Macaulay

Here's an idea for pre-wingsuit people like myself. Birdman recommended that you do a tracking dive once before your maiden flight, and that gave me the idea to do drill dives. Basically, go on tracking dives that mimic what you would do in a wingsuit. Go out last. Get out from inside the plane, chest into the wind, with arms at your sides and legs together. Once you clear the plane, get your arms and legs out all together, simultaneously, as you would with a wingsuit, and fly 90° from (perpendicular to) the jump run. About half of the freefall (not the total altitude) down (or when you're out far enough, but not too far... use your judgement), turn 90° back to the DZ, parallel to jump run. Use your legs to "wave-off" by clicking your heels three times and keeping your feet together on the third click. Bring your arms down to your sides, and when pitch your pilot chute, bring your arms out symmetrically. I did five of these drill dives on Wednesday, and will be doing more, similar tracking dives this weekend (even though they just started on my suit). I've been deploying in a full track, to get an idea of what openings will be like. I also threw in some bad body positions in the track, and on opening, to present some potential problems I might have to deal with in a wingsuit. It isn't exactly the same, but it's better than no practice at all. Know the wind direction up top and stay away from your fellow jumpers. Blue skies and safe skydives. - Mac

Do you ever get out to Skydive Oregon? Three jumpers just ordered a wingsuit to share, and I ordered one for myself (both GTis). Don't know if he's a BM-I, but Dwayne is a very current and experienced skyflyer with close ties to Birdman, and he will be giving us coached jumps. There's also a lot you can learn just from talking to a guy like him and then doing drills. - Mac

Haven't received mine yet, but all the measurements were done in clothing I'd wear under the suit, adding ½" to the wrist to allow room for the altimeter's strap. So hopefully it will all come out nicely. - Mac

Just ordered an atmotex GTi with BalloonZP wings. BalloonZP is lighter and supposedly wears more easily. Living in the Northwest, where some skydives happen at well below freezing temperatures for much of the year, I went with the thicker Atmotex. - Mac

$12.99 seems about right... for CReW. M]

Admittedly, I've been considering gambling as a secondary income. You seem to have better luck with it then I've had. - Mac

Holy shit! Pregnant from a threesome at work? If it's a girl, she'll definitely end up being a stripper. - Mac

John Rivers, someone who is out there selling emergency building escape parachutes, is scheduled to be on Howard Stern tomorrow. Give it a listen. I'm very anti-EBEP (as far as whuffos go). I'm going to try to call in, but it's tough to do from the west coast due to broadcast delays. SOMEONE needs to call in and make the points that we've discussed on here. If not, people might start getting these things, and bad will happen because of it. - Mac

To the Elsinorians, and particularly to Grasshopper and Gia, I'll be at Elsinore all day on Saturday, November 24, 2001. That is, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. My brother will be doing his third tandem. Now separated, I think he wants to go ahead and get into the sport (he's wanted to for years). I'm not sure how many jumps I have now, but it's a lot more than I had when I left. Hmmm... maybe I should log some... they like currency at drop zones. But who doesn't like currency, eh? What? Beer or tequila? - Macaulay (Steve) PS Beer outside the PNW is just not the same...

Exactly. - Mac

Everyone's put in their two cents on the subject. Being that we have a nice new, updated editorial/article on the home page, I bringing it up again, and putting in MY two cents. My vote was that the Emergency Building Escape Parachute was a bad idea. For me, it would be a good idea to keep a BASE rig at the office. I used to work in a high rise, and I did just that. But I have a few hundred skydives and climbing number of BASE jumps. However, I can't imagine a whuffo with a BASE rig, no matter how customized. BASE jumps, particularly buildings, are very difficult and require a lot of planning for even a seasoned BASE jumper. For a whuffo, a building jump would most likely mean death. I don't that even an experienced BASE jumper would have been able to determine wind direction on the ground on 9-11, as there aren't really any highly visible indicators. While an experienced BASE jumper can easily deal with a downwind or crosswind landing, does anyone think a whuffo could? The necessary reaction time is SO much higher in a BASE jump than a skydive. A whuffo loses it on a skydive when they have a minute of freefall and four minutes of canopy time. What could they possibly pull off in ten seconds? Canopy control is definitely something that requires experience and "feel". As docile as a good BASE-specific canopy is, they could still drive you into the ground hard with inaccurate toggle input. That is, if a whuffo could even get the toggles down in time. Jumping out of a building most-likely means that one would have a cement or blacktop landing area, which demands a pretty damn accurate landing. On top of that, what surrounds the base of a high rise could be considered more of an obstacle course than a landing area. Unfortunately, I saw video and photos of people jumping from the WTC. As shallow as it may seem, I couldn't help but notice body positions. Most people were actually facing the building, and were extremely unstable. This, to me, is an important observation when considering handing out BASE rigs. Launching and then flying for stability and separation are vital in a BASE jump. These are skills that are attained with years of experience. Relaxation and alertness play a key role in any type of jump. Need I say more about this? A whuffo in a burning building, wearing a very unfamiliar device, who's about to jump from what is, to them, a great height would be anything but relaxed. A wild idea, but let's say a business requires that all employees have one of these and learns to use them. An emergency comes up and everyone jumps. Traffic and off-heading openings would be chaotic. How many people would unnecessarily resort to the more dangerous BASE exit than the reliable standard methods for emergencies such as bomb threats, small fires, etc.? Although... it would be a good excuse to get away with a BASE jump (call in a bomb threat... as soon as it is announced, go for a rid). ;) Most buildings have windows that are nearly impossible to remove or penetrate, anyway. I'm not even sure how people got out of WTC windows... maybe those do open. Where I used to work, I know for sure that the window would not have been an option. I would recommend keeping a BASE rig at the office for BASE jumpers only. Even then, scoping out the building for a common wind direction, clear landing area, and establishing a route down to the ground would be recommended, as well as a lot of experience on your rig, and with BASE in general. I've also seen a lot of the gear that's being put out there, and it's frightening what people are buying (OLD surplus rounds that would require a PLF into concrete!). Precision's system was the most practical that I've seen, but being that a lot of skydiving and BASE experiencing would be required to pull off a proper exit, a Perigree/Reaktor/Mojo/Fox solution would be much better. And packing... how does that work with these? Scary... Did I say I was putting in my two cents? I seem to have emptied my account on the subject. - Mac PS Rain in the PNW was bad until I was turned on to the countless wonderful BASE sites in the area.

Ouch... well, I can't say you're doing a bad thing. IMO, it's always to put responsibilities such as those first. Finally having work, I'll be in the air a lot more, but not until I get some debts out of the way. Eight months of unemployment does that to ya. Once I'm saved up for a better rig, I'll be jumping my ass off. Mmmmm... Velocity 96... yes. Good luck with the house. - Macaulay

I wonder if the people on board realise that the "escorts" are actually there to shoot the plane down in the event it is hijacked? It's probably a good deterrent right now. - Macaulay

They're asking people all over the country to donate blood, yet flights are still shut down. Hmmmm... - Steve

HAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!! That BASE comment was frickin' hilarious. So I make light of everything. I even know some funny holocaust jokes. Big deal. Life goes on (at least for those who weren't on the WTC yesterday). No, I'm not stupid. Yes, I completely lack compassion for the thousands of strangers that died yesterday, and everyday of my life. - Macaulay

First of all, no one is dying in the picture. Secondly, this being the "worst" tragedy in the US is completely subjective. I think hundreds of thousands of Americans killing fellow Americans for years in the Civil War is a far greater tragedy. The Ku Klux Klan systematically murdering blacks for decades is right up there for me, too. Even then, I'd sooner laugh out loud than be offended by a joke about either one of these. And why is everyone so Americentric (new word)? This is nothing compared to the shit that goes on all over the world, and has been going for years. I really think people would lighten up if they realised how spoiled they were. - Macaulay

Good Lord... calm down. - Steve

Don't just track... track in the right direction. A new 'A' who went out ahead of me ended out right on top of me. I mean, RIGHT on top. Her snivel ended literally about fifteen directly above me. Apparantly, she had track at a 45° angle from the line of flight, as opposed to 90°. If you do any tracking (which I love to do (and sometimes need to do) at the bottom of just about every jump), track perpendicular to the line of flight, dammit. She got a talking to. - Steve

I just barely made it out. Why didn't anyone else think of this? (Click on link) http://www.djscifi.com/boards/wtcbase.jpg - Steve

Hank the Angry Dwarf is Dead.

They're dreaming of 29, but 39 will be their next step. However, it will still be Luigi's. He's scheduled to fly it at the end of this year. For quite some time now, using weights, he's matched the wing loading on his 46 that he would without weights on the 39. Everyone's excited about Luigi flying the 39 but him. Hmmm... wonder why? But you didn't hear it from me. - Not Macaulay

It depends on your gear, the way it's set up, and the experience level of the jumper. The interpretation of a "safe" BASE jump will vary from jumper to jumper. The gear needs to be tailored to the height, as well. 800 feet seems like a safe BASE jump, but if you give yourself a few seconds of freefall, and are equipped with a huge PC and a tailgate, you'll be hurtin'. BASE jumps have been safely made between over 5,000 feet and under 90. Actually, I've BASE jumped off of a chair. There wasn't even enough time for the shrivel flap to come off, but I landed OK. - Macaulay

I finally got a job, but I'm still waiting for a paycheck. I afforded a couple jumps yesterday, but I'm grounded until payday (Sep 20... ouch). My girlfriend does a good job of keeping me occupied while on the ground. Yesterday was absolutely beautiful. Perfect temperature, little clouds, and some weird wind blowing the opposite direction from what we are used to at Skydive Oregon. It was fun to swoop the hangar on the opposite end of the runway on which I normally land. A dozen or so of us went canopy hunting in a nearby cornfield after a chop. We found a handle and a main... no freebag. Messy, but fun. We came back, watched 'Crosswind' (beautiful, amazing film), drank, went to Mexican, came back, drank, got the fire going, drank, and then... it's fuzzy after that. I just sat around ALL day today. The irony of Labor Day is that you don't do any work. I did as little today as one could possibly imagine. Aaahhh. Great weekend. - Macaulay

You girls are sexist. Us guys are there to jump... not turn you on. Hmmm... echoes of the past. ;) - Macaulay

Let me know how the openings are. Leave the nose open, don't roll anything, and shove the slider way back and let me know if it hurts. ;) Just wondering if they fixed that problem from the original Sabre (and I love my Sabre 120... especially since I started Wolmari packing). I want it back... new lines and slider getting put on. No big deal... I don't have jump money right now, anyway. - Macaulay