riggerrob

Funny! For as long as I can remember, CSPA has taught PFF instructors to always hang onto the right side of the student during exit - when doing one-on-one jumps. The exit can be a bit awkward from Cessnas until you learn how to lay your right elbow on the wing strut. On larger airplanes, I ways always most comfortable in the rear floater position when doing accompanied freefall jumps (AFF or PFF).

Getting a used rig inspected before it sells is normal procedure. Usually the inspection is done by a rigger trusted by the buyer. If it is a long-distance sale, then the rigger often acts as a neutral broker, inspecting the rig, doing any repairs and holding the rig until the money changes hands. When I rigged for Square One Parachute Sales (Perris Valley, California) I inspected dozens of second-hand rigs that were being sold one consignment.

Sealand are a class act. They do a great job of maintaining the jump-planes for Campbell River Skydive Center and hold a variety of STCs. They are also developing a diesel conversion for DHC-2 Beaver. I saw their diesel Beaver demonstrated at the Boundary Bay airshow and they flew it like they were renting runway by the foot!

Dear Mike, Glad to hear that CSPA has learned a thing or two about IAD since the last time I dropped IAD students (2010). Sadly, USPA is still trying to "re-invent the wheel" a "wheel" that was invented in Georgia circa 1976. The last time I jumped a 26' LoPo, I missed the country and landed in France! That was back in 1986.

It helped that back in the good-old-days, our main canopies (e.g. Cruiselite) opened promptly.

One of the problems that contributed to the King Air crash in Hawaii was a poorly-done repair that left one wing at a slightly different angle of incidence than the other. Add that on top of sloppy pilot technique (zoom climb immediately after take-off) and there is little wonder that it stalled. All these King Air accidents have forced Beechcraft to state that King Airs jump-planes cannot be operated "on condition" since jump operations are so radically different than the original mission profile. The original mission profile intended for King Airs to fly two or three flight per DAY, versus the 2 or 3 flights per hour of jump planes. One of the reasons that I keep repeating this factoid is that one of the reasons why I was injured in a King Air crash was because one of those engines was something like 1500 hours past TBO. That combined with a smudged logbook entry about inspecting a fuel pump ... then the fuel pump failed ... add in some pilot error ...

Why does this remind me of all the skydivers who sprained their ankles during Sunday evening softball games? It should be against the law for health insurance companies to deny coverage for sports-related injuries.

Those beards make the deceased look like Chechins.

Similarly too much caffeine can cause heart palpitations, insomnia and paranoia. Too much nicoteine can cause a wide variety of lip, throat and lung cancers.

Will someone please explain to me the obsession with down-sizing? Back when I was working full-time as a skydiving instructor (350 jumps per year), I weighed about 190 pounds and jumped 135 and 150 and 400 square foot canopies. After I quit working full-time in the skydiving industry, I put on bit of weight (up to 230 pounds) and got un-current during COVID, so up-sized my main canopy to a Pilot 169. 169 is a challenge to land softly at my current weight of 190 pounds. Oh! And I am 66 years old now. As it is now, I am in no rush to reach the ground and just enjoy hanging under canopy, doing gentle turns and enjoying the scenery.

Why California is paying reparations to Afro-Americans is a mystery to me. The last time there were any slaves in California was under Spanish rule. Most of those slaves were of Native American descent. Many of those slaves were held by Catholic missions. How the Catholic Church reconciled enslavement with saving souls and bringing native Americans to Christ is a mystery to me???????? Those reparations will cost California tax-payers even more. California is already a ridiculously expensive place to operate a factory. Back in 1994, Manley Butler laid me off as he announced that he was moving his factory from California to Virginia. In 1997 Sandy Reid laid me off as he announced that he was moving Rigging Innovations factory from California to Arizona.

Classic schoolyard bully behaviour.

I bet that the majority - of migrants to Florida - are baby-boomers retiring to a warm climate.

If you have to explain the joke ....... Boring explanation follows: Back when I started jumping in 1977, we used military-surplus round parachutes that were not half as reliable as modern square parachutes. It did not help that they had been modified a logn way from their original military configuration or that they were being used for vastly different purposes than they were originally designed for .. nor being used hundreds of times more than their original military service life. Back then I jumped from a 20-year-old Cessna. That same Cessna might still be hauling skydivers making it more like 70 years old. The few large skydiving meccas flew World War 2 surplus airplane like Beech 182, DC-3s and Lodestars. All those old parachutes and old airplanes eventually wore out. Meanwhile, sexual promiscuity spread: gonerrea, syphillus, herpes, crotch lice, heapatitus, AIDS, etc.

Guys "open-carrying" guns scare me. If their neighborhood is so dangerous that they feel the need to "open-carry" I just avoid that neighborhood. For example, while working at Perris Valley, Elsinore, Hemet, etc. DZs, I visited Los Angeles and Orange County a dozen times, but never got off the highway near Compton. Professional police and soldiers "open-carrying" do not phase me ... considering that I was a soldier for 13 years. BUT half of the Americans who "open-carry" are the sort of bungling amateurs who scare me. I would be afraid to visit the same indoor shooting range as most of them.

Paying to release hostages is a bad practice because the bulk of hostage-taking foot-soldiers are just desperately poor Somali or Afghan or ... farmers or fishermen who were displaced from honest employment by the latest civil war. Few of them hold fanatical religious views or even understand national politics. Forget about trying to explain international politics to them. These days, the majority of hostages are taken purely as commodities in "kidnap for profit" schemes. As for Moscow holding westerners hostage ... Moscow is just proving that they do not obey international diplomatic customs/traditions/treaties.

Will some one please explain dual-citizenship to me? Back when I was a child, a person needed to surrender their first passport and renounce citizenship in their country of birth before they could become a full citizen in a second country. This process annoys me because the bulk of "Canadian citizens" that we have had to rescue or ransom from some chaotic, war-torn shit-hole in African or Asian held two passports. At first glance, they looked and sounded like native-born citizens of that chaotic shit-hole.

I lost my original Javelin manual many decades ago, but I remember stowing all the suspension lines on the diaper (Phantom or 26' LoPo) and packing it into a lower corner. Then I S-folded the rest of the canopy into the container in a U shape .. similar to the way that I packed rounds into Racer Pop-Tops. The key is keeping the canopy bulk as close as possible to zero near the closing loop.

Pan-sexual is just a new name for "slut." It amazes me how much time we waste worrying about other peoples' sexuality. You might call me a boring old straight white guy, but I have little need-to-know about anyone else's sexuality until they invite me into their bed. When people insist on rubbing their sexuality in my face, I find it annoying. For example, if a woman wears a dress with deep, revealing cleavage, but won't let me play with her bosoms, I get annoyed. By the same token, decades ago I was tired of listening to "toros" bragging about the dozen women they shagged last weekend when we all knew that the true number was somewhere between one and zero.

Sorry man, but I do not believe in intelligent Design. Just look at all the failed experiments in the fossil record. Granted, some of those "failures" were stepping stones on the way to creating modern flora and fauna. Rather, I see Intelligent Design as a simplified re-telling of the process of evolution ... including all of its dead-ends. By the same token, I see the Big Bang Theory as a simplified re-tellling of a multi-trillion year old story that is simply too big for the human mind to grasp. My theory holds that the universe expands and collapses in cycles that are trillions of years long and the Big Bang Theory merely explains the most recent expansion cycle/wave. Along that same thought process, the Book of Genesis is not inaccurate. Rather the Book of Genesis is just a best-guess based upon the limited knowledge available to ancient Hebrews/Jews. Similarly, modern science is a best-guess based upon currently available knowledge. Scientists are constantly testing each others' theories to prove - or deny - their viability. Some of what we hold as scientific fact today will be laughed at 50 years in the future. Hah! Hah!

The good news is that hard openings are getting rarer with each new generation of parachute. These days, most hard openings are caused by sloppy packers. This should motivate you to learn how to pack your own parachute. Learning how to pack is best done at your local drop zone during a rainy day. May I suggest that you ask a local instructor to show you how to slide your leg straps high in your crotch a minute or two before exit? Most thigh bruises are caused by poorly-adjusted harnesses sliding around during opening shock. A properly adjusted harness will eliminate most of the bruising. Hip rings make a big difference - in comfort - when stuffing large jumpers into smaller airplanes. Chest rings are less important. The down-side is that ringed harnesses need to be fitted more precisely. I used to work at Rigging Innovations back when we were the only factory building ringed harnesses (early 1990s). Most of the complaints about poor fit came from second owners who were a different size than the original owner. To measure a harness precisely, you will need the assistance of your friendly neighborhood rigger. Did you notice that I wrote the word "local" three times? That is because you will get the best advice from local professional skydivers who have an interest in you continuing to jump through next year ... and the year after ... and the year after that ...

General background knowledge .... Back when I worked for Rigging Innovations, we never quoted delivery time less than 6 weeks. While it was possible to rush a rig through production in a day or two, it disrupted production to have sewers waiting idle until a rush order reached their station. This was to cover our butts in case an outside supplier was slow in delivering a particular color of fabric, specific hardware, etc. Also consider that factories try to smooth production by not changing colors too often. Changing thread color takes 5 minutes at best. Changing binding tape color takes another minute or two. So we would typically sew black rigs on Mondays and Tuesdays, blue rigs on Wednesdays, red on Thursdays and every other color on Fridays. Even on Fridays, we tried to sew all of the white rigs sequentially, then all of the orange rigs in one batch, etc. Also, if we got a large military order (e.g. 250 rigs all the same size and color) we lumped them together as one batch and nudged everything else aside until that large order was complete.

Trivial point. When they started their AFF program (early 1980s), Perris Valley used double-keel 'Dactyls as student canopies. Those canopies were left over from a competitive 4-way team. That was back in the day when students were issued parachutes that had been fashionable among licensed jumpers last year. IOW the best "transition gear" was whatever your local skygod was trying to unload. Hah! Hah! That humor aside, I don not remember hearing about any significant injury rate among Perris' students during the early 1980s, probably because those Double-Keel 'Dactyls descended so slowly that twisted ankles were rare.

yes. Just pack it the same way you would a Strong Tandem. Both types of canopies have separate steering and flare lines. Start by setting the brakes, then pull all the slack in the steering lines towards the top/trailing edge. A minor point is whether you even out the trailing edge by stowing extra-long steering lines in rubber bands attached to the trailing edge.

Once I tried a skydive after smoking a joint with another jumper. We stepped out of the Skyvan and flopped around the sky, What a waste of a jump ticket!