rendezvous

last evening my buddy and I went up an 'A' that is 315 ft high. The winds on the ground were not more than 0-4mph. At 100ft it was still about 4mph but past 200ft it started picking up. At the top it was probably in the 18-20mph range. The landing area on this jump is huge enough not be to an issue. If we had jumped we would have had the winds coming from directly behind us hence pushing us away from the 'A'. We were going to do a 1 sec delay, hand held, tail gate, slider down, 47"PC. Our concern centered more around the effect of 18-20mph winds on the pilot chute throw, the pack job extraction on opening, canopy inflation, turbulance due to wind shear around 200 ft where the winds seemed to start picking up. Since we were not certain about the impact of such a wind condition we decided to climb down and try and get a better understanding of it first. I would love to hear from the more experienced on the affect of 18mph winds on such a jump. Is 18mph considered strong, border line or not a concern for an 'A' (it was coming from the right direction) Again, the landing area is a big open field so being carried out over it due to the strong wind wouldn't be much of an issue.

That would be awesome actually.

Thanks. It'll be on it's way.

Hi Mike, It was a pleasure meeting you and hearing you talk about your experience. I do regret that I couldn't find you to autograph my picture. Could I mail it to you to sign and send back to me? I guess guys like me have only seen one end of BASE, it's current form. You are actually part of it's history and I think that should make you mighty proud. Hope to see you again at BD 06 Regards Ankur

For me I don't think there is any well defined reason to why I BASE. I think my reason varies from jump to jump and from day to day. It's different from what it was when I started to what it is now. However what remains consistent is that it's a challenge and a lot of fun.

Thanks

I'm looking for the website of the photographer for BD 2005. The folks who were selling all the 8x10s at the Holiday Inn.

Couple of months back, four people in the Car and I was the only one who noticed a 500 or so feet 'A' and smiled.

If it helps, it took me some 50 odd jumps to get past the frustration of packing. Right when I began I thought I'll never be able to figure out packing, specially getting the canopy in the D-Bag. It took quite a bit of practice and missing loads to get there. I'd say, stick to one packing method or technique and keep at it for a while before you try to refine the process with something else. Sometimes trying too many things just adds to the frustration since most of the tips and techniques themselves have a learning curve. And yes, understanding your gear goes a long way.

... and I thought BASE stood for Building Antennae Span and Earth !

Awesome ! dude ! ... keep it going.

Doing solos in Skydiving and saying you can Skydive is quite a bit the same as saying you play golf because you can make shots at the driving range. May be in Skydiving it'll qualify as a bit more glamouress than standing at a driving range but that's about it. Everything else that is the sport of Skydiving invovles a much higer risk than solos. As difficult as AFF may seem to you now you will realize later that the act of Skydiving is actually really easy. Anyone with a desire can learn to do it. The Sport of Skydiving on the other hand needs a lot of Skill. That's where the actual challenge is and in this sport where there is challenge there is risk. Point being, if you get into Skydiving you can't really keep yourself sheltered from risk. What you can do is better manage it and you do that though proper training, proper gear, sound judgement, experience, patience, committment, effort, luck, MONEY !, time ... the list is endless. If you feel safe and comfortable at any point in your Skydiving progression it doen't mean the risk has been done away with. It's very much there. It's just that you are probably better equipped to deal with it and hence more comfortable with it. There are also those who are stupid enough not to realize it, even they feel quite comfortable but those kind are another story. Anyway, when your ability to define your risk and your discpline to manage it strays from your act of taking the risk then you have a problem. Incidences at higer experience levels are not so much a result of the absolute risk being higher. They occur due to a chink in your ability to manage what you are taking on. Causes can be, complacency, indiscpline, boredom, image building and many more. You don't have to stay on solos to keep yourself safe. As long as you can manage your risk you can take more and be relatively safe. To confuse matters more, to an extent you have to take a little more risk to learn enough to manage what you already have on your plate. By this logic, just because you chose not to push yourself further doesn't mean you have gotten safe and will remain so. It's all relative

If you are trying to speed up the opening, talk to the manufacturer first. If they don't recommend it, DON'T try it. Delaying an opening is one thing, trying to speed it up can get out of hand and be very dangerous.

Speak to your instructor about this. He's seen you so he knows better. That said: You height of 5'5" is nothing unusual so you should get sufficient flare. The problem is probably in that you may not be flaring enough, and that is where your instructor comes in. He can see what you are upto so talk to him first. Going by your previous post's and the little that I know, you seem to have been landing on your butt. Your instructor was probably trying to remind you that you need to land on your legs. Again, talk to your instructor about how deep should you take the flare stroke, and then do some drills at home that emulate flaring, to build muscle memory.

I know of one bldg. that might match the description. PMing you.

DUDE ! CONGRATULATIONS ! ... It doesn't matter if you have to repeat the level again. Just the fact that you got back and enjoyed it is what it's all about. That's the biggest challege of it all. Relax, have fun and you will pull too. According to a research somewhere, a skydiver's anxiety is at it's highest at the time of exit and at pull time. As counter intutive as it may sound,'to relax' is the key. Good to know that you tried to stand up your landing. Again, it takes a while so don't worry if you roll around in the dirt initially. Ask your instructor how he can help you better time your flare and work with him on it. Again, it's something that will take a couple of jumps. A lot more people than you can imagine have issues with depth perception when it comes to timing their flare. It takes practice. Understanding canopy control is the most important. A skydive isn't over until you can walk away from it, and you can't walk away until you have landed safely. Continue to have Fun ! with your jumps, find a way to relax, and you'll make it.

Research is a good thing. Canopies, main or reserve, normally want to open. There are a lot of other contributing factors such as loss of altitude awareness, bad body position, badly maintained gear etc that tend to make the equation tilt against you. Since a reserve is packed by a rigger chances are you have a well inspected reserve packed neatly. This increases the success rate of a reserve deployment. However factors such as two canopies out etc will still influence how cleanly a reserve deploys. Point being, canopies will try and open but there success depends on the quality of the environment they are operating in, the condition of the gear, and your ability to deal with a stressful situation. At terminal you are doing about a 1000ft every 5.5 sec. If your hard deck is 1500 you have 2000ft for decision and action before you hit your hard deck. That gives you about 11 sec. Ofcourse, if you still don't have a canopy as you go through your hard deck, you have an additional 5 odd sec but every second there after will reduce your margin of safety exponentially. That is because if you open 100 ft above the ground and fly into powerlines you haven't really solved the problem yet.

But to me right now, I really get frustrated repeating levels just becuase I have to spend again to clear that level. The day when I can do jumps for 18$ keeps going away and away so much unlike the plan. D.) RISK: Skydiving comes with two types of challenges, skill and risk. Keep in mind it's a package. If you don't like risk, it not worth pursuing it as a challenge. It can hurt or kill you. Be sure that you enjoy risk.When things get shitty make sure you will want to be there to fix it because like it or not, you will be there. You may want a good challenge but be certain you are ok with risk being in the package. F.) Think of all of the above in your down time, and if you still miss it and want it, get your ass back in the Sky

12 jumps, 2 Objects (S)

I agree. Missed that altogether considering I was recently there

I decided to give it a short first by attending BD too. I think, if you have thought it through, and are certain about wanting to try it out, BD is where you should take a shot at it. It's the safest way (relative to regular BASE ) to find out first hand the "differences/transitions" ... Anyway, listen to what the experienced folks here have to say about it, not me.

If your father has brought up a family that loves him, as is evident, then I would differ on what you percieve weak to be. Of course I don't know your father or your family but I do think It's not easy to keep a family together. As for risk, well, the perception and propensity for risk is very personal. It takes a lot more committment and courage to raise a family and see it through, than it does to Skydive. You think Skydiving is scary, think of the responsibilities that go with bringing up kids. Being a skydiver has little to do with being well rounded and brave. I know Skydivers who are immature, reckless and have a horrible attitude. I wouldn't want to be caught anywhere near them. I also know Skydivers who have amazing character, the kind you can't stop admiring. The major thing that distinguishes the two is that the later are as comfortable with themselves being Skydivers as they are not being so. What you are is not defined by the sport you play. You play a certain sport because of what you are. If you try and flip the equation you'll never be satisfied either with yourself or with what you do. Skydive if you want to do it for your own pleasure. If it makes someone proud as a result, let that be a secondary outcome. There are safer and better ways of proving that you have strength, courage and conviction. Risking your life and well being for it is not the way to do it. As much as I would love to join others in saying hang in there and you'll make it, I have to differ. Stay with it only if you want to be part of the sport for it's experiences and whatever else it has to offer to you. If you don't se much value in it other than it gives you a certain image to stand by, don't Skydive or you will get hurt and that won't prove any thing.

Time to head out to the tunnel

Later, one of the jumpers present said, "It was a moment that sent chills down everyone's spine." Quote Still does the same with my spine

I'm a bit confused here with the 'Old ABP' and 'New ABP' now. Does my membership to the 'Old ABP' and the money that I paid for it translate to anything or am I to consider it null and void and forget it ever happened. Is this, 'New ABP' going to be more like a private, exclusive and by invitation only club with it's own agenda for fair access or is there more to it.