hackish

As a job, I don't think it is worth it for the hourly wages. People become riggers for love of the technical part of skydiving. Maybe I should say people advance in rigging for this reason. I've had my rigger's ticket for 15 years. I've packed lots of reserves, fixed lots of things and paid more in tools than I will ever make. Rigging properly takes time, and at $60 to pack a reserve, you don't get far once you've properly inspected everything and packed it properly. How much are your knees worth anyway?

The best person to answer the question is Tom at Sunpath. I have supplied quite a number of pilot chutes to individuals and it isn't the first time I have heard of this sort of thing. SunPath calls for a larger than average PC. Not everyone agrees to use the recommended size, but for those experiencing lazy extractions, a new PC has always resulted in the problem going away. More than once I've loaned a replacement PC when someone felt theirs wasn't worn out, and funny thing, they never ask to have their original re-installed...

I don't know how the insurance discussion, however misinformed some of it may be has anything to do with a bunch of skydiving gear being ripped off by thieves. To me, the rigs were like my babies, each with its own history and repairs scheduled for the winter. All I can see is that packers will be stressed trying to keep up, clients may have difficulty jumping together and someones hard earned money and gear is gone. This is not what any dzo wants to have happen. From the many messages I've gotten it seems like gear doesn't get recovered very often. Many years ago my own rig got stolen and was never recovered.

They opened the correct seacan and it looks to have taken a lot of work. Bending up a heavy steel roll door takes some effort. Probably wuffos because of the rigs taken. A wuffo might assume a larger rig was worth more. The thing I was most interested in was what riggers experience was with recovery and if sn were ever checked when buying gear for the dz. As I said, I would hope alarm bells go off when gear shows up from an untraceable source.

I wish it was a joke with a great punch line... Last night someone forced their way into our gear container ( sea can) and made off with 5 complete sigma and micro sigma rigs. Although I'll post serial numbers in the stolen gear database, I was wondering how often stolen gear is ever recovered? I would hope alarm bells go off when a non- skydiver tries to sell tandem rigs with no pax harnesses, but who knows when or where they might go up on the market. I hope they appear in the capital region Canadian kijiji forums as it be easier to solve.

That's the area I work in. Depends on what it is and what you need. An idea is vastly different from a prototype and that's vastly different from something that's completely engineered for manufacture. One of the big areas I work in is manufacturing specifically for the protection of intellectual property and that is a big thing considering nearly all the manufacturing is done in asia. I can't always talk about projects, but I usually have a good idea of who is developing what, and who has patents on which items. Your request is pretty broad since there are many areas of electronics and each with different requirements, whether powertain, EV, stereos etc. -Michael

I hate having that discussion with customers. It is always my choice to not pack that micro raven 120 for a 200lb guy. Unfortunately they just go find a newbie rigger and off they go. Going against manufacturer recommendations is poor risk management. I own 2 optimums and a PD-R. I know they test their reserves more than others and have the largest R&D budget. In addition, the gold standard for reserves makes them a lot more resalable when you eventually downsize. Another small side effect is that riggers are most comfortable with packing the most popular reserves. Get an oddball one, they may not be packed as neatly. Should we talk about flight concepts??? :( -Michael

One could similarly discuss the effectiveness of condoms against STIs. A big factor in that is the behaviour of the individual. If you're out having sex with everyone in the city, your risk is going to be much higher. Similarly, if you're downloading and installing lots of software from sketchy locations, your risk is higher. This includes pirated software and "cracks" as they frequently feature downloaders that can install malware or ransomware at a later date. If you're always using an account with administrative privileges, your risk is higher. If you're not keeping windows up to date (or don't even have a valid license) and you're not keeping your browsers updated, that too has a higher risk. I'm a software developer and the tools I develop are frequently flagged by the automated analysis tools, despite having valid taggants. You can easily tell by the false positives which engine different AV products are using and how up to date they are. Truth of the matter is that most products are flashy paint jobs over the same technology. I have seen some products uploading samples of "suspected" software despite specifying to opt out. Development versions of my software have features to contact the license server when run, so I even have evidence that files were uploaded and run without my consent. Privacy is a valid consideration. I'm not saying they're all out to fraud you, but companies who collect and analyze files off your computer without your consent are hard to trust. While it is probably done for competitive reasons, it makes them a high value target in case a 3rd party wants to do something malicious. I am of the opinion that anti-virus needs to start with an education on the user's side as to what they should and should not be downloading and running. -Michael

I used to have this problem on a few of the wings I'd pack. A change in technique on my part solved the issue. As weird as the technique in the manual sounds, it really does work. -Michael

Back on topic, you can have the spectre lines in vectran or as PD refers to it "HMA". It is a special request. They don't carry it stock because it wasn't originally developed for it. I've installed several line sets like this for customers and they loved them. -Michael

I think your project is really cool, and it's been quite some time since I first saw you were working on it. While I don't love the shape, especially for those of us with smaller rigs, I believe the final production version should give you the ability to shrink your design. Battery technology and processors continue to shrink in size. I look forward to seeing this product make it to market. -Michael

I've played with lasers for quite a number of years. There are chinese cutting tables that can be had for not too many dollars. Cheap and good and safe are completely different issues. If you want a safe laser table, it's going to have a lot of extra safety covers and mechanisms to protect your eyes and such. The smoke coming off the unit is also considerable, and if you've ever walked past UPT, you can hear the high speed fans from 1/2 a block away. The laser tubes and optics are expensive and the cheap ones don't exactly last that long or work that well. Quite simply, it takes wattage and good optics to get a decent feed rate and consistent cut. While I wouldn't class it as impossible at all for the home person to cobble together a table, the devil is in the details and there are a lot of considerations people don't always think about. -Michael

I think it's hard to compare the two with respect to the amount of R&D and refinement you get from each product. I recommend demoing each canopy to see what suits your needs better. Aerodyne has been pushing hard to sell their products so there may be good demo and pricing opportunities if that is your preference. Icarus also has an excellent demo program, and I find their R&D and refinement in the top of the industry with PD. Make sure the size is appropriate for your needs and test drive each, you don't need us to tell you what you want. -Michael

I see hundreds of vigils per year and it is rare. In the cases I've seen, it was specific to a type of rig that has the display in a cover under the reserve flap. -Michael

Aerodyne has an excellent demo program, so I suggest you hit them up and get a demo. I had an interest in a zulu type canopy and did demo one as well as doing test jumps on a few other sizes. The openings, either in the 150 size or the 105 size were not good for my neck as I primarily do camera jumps. I could understand how it might appeal to a wingsuit pilot. I view canopies like cars. Some do certain things better than others, but ultimately it comes down to what you're looking for. -Michael