SBCmac

Sabre210, Again, I was mostly talking about posts that are solely directed at telling everyone to be safe, usually posted after some incident… And yes, I would not jump with someone that says “hope you don’t die” at exit point… I take BASE jumping very seriously at exit point and there are some things that are just not funny at exit point. Just like when you go to a funeral of you bud that you watched die BASE jumping, would you go up to your bud’s parents and tell them that you would give your bud a 10 for how far he bounced when he hit the ground? Of course not, because it’s not the time nor the place for such a comment… Comments like “don’t die” at exit point tells me how much that person doesn’t understand the gravity of BASE jumping. It also tells me that they are not focused on what needs to happen, because their too busy being funny. Go ahead, tell you bud “don’t’ die” at exit point and see how you feel afterwards when he does die… When I BASE jump, the only people I want standing next to me at exit point are people that take BASE jumping seriously. This is not a yahoo sport for those that flick off and hope for the best, to show how cool they are. Even the most cautious and meticulous people die in this sport… So do you really think yahoo comments like “hope you don’t die” belong at Exit point? SBCmac (Michael)

Faber and Bennii, I totally see your point of view and I know when most people say “be safe” they really mean have fun, with no injuries or death… But the last part of the have fun, that includes don’t get hurt and don’t die, bothers me. But mostly, it’s the “be safe our there… I’m tired of seeing injuries and deaths…” way of saying “be safe” that really bothers me… And Bennii, I’m mostly talking about when I read post on dropzone.com. My whole point is this… Again we do our best to stack the odds in our favor. And even when we do everything right, we still are dealing with variables that we have no control over. Like NickDG said, "It's only string, rag, and savvy that keeps me from being a paragraph in the morning paper . . .”. Take a step back and really think about NickDG’s statement… We rely on string and rag to keep our butts alive. Do we really think we can 100% control what happens when you throw string and rag into the air??? Of course not and we know it. So what I’m saying is that when people get hurt or die in our sport, we tend to look at it as bad publicity for our sport or it bothers us so we feel the need to tell each other to be safe. Instead, because we know we don’t’ have 100% control over that string and rag we throw into the air, we should support our BASE brothers and sisters by helping them through the though times that they face within BASE when shit goes wrong. Granted, I’m not talking about the few in our sport that intentionally burn objects or who are intentionally unsafe with their decisions… I’m talking about the majority of BASE jumpers out there that are safe and do their best to stack the odds in their favor… The reality is this… Even with gear advancements and advancements in knowledge, BASE jumpers will continue to get injured and die. We as BASE jumpers continue to expand what the word BASE encapsulates. We’ve seen it with introduction of aerials and wing suit flying into our sport. So as long as there are new frontiers to be explored within BASE, people will continue to get injured and die… That’s just the reality of participating in an extreme sport like BASE jumping. So back to my last post, that’s why I make the comment that if someone can’t handle the reality that death and injury is a part of our sport, they should find another sport that is risk free. The funny thing is that a wafo’s statement, “good luck”, is actually more fitting than “be safe”. Again, because when you go back to NickDG’s statement about string, rags, and savy, it’s luck we need and not an obvious statement like “be safe”… None of us intentionally want to get hurt or want to die… For that matter, we don’t even have a say so in whether or not we get hurt or die… So why tell someone to do something that they have no control over??? So finally with all that said… To my BASE brothers and sisters… Have awesome BASE journeys and capture the moments you spend with your BASE brothers and sisters, because on every jump we rely on luck more than we know or want to admit…

Thanks BADENHOP for your post… It’s awesome!!! I have been in the hospital twice (busted my back on a building strike and busted my leg on a landing) and I watched my best friend die on a cliff because of BASE jumping… I continue on because it’s not the BASE jump itself that is worth the price of injury or death but the entire journey around BASE jumping. The journeys that I share with my fellow BASE brothers and sisters are what make BASE jumping worth the price, for me at least… In fact, the journeys that I share with my BASE brothers and sisters are PRICLESS… So to make a long story short… I’m tired of being told to be safe or careful… No shit, isn’t that obvious?!?!?! The nature of our sport is based around pushing the envelope, where it’s not safe (uncharted ground)… So if you want to be safe, don’t BASE jump. When we BASE jump, we do our best to stack the odds in our favor. But realize, even when we do everything perfect, it’s still a game of risk! If you can’t handle the game and you feel the need to tell others how to approach BASE, you should think about finding another sport where there is no risk… I apologize if I offend anyone… That is not my intention… I just look at being told to be safe the same way I look at being told “Good Luck” by a wafo at Perrine… Both statements are just a waste of good air

Some Additional observations that I have made while using the BASE pc pouch, for BASE and skydiving… In all my wing suit flights with the BASE pc pouch, I have had two “impossipull”/hard pulls… Neither resulted in any mishaps, just wide eyed experiences (in other words, freaked the crap out of me …). One was the first time I used my BASE pc pouch while skydiving and the second time was the first time I used a vented 38” BASE pc with my BASE rig on a higher than normal BASE deployment (Ok it was an illegal skydive, but I was preparing for my first BASE wing suit jump …). I observed that in both cases that it had to do with my pull technique and not with the way I put my pc in the BASE pc pouch. Since the BASE pc pouch is rip stop and not spandex, I have noticed, while experimenting in the air and on the ground, that if you try to pull directly outward, at a 90 degree angle, and not down and out, you will encounter an “impossipull”/hard pull. Ever since I have made this observation and have adjusted my pull technique to pulling down and out, to work with the fact that the pc pouch does not flex with your pull like spandex does, I have never had any issues with deploying… Not to mention, since the pc that I use for BASE is vented, I make sure the vented cap is not in the BASE pc pouch before exiting… Just to avoid any issues with the mesh and the tape that makes up the vented cap… It’s just my opinion, but I really believe that pull technique is the main issue when it comes to “impossipulls”/hard pulls and less to do with folding technique. Granted, I’m not talking about people who don’t use common sense and they force a badly shroomed or folded pc into the BASE pc pouch

I do everything that is shown in the pdf file except I don't roll the rip stop, I drape it down... Again, draping down the rip stop makes it harder for me to get it in the pouch but I like how fast the pc responds when I pitch it...

Your right, pc folding, is in the WS BASE pdf file that is posted... SBCmac

I shroom my Vented 38 as well, and fold the extra mesh upward to reduce how much mesh is exposed past the rip stop... I then S-fold the bridle from the base of the shroom to the base of the mesh fold... Elongating my bridle S-folds helps me get it in the pouch better and reduces the bulk. It’s still kind of a pain to put it in the pouch but I get practically instant inflation when I pitch... Also, because it's draped down like a shroom, I've never had any problems with hard pulls. Granted, to prevent hard pulls, I make sure that the vented cap, the mesh, is not in the pouch. But just like any other folding technique, I have had it work its way out of the pouch when climbing down to exit point. So now I just pay extra attention to the pc when I move to exit point. And finally, not directly related to pc folding but relevant, I dump in full flight... SBCmac BATMAN - (A.K.A. SBCmac ...)

My bad, I should have chosen better words, less aggressive ones, to state my opinion. My apologize extended to my BASE brother

Again... Too literal... You took one word out of my entire post and fixated on it and not the entire message… How about "poke at someone’s effort" instead of "attack"... And I wasn't just talking about just this post. For the most part, the main reason I stopped going to the Blinc site was because most of the posts ended up with people picking apart each others replies instead of discussing the topic at hand. My point of my post was that the discussion was based on something that the article never stated… It never stated that someone should huck off a cliff with 50 BASE jumps and 50 ws skydives… Again the first opening discussion was a question of why the author stated that someone only needs 50 BASE jumps in order to WS BASE… SBCmac

The document does not say that 50 jumps is all you need. It says “With minimum 50 jumps (But more are strongly recommended)”. And it clearly states other skills you should have in addition or acquired within the jumps that you have. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --Excerpt from article: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- An intermediate BASE jumper: - With minimum 50 BASE jumps (but more jumps are strongly recommended!) - Cool under pressure, very comfortable in the BASE environment - Always performing solid exits, also when exiting with arms by your side - Have good sub & terminal tracking skills - Have excellent canopy flying skills and landing accuracy - Have consistent record of stable deployments and on-heading openings An intermediate wingsuit skydiver: - With minimum 50 wingsuit skydives (but more jumps are strongly recommended!) - Who wears a wingsuit as if it were pyjamas, not feeling physically restricted by the fabric - Always able to find the PC quickly and cleanly, with good on heading openings - Well practiced at recovering from instability - Able to unzip arm wings instantly after deployment - like 2nd nature - Familiar using arm and leg cutaways in freefall and under canopy immediately after opening - Able to fly the suit comfortably without “potato chipping” achieving reasonable fall rate and forward speed - Ideally have performed some wingsuit balloon jumps to simulate the exit & sub terminal flight - See Appendix B for specific flight drills to practice whilst jumping the wingsuit from the plane. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- When I was preparing to get into Wing Suit BASE, I had nothing like this to fall back on. It would have been invaluable to my venture into Wing Suit Base. In fact, when I was getting into BASE Wing Suit flying, I posted several questions that only the authors of this document took the time to answer at the time that I posted them. They further confirmed some of my discoveries with BASE Wing Suit flying by writing this document. The funny thing is that if you search on Blinc or skydive.com on my username, you’ll still see questions that are unanswered that I posted last year. Again, this article answered those unanswered questions / confirmed my own discoveries. So with all that said, I have to ask, why do we immediately attack someone’s effort to introduce an invaluable baseline document by fixating on things within it. And in this case, what was being fixated on wasn’t even accurate because it wasn’t quoted in its entirety. But yet, so few ever answered my newbie questions that have been posted since last year. Sometimes we as a BASE community take things way to literal. This document, as was clearly stated in the introduction of this document, was posted simply as an “initial information source” and not as an “instruction manual”… SBCmac (Michael)

I'm going to be in Tokyo soon and was just wondering if there are any locals that want to go play... Thanks

Ok… This is just my opinion, especially since I do not claim to be a skygod by any means… I flew a classic (a few times) before I purchased an S-3… I specifically got into skydive wing suit flying for Base jumping. So with that said, I chose to go with the S-3 for its capability range. With finally achieving my goal and doing several BASE wing suit flights, I have confirmed that I can jump objects with my S-3 that I would never dare jump with my Classic. So in my opinion, my purchase was far from a vanity purchase, it was a logical and functional purchase… Granted, I understand the direction of this argument… But I have to say, who care’s about who buys what??? If they are safe and at least follow DZ rules about flying wing suits, then who cares what someone buys… If it’s a vanity purchase, the only person who suffers is the one who purchased the suit. I mean, when is something considered a vanity purchase and when is it not? Do we consider a new cool looking jump suit a vanity purchase if someone is new at the DZ or if they don’t jump as much as we do??? So my whole point is… Are we at the DZ to skydive or are we at the DZ to judge people??? Again, I’m not talking about people that make purchases outside their skill level, because that’s an entirely different ball game… I’m talking about just because someone can’t fly a suit as well as it was meant to be flown, who cares??? Eventually one of two things (three if they are not safe) come from a vanity purchase… That person eventually becomes good and adds experience to the flock or they get frustrated and sell it to one us who wants a relatively new suit at a relatively cheap price :)… Again, in my opinion we shouldn’t care as long as it’s not creating a safety issue… Just my opinion :)… SBCmac (Michael)

ManBird... I do a one arm deployment as well... I too just started doing it instinctively to remain in full flight. I have 70+ ws skydive jumps and 4 BASE wing suit jumps. I have noticed that by doing this on my BASE wing suit jumps that I barely loose altitude on deployment and have great on heading performance. Even when I was skydiving, with a saber 135, it led to great openings with great on heading performance. The funny thing is that I just kind of do it and haven’t really reversed engineered all the details on how I do it. I’ll take my next few jumps and analyze what I’m doing and do another post… BTW… I’m jumping an S-3 with a BASE pc pouch… When skydiving I use a Sabre (original) 135 and with BASE I’m jumping a FOX 265 (vented). :)… SBCmac

Hello :)… In my opinion I would track it as an “Other” type BASE jump… The reason why is because I’m more or less focused on what experience I’m gaining out of the jump than what object it is. For example, if someone were to invent an antigravity aircraft that could hover at 500 feet with no downwash I would rack it up as an “Other” type BASE jump, of course only if I was using a BASE rig and exiting into dead air. The reason I say this is because I look at this type of jumping the same way I look at wind tunnel skydiving, it all applies to the big picture as far as experience. I guess my main three supporting factors to my argument are gear, dead air, and technique. Granted, this would all change if I were to take the same antigravity aircraft and hovered at 13,000 ft and used a skydiving rig. Sure, I would exit into dead air but I would have the luxury of altitude and a reserve (Not to mention RSL and Cypress…). Again, it all comes back to what experience I’m gaining when I try to determine what log book to put my experience in. And if I decide to put it in my BASE log book and it doesn’t obviously fall into one of the four BASE letters, I would classify it as “Other”… Again this is just my opinion and how I do things for me. If someone were to look at my log book and tell me otherwise, I wouldn’t really care and I wouldn’t change how I do things for them. Bottom line is, just like everything in BASE we need to be doing things based on our own reasoning. Sure, we take the bare principles and apply them to what we are doing; but by no means should we loose sleep at night because we don’t want to log something incorrectly. A log book is simply a tool to help you in the future if need be, not something you live by. BASE is an individual sport and even when you learn from someone else, ultimately we are responsible for everything we do within the sport. So this carries the burden of being able to make decisions for ourselves. What happens when you are on your next BASE jump and something happens under canopy that you have never heard of, you make a decision and go with it… As long as the person who owns the log book knows why they put what they put in their log book, that’s all that matters. Again, I feel you should make your own decision and just go with it… :)… SBCmac (Michael)

Thanks for the replies... Definitely points me in the right direction... SBCmac (Michael)

Hello all, I was just wondering if getting the BASE pilot chute pouch on a S3 is a must for BASE jumping. Thanks, SBCmac (Michael)