NickDG

Reminds me of Greg Hunter who was building a "real" submarine in the Perris Ghetto. He worked on it for years. Greg, a sort of Renaissance man, was involved in many pursuits including skydiving. Some may remember him from his firm called "Head Hunter" which made camera helmets. Unfortunately Greg and his female passenger were killed during a tandem jump in Hawaii around Christmas in 2002. He was a very cool fellow, a friend, and I still miss ribbing him about the submarine . . . NickD

>>How you get 100ft overhung A, especially with no guy wires is beyond me but this is all hypothetical anyway.

The funny part is the owner will have to hire security guards to keep the "real" BASE jumpers from filching it in the middle of the night. Talk about your chickens coming home to roost . . . NickD

>>Do you know anything about the decision making process that led to this? Is there a BD playbook that handles such a situation? How many people decided to stop jumping for the day?

Granted, it's a small thing, but to my ears "chute" sounds whuffo-ish . . . NickD

Just to get back to the subject in hand, eh, I mean the topic, the first commercial BASE poster popped up in the late 80s. I was working at Lake Elsinore and one of my students showed up with one. When I asked where he got it he said he stopped in a shoe store for some running shoes on the way to the DZ and they were giving them away. The company was Airwalk and the poster is of John Vincent launching off a building wearing their shoes. Keep in mind those were different times back then, but we were shocked a BASE jumper would sell out that way and this was the very beginning of John's troubles in the BASE community. Looking back now I realize we sort of employed a double standard. Not a year later I waked into a Circuit City store (or some such) and was surprised to see BASE jumping playing on all the TVs. It was a film by Tom Sanders made especially for the purpose and my reaction was that was pretty cool. However, John's main offense came later from burning sites and not from letting the BASE secret out . . . NickD

Totally, a student learns survival skills by wholly concentrating on counting, checking the parachute, canopy control and landings before anything else. What's the foremost thing in the mind of an AFF first jump student when in the door? The dive flow. I've even heard some AFF JM's say don’t worry about the canopy part, that comes later . . . Also, about small airplanes. Students generally learn more skills in a Cessna than in larger planes. Two JMs and a student in a Cessna spend more time going over things on the way up than in a larger aircraft. In an cabin class aircraft sometimes the JMs spend more time joshing with their friends than working with the student. Also in a Cessna it's easier to teach spotting and you can even do practice jump runs on the way up. (If anyone thinks learning to spot isn't a necessary skill you've drunk the cool aid.) The student also on later jumps can operate the door. I see up-jumpers now who don’t know when to open the door, and some who are clueless without the "green" light. Plus, while Cessnas aren't on the top of the fun list for up-jumpers (it's slow and uncomfortable for Instructors too, but it's not about us, right) climbing out on the strut is a challenge and after the first or second time, it's a neat and fun thing for students to do. The biggest obstacle in the S/L program is when students start doing twenty second delays and have spin problems. Any AFF JM can stop a student spin in freefall by grabbing them, it takes a real Instructor to correct this problem with words. The real benefit of S/L is it produces people who are very altitude aware because before they reach 30 second delays, when a JM may dock on them for the first time, they have already done a lot of jumps concentrating on altitude and not much else. I'm pretty sure most AFF students don’t reach that level of concern because they know there are two pros (or later at least one) along that won’t let them blow through pull altitude. Static line students have no one to depend on but themselves at this point. Sure, I'm old school, but if my sister came to me and said she wanted to start skydiving (it'll never happen) I'd think seriously of putting her through a full blown S/L program. Not one of the modified programs where it's five static line jumps then on to single jumpmaster AFF (I think that just combines the worst parts of both programs) and if she couldn't hack the static line program from start to finish then no more skydiving for her In the end, and who cares how long it takes, she would eventually learn how to fly. But, in the meantime I could be confident she already knew how to save herself . . . NickD

Gee, I've been making a lot of mistakes this month . . . Thanks for the correction. NickD

The below URL will get you to letters the Post Office gets from children written to Santa Claus. These aren't like the ones we wrote as kids. Some ask only for a pair of shoes or an article of clothing. Some ask for school supplies or a warm winter coat for a mom, sister or brother. Some are even requests for food. If you want to and are able to maybe you can help out. The actual letters aren't up just yet, but the site will allow you to be notified when they are . . . http://www.santasheart.org Thanks, NickD

Looked like a big ad for "Go Fast" and SDC which is alright but they lost me when the SDC advert claimed to be the "safest option" in the Midwest. DZ's that claim that are kind of lame and just shitting on the rest of the sport. You can be just as safe at some little Podunk DZ that only has a C-172. It's also well known in the aviation community that it's bad luck to advertise safety and that's why the airlines never do it. Back in the early days, the 20s and 30s, fledging airlines did so, but one by one they all had fatal accidents. Nowadays to get your mind off the chance you'll wind up shredded in a crumbled ball of aluminum they make out that taking off and landing on time is the most important thing. NickD

I agree with that except for one thing. When I started playing the bass guitar I asked how to buy a good one. The current advice was to sit in the music store and play them, see how they sound and feel in your hands. The problem was I didn’t know how to play one or even know what a good bass should sound or feel like . . . I think it's the same with skydiving students. James, Much of the advice you'll get from experienced jumpers (non-Instructors) is well intentioned but sometimes doesn't make much sense to students. Rest assured that we all went through the same thing you are. We all walked on to some drop zone and just trusted them. That's sort of the first step to skydiving and the second is slowly the Instructors will start to trust you. You sound very heads up, but don't sweat the details too much and just go for it . . . NickD

On the oral part of the test the trick is if you don't know the answer to a question don’t try and wing it. You must be able to come up with where to find the answer, i.e. which FAR, manufacture's packing manual, Poynter's Manual, etc. Also, know the limitations of the senior ticket stone cold, what you can and cannot do, as this is often a big part of the oral. If the DPRE makes you untangle, inspect, and pack a round it will most likely be a pilot rig. If you never did one before FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS in the packing manual. When he sees you flailing while trying to flake it he'll probably show you how. These tests are also learning experiences to some degree. If you do a square reserve it will probably be in something simple like a Vector container, so no sweat. If he hands you a Racer he's just evil . . . Sew your patch. Don’t sweat this too much either. A good DPRE will judge your work on an entry level. Just don’t further damage the canopy or sew your fingers together. Good luck and make sure and let us know how you do! NickD

>>The second movie is similar (also @ BD I believe...but earlier) but it ends in tragedy. A pilot chute inflates but for some reason the canopy never exits the container. The jumper fell to his death.

That vid made the rounds years ago under the title of "Kill Cord Tandem." It might have even been before AADs on tandems. Good thing the student didn't cheap out on getting a video . . . NickD

Shut up! And come get the cool Apex hat and the sunglasses you left at my place . . . NickD

Jason, You already have the list they probably work off. It's the Bridge Day Registration List . . . Try walking out of the woods in Yosemite and getting questioned and your ID checked by a Ranger. He asks what are you doing and you say nothing. He asks, you weren't BASE jumping were you, and you say, no sir, what's BASE jumping? Then he says, that's funny, according to our records you've been to 18 Bridge Days in West Virginia. As they are throwing you in the Yosemite dungeon you can scream you only go for the leaf peeping, but it won’t help . . . NickD

I've been emailing back and forth with a writer preparing a BASE article for "Outside Magazine" for an upcoming issue. Maybe some of you have heard from him too. Anyway, at first he asked my help with some basic fact checking concerning the BASE Fatality List and I did that, but as we went along I started getting worried about some misconceptions (naturally enough on his part) that he had. I never hold out much hope a non-jumping writer is going to come even close to getting it right as even after all the years I've been writing about BASE jumping I'm sometimes not sure I'm getting it right. This morning's topic was "chute failure" and how many jumpers are victims of it. It's obvious he couldn’t make the distinction between jumper error and anything else. First off I told him a "chute" is something coal goes sliding down and what we use is a "parachute." That said I explained that to me "parachute failure" is when you deploy and your parachute blows up to the point it won't support you, or your harness comes apart. And to my knowledge that has never happened to any BASE jumper. Things like 180s not corrected in time, late or fumbled pulls, and striking objects in freefall are not gear failure, but jumper failure. Talk to most non-jumpers aware of Jan Davis' death in Yosemite and they will usually say her parachute didn’t work. The truth of it (and she was a dear friend of mine) is Jan didn’t work. At first I almost declined to help this writer. People often say to me that I write well so I should write about something besides parachuting, something that pays better. But the point they don’t get is it's not enough to write well, you have to know the subject inside and out to be effective. If I tried to write about snowboarding or surfing or mountain climbing I'd sound like an idiot to those who knew those subjects. I'm pretty sure I could get a BASE article published in one of the "extreme" magazines that are out there right now and make a few thousand dollars to boot. But what does that make me but a gloryhound like I often disparage. I don't mind things like writing for SKYDIVING or doing interviews on Skydive Radio as that is "in house" stuff. Anyway, the reason I decided to help him is "Outside" ran another BASE article back in about 1982 or so and it was pretty good. And in the end it's either let him founder along or help him, so I helped him. All this is my way of saying when the article appears, and if it blows chunks, don’t blame me . . . NickD

I wrote a whole bit about Mike and Brian in the Bridge Day story but I suppose Sue had space issues so it was cut. I'm going to to send her a stand alone article on them and see if that flys . . . NickD

>>you indemnify them for any liabilities for any accident or injury you sustain during skydiving operations.

Not for you AC, but for others . . . I'll always recommend AFF over static line training (mainly because there aren't that many around who really know how to teach a full S/L program anymore). However in these days of hand holding and over pampering beginners, there is certainly something to be said for students who have the guts and the confidence to take a solo journey to terminal velocity. There are also a lot of neat things about S/L. One is the first time I looked down from 12.500-feet (on my 20th jump) it wasn't lost on me that I earned the right to be there . . . NickD

I remember, like others here, when there weren't many females who jumped at all, and the ones who did had very strong personalities (I'm thinking of Southern California's jeanie McCombs and the like). Just ten years before I started, say in the early sixties, almost no woman jumped and I recall an old film I saw from the TV show "The American Adventurer" that featured an early Ten Man Team and their "girlfriends." It was funny to see the woman sitting in the grass looking up as their men jumped. One of the woman even said, "Well, we don’t just sit around, we time their formations (they all had their own stop watches) and we help them pack (they held tension)." Another function of the woman was to meet the men in the peas and carry in their helmets and chest mounted reserves. Sure, their were some physical things that kept woman on the ground like the gear was bulky, heavy, and did require some brute force to use, but it was more the attitudes of the day that kept them grounded. I would think the main problem a woman jumping in the very early days wouldn't come from the men, but from the other non-jumping woman. "What does she think she's doing?" Today it's a whole different story and I'll say this about that. I think you have to be a special man to jump, and I think you have to be a special woman too . . . NickD

I need to publicly apologize to Donk DiCola for making a major mistake in the Bridge Day article I wrote that appeared in the December issue of SKYDIVING Magazine. I incorrectly credited the VideoFest to Triax Video when it's actually Donk and his crew who sweat bullets and spend their own money making it such a happening event. The worst part is I knew better and just had the mother of all brain fades. I'm so sorry Donk, I'll contact Sue at SKYDIVNG and ask that she run a correction, but I know that won’t really cut it, and I just feel terrible about it. Feel free to give me an earful and a kick in the butt (or a punch in the nose) the next time we meet . . . Again my apologies to all involved. NickD BASE 194

Anyone remember the name of the boat he stayed aboard while in DC. Seems prophetic now . . . NickD

When I got to the crash site the Otter's tail was sticking almost straight up in the air. My girlfriend Anne Helliwell was first on the scene and she was pulling dead friends out of the way trying to find live friends, but there weren't any. What killed those sixteen people was impact and sitting between the legs of the people behind them. The four who survived were in the back and landed on top of the pile, the rest were crushed and worse, and so much worse, I won't put it into words here. Even wearing seatbelts (the floor mounted type) would not have helped as everyone would have slid backwards out of them. Most Otter operations went to bench seating with seatbelts after that. But in the same type of crash that would probably just snap your spine. The best thing is probably hooking the seatbelt around one aft-wise main lift web so as to distribute the shock load using your harness. I'm pretty sure no one died at Perris that day from flying helmets . . . Besides, I don't get using a helmet and not wearing it for takeoff anyway. NickD BASE 194

Same thing happened to our local set of Monkey Bars a few years back. Unlike other BASE objects towers seem to be the ones you can't really count on to be around forever. http://www.oldradio.com/archives/warstories/640.htm NickD