NickDG

Call it "tail inversions" or "tail flutter" APEX has video of it. They were the first to take notice and give it a name. Skydivers get it too. It's why they find those mysterious faint white marks on the top outboard surfaces of their canopies. It's caused by the upper control lines whipping on the fabric during the tail "flutter." And, as said, preventing tail flutter brought Apex to implement the Tailgate . . . NickD

>> I don't quite understand how the LRM could put too much stress on the canopy or lines, especially if you use a shallower brake setting.

I agree Tom, and I was always yelling at Andy C. when he was doing The BASE Gazette about dissing skydivers in order to promote BASE jumping. I also advise people to not blame paragliding when getting busted downtown, or on some other sport when lying injured in a hospital. However when I hear the climbing argument from BASE jumpers I sort of understand it because no matter how they say it, what they really mean is they don’t get why climbers are allowed to climb and jumpers aren't allowed to jump. The tradition argument we hear in return doesn't work. If true then all we have to do is keep on jumping for another twenty years and presto, it's a tradition and we'll be allowed to jump. But, we know that won’t happen. So we should keep the inequity of it on the front burner but not by trying to limit the access of someone else. You can look abroad to Europe and elsewhere and see environmental and jumper behavior problems are starting to cause problems. So we should also be careful about using the "less impact" argument. No matter how hard we try BASE does have an impact. And sadly, there will always be those among us that will see to that . . . Someday they will have to allow us into the Parks warts and all simply because it's fair. NickD

Hi John, The "line-mod" was popularized by a BASE jumper named Mark H. in the late 1980s after he had a lineover malfunction on a LA building that left him impaled on an iron fence. At the time slider down deployments are allowing BASE jumpers to go lower and lower with great success. Luckily most square canopies of the day (this is years before dedicated BASE canopies) are strong enough to handle these deployments and all's well until one by one lineover malfunctions began to take their toll. No one at the time understood that jumping slider up made lineovers almost impossible and jumping slider down made them almost inevitable. Lineovers and slider down jumps are linked like soup and sandwich. Most, if not all of the lineovers you see at the DZ are packing induced. And to this day skydivers still erroneously call any line, fabric, or slider entanglement a lineover. Mark noted BASE jumpers are reporting the lineovers they were experiencing on slider down jumps always involved a control line. (The steering lines are much longer than any other lines on a ram air canopy and together with their outboard position it's very easy for them to get over the top.) At first BASE jumpers began carrying hook knifes to cut the offending control line but that proved difficult and dangerous. Finding and cutting the correct line while in a sometimes radical spin proved too much and raised the specter of slicing right through a riser in haste. And unless you cut both steering lines you were left with a hard to fly canopy and a tough landing ahead. The line-mod simply means the steering lines run cleanly from the trailing edge of the canopy to the risers. The lines do not pass through the slider grommets or the keeper rings on the riser. The brake is locked in the braked deployment position in the normal way. Jumpers who experienced lineovers could now release both brake lines simultaneously and let them go. This would clear the lineover and allow for a survivable landing while steering and flaring with the rear risers. Mark H. is credited with saving many BASE jumpers during this period. There were problems of course. Securing the brake lines to the riser in this fashion caused more than few premature brake lines releases. All kinds of fixes were tried, but the one that worked best was going back to something that had fallen out of favor with skydivers at the DZ, and they were called Zoo toggles. These toggles used steel pins, like straight ripcord pins, to secure the brake line and some form of this is still used today. Another lesser problem is once the brake lines are released from the riser and the canopy is being flown, if the jumper accidentally dropped or let go of the toggle it's gone for good. Also early jumpers complained flying the canopy was harder due to the fact the control lines aren't thru the riser keepers. (With them thru these riser rings any motion the jumper makes with the toggle translates into a straight down pull on the trailing edge of the canopy.) Jumpers in the habit of making jerky wild ass toggle inputs suffered the most. However, soon enough jumpers learned this is sort of a blessing. It actually gave them a wider range of control and some talked of using "english" while flying their canopies. That's about it, John, with the following warnings. Never use the line-mod when jumping slider up as it puts too much strain on the lines and trailing edge of the canopy. If you ever employ the line-mod remember a little bit of riser equals a lot of toggle so be careful of stalling. Also I haven't looked at your profile, so I don’t know what stage you are in, but the above isn't good enough to just go try it. Have a BASE Mentor show it to you or take a BASE course . . . NickD

When I started jumping the debate over calling ourselves "sport parachutists" or "skydivers" was pretty much over with skydiver winning out. Yet my Instructor hated the term skydiving, never used it, and yelled at us when we did. Although I had a tremendous amount of respect for him, I thought at the time, what an old fuddy duddy . . . Now here it is all these years later and I think I've become him. Has anyone noticed what I can only describe as wuffo terms that have crept into common usage among jumpers? I remember a time no jumper said "chute" when they meant parachute. To me a chute was always something coal went sliding down. The other one is "diver" when they mean skydiver. That term always conjures up something to do with water for me. We did and still call what we do a dive, like in, "how did your dive go?" Yet, I don’t recall anyone referring to themselves or another as a diver unless it was someone exiting late on a big way. In general I now live in a world where people are peeps and I live in Cali instead of California, so I shouldn't be so surprised. Oh well, I suppose like my Instructor before me I'm closer to the sunset load than the early bird. And stop calling me a bellyflyer . . . NickD

I was entering a VA hospital the other day when a VA Policewoman asked for a photo ID at the door. I handed her my passport as it was the first thing I came up with in my bag. She acted as if she didn't even know what it was. . . . I got in with my California driver's license which are sold on street corners by the pound . . . NickD

Just to make sure you understand me, I'm not saying a big wall on someone's first BASE jump is the way to go. Just the way it was . . . I had probably 70 lower BASE jumps before I did El Cap. NickD

>>People have been busted there based on just having gear in their boat.

>>I am guessing it would be a bad idea to bring a rig onto the boat in case I see something real nice?

>> how would a jumper in say Norway learn how to base jump?

Don't look to me on this one. I'm done as soon as anyone even mentions, "It doesn't feel right." I don’t decide to jump until I've actually run off or let go. One aspect of BASE I appreciate and take full advantage of is prior to launch BASE jumping is so totally controllable. You control the choice of site, the gear, the type of jump, the deployment method, the time of day, the WX conditions, and the spot. To a thinking jumper I don’t believe any BASE jump ever feels entirely right. Sure, there are those jumps where you just push the fear and doubt away in exchange for having some fun, and that's okay sometimes, in fact it's a reward of being an experienced BASE jumper. But most times it's all about deciding how much of that doubt still leaves you in the go zone. I don't think BASE jumping is any easier in that regard now than it was twenty years ago. So sometimes we depend on crew courage. But I always feel I make the best go, no-go decisions when I'm BASE jumping alone. And certainly any peer pressure at the launch point to jump means you are jumping with the wrong crew. I've walked down off buildings for no appreciable reason. Even when everything, the traffic, the winds, my gear and pack job, all felt in my favor. And that's another cool thing about BASE jumping; nobody I respect would ever call me on it . . . NickD

Congratulations, Faber . . . NickD

Sometimes an overlooked fact about bridges is while they offer clean air to deploy in; they generally have lousy landing areas. After all the bridge is there in the first place because the topography was so rough they couldn't build a road . . . Anyone who does tandems at the DZ and also BASE jumps would quickly see some of the problems involved. We could eventually work out the gear to do it, but I wouldn't do it without my passenger wearing a straight jacket and our launch being facilitated by some apparatus that guaranteed dropping us rig side up. And I guarantee I'd quit the first time one of them peed on me. You're adding an X factor, the student, to a type of jump already filled with X factors. Also, being old school, and a statement about tandem in general, is I've always looked slightly askew at people who showed up at the DZ to do tandems. Either they didn't research the sport and the other methods of making a first jump, or they did, and they lacked the self confidence to go that route. Neither trait is a good starting point for BASE jumping. (Or skydiving either.) Another down side is if this were to somehow catch on and spread around the world, regulation would follow close behind. It would take only a few sets of pissed off and grieving parents to see to that. Tom's probably right, if the money's there, this BASE tandem idea might develop into a death camp with rounds and static lines once the first round of tandem masters get hauled off to the hospital. I'm not too worried though, BASE jumping has its own protective mechanism built in as its so skill and knowledge intensive. In time when I see so many vids of so-called experienced BASE jumpers spending their last seconds before impacting an object grabbing for a toggle when salvation is a riser turn away it's clear we aren't ready for this . . . NickD

Surprised? The real issue is why it took so long . . . I begged Todd to build a BASE tandem rig back in the eighties figuring I could fly stressed out business types from the tops of Los Angeles buildings for a thousand dollars a pop. Thank goodness Todd thought better of it. We weren't ready. Are we now? The right crew, at the right Bridge, over the right landing area, with the right gear could probably do tandem BASE with real passengers all day long. They could even charge extra for a loop-de-loop in freefall. But that's a lot of "rights" coming together in one place. NZed? Old hand at bungee jumping? A. J. Hackett? Maybe the bungee thing is slowing down and Japanese tourists are ready for the next thing. The future? Five hundred square foot FLiKs? Aerodynamic passenger pods attached to BASE tandem masters wearing huge wingsuits so they track just fine? In two years we'll be debating the dangers of BASE tandem masters wearing POV video cameras on their wrists. Is it possible or practical? I don’t know. We'll find out after the Kiwis implement the program where after five as a passenger, deploying the pilot chute and flying the canopy on the last three, you do two or three more solos and presto you're a BASE jumper.. "There ya go, no worries, just work on that heading thing and she'll be right . . . Don't forget to visit our gear store on your way out Mate . . ." At least I hope they teach, I'd hate to see it just a BASE Tandem mill. NickD

Don't give up, you two . . . Note to any crews local to the second fellow: Scoop these fellow up! Policeman make excellent ground crew. Our dear friend John, a San Diego Police officer, was a big help to us before he unfortunately died skydiving. NickD

Parachutes are invented long before hot air balloons, and even longer before heavier than air aircraft. In the eleventh century small parachutes are used for amusement during gymnastic displays to retard short falls and Warlords attached them to vanquished enemies before shoving them off not so shear cliffs. (I assume this prolonged the agony). Real fixed object parachute jumping began as a series of test jumps made to prove parachutes could be used to escape from fires in tall structures. Stonemasons of the 15th century are erecting towers as high as 200-feet or more, and people became trapped on the upper floors when fires broke out below. The best known of what history calls "the tower jumpers" is Faust Veranso who in front of 3000 people jumped from a Venice tower in 1416. Many parachute jumps had already been made before that French guy jumped from the balloon over Paris late in the nineteenth century, the one everybody cited as the first parachute jump ever. Most texts (Even the USPA) now correctly call it the first from a flying machine which it was it was. Parachutes were perfected enough that by 1912, only 9 years after the Wright Brothers first flew their airplane, a man named Fredrick Law almost made BASE by jumping from New York's Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, and the Banker's Trust Building on Wall Street. If we ever prove Law jumped a cliff all us BASE jumpers are going to have to move up one number. A parachute jump is a parachute jump. What you stepped off, or out of, has nothing to do with it . . . it wasn't until the very end of the first world war that parachutes and airplanes came together in the public's mind. And that's why until this day most people still think the airplane came first. NickD

Congratulations, you two . . . And you didn't name her Bridgette ??? NickD

I was at the Lake Elsinore DZ on Saturday and an old friend of mine Eric G. gave me some great early photos of Carl Boenish. This one is from Carl's high school yearbook, the year is 1956 . . . NickD

Changing Times . . . Todd, his brother Troy, Ralph, and I arrived at a semi-local building at two AM one morning and in the process of approaching the fence a canopy cracked open over our heads, then another, and another. While we are always ready for guards, police, and homeless people, we never expected to run into any other BASE jumpers. We called out to them and they all ran figuring we were trying to bust them. It turned out they were a Japanese fellow and two guys from Europe touring the States. We went up and made our own jumps and then both groups shared some beer. The year was 1987 and as we drove home, no one specifically mentioned it, but we all realized BASE jumping as we knew it, was over . . . NickD

I think most understood what I meant . . . NickD

LOL . . . Sounds like another old jumping phrase is going down the drain. "Everybody humps their own gear . . ." NickD

Opps, blame it on the pain pills . . . I'm mixing up the ESB and WTC. Sorry . . . NickD

I always giggle when I see someone list what they want in a man or woman. It's not like buying a car . . . Love grows and tall, short, dark, blonde, hobbies, etc., means nothing. It's the reason matchmaking services fail and why the old practice of arranged marriages did. Go rent the Oscar winning best picture from 1955, "Marty" as it says it better than I can. NickD

Hi Rhino, Someone PM'd me to ask why I sort of slammed you in a post last week. While I don't really know you, I find your gung-ho kill them all, right or wrong, attitude distasteful. The reason I say that is I used to be that way at one time, and I'm not that way anymore. And I'll wager one day you won’t be either . . . NickD