riggerrob

To achieve zero gravity, the pilot pushes forward on the control yoke vigorously. The airplane noses down and passengers float around the cabin like astronauts. Zero G might be helpful if a jumper entangles with the jump step. Relieving gravity might relieve enough tension for them to slide free.

Chain of custody ..... It's all about chain of custody .... You can only post-date a repack if you have rigid chain of custody. Only if you can guarrantee that not fires, riots or mudslides will damage the rig before the customer picks it up. The other option is to do the work immediately, but wait to sign the card. IOW wait until a couple days (before delivery) before signing the card.

Hi Clive, How is the planning going so far? So you buy your car in Vancouver, drive less tan an hour, jump at Oitt Meadows, drive less than an hour and make another jump at Abbottsford, drive three hours to jump at Kamloops, another hour to Salmon Arm ..... Have you considered side trips to Vancouver Island (4 DZs) or a day trip to Skydive Whistler? Prairie Provinces are easy. There are only 3 DZs in Alberta: with one DZ (Beiseker) serving Calgary and a pair (Eden North and Westlock) serving Edmonton.

Warning! Thread drift ..... The trend - in fatalities - has shifted because all the major bugs were worked out of gear so long ago that equipment malfunctions are rare. Since the turn of the century, the most common fatality has shifted to experienced jumpers screwing "perfectly good canopies" into the planet. IOW hook turns have been the leading cause of death for more than a decade.

Great graphic Mr. Peek! Reminds me of something George Galoway suggested writting on a slider. "Pull left to turn left. Pull right to turn right. Pull both just before landing."

Agreed. But the key word is "competent." Most modern skydiving accidents are caused by user error. IOW we worked the last major bugs out of gear by 1990, so equipment malfunctions are rare these days.

Agreeing with Gowlerk ... Statistically, tandems are the lowest-risk way for a student to jump. Conversely, tandems are the highest-risk for instructors. Tandem instructors get injured more often than AFF, IAD and S/L instructors because of all the stupid things students do during landings. Solo malfunction rate is around 1 every 700 sport jumps. Solo students suffer higher cutaway rates because a few panic and cutaway perfectly good main canopies, land on obstacles, etc. Tandem mal rates vary widely from 500 to 1500. The 1500 number is based on my last few years maintaining Strong tandems. Yes, tandem gear is more complex and has more potential malfunctions, but the mal rate can be kept tiny with 25-jump inspections, packing according to the manual and regular handles checks. I was quoting USPA AIM rates from memory. If anyone has the most recent USPA annual summary, please post more accurate umbers.

I just use regular side-cutters, starting with 2 or 3 radial cuts through the inner wall. As soon as I can lever the blade under the edge, I start peeling it upwards. Hint: few of us have enough hand muscle to cut stainless steel, so I grip the grommet with pliers, then lean one handle on the workbench and apply 200 pounds pressure to the other handle. IOW I throw my weight around to cut out grommets.

This question came up today: "How do you brief them on flying a square parachute?" I replied: "Tell them to get out, pull the silver handle, then treat red steering handles (toggles) like rudder pedals." Any other suggestions?

Eyebrows keep sweat out of my eyes.

Hah! Would you believe that I used to work out of CFB Shearwater, wrenching on Sea King helicopters ... even did a couple of cruises aboard HMCS Athabaskan and HMCS Iroquois?

Definitely keep wing-loading near 1 pound per square foot. Keep in mind that wing-loadings become non-linear below 150 square feet because those short lines turn faster. Few junior, small women are confortable loading any canopy more than 1:1. Wing-loading includes her weight, plus helmet, plus jumpsuit, plus harness, etc. adding another 25 pounds to her suspended weight. 9-cells flare better. Most modern canopies are slightly tapered .... "mildly elliptical." Popular 9-cells - for junior jumpers - include: Pilot, Sabre 2, Safire, etc.

Have you asked local instructors?

It is still required for sigma TIs Strong doesn't have applicants do solo jumps on their systems, but they have the TI candidate ride on the front and deploy the drogue from there. It sucks. .......................................................:........... Hah! Hah! I have ridden on the front so many times .... I am starting to enjoy that seat! Even growing eyes on the back of my head. What's worse is Strong Enterprises requiring aspiring TIs to show a Logbook entry about a reserve ride. If they have never ridden a reserve, they get to do an intentional cutaway! Great giggles for the old geezers watching Giggle! Giggle! Tee! Hee!

The chief pilot - at the local DZ - called to ask me to repack a damp pilot emergency parachute. He also suggested that I allow the youngest pilot to pull the PEP's ripcord. We spent a couple hours reviewing jump-plane emergencies. She sat in the Cessna pilot seat, practicing emergency bail-outs. She pulled the ripcord during the last drill and we hung the parachute up to dry. What emergency scenarios do you brief your jump-pilots on? For example: you tell them why they have hook-knives?

Call Action Air. While you have them on the line, order a spare freebag.

I have jumped tandem canopies solo (330 and 425) and got bored. It took forever to turn and it was descending so slowly that I kept looking up to figure oh how it was malfunctioning. Hah! Hah! For comparison, as a static-line and IAD instructor, I have dropped plenty of Japanese girls (less than 100 pounds) under Manta 288 canopies. They take forever to come down. The greatest risk is them blowing into the next county. It does not matter how many times the radio instructor yells "flare" they never slow their rate of descend. Hah! Hah! To put it into numbers: student, BASE and precision landing canopies tend to be loaded about 0.7 pounds per square foot. A licensed jumpers are encouraged to load their first rig around 1 pound per square foot. Tandems tend to load thier canopies around 1.3 ... similar to the average sport jumper. Only the bravest and most skilled jumpers load canopies more than 2 ppsf.

The FAA recently changed thier definition of "packing under supervision" to curb abuse of a loop-hole in the FARs. Packing under supervision was originally included to allow apprentices to practice under supervision. The original intent was for them to practice under supervision (coaching) until they had packed the minimum 20 reserves needed before the practical test. Unfortunately a few Master Riggers abused this loop-hole and over-worked apprentice riggers, forcing apprentices to pack dozens or hundreds of reserves without pay. This abuse got scary whgen those arrogant Master Riggers decided that they did not to be in the same room as the apprentice??? So the recent FAA decision merely reinforces the original concept of the FAR. Meanwhile, CSPA policies are more flexible, allowing a licensed rigger to sign on top of an apprentice's reserve pack job, provided the license rigger inspected the rig (for structural integrity) and observed every step of the pack job. Canadian rigger apprentices rarely pack more than the minimum ten reserves "under supervision" before testing. Also, some of those practice pack jobs are done during a formal course, usually with two or three CSPA Rigger Instructors supervising.

Prospective employers are more impressed by working hours (towing gliders or hauling jumpers) than some rich kid merely boring holes in the sky. As for jumpers asking for free piloting, free packing and free coaching ..... you get your money's worth!

Agreed! Some of the advice they get from outsiders is downright STUPID! For example: skip breakfast. The only students who vomited on me skipped breakfast.

.......................................................................... Some DZs eat their young. The Canadian Airborne Regiment ate their weakest man.

That is a quick overview. Accent depends upon what part of the UK your ancestors immigrated from and it depends upon which century they left the UK because UK regional dialects change over the centuries (e.g. the great vowel shift after Shakespeare's day).

Only the rubber tip will make little difference during opening.

Wow! Over a mere 20 years the language has changed. Back during the mid-1990s "SLinks" were "those wimpy new gadgets that Performance Designs copied off the French." Now the term has shifted to cover all connector links. Hah! Hah! 3.5 millimetre Ralide oval steel links have fallen out of fashion. 3.5 refers to the barrel diameter in millimetres. For a while they were fashionable as main connector links, because they small enough that you could pull your slider down past them. These days, 3.5 Maillon Rapide are only used for things like bridle attachments. OTOH 5 mm Maillon Rapide are still widely used as reserve connector links. 5 mm links will hold a 3,000 pound load, the same as most MIL SPEC links. 6mm links are more common on tandems. I keep using the French word "Maillon" to differentiate high-quality, French-made hardware from cheap Asian hardware of unknown quality. Genuine French-made "Maillon Rapide made in France" have that stamped on the barrel. "Inox France" means that is stainless steel. The only other trustworthy metal oval links are the Italian-made links installed on Precision reserves.

Strange, but I am agreeing with the Jesus-hugger .... that lack of minerals in the soil can cause homosexuality. For example, Afghanistan has thin, poor soil and very little water. The only farms are alongside the few rivers. Afghan farmers always struggle to feed their families. Only the brightest Afghan farmers raise enough to export. Poor soil causes malnutrition, dwarfism and high infant mortality rates. Fear of raising more mouths than they can feed has distorted Afghan attitudes towards sexuality. These new attitudes are a primative form of birth-control. Fear of too many mouths to feed has led to a fear of female sexuality, hence the rigid gender divide in Afghanistan. Afghanis rely on " man-love Thursday" to satisfy their reproductive urges. If another man is not in the mood, they coerce boys into copulating. Then they take their once-a-week bath and are ready for Friday prayers. The Koran does not ban sex between men, just love between two men, so if there is no love, then there is no sin. Sorry for the long and twisted logic, but I was trying to agree with the OP that poor soil can cause homosexuality.