980

while there may be some objects with particularly scary climb downs, this is simply NOT TRUE for the vast majority of basejumps it frequently takes better judgement to walk or climb down rather than to jump and most of those times the jumps would've been far scarier, a worse idea granted, but also far scarier your mileage will vary

make it 21-29 april and I'm there and someone invincible too...

as much free product and refrigerators as they can give - there's nothing quite like shaking at the exit point and not being sure if it's the overdose of caffeine or if you're scared... made 2 bridgedays very entertaining due to having all the free redbull you could drink!

The 99 for sure. Steep learning curve but if you survive it you’ll be ready.

No doubt. It’s meant to suggest that swooping your base canopy is fun and the Blackjack does it well. fixed it for you Every chance I get. Probably on at least 80% of my jumps so far. Indeed, but what is tight? Tombstone? Echo? Wall Street? I think those are all swp approved! dexterbase knows what I mean about the blackjack..

fixed it fr you!

Fair enough. What are your recommendations regarding the factors you mentioned to minimize (or even avoid?) PC hesitations? I am mostly interested in the stowed configuration. Thanks

Thanks for the replies everyone, especially Pascal and Lonnie. All my PCs are ZP. I posted to make sure I’m not missing anything about low temp jumps and it’s really interesting that two jumpers with lots of low temp jump experience have opposing views. Things like not packing a wet (think soaked) PC and leaving it to freeze in the BOC are pretty much common sense ( CUE some smartass here to say: ‘the problem with common sense is that it is not common” ). I know PCs will hesitate every now and then and I think this was just one of those times. The PC I used - 44” - ZP - 8 load tape spokes - 43 jumps - non-vented - cordura cap It’s gotten wet 2 or 3 times, but always allowed to dry before jumping it again. It’s made in Canada and has that attachment system that Tom A really likes (I now have an Asylum PC which I paid an extra $10 for a similar style of attachment, but I have to say that I still far prefer the Paratech attachment, in fact the Asylum one is harder to use and does not seem a fitting part of an Asylum PC, I will get my Asylum PCs with the standard attachment in the future). This PC uses a large hole mesh with a softer ‘hand’ than the large hole mesh on Asylum PCs (I’m not sure what the other manufacturers use). That said, I’m not putting any blame on the PC itself, IMHO Paratech PCs are extremely well designed and built and no more likely to hesitate than any other manufacturers similar PC. I jump them regularly and if you want to see one in action I used a 46 Paratech PC for the Tyrolean jump in Hecker’s FRASCA video (the black canopy, there’s 3 Tyrolean jumps in the video). I’ve had scary hesitations on Asylum PCs too. I bet if I buy a Morpheus, APEX or any other BASE PC and jump it; it will also hesitate sooner or later. It’s just the nature of the beast.

Hey If you’re going to TF in late April and you’re interested in sharing a car from (and back to) Boise Airport, PM me. thanks sam

In light of a recent experience: I'm wondering if anyone, who has much experience with cold weather jumps (I'm thinking around -18 Celsius = -1 Fahrenheit ), has noticed more frequent PC hesitations (when stowed) or just occasionally some really scary ones? this specific jump was 430ft using a 44" PC stowed and about a 1.5 sec delay but I'm thinking mostly about slider off/down jumps

If you cannot see the value in having more skydiving experience to start BASE, you do not have enough skydiving experience yet. it's that simple

if you have a canopy ride longer than 2 seconds you're a dirty high puller!

I don't think you want to pay the high sticker price on one of these. They might update the GPS display every second, but the best they do on recording intervals for data (GPS and barometric altimeter) is 10 seconds. I think that's quite a long interval, even for skydiving, especially at that price point you can get a GPS with barometric alti that will record data in 1 second intervals or less. cya sam

I’m not sure what you’re trying to say, except that you feel like a Steinway Grand whenever you exit a Skyvan???

Kinda reminds me of my 2nd or 3rd jump on a V?. The plan was for me to exit and try to make the suit haul ass as much as possible. A PF(C)I (with many more jumps on a S? than I have in total) was going to exit just after me, in his S? and get video of this. I got slightly ahead on exit and didn’t see him again ‘til after landing, when he said that he got the exit, but then I just took off and he wasn’t going to spend the whole skydive chasing me in a V? with his S?, whereas he might have in his V?. There’s no doubt that he’s the better WS pilot, so I think this does say something about where he pegs the performance of the V? compared to the S?. I think what we need to do is have a massive showdown at Z-Flock. Talk all you want in here about how whoop-ass your wondersuit is, then bring it to Z-Flock and support your fancy talk with some fancy flying. We ALL might even have a little bit of fun in the process…. cya sam

Do you really think that's what he did? Maggot got very over-enthusiastic and made a bad judgement call which compounded some gear selection and set-up errors. He certainly never meant any harm and had no intentional disregard for Jimmy or Marta. He did in fact step it down a few notches from the previous few weeks at the Perrine, so I'm pretty sure he was not disregarding Jimmy's words of caution to the jumpers. He was just wrong on where to have drawn the line for sensible behaviour. The good news is that he is OK (and so is Marty and the other guy who got intimate with a rock wall, as far as I have heard). And also that he now realises his mistake and he has made a generous contribution to the Apex MOAB Rescue Fund (as has Marty) as part of making amends. If you want to talk about trust, realise the amount of trust you are putting in someone when you entrust your physically-challenged friend to them for an FJC. As for the comment to Nitro, well that's obviously a joke and just Maggot's sense of humour. Sorry for the rant, I'm a little tired of hearing people rag on Maggot for the wrong reasons. I'm OK with people calling him a dumbass for getting himself into that situation. I'm not OK with people saying or implying he wilfully acted with disregard for Jimmy and Marta or any jumper or person at Moab, because that's just not the truth. and that's all I have to say about that cya sam

No dude, it’s an entirely legitimate step in the process of learning to jump and freefall low objects. Step 1: Static line or PCA - if you are comfortable to have less canopy time, be open lower, have more variation in both, greater chance of an offheading and a risk of pilot chute hesitation, go to the next step. Step 2: Freefall Assist - if you are comfortable to have less canopy time, be open lower, have more variation in both, greater chance of an offheading and a higher risk of pilot chute hesitation, go to the next step. Step 3: Handheld Freefall - if you are comfortable to have less canopy time, be open lower, have more variation in both, greater chance of an offheading and a higher risk of pilot chute hesitation, go to the next step. Step 4: Stowed Freefall - scrutinize your reasoning well if you get to this step, the longer delay you take the less variation you can expect in canopy time, opening height, heading performance and pilot chute hesitation – BUT the smaller the window of opportunity becomes for PC location, pitch, canopy opening, canopy flight and landing. Freefall low enough and the normal variation in these processes can easily put you outside those windows of opportunity, which means if you keep doing this it’s really just a matter of time. It nicely gives you a taste of what to expect going handheld with less risk. AND it’s fun surprise for your friends on the right jumps! And then there’s the times when your friends are too sketched by the height to go stowed, too sketched by the exit to go handheld, too sketched by the dish 60ft below to go PCA…. I wasn’t about to climb down 60ft and PCA him from the dish platform, so we agreed on a Freefall Assist and it all worked out nicely. I won’t name any names, but I will say that I saw him giving ‘the signal’ and screaming something that sounded like ‘derka derka’….. come to think of it, I do recall laughing at him the whole way...

fuel to the fire - see the attachment disclaimer - the chart is based on using the correct set-up for the deployment type chosen

Your example is flawed too, since a reserve deploys from a freebag and a BASE canopy has the pilotchute connected directly to it via the bridle. Therefore a reserve canopy can only be pulled to linestretch by as much force as the freebag locking stows allow, exert more pull on the freebag than that and you will strip it off the reserve before linestretch. Exert enough force on the freebag and you can strip it off the reserve without removing the reserve from the container, as per this: bag strip But that was accounted for in the skyhook design as discussed in the linked thread. Think about it.

coco makes some good points please be careful and research everything you do really well

I don't disagree with you that I had to slow the forward speed a bit (brakes on) to match the 40, but I do disagree that it was 'deep brakes' I normally have to slow my forward speed down way more in the average flock than I had to with the 40 brakes, yes. deep brakes? not even close

I’d like to know where you are getting the information you based that statement on. In my very limited wingsuit-canopy-relative-work experience that is not true. I’m not talking 21 square foot canopy either, I’m talking 40 square foot canopy with no weights. My two jump-tickets’ worth..

All good points, Tom and having seen your packing method, I agree that your statements are true for you. Maybe when I have the number of jumps you do I will feel the same way. At the moment I find my clamp-less pack jobs quite acceptable and easier than learning to use and living with the hassle of lugging around a load of packing tools. You did not mention that your method minimizes jumper/canopy contact, which has been identified as the biggest wear factor for most BASE canopies (this is dependant on how you use, pack and care for your canopy, not the canopy make or model). That is probably the best reason to use your style of pack job. But since I’m planning on replacing my BASE canopies well before they are worn significantly, this is not enough to make me adopt your style of packing. Cya sam

I don’t pack with clamps, I never have and I don’t see any reason to start doing so unless I start getting serial linetwist-offheadings-with-lineovers that are directly attributable to packing without clamps. The dissolvable clamps sound just like the kind of thing that I should buy my ‘friends’ for Christmas, do I get discount for having a T-Stake? George however was taught to pack with clamps and it took a lot of convincing to get him to pack without them. He seemed notably relieved that he did not get the opportunity to jump his no-clamp pack job, so I thought he’d like to know that it opened good.

I jumped. It worked. I lived! even had an on-heading opening with a 2.5 sec delay I would've liked more altitude, but my buddy seemed perfectly happy to only climb to 550 ft. thanks for the packjob!!