riggerrob

Yes. I asked a linguistics professor about "blending of accents." He replied that - over the last half century - American audiences report that British singers sound more "American," while British audiences report that American singers sound more "British." Much of this "blending of accents" can be blamed on recorded music. Back during the 1950s and 1960s, American vinyl discs of rockabilly, Negro blues, and early rock-and-roll (Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc.) were fiercely popular with British teenagers. British artists like the Beatles, Joe Cocker, Fleetwood Mack and Long John Baldry exported a new generation of British blues to North America. British singers lent legitimacy that allowed white, American teenagers to listen to "Negro music." So "accent blending" is attributed to trading records between Britain and America.

When the second amendment was written, muzzle-loading Kentucky squirrel rifles were fashionable. I am okay with freedom to carry long-barrelled, muzzle-loaders. There was also something in the second amendment about "well regulated militia." Those "militia" who took over that park in Montana(?) were a long way from well-organized. They made the same logistical mistakes as Napoleon, Hitler, the Russian Army invading Finland, etc. IOW too many bullets but too few beans.

Pilots vain? Surely you jest?

Are you talking about "inflated" windows installed in doors?

Have you ever seen a pilot spot with a mirror? A mirror that points straight down?

Please explain a "cowboy rig."

You caught me! I forgot to mention E-Racer. There are several European-made PEPs that resemble E-Racers from a distance.l, with exposed Pop-Top pilot-chutes, etc, but I could not remember their names. CIMSA in Spain?

Pilots are briefed to attach their static-line every time they sit in the cockpit ..... at the same time they fasten seat-belts. Static-lines usually clip (carabiner or Maillon Rapide) to a seat-belt fitting. If they have an emergency, they will be way too busy trying to control the airplane, pushing open the door, releasing seat-belts, etc. to remember to connect a S/L late in the process.

Static-line is listed because: Butler, Softie and Spekon offer S/L as an option on their PEPs

Yes, Strong Enterprises still requires on reserve ride before a tandem instructor certification course. If a TI candidate has suffered no malfunctions during his/her first 500 jumps, then I strap an chest-mounted reserve on them and brief them on intentional cutaways.

Wednesday I ate something that my stomach did not like. Since then I have been sneaking into small, dark rooms, hanging out with a variety of people that I would not like to be associated with. Appeals to various gods. Great blasts of hot air, but nothing solid in the end. After it is all over, I feel drained.

Try measuring your customer as if he/she were buying a new container. Send the order form to the factory loft mumbling something about "resizing" the harness. Most factories will cheerfully send you finished dimensions. One formula starts with the customer's height minus his/her inseam, then minus 21 or 22 inches. That will tell you how long to build the MLW (base of 3-Ring to hip joint. Then cut the lateral, chest and leg straps and sew them on. When in doubt, make chest, lateral and leg straps too long. You can always shorten them later ..... or give them a sales pitch about "all the top swoopers have extra-long chest straps. Hee! Hee! Test-fit the harness on the customer before making leg pads. Another method involves educated guesses about laterals, leg straps and chest strap. "Fake" the MLW length with light-weight, 1 inch wide webbing and test-fit it on the customer. Adjust the adjustable MLW until your customer is comfortable. Then you know how long to sew the MLW. Does that answer your question?

Full-face helmets were scary and unknown when first introduced. Some early full-faced helmets made it difficult to see cutaway and ripcord handles. CSPA does not have any BSRs specifically about full-faced helmets. A while back a freefall student showed up for his fifth jump with a shiny, new, full-faced helmet. Once he proved (on the ground) that he could see and grab emergency handles, we let him jump it. He passed the jump and continued on to make many more.

What type of Pilot Emergency Parachute does your jump-pilot wear?

*** .......... different rules for different aircraft?[/quot ........................................................... Most single-engined Cessna's were certified (FAA/Cessna cooperation) for flight with a door removed. If the after-market, jump-door Supplementary Type certificate calls for the pilot to wear a Pilot Emergency Parachute, then he/she has to wear a parachute. AFAIK The Cessna factory only makes jump-doors for Caravans. The Caravan's Pilot Operating Handbook will tell if the pilot is supposed to wear a parachute. OTOH Both Caravan and Twin Otter were both offered with jump-doors/ramps from the factory. I have only seen factory-original, aluminum jump-doors installed on DHC6-100 Twin Otters flown by the Canadian Armed Forces. Trivial question: what type of parachute was originally designed to fit into the pilot's seat of a Twin Otter?

A challenge is finding a round reserve packed into a chest container, then you need to add D-Rings to your harness, etc. An even bigger challenge is finding an instructor who can teach you how to deploy a chest-mounted reserve.

Keep up the good work!

More than a decade ago, CSPA made rounds optional for the Rigger A rating. This was more a case of rule-writers adjusting rules to better fit reality. Since rounds had disappeared from Canadian DZs more than a decade earlier, young riggers whined about wasting time learning how to repack round canopies they had never seen nor expected to repack.

Hi Annette, I have another rant about broken lines on tandems, but that is another article. Bleu skies, Rob Warner, budding wing-suiter

Good points Annette, Bill Booth preaches that packing ram-air canopies is basically "packing the lines." Once lines are straight, the canopy is going to open. Back in my glory days I cutaway a bunch of "holy" tandem mains made of F-111 fabric .... back when F-111 was fashionable for mains. Holes in bottom skins did not phase me, but holes in top skins always meant pulling the cutaway handle. I have landed two or three tandem mains split from nose to tail on the bottom skin. No big deal, they flew almost normally and flared fine. OTOH holes in top skins are scary. My first experience blew a hole big enough to drive a van through the left side and a hole through the right side big enough to drive a city bus through! I glanced at that for a split second, then reached for my cutaway handle. The second "holy" top skin was on the top, Center tail and only a foot long, so I did a control check. It turned fine, but folded in half (horseshoe) when I flared ........ reached for the cutaway handle.

Consider that many younger riggers have never seen a round canopy in the air, because round mains disappeared from American DZs 25-ish years ago. Round reserves lingered longer, but by the early 1990s, major dealers (like Square One) stopped selling round reserves to skydivers. Now consider: if a pilot buys a PEP containing a round canopy now, how many round riggers will still be packing when that PEP approaches the end of its service life 20 years in the future? That is why I recommend PEPs containing large (e.g. 250 square feet) square reserves to aerobatic pilots.

Easy to install spoilers, just strap wooden planks around the blade. Then the blade is "stalled" at all wind angles.

I have attended many AA meetings when the chair said: "All of you who are only here to get your attendance sheets signed will have to wait until the end of the meeting."

I disagree with you. As Dirty Harry (played by Clint Eastwood) said: "A man has got to know his limitations." Any young rigger - who refuses to repack round canopies - is merely stating the limitations of his training. Consider that most young riggers started rigging after (1990) round mains disappeared from North American DZs. Round reserves retiredk a decade later after instructors tired of teaching students about two vastly different canopies (square main and round reserve) knowing that most students would forget advice on how to land round reserves before they boarded the airplane. My experience is different than most young riggers because I started jumping while round mains were still fashionable for dropping students. Three military courses brought my total of round jumps up to 70. I also packed a thousand rounds into PEPs while working for Butler and Softie. But even I will not repack Phantoms anymore. First, because I lost count of how many Service Bulletins were issued about Phantom defects and secondly because the National factory says not to pack any of their gear more than 15 years old. Phantoms fell out of production more than 20 years ago.

The cover doubles the life of theSpandex BOC. I still have the original Spandex on my 1996 Talon 2. I have done hundreds ..... maybe a thousand jumps on it since new. Mind you I did a few thousand tandems during the last two decades.