riggerrob

...................................................................................... I disagree. The original motive - for teaching students to throw emergency handles was to ensure a full-pull. I could tell you a scary story about a sissified, girly, limp-wristed student who only pulled his SOS handle half way. He pulled far enough to release his (tangled) main but stopped when he felt resistance. That 15-20 pounds of resistance was the reserve ripcord pins! Fortunately, Saint Francis Xavier Chevrier was on duty and saved his sorry ass. The other reason for throwing handles is to reduce risk of electrocution if the student lands in wires. Later on (e.g. when they buy their first rig) we shape behaviour by teaching licensed jumpers to complete full-pulls, then stuff handles down the front of their jump suits.

Legally, Strong Enterprises covered their butts years ago. Strong Enterprises installed bare steel cables for a few years. We all knew they were delicate and prone to linking. A few years ago, Strong introduced new cables with tougher clear coating and Strong recommended replacing old bare metal cables with new clear-coated cables. Cutaway cables have always been high-wear items and no-one expects them to last more than 1,000 jumps. Sounds like the tandem owner was trying to save a few dollars by keeping old cables in service after they cracked/de-laminated/broke a strand. When you factor in medical bills ..... how much money did the rig owner really save??????? Worn-out cutaway cables are not exclusive to Strong. For example, a few years back, Racer had problems with red Teflon coating cracking and sliding off the inner steel cable. Racer solved the problem with tougher, orange coated cables. Anyone still jumping a Racer with red cables is behind the times. On a similar note: The three largest Ametican tandem manufacturers have all issued Service Bulletins on cracked or worn-out flex pins. Most of the failed flex pins had more than 1,000 jumps. As for pchapman's question about Telka rigs with bare metal cables ..... no need to ban them, just ask your rigger to thoroughly inspect them at every repack. Users can also learn how to inspect and clean and lubricate cutaway cables. Ideally cutaway cables get pulled and cleaned once a month. Moral of the story, good tandem owners and riggers keep a few spare flex pins and handles on hand and replace they when they start to wear out, but BEFORE they fail in the air.

......................................................................... On a more serious note: some tandem instructors mount a small, convex mirror on their (left hand) altimeter strap to allow them to check drogues without twisting their necks into pretzels.

SADX just announced a 30 percent off sale on their website. Does that mean you only get the "banana hammock?" Hah! Hah!

Well done! You inspire the rest of us old farts to move scrap iron from one end of the gym to the other end, then put it back on its original rack ....... repeat until the handsomest man on the planet appears in the mirror.

It does not matter where you get your appetite, as long as you eat at home.

....... David Wait!! What???? Settled ????? ill will keep my mouth shut. After all her mental health issues could be real. ..................................................:.......... Her best part left. Hah! Hah!

No way to side-step Federal Air Regulations. A German manufacturer built BASE rigs under a European ETSO. However, FARs insist on intentional jumpers wearing 2 parachutes. 1 of those parachutes must be a TSOed reserve. The only way to "legally" jump out of an airplane - with a single parachute - is when the airplane is no longer airworthy (e.g. on fire). Again, FARs insist that the pilot emergency parachute be TSOed, recently inspected by an FAA rigger, etc. This evening I am lecturing the Aerobatic Club of British Columbia on the basics of PEPs.

Travis Pastrani did his chute less jump (circa 2007) in Puerto Rico, just to get beyond FAA justiction. After Bill Cole did his 2 chute less jumps (1960s) CSPA stripped Bill of his Canadian high altitude record and CSPA membership. Bill's records were only restored posthuminously. Bill did not help matters with his lack of political skills. ......

Careful! Horse-huggers might give jousters a hard time.

Apparently none of the other jumpers at Pitt Meadows had ever heard about SAXX, but when I asked some visitors from Edmonton, one replied: "Yeah! I've got a pair and they are awesome at wicking away sweat so that my balls don't rot off!" The Edmonton DZO explained, SAXX are so great that air bought a batch of SAXX and gave them to my staff for Christmas.

Backing shorehambeach's advice. Ask local instructors and coaches to observe your landings and tell you how to improve. Video is the best debriefing tool. Get consistent on standing up landings - near the target - on a 220 before seriously contemplating downsizing. Once you stand up the 220 ten jumps in a row, you should ask your local instructors if they think you are ready for a 190. When Yolanda hard, every extra square inch of nylon overhead helps ease the hurt. Parachute nylon costs much less than ambulance rides.

That #0 grommet looks easy to replace. Just ask your local rigger to cut out the old grommet, cut a #5 sized hole and hammer in a #5 sized grommet. A #4 grommet might work will your new bridle.

Australian Parachute Federation British Parachute Association Canadian Sports Parachuting Association/Association Canadienne des Parachutistes Sportif Federation Aeronautique International (international sporting group that organizes world-level competitions) Federation Francais du Parachute There are several national organizations in New Zealand with some of them being mere fronts for tandem factories. Parachute Industry Association represents hundreds of parachute factories around the world

First thing: remember where you were standing when the main landed. Secondly: pick a landmark on the horizon, directly in line with the main canopy. Third: walk slowly towards that landmark, scanning left and right.

Fear is normal and helps keep you alive. The challenge is taking the radom fears of a beginner and translating that fear into watching clouds, studying the windsock, packing neatly, maintaining altitude awareness, etc. I did not suffer my first reserve ride until I had 45 jumps. Before that, I never knew if I would keep my cool and pull the correct handles .... in the correct sequence ..... After my first reserve ride, I gained confidence in my own ability to save my own life.

Most first jump courses only cover the "must knows" about equipment: where are the handles? ...... what does a good main parachute look like? .... in order to avoid over-loading students with trivia. "Should knows" are introduced later, during packing lessons. "Could knows" are studied in depth during rigger courses. The best students wait until a lull in jumping, then ask one or two gear-related questions per day. The best packers, instructors and riggers will cheerfully answering gear-related questions. The longest answers come at the end of the day when everyone is sitting around the campfire, sipping cool beverages.

Looking good! You may want to play with steering line configuration to improve your flare. For example, many BASE jumpers add a fifth or sixth upper steering line to improve flare by pulling down more of the tail.

Yes, women do have the advantage when leg straps wander. SAXX are another fine Canadian invention, like beaver felt hats and maple syrup and Poutine and Lulu Lemon pants and Hennesy Hammocks and birch bark canoes and Twin Otters and ........ You poor Yankees will just have to buy your SAXX on the inter web.

Glad to hear that Scottish Police retained their sense of humour far longer than some of their American colleagues. Hah! Hah!

Most MIL SPEC and PIA SPEC hardware was designed back when cotton Type 13 webbing (7,000 pound minimum breaking strength) was fashionable. When skydiving manufacturers started offering light-weight, custom-sized harnesses, they first reduced weight by deleting most of the hardware used to adjust harnesses to fit a wide variety of sizes of military pilots. They also experimented with lighter webbing like Type 6, Type 7, Type 12 and Type 17. Price difference between the strongest and weakest webbing is insignificant - a fraction of the cost of hardware - because labour is the largest percentage of the cost of a new harness. The strongest: Type 13 (7,000 pound minimum breaking strength) has long been standard on Racers and Sidewinders forever ........ Recently, Strong built a bunch of Tandems with "Super 7" webbing that looked as strong as Type 13. Sigma Tandems have MLWS made of Type 17 because it is more durable when adjustable for length. Durability is primarily a function of harness hardware geometry. For example, the top, inboard stitch on a straight harness, upper leg strap is always the most heavily-loaded and is usually the first to pop. Ergo, circa 1990, the Relative Warkshop published a Service Bulletin saying to over-sew any harnesses that did not have a double row of 5 Cord along the inboard edge. We also over-sewed a bunch of solo Vectors. One inch wide Type 17 webbing has been limited to solo main risers, chest straps and lateral straps. 2,000 pound webbing is strong enough for chest and lateral straps because they only suffer 5 percent of opening shock. IOW chest and lateral straps only prevent a jumper from falling forward - or backwards - out of the harness and only after main lift webs and leg straps have conducted most of opening shock to the jumper. Mike Johnston (sp?) once showed me a stack of Mirage tensile tests results comparing the strength of single-layer Type 7 webbing versus doubled Type 8. Mike concluded that Type 8 harnesses were slightly stronger because Type 7 webbing stretches more. Trivia, when Flying High introduced RI-1 hip rings to their Sidewinder harnesses, they repeated a series of tensile tests and concluded that ringed harnesses were 15 percent stronger because leg strap webbing could pivot to the exact same angle as the load. Similarly, Javelin harnesses with hip rings tend to wear out first at the top of the hip junction/lateral strap because that is where MLWs bend the most. No matter what type of webbing, leg straps usually wear out first from friction caused by slowly sliding through friction-adapter hardware. A decade ago, Aerodyne published a Service Bulletin telling riggers to sew in a layer of Type 12 webbing (1,200 pound MBS) to "bulk out" leg strap buckles on Icon harnesse. Since then I have applied the Aerodyne SB to harnesses made by a dozen other manufacturers.

A dreaded "nut under" malfunction occurs when a testicle wanders under a leg strap. "Nut under" malfunctions are worse than most other mals because pulling the cutaway handle only provides a second or two's relief followed by another couple minutes of agony until landing relieves the pressure. NU bring tears to the eyes of even the most macho guys at opening time. They totally lose interest in the ladies for a few days.

........................................................................... Oh hell ya. Do the underwear increase the manly "bulge" factor? ............................................................................. SAXX underwear help "bob and the twins" maintain their focus: straight ahead. If you have something to show off, SAXX helps focus your "naughty bits" straight ahead. If you are hung like me SAXX will prevent your "fire hose" from entangling with your leg straps. And yes, SAXX do portray a "manly bulge" when I stand sideways to the mirror.

A master rigger like you should be able to sew a row of stitching around the edge of sticky rip-stop patches. ....... at least that is the way I patch holes in tandem drogues.

We might need to repeat last Wednesday's sunset load where jumpers were handed beers by fit young women in Lululemon pants, but only bras on top. All the half dozen women were licensed skydivers and I suspect that MC organized the welcoming committee. MC also grilled some mighty fine burgers. However that commercial would be hell to film with plenty of "First positions" and "Take Twos" as the welcoming committee fell out of their bras, etc. Delays would drive film crews insane! The shock! The horror! The embarrassment? The ultimate trauma would be inflicted on a small child seeing all those boobs running about! I forecast unrealistic schedules, cost over-runs and waaaaaaay too much giggling! .... and for what? ..... just to sell underwear?