year before my shoulder quit aching and limiting my movements. The shoulder has not dis-located since the initial accident. Now, a decade later, my ACL has resumed aching and I have resumed physio-therapy.

Agreed! That debating point made sense back in 1980, but is irrelevant for canopies designed during this century. Back in 1980, a half dozen different manufacturers used a half dozen different canopy measuring methods. Eventually, PIA published Para-Flite's method and it was fashionable for a couple of decades. Para-Flite measured chord from the tail to the top leading edge, easy on rectangular canopies. That became problematic when tapered ( elliptical, swept-wing, Schuemann, etc.) canopies became fashionable during the 1990s. By 2001, most major manufacturers had adopted Performance Designs' method of measuring chord along the bottom skin. Now that most manufacturers use the PD methods, comparisons are simpler. Please do not use mere numbers to compare (early 1980s-vintage) Ravens (Swifts, Firelites, APS, etc.) reserves with modern Optimum, Smart, etc. reserves because they are in totally different generations.

As a Canadian-based Strong TIE, the manufacturer allows me a bit more flexibility. I usually ask aspiring TIs to visit a Transport Canada-approved Flight Surgeon, but only ask for a signed copy of the Dr's conclusion. I advise TI's not to waste money requesting an official aircrew medical. Personally, I used to hold a TC Class 3 Medical (Private Pilot), but TC bureaucracy got ridiculous when I applied for a Class 1 (Commercial Pilot), so now I just renew my Class 2 (commercial bus driver) medical.

Yes, we can learn by reviewing older designs. Sometimes those innovative ideas failed because the correct materials were not available yet. For example, I never understood the function of pack-opening bands Until I packed a few rigs with un-sprung pilot-chutes. They used pack-opening-bands to pull back side-flaps, exposing the PC to wind. The best POBs tossed the soft PC away from the jumper. By the same logic, old Security Safety-Chute PEPs had two springs. The first spring removed the closing loops while the second launched the pilot-chute. I have packed secondary springs into ejection seats. They had soft pilot chutes and the spring was completely separate, un-attached to the pilot-chute or bridle. The spring fell away after it pushed the pilot-chute out of the container. The spring was a spiral wire wrapped in a cloth bag. The bag prevented lines, etc. from entangling between spring coils. The next challenge - to reducing the weight and bulk of containers - is reducing the weight and bulk of pilot-chutes. Perhaps an automotive airbag?

.... That is why a few of us used a pull out on our reserves.This presents another problem. AAD on pull out? Did not matter back then. That would take at least another weekend of pondering. Right now for the general public, the marketed throw out is the best thing going that they can buy. D-3411 ------------------------------------ Releasing the closing loop is easy with a modern electronic AAD. The challenge is consistently launching the spring-less pilot-chute clear of the jumper. To understand this, look at antique pilot emergency parachutes that were designed before consistent spiral springs were available. I have an antique ripcord rig that could easily be converted to pull-out and electronic AAD. It looks like a WW2 Japanese seat pack but was built more recently for a Nanjing CJ-6 military trainer. Bungee, pack-opening bands fling the un-sprung pilot-chute into the airstream. The challenge to building a modern equivalent is selecting the correct Spandex or bungee cord and have it durable over the 20 year life of the container.

...................... So pulling the pin before you get the PC out is considered "out of sequence deployment"? ---------------------------------------------------- Many reserves have two different sets of pins. The first pin(s) are steel pins swayed to the ripcord cable. The second set are internal staging loops (usually on the kicker plate). Heavy weight reserves :26' Lopo or tandem reserve) often have bungee staging loops to prevent the reserve bag from falling out until the pilot-chute is definitely pulling.

Yes. Line-dump was a problem with early tandems from every manufacturer. Those heavy Dacron lines got dumped back into the main container as the huge drogue violently started lifting the D-bag. Vector responded with wider elastics. Strong responded with an extra Anti-Line-Slump flap - on the bag - held shut by bungee cords. Racer, Parachutes de France added more locking stows with rubber bands. Icon just announced that their earliest stow-less d-bags might dump lines pre-maturely, so they are offering free replacement bags with a more secure line-stow pocket.

Pulling the pin before the pilot-chute catches air is the normal sequence with pull-outs and ripcords

Like many SOS (Skydivers Over Sixty) my beard grows more salt and less pepper every year. So I let grow long starting August. By December my beard is long and curly. Last week I bought a red and white toque and turned a profit within the first hour! I was sitting in a restaurant when a young family sat at the table beside me. Since the young boy was staring at me, I complimented him on his bow tie. His father introduced me as 'Santa's brother." As I rose to leave, the little boy handed me a chocolate.