LouYoung

I'll best the worst part about building a "dedicated" BASE structure is that eventually someone will decide that they can make money with it in other ways. Own a canyon? Build a bridge for BASE. Eventually you'll figure out that you an drive cars across it. Build a tower? You can bolt some antennas to it and make money that way. Build a BASE-able structure for antennas and people will jump off it. Build a BASE-able structure for jumping and people will lease antenna space.

I spent a weekend in South Bend, Indiana a little while ago to help out during a data networking implementation at the Honeywell plant there. This Honeywell plant was built way back in the late 19-teens by Bendix Manufacturing. They built aircraft landing systems and I believe you can still buy Bendix brakes today. The Honeywell plant there still builds landing systems. They had a bunch of old newspaper articles on a bulletin board showing the history of the plant. Apparently, Mr. Bendix was an avid flyer and there was an airfield right next to the plant: Bendix Airfield. Passenger flight must have been very rare in those days as there were articles that said nothing more than "Four passengers arrived at Bendix airfield today..." then stated their names and origination cities. Four or five days later an article would come out saying, "Four passengers left via Bendix airfield today..." Tough to find news, I guess. Here's the skydiving history part: There was also an article from the early 1920's, if I remember right, talking about an airshow that was to happen at the Bendix Airfield that would include "wing walking and a delayed opening parachute jump." Woo! Delayed opening!? Those crazy bastards! There was also a nice picture up there showing a man landing under a round canopy with the huge Bendix sign in the background. Pretty cool. Lou

When I'm out there this weekend I'll see if someone got a digital pic of the failure point. I'm not a rigger, so I won't even pretend to know what a Confluence wrap is. If I had my rig here I'd pop it open and take a picture of my riser to upload, but it's getting a reserve repack at the moment. Lou

I don't know the rig in question well at all. The guy jumping it borrowed it from another jumper who wasn't at the DZ that day. From what I saw, they looked like pretty new risers. They were reinforced, and the break, I believe, happen right above the reinforcment area. This is all from memory, so take it with a grain of salt. I don't know what size or type the main canopy was. The jumper was probably 220 to 240 out the door. It was a hard opening. He said it was the hardest he'd ever experience, and he mentioned he was slightly dazed from the shock. I don't know if anyone took pictures and I think they've already been sent back to Mirage. Mirage agreed to replace the broken risers and another set owned by the same couple that showed some wear in the same area. There was another jumper there that day who had the exact same risers (down to the color) on his brand new Mirage rig. He was checking his riser very intently on this day. Lou

About a month ago I showed up at the dropzone and as soon as I got out of my car I looked up and saw a cutaway main floating back to the ground. When the jumper got back to the hanger he had a split upper lip, blood all over his face, and said he wasn't sure what hit him. All he remembers is that the canopy was spinning and there was no toggle for him to grab. When the main was retrieved it was found that the right rear riser broke. Must have been what hit him in the face. When Mirage was contacted about the issue, they stated that if your exit weight was over 200lbs, you shouldn't be jumping mini-risers. Now, my latest stint in this sport is only about 8 months old, but I've never heard about a 200lbs weight limit for mini-risers. Is this something that's always been around and not publicized? Or has it been publicized and I've not seen it or ignored it? Has anyone else ever heard this?

Unfortunately, I don't really know what I should be looking for. Since I don't BASE jump yet, and haven't taken a course yet, I'm not really sure what to ask. I'm thinking that a teaching methods section might include the order of preparation (packing, exit technique, maybe even site selection), then other rigging methods (knots, static lines, slider stowing, etc.), then maybe actually go do some jumps. Or do they just show you a quick packjob, and shove you off the bridge, then go back to the classroom at night to teach more rigging stuff. Do they go over any canopy control stuff, or just mainly teach rigging? When they finally do push you off, do they do SL first, or just an instructor-held PCA? Does the student ever get to the point where they freefall during the course? Go stowed? You mentioned the pendulator you use at "the bridge", which brings up other points. Does any one still use bungee jumps for exit practice? (By the way, did you build that yourself? I thought the only pendulator in use was over in Norway.) Maybe these courses are more freeform and there's not really a syllabus that's followed since each student is different and will progress and different rates. Just kind of rambling here, but those are the questions I'd probably ask the first couple FJCs I called, and then I'd probably start narrowing my list of questions down once I started to hear the same answers. Lou

With that said, has anyone ever written up a comparison of all the courses? It'd be nice to see a matrix that shows teaching methods, length of course, cost, and maybe even some first hand reviews and experiences. Maybe I should start making a bunch of calls and start putting one of those together. Lou

I thought sales was all about the ABC's? Always Be Closing!

How could it NOT be legal? It's a couple chucks of spring steel. One's L-shaped and the other has a hook at the end. You could do a cheap file cabinet lock with a paper clip and those aren't illegal. Lou

Hmm... I've seen you pack, Bill. Your pack jobs are the ones that everyone makes fun of! Lou PS - I'm bringing my own pack job to the DZ this weekend. Let me in on one of your dives and you can watch it open. It'll be exciting!

I think this is good advice. Who cares where your legs are? You're starting to turn, so counter it. You've progressed to AFF Level 6, so you know how to do turns. Fly your body at all times. Don't expect to fly straight and level by putting your body into a neutral position and freezing it. When you're driving down the road in your car, if you hold the steering wheel straight and freeze it, your car will veer out of your lane. You constantly steer the car to keep in your lane. Even if the car is out of alignment and the steering wheel is cocked to one side, you can still manage to keep it pointed in the right direction (I hope). Use your knowledge of turning to counter the un-intentional turn to get through the AFF level. Eventually, the truely neutral position should come naturally and heading control will become an innate ability where you don't even think about it anymore. DISCLAIMER: I'm a low time jumper. Don't listen to anything I say. Lou

Uh... I answered it correctly. It took me about 20 seconds of thought to come up with the answer though. Hmm... Lou

Humans are on top because we have thumbs; we can reason. With thumbs, we can build a tool, and with that tool, we can swim with the sharks, or kill them. Same with the tigers. Occasionally a cat beats a dog in a street fight, but the dog generally has the upper hand. Lou

Are those self-guided/controlled parachutes or remote control by someone on the ground? Lou

I agree with everyone who just walks the bag to the rig as they stow the lines. That's what I do, because it's my own gear. The first time I had a packer pack it up for me at a smaller dropzone nearby, I didn't watch her pack, but could tell from the scuff marks that she drug it across the floor. I don't remember one way or the other if the various packers at Eloy have ever done that, though. Thanks for all the comments! Lou

With all the packers etiquette going around I was wondering what the etiquette was for asking a packer to use a packing mat. Some (most) professional packers that I've seen drag the harness/container towards them while putting the lines into the bands on the bag and as you know, that damages the rig over time. If I provide a packing mat, will the packer use it? If so, will they be pissed off? I've been using a packer lately because my canopy is brand new ZP and slippery as hell. I'd rather spend my time at the DZ jumping instead of fighting with the canopy. I practice at home and while it was raining this last weekend, I got it in the bag on the first try... twice! My need for a packer should be diminishing, but in the meantime, I'd rather not see the friction dirt/damage on the system. Lou

Awwwww, yeah! About 8 months ago I put in a search for used books on Amazon looking for this title. Two months ago I got an automated email asking if I was still looking for the book. If I didn't click on the right button, they would have cancelled my search. What does it hurt to have an automated search going? I clicked on "Yes". Today, out of the blue, there's a package from Amazon in my mailbox. I had forgotten about my used book request, but when I opened the package it's sitting right there. Ground Rush by Simon Jakeman, hard cover. Woohoo, nice surprise! Then I go to my Amazon account to see how much I paid and it was only $14.95. And the first page is signed by Simon. Nice. Lou

Ah, cool. Let us know how you do. I've been there twice for time trials and once for wheel-to-wheel action in "street driven" racing class. I'm a cager, so I was wondering how quickly the bikes got around on the track. My best was a 1:43.3, I think. Lou

I'd recognize that corner from any angle. What kind of times do you run there on your bike? Lou

2:2:5 Three sitfly jumps where I finally got it to work. Last one had a lurker in the form of a fighter pilot from the Japanese air force! And the last jump of the weekend was from a balloon at 5,000 feet. Awesome flat exit, going right to a track about 1.5 or 2 seconds in. Got 21 seconds of freefall. Of course, the Bird-Man who exited before me got 40 seconds. Noice! Lou

You should be able to average more in AZ than in CA. Interstate speed limits in AZ are 75, which means you should be going at least 85 to 90. The speeds in CA are still 70 mph, right? Lou

This is a bit off the original topic, but I'll reply anyway. My bad night vision was caused by my astigmatism. An astigmatic eye is oblong, meaning a cross section of the lense would be oval shaped instead of circular. When you're in bright light and your pupil is very small, you're only using a small portion of your lense to focus light. At night, when your pupil is large you use more of your lense, and if your lense is oblong and you're nearsighted, your nearsightedness gets worse because you're using a larger portion of your oddly shaped lense. My night vision was better with contacts because they were made for my astigmatism, but the contacts caused very bad starbursting. The Lasik obviously took into account the astigmatism and reshaped my lense so that it's now circular instead of oval, so when the light gets low and my pupil gets larger the quality of my vision doesn't change. I've heard that Lasik can cause starbursting at night, but for me it hasn't, at least compared to the terrible bursting I got from my contacts. So when those two items are combined, my night vision was greatly improved by the Lasik.

That sounds really freakin' cool. Is this a foot launched powered parachute you're talking about, or a cager/Trike style?

I completely agree. I used to race GT style cars and usually wore a full face helmet and sunglasses but left the face shield open. I had a moderate astigmatism which required my contacts to be directional (ie - the bottom of the contact needs to be on the bottom of my eye, they don't work if they rotate). Sometimes my contacts would shift and an eye would go blurry. Usually a good solid blink would settle them down and wipe them clean and I could see again. I waffled on getting Lasik for many years until one day I was competing in an Hillclimb Open Road style race (one where the road gets legally shut down and we race for quick times up the hill) and one of my eyes went blurry on the quickest part of the course (120 mph or so) just as I was coming into the braking zone for a marked 30 mph corner. Keep in mind that this is a hill - rock wall on the right side, steep drop off on the left and no guard rails. Three cars rolled in this spot earlier in the day. For some reason this time the one or two blinks didn't fix the blur and I was left with one eye - read "no depth perception" - at a point where I really, really wanted two. Needless to say, I got Lasik soon after. Was seeing 20/15 the next morning, found that my night vision was 10 times better than with contacts and with no starbursts. Being a "the cup is half empty" kind of guy, I was kicking myself for not dropping the cash on my eyes many years earlier. If you're thinking about it, think harder. Do some solid research and find out if it's right for you. If it is, go for it. Lou

Can Hornets be purchased new still or were they discontinued when PISA moved sport parachutes over to Aerodyne? And while we're on the subject, I read the reviews and a lot of Hornet owners really like their canopies. Of course, it's hard to find someone give a bad review on a canopy they've spent their hard earned money on. Anyone care to comment on how they really compare to a Sabre2? Or a Safire2? What about the "special" South African ZP material?