base736

Any canopy that won't fly with a couple of bullet holes is a canopy I'm not buying.

I've jumped in a hoody pretty frequently. I just tuck the hood into the jacket before I jump. Maybe it's unreasonable, but I've seen sunglass cords snag a bridle in skydiving, and would hate to have my bridle hitch itself around a loose hood.

In my limited experience, for low, vertical objects -- even with a gnarly-looking ladder that seems poised to jump out and grab your canopy and/or pilot chute -- jumping away from the object is a much bigger problem than the snag potential. Horizontal speed on opening equals oscillations under canopy. I think you probably know that. Still, I feel compelled to point out that if the object is low, a hearty push away might not be as grand an idea as it seems at the exit point. You know, hypothetically speaking. 'Cause a friend of mine... Nevermind.

I've probably posted this one already.. Ah well, here goes. My brother and I tried that with a road crew working on a bridge. Our side of the conversation went something like this: "Hi there. My brother and I are BASE jumpers, and we'd like to jump from this bridge. We're wondering how we can best do that without getting in your way." His look very clearly asked what we'd been smoking. "You can't," he says. Anyway, we asked how long he'd be there, he said a few hours, so we picnicked at the bottom of the bridge. Couple of hours later, my wife was up talking with the bridge crew, telling them all about how we aren't just a couple of yahoos, etc.. The foreman says, "They're going to jump as soon as we leave, aren't they?" She says, "Yep". He waves us up top and asks if it's okay if he takes pictures. Sure. We had a road crew holding traffic on both sides for us on that jump while the foreman and another guy took pictures. I'll never forget it. I'm pretty sure he won't, either. Hey, congrats to dantheman on 100 objects. Very cool.

You're the man! Thanks -- wasn't sure how to help before your post.

No nose airlocks. The "valved" refers to similar valves over the bottomskin vents.

I was thinking along the same lines as Tom's reply... A 3000 foot cliff would be very much like a skydive if you could open before 2500 feet (as on a skydive) without being near anything. If (against common wisdom) you open at 2500 feet from the Norwegian cliffs, though, you'll be very near the wall. For the reasons given above, that'll be nothing like a skydive. The (much safer) alternative it to keep tracking until you're 500 feet or less above the ground. I don't expect anybody needs to be told why that's not typical skydiving fare. Either way, not a skydive. When a 10,000 foot cliff with nothing but groomed landing area beneath becomes available, I suppose we can come back to this discussion.

I suspect there are dozens of possible causes standing in line way ahead of that one. If one has even taken the time to fold the multi lines inside of the (essentially velcro-free) sheath, I have a very hard time believing that they'll be catching anything but air -- though they might, for instance, touch the tailpocket briefly. Any reason to believe this is any more "possible" than, say, one of the riser covers on the rig hesitating long enough to induce the offheading?

Nothing broken, or am I blind? Anyway, nicely done. The riser thing has been noted already -- my personal preference is for hauling down on the both of them. Priority 1 - don't hit the object. Priority 2 - Turn the canopy away from it. I prefer limestone, myself. It's got a tangy aftertaste...

Ah, see, that's where we differ. I'm infallible.

Right. And in cold weather, doesn't leave you tying finicky knots at the exit point. The "carry-along" style is probably better if you can get your hands on one or build one yourself. I've done maybe a couple dozen static line jumps using the setup in the picture. Never used a carry-along. I would not advise attaching a carabiner to the bridle for any reason. Heavy stuff near the PC, or on the bridle at all, is bad juju.

I'll leap in here and defend the setup. That's my gear in the picture -- ain't she pretty?

You probably just did it wrong.

By my calculations, provided you launch at 9 ft/s or more (10 km/h, or 6 mph) horizontally -- a pretty conservative push probably very appropriate to static line -- you'll land outisde of the fence even if you get nothing out. Which is sweet, 'cause nobody likes a litterbug.

I'm inclined to agree about why the black elastic hung up. I think that's a rather dangerous red herring, though. One could change how the elastic is wrapped and still fail to fix the basic problem (tailgate hangup). Alternatively, one could change from black to tan elastics, and suddenly it's all moot. Anyway, I think the original topic was pretty cool, and this is coming dangerously close to a threadjacking. So I'll just sit quietly over here...

Could be. What I'm absolutely certain of, though, is that it wouldn't have been a problem if I'd been using tan elastics (which would have broken in the same scenario). For some reason, the thing hung up. Because it was a black elastic, that became an incident rather than just another "Damn -- lost the elastic again."

I think if you go hunting for people who had a wierd feeling before an accident, you'll find them. I'm not saying that the two aren't connected, just that one usually finds what one is looking for. In the spirit of balancing things a little... I've had two reasonably serious incidents in BASE (a tailgate hangup that never cleared, and a wall strike). I would classify myself as a very cautious and "tuned-in" type of jumper, but for the record, I didn't see either of them coming. No wierd inuition, no concerns about conditions that day, nothing.

Yeah, but then how are you going to work in the guy named "Swoop", who won't talk to you unless he's jumped with you? Dude. Edit to add: Seriously, though, I think it'd be nothing short of miraculous if a game based strictly on BASE jumping (ie, without some other angle) failed to suck. With another angle, it could be the sort of thing that would make me head out and by a console. Without it, though... My experience has been that fictional worlds are universally less fun to play in than the real one -- moreso the more they try to pretend that they are the real one.

... Which is where the drug-running and jewellery heists come in. You used to work a normal job. Then you started BASE jumping. Really got into the culture. Now you get your kicks hucking yourself off of stuff, and on occasion find yourself and your crew using that skill to get drugs, jewellery, money, etc. out of places that are otherwise secure. Getaway isn't just to avoid gear confiscation -- you're looking at years of accumulated felonies if you're caught on this one.

Could be I'm just not following you... If you're stuffing gloves into a cargo pocket, where do you keep your beer?

Great idea. If anybody out there needs some computational molecular physics done, I'm your man. As to my other skills, I'm a programmer (though I know of at least two on the forum who are more talented) and have a medium-industrial sewing machine back home with which I can put together a decent patch / stash bag / whatever, though I'm not a certified rigger.

We have a local 111-foot S that a couple of guys have jumped, usually static line. Those jumps would be best described as about three seconds from exit to landing, with the canopy very nearly flying (ie, just pressurized) when the jumper lands. One of said guys tarded the thing once. My understanding, though I wasn't there, is that he not only had a several seconds to fly, but that he had the time and maneuverability to correct the 90 left he'd gotten toward an icy-cold river. ... Though, if I recall correctly, he didn't do a great job of it.

Am I missing something on the website, or does Apex not offer a velcro-closed container?

For the record, I'm an exception to this. I totally rule.

Plus, being from "the big smoke", I assume he's used to not being able to see the sky. So he's got that going for him!