hackish

My tendency to recommend selling a hastily bought rig and buy a similar one that fits correctly is based on the fact that skydiving gear holds its value very well. One can respectfully disagree on my opinion and state their reasons. This is after all this post is about. Dispensing book quotes as personal advice is something entirely different and you'd be hard pressed to find examples of that. Sure I have opinions but I'm able to back them up. -Michael

I suspect you would find that is the test dummy weight and designed weight used to certify the reserve under its TSO. It is possible that it may not perform exactly within the TSO requirements above that weight limit. I had copies of the requirements here somewhere but can't find them :( It would probably still work but it's hard to recommend using such a reserve when the manufacturer clearly states its operating limits and you're outside of them. Probably a good question for discussion in the rigging forum. -Michael

I respect the fact that Mick has been in this game much longer than me. To suggest that I need to do fact checking and get a rating without checking his own facts offends me. I don't mind being criticised but if you do make sure you have something valid to complain about. I try my hardest to answer every question correctly and many times this leads me to open a book and do actual research to ensure advice I dispense is technical and correct. To assume

Ok, first off replacing the laterals is generally easier and less time consuming than tearing in to a MLW. Most of the work is done with e thread and regular industrial machines, on most rigs some 7 class work will be needed. Reinstalling a MLW requires seperating the back pad from the MLW in several hard to get to places additionally many times housings have to be removed and reinstalled. The pain in the ass factor for complete MLW reinstall is quite high. As far as being more expensive than buying a new rig, there is nothing further from the truth than that statement. You may wan't to consider a little more fact checking before dispensing rigging advice and possibly a rating wouldn't hurt either. Fact checking? Are you arguing that this is a minor task/repair? In my country it would be classed as major repair work must be done by a Rigger B. This doesn't seem like a Senior rigger task I never said buy a brand new rig. My advice was to sell it and buy another rig that fits properly and I believe the difference between those two prices will still be very small. I frequently talk to people who resell a rig and purchase something similar (for a downsize) and break even. Since it's a backup rig and he probably has some luxury of time I stand by my advice. Before you criticize my rigging advice please make sure the advice is wrong and not your reading comprehension. For the record I'm grumpy too. -Michael

Does driving to work without a seatbelt make you more confident in your driving abilities? A seatbelt can't guarantee you will survive a crash of course. You know, I've driven 150,000km in the last 8 years not needing my seatbelt. -Michael

My 100th jump idea is to avoid the cream pie in the face. A nice cross country jump can be fun. -Michael

Modifying/replacing any part of the main lift web is a major task. You might want to just sell the rig and buy one that does fit. The amount you will spend with the mod probably exceeds the amount you would pay selling buying something that does fit. -Michael

I'm not instructor mind you but here is my experience. I have a sabre2 -170 which is semi-elliptical. A few weeks back I let our camera guy take my rig as his wasn't packed. I took his Sabre 150 up next load. Really didn't like the way it flew. Toggle pressure and response was much slower. Despite being 20sq ' smaller it didn't seem to fly that much quicker. The sabre1 is not tapered. So maybe try a few on a semi-elliptical if you haven't already. -Michael

The maximum insurance on most baggage is somewhere around 1/10th the value of a rig as well. -Michael

If they popped the reserve did you at least make sure their face was in front of the spring when the RC handle was pulled? I'll second what others have said about just being calm and patient explaining to people should they ask. I printed and carried tombuch's document with a host of others that answered just about every question they could have asked including a statement I found online from the airline specifying that a rig could be carried on. Finally it might be worthwhile to carry a length of cypress cord should someone decide to pop your reserve so you can at least do a 1/2 assed job of putting it together. I'd hope they wouldn't want to pull the canopy out of the freebag too. -Michael

The swaged on ball is one strong futher mucker. The cable itself is stainless and has a minimum breaking strength of 920lbs. The ball swaging is rated at 80% of the cable strength or 736lbs minimum. If I remember correctly the standard requires at least 600lbs if there is an RSL installed. -Michael

I found that my riser covers pop out less on my last reserve pack than the one before it. Definitely bulk distribution and closing loop length have an impact. I would suggest taking it back to your rigger to see if they could fix the problem for you. -Michael

This is why they invented riggers. Although every rigger has opinions, we are educated and practiced in inspecting a rig from top to bottom to determine it's airworthiness. From a safety point of view your rigger can generally give you good advice on the condition of a rig. Next to that you have to do the research to figure out which rig you want - a task no different than if you're buying new. -Michael

I just had an interesting talk last night with the non-jumper-smarter-half. She told me that avoiding because of fear causes more importance to be placed on the task you must overcome. Although a psychological discussion it does bear some truth in my own experience. It took a bit to get back in the saddle after having to use planB. So I vote, get back in the saddle and get up there. -Michael

I did one once but only so I could return from Florida with 69 jumps instead of 68. I prefer not to. I'm fortunate at this moment that someone with 2000+ jumps has loaned me his Vigil so I can jump my rig until mine arrives. Like an audible I don't rely on the AAD to open something for me but long term survival in this sport seems to rely on never letting your level of caution lapse. Those who think "it won't happen to me" should take a cruise through the incidents forum. I notice a number of incidents are from people who went in with no AAD. -Michael

I hunted for one for quite a few months. I just wanted something cheap and about to expire so I could save up for a year for a vigil. No luck whatsoever. I did find the most leads came from talking to the other riggers. A lot of gear is sold from word of mouth without ever landing in the classifieds. Now vigil hurry up and get here. -Michael

#1 way to piss off a mac user "Gee they still make those things???" I have an altitrack. I find it very useful as it calculates my freefall time and records the deployment altitude. I also find it very comfortable and like the fact the analog looking dial is rotated when you look at it. Also nice is the fact it scales the altitude for higher than 12k jumps - not that I can't tell the difference between 16k and 4k but still I like it. Also the self-calibrating ground level is good. I have no idea if it works with mac but I vaguely remember something about that... -Michael

I think if you read into it you will find it's just a bunch of political BS. Most places as far as I know have withdrawn their restrictions when they realised that there wasn't a problem. I know there is a big war going on between a few AAD manufacturers but I happen to like the features and construction of the vigil. Whenever I install one I marvel at how they've got this tough reinforced kevlar wiring while the more popular competition has something thin and twisted like it's 2 pieces of wire heatshrinked together... -Michael

Sometimes when I've seen people let go it wasn't from one incident it was from a pattern of incidents. I'm not saying that applies here but I've seen it. I was planning on taking a trip down to Niagara this summer to try out their tunnel but now I may just have to wait for the one to open in Montreal. -Michael

I was thinking of mentioning the vigil but didn't want to turn it into another thread like that. Fact of the matter is many DZ's still operate FXC's. They are proven and have saved a number of lives. The new AADs are better but what should you expect from 20 years of R&D - they should be better. The FXC's are more available on the used market and for cheap so don't consider buying one new and then try to compare the TCO. I'd rather jump a rig with an FXC then a rig with no AAD. -Michael

I think the wrist mounted altimeter needs to be less accurate than the one in the aircraft. I have a digital one and it's temp compensated. It also appears to be very accurate. My optima also has beeps for under canopy and it seems to be very accurate. -Michael

I think it's good to educate yourself about the risks and the equipment before doing your tandem. As for the 3-rings any tandem master I've seen carefully checks the equipment before jumping it. This includes making sure that the 3 rings are properly configured (cutaway cable is properly routed and has enough cable stowed past the loop). Most tandem rigs are equipped with an RSL and stevens lanyard - at least ours are. This ensures that the reserve will deploy if either or both of the 3 rings are released. A growing number of tandem rigs are also equipped with skyhooks which can deploy the reserve in as little as 75' -Michael

I've had 2 cutaways. On the student gear with an RSL I achieved the student activation speed during reserve deployment. A few weeks back I had a lineover that started to spin. With no RSL I passed the pro activation speed with less than a second from cutaway to silver. No AAD fire in either case because of my altitude but it does go to show that in both cases an AAD could have made a difference. It's hard to tell in this case but with no AAD installed it had not opportunity to fire anyway. Some people are against RSLs and AADs citing a few rare misfires and problems but far more frequently we see comments about a fatality that had no AAD. -Michael

I think he's calling a no pull a "misfire" -Michael

No worries DougH - someone suggested I cut the lines off and donate it to a school. Unfortunately I had to whip it out 2 weeks ago and despite a *GASP* patch it opened and saved my ass just fine. Back on topic though... If you ask the manufacturer they will most likely say replace. Same as they specified that my tiny 1 ripstop square holes had to be patched. -Michael