LouYoung

I attended Johnny's last BASE Camp and I think it IS a great bargain. There were only 4 students in the class and you get his time for a full week and as many supervised jumps as you can get in. And more supervised jumps DOES mean more confidence for the new BASE jumper. In addition to all the ground schooling, exit practice, packing instruction, you get enough jumps to learn many different exits (step off, spring off, side float, reverse float) and many canopy drills with video review. All for $750 (or was it $700), plus $200 if you need gear. Other commercial courses start at $1200 and include 1.5 days of jumping. You get one wind day, and you're out. At Johnny's class, we got winded out two days and I still got in 15 supervised jumps. Lou

Ditto on both counts (No VHS and ordered them both).

Anyone ever mysteriously lose all your log entries in your Neptune? I just went to look at my latest log entries to fill in my paper logbook before transfering the entries into Paralog and the Neptune popped up a screen saying, "There are no logs available. Log Book is EMPTY." Everything else on the Neptune looks great, time and date are still correct, just missing the logs from the 70 jumps I've put on the thing. That's kind of disappointing. How about it? Anyone seen this before? Lou

I'm glad you posted some details about flying position. I've never flown a wingsuit or Birdman pants. I've done probably 5 full altitude max-track jumps, 1 full altitude group tracking dive (14-way), and 10 to 15 max-track jumps exiting from 5,000 feet. But I flew my PFly pants and jacket 3 times last Saturday. My vertical averages where in the mid 90's. I know I can get it better than that, especially since I've done high 90's/low 100's in shorts and a t-shirt. In the PFly pants and jacket, I was getting huge distance, but always felt like I was a little head low. Any attempt to de-arch just put me more head low because those pants were really creating a lot of drag. I experimented with arm position a bit and seemed to do a little better with my arms about 30 degrees off my body, but was still unable to de-arch much without going really head low. I was thinking that if I moved my arms any further outward that I'd be killing my forward speed, but I guess I just need to practice more. Any more tips for the wingsuit impaired? (BTW - I saw you a few times in TF over Labor Day weekend, but I don't know if we were ever formally introduced. I was one of the students in Johnny's class.)

Skydive Arizona at Eloy has a pond and we just got our rain for the year, so you should be good to go out here. Lou

Damn. I just got a tag on my door from the USPS saying that I wasn't home receive the package. I know it's my PF pants+jacket and I can't wait to get them out to the DZ this weekend. I wanted to try them on last night and run around the house pretending like I'm flying! Lou

Thanks for posting those pics! I had a great time out there and I'm looking forward to what's to come. I ended up making 15 jumps while I was out there, could have made more if not for the 1.75 wind days. Josh, I'll shoot you an email when I get home to find out how to get some pics.

Interesting selling point. I hate life. I'll stick to the canopy. I think it's better to lower people to the ground with a cable than it is to give them a tan a push them off a bridge with a round... for my mother anyway. Even better.

If you don't know, then you don't want to jump. Easily solved.

I don't think Skydive AZ drops things out of the plane OVER Skydive AZ. All of the big stuff you see in Good Stuff and the "Worlds Largest Rubberband Ball" were dropped over private property outside Kingman, AZ in the northwest portion of the state. Lou

I agree 100% with you Skin; I was thinking the same thing as I read this thread. FJC's (teachers) have students. Mentors have proteges.

I put in an order for a jacket and pants, also.

Thanks everyone for the tips. I'll trying "flexing" them around quite a bit tonight when I get home from work.

Now I know why Slinks work so well. The more you screw with them the tighter they get. Any tips on removing the slinks without getting super frustrated and taking a pair of scissors to them?

Rolling Stones. Paint It Black.

Cliff divers dive from a maximum of around a 100 feet. I've jumped from a 80-100 foot cliff twice before and landed in water, feet first of course, with shoes. It was quite fun and didn't hurt, but 100 feet is far from terminal, or even a de-arch, flare, or track or whatever. Lou

Was he still drunk?

Do you have a road anywhere near your fence? Perhaps the wire could be a big metal detector that can sense large masses of metal parking near the fence? I'm sure it's a demo model you're looking at. Maybe you can go up to the control box and tug on the wire to see if it's there to detect someone crashing through the fence? Or cutting through the fence?

You gotta be careful with those conflicts of interest. Take a close look to people who own a LOT of land around Skydive AZ. A 12 million dollar race track opened up in Litchfield Park (just west of Phoenix) last year and was shut down after less than a year of use. The site was chosen because it was right next to an Air Force Base, so noise wouldn't be an issue. The main proponent of shutting down the race track was a real estate developer that owns thousands of acres around the race track and the air base. This company has been lobbying for years to shut down the base. They picked up all the land super cheap with the intent to close down the Air Force base so that they could then chop up the land and sell it for orders of magnitude higher than what they paid. Then the race track opened up and it was easy pickin's. The company literally bussed in the retirees from the community centers and country clubs, gave them lunch, free stays at the local indian casinos in exchange for their voice at the council meetings that were helding at 10am on a weekday, and scheduled just 5 days earlier. Funny that all the local racers are working slobs that race on the weekends and work all week to pay for their hobby. Not a lot representation from all sides. Be careful or the big business will shut down all your fun.

So when someone finally opens a BASE-park they should build a couple buildings on the side of a cliff and have a span run between them (ala the buildings used for the big BASE competition in the AsiaPac area) and then build an antenna on the span, but have everyone jump off a crane mounted to the top of the antenna. Can you qualify for BASE-O in one jump?

I test jumped a used rig and bought it on jump number 14. This was back in 1994, I think, before coaching, before A-license proficiency cards, etc. I graduated AFF on jump number 8, rented gear for some solos and 2-ways until jump 13 and then bought my own, ratted out, old (even then), and downright scary gear.

N/A

Has anyone even heard of them? How long have they been operating? Sounds like a great way to get out of the heat and see some awesome country from above.

What do you do for a living? And what does your salary have to do with skydiving or BASE (beside not being able to afford tickets/gear)?

That's a really cool video! It's nice to see you flying over those buildings. We need more urban Wingsuit BASE footage. Congrats on the balloon jump. They're a kick in the ass.