RiggerLee

You pack on the sea ice. Just throw a tarp out. For the most part it's not a problem. There are some areas where the snow is very soft. Where water has formed on top of the ice below the snow and eroaded it from below. Basicly quick sand. Even then if you can pack at "night" it's often cool enough for the crust to suport you so you don't sink in. Totaly lost the weather gamble last year. About every six years they have a year like that where it just never seems to stop snowing. I don't know the mecanisem. Sounds like an El nino kind of thing. Basicly I'd have nice weather, get a jump then it would turn nasty. I'd pack up and head for another cliff along the way it would get nice but I'd just be out on the ice. I get to The Prow and the weather turns bad again and I'm stuck for a week waiting. Nice Day and I get a jump then the wind picks up So I start humping. Of course then the weather gets nice again. I get into the pass across Remote and I get stuck in this nasty ground fog. I could see up at the sky but not the mountians on eather side and only about thirty feet on the ground. So I was trying to navagate "IFR" by the angle of the sun. The whole time expecting to see a bear charge from out side the range of my vision. They love bad weather and hunt by sound and smell. It got bad enough that I was stuck there for a couple of days. Then just as I get to the end of the pass to Hangover Hill I get cought in a storm for about a week. Did I mention that a bear got into I cash I droped off on the way out? So for the last four weeks I was on 1/4 rations. Damn bears. Ate every thing but the hot chocolate. Thank god for Swiss Miss. Storm sucked then it was perfect, dead calm and blue skys. Pulled the rest of the way to the cliff took a knap and started climbing. There was a lot of snow droped by the last storm. Slow going. I got to the top and the weather was still nice but you could see some wind in the clouds. Did some rock drops and geared up. As I did the wind started to pick up. Still not bad. I mean it's a big wall with a seven mile wide landing area. So I was playing the lul game for a while. Got I nice lul and decided to go. This is when I triped and fell right on my face on the edge. You got to see the video. Be advised the camera from which you can see the edge was on my hip not my head. Just about gave my self a heart attack. The wind is still not real bad maybe 15 but the landing area is huge and you can open high and fly well away from the wall. So I talked my self into going, did not want to walk dow. This is the Famous jump number three. Short delay. Flew away from the wall at about 1000ft I hit the shear layer. Bad turbulance. The wind was NOT blowing above me and comeing down. It was blowing down in the bottom and comeing up. The gust were pulling the canopy over side ways level with my body in flight. For the record that big Flick that Jimmy was kind enough to loan me for the trip never once folded up. That was a very nice canopy. There were a lot of things I liked about it but I will not degress on to that subject right now. I got just as far away from that cliff as that canopy would take me, nice glide by the way, before turning into the wind. Backing up faster then I normally fly forwards. Canopy touched down just fine then the ride began. I really really wish I'd taken the time to build three rings for that rig. I started hauling in on a break line till the cascade jammed in the ring. Wrapped the line around my boot and used it to pull the line down till it poped through and I could climb up and get ahold of the tail. It didn't stop dragging me till I was pulled ontop of the canopy. The canopy was so big, 265, and the lines so short that half the canopy was still at line stretch and that alone was enough to drag me. You got to see the Video. I was tempted to let it go for a while it was actually takeing me towards my camp. but the consiquences of hitting a stray jaggad peice of ice sticking up out of the snow were just two scary. I'm guessing the drag line was 150-200 yards as it was. When I looked back it went further then I could see. Best guess was stedy 50 mph with gust pushing 70mph. I got back to my tent. I put it up where it was some what sheltered behind a point but there was also a glacier there and some times the wind would come down of that and try to flatten the tent. I spent the next couple of days in it as every thing melted around me. It was a warm wind blowing down off the land and all the snow was melting around me into a lake on the ice. I lost most of my ankers and had to pull the pole from the vestibule. In the end I was just tied into a couple of ice screws. Wish I had a few more with me. Never leave home with out them. In the end all was fine. The north face Mountian tent held togather and came through with flying colors. A calm sunny day melted what little snow remained and between the sun and the wind most of the watter was cleared off the ice. It was a nice cool night and most of what remained refroze. Illko came by and picked me up around three AM and we headed back to Clyde. So ends the third great saga of northen exploreation. Sorry didn't mean the answer to be so long. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I put down payment on a 50 cal. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Just a little porn to get your juices flowing. Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Ok, it’s that time again. Time to think about Baffin. So this is it. Who’s down for a trip this spring. Dates are still flexible. My schedule is probable more flexible then most. We’re looking at a three to four week trip. Less is almost a waist. I’d be down for six again if every one else can make it. If your set up and ready to go I’d budget $5,000.00 US dollars. One thing I’d like to push for is good video. I’d like to do the whole trip in HD. You might want to look at the Sony HC3. The place is so spectacular, Just trust me it’s worth it. For the record I invested in two HC1. For me this is my fourth trip up there. Straight up, this is not for every one. If you are up for a trip like this and are seriously ready to commit both time and money then I’ll be happy to entertain all of your questions. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

A Keltec how cute. They're fun little toys but they just don't cut it up north. If you want to come to Baffin this year you will have to buy a real gun and figure out a way to jump it. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Will it hold my 50 cal guide gun? http://www.wildwestguns.com/CoPilot_And_Guide_Rifles/body_copilot_and_guide_rifles.html Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I hate to say it but I amost find my self sideing with Magot on this. I've built a number of designs with new harnesses, hiden rigs, all the way to very scary back pack/rigs. I've tested them all off objects. I mean you wouldn't wont the sport to become too boring. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

34 12 or 13 I don't remember Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I met a base jumper once. I had a chance to take a look at his gear and thought it was pretty interesting. I wanted to learn more so I built my self a rig from memory. I did get some one to help me pack it the first time. Does that count? After that I was on my own. I was out jumping A's all over the place. I'm trying to remember but I think the first time I ever had some one to jump with me was a guy I took for his first base jump. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Telling them to read the list is'nt really about instruction. It's part of a reality check they need make in there decision to get involved in base. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

The way you teach some one to do something is by showing them what they should do. For the most part it is a bad idea to use negative examples in primary instruction. There is too great a danger of confusing the issue. However as time goes on people need to be aware of the errors of the past. We have a very high turn over rate in skydiving and base jumping. Average life span of a skydiver is only about five years. I don’t have a number for base. I can tell you that the last boogie I went to in Moab had a Lot of new faces. I could count the people I knew on the fingers of one hand. Any one that’s been in the sport long enough has watched one or more generations try to reinvent the wheel. There are plenty of things that do not seem unreasonable on the surface. I love getting a hold of a new rig or peace of gear that some one has built. It’s not unusual to find small and some times large mistakes. If we don’t remember and pass on these little details then yet another generation will have to go through a rather painful learning curve. If you doubt this just wait. Sooner or later some one will try to explain to you why you should use the break mod slider up so that your canopy will fly the same as you are used to slider down or some other silliness. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I think you would find that it’s the type of sky diving as much as any thing else. Some skills translate others are ether irrelevant or even a hindrance. It can be very amusing to watch a hot shit canopy pilot who had a saber for a student canopy, who’s first rig was at 1.2 to one and only got smaller from there, and has made his last thousand jumps on a cross brace. I’ve watched these people bust their ass trying to fly a big slow seven cell. All of their motor skills are wrong. Their judgment is off. They will box them selves into a corner with turn rate, turn radius. They’ll stall it trying to sink it in. It’s always worth a show. Free fall skills are rather different from exit skills. I love going on balloon jumps to watch them all shit them selves and squeal like a little pig as they tumble from the basket. It’s great watching them paw the air and kick like a student. This doesn’t even begin to touch on any of the “BASE” specific skills that they will need to learn over time as they go on in the sport. Hell I’m still learning. Right now I’m working on my marksmanship with a big bore rifle. Who would have thought that that would be a “BASE” skill? Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I love it. Every time you post you seam to have an even scarier idea. You remind me of my self some times. You may have trouble even doing a d-bag. The line attachment points really do suck on those things. It may not like the shock loading. Eaven just falling to line streatch might blow them. I have seen the video of roll overs but I think the swinging motion saved him a lot of the shock. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

It’s an absolutely classic Quincy story. I used to work there in the rigging tailor with Wag. You wouldn’t believe the cross section of rigging we would see come through there every year. The stuff from out side the U.S. was always the best. This guy was from Guatemala. Showed up with a bunch of his buddies wanting repacks. Normally they just all get together one night over stakes and a case of beer and try to figure it out for them selves. They were very… creative. I did the Reflex, it had a fixed loop of hand tied type 2a and, I think it was Allen, did the Mirage. Nice brand new G2 but the damn thing had an SOS in it. I will take a moment and describe for the benefit of those not Fermi lure with this fine example of state of the art aeronautical engineering. Five cells. Aspect ratio, 1.25. That’s square plus one. By the time it inflated it was square. A, B, and C lines. No D lines. No cross ports. Cross ports? What are those? The break lines do not go through the rings on the riser. They stow to the rapid link by chain linking and tack to the riser. There is a small peace of type twelve with a grommet to act as a keeper for the toggle. It loops on the Rapped link. It appears to be a direct and exact copy of the original Unit. The frogs copied every thing but I digress. Let us simply say that it was a thing of beauty and the envy of all that saw it. Oh, by the way he had it hooked up all wrong with risers crossed and lines looped around every thing and back to the link. So we got it hooked up straight, line checked and repacked and Allen got the honor of signing it. Boy am I glad I got stuck with the Reflex, and I thought I’d lost the flip. And he goes off happy as can be. Skip ahead two days. There is a banging on the back door of the trailer. Wag calls for them to come in. Bangs some more. Wag curses there def ass, they must be def not to hear him bellow, and rips the door open. There he is the poor Guatemalan with his reserve in his arms, soaking wet, covered in mud, and his hair, jump suit and canopy are covered in green seaweed. His appearance was rather shell shocked. He says, “I have a problem.” as he holds the dripping mass up to Wag. Wag, “No shit you have a problem. Don’t bring it in here!” First we hosed him down with a hose out back, couldn’t really get any worse and we need to get the worst of the mud and sea weed off him and his “gear”. Then we had him drop all his shit in the back of a box truck out back. We hung it up there so It could start to dry. We wouldn’t even let him bring it in yet. Only then would we let him come in. That’s when we started to get the story. I’m trying to remember the exact details. He was on a sit dive. I don’t recall if he had a premature on the reserve or could not find his pilot chute, stuffed in the pocket. Either way it was a high speed deployment on the reserve. The chain link on the right side blew on opening. The load then went to the T 12 tab which then broke. That side of the tail went all the way up and the right side of the canopy surged forward running over its leading edge folding under that side of the canopy. With no cross port the canopy could not reinflate. Three cells rolled under, there are only five, and the toggle on the other side could not control the spin. With out D lines pulling the right riser did not have enough authority to reinflate that side especially with the violence of the spin which by now was almost a streamer; his body could not keep up. So he goes in under less then half of what would have been a POS even if it was fully inflated and would have been hard pressed to land him anyways. Quincy, Corn fields and hard ground as far as the eye can see. He lands in the one small pond that is in the middle of this farmer’s corn field. The only possible place he could have survived. He planted in the mud and weeds in the bottom of the middle of the pond. He gets back to the surface some how manages to make it to the edge and crawl out of the pond. I don’t know how long he walked around in those fields before he made his way back to the airport. He just wondered in and walked up across the field to our back door. When I saw him he was still wearing his rig, the canopy was in a dripping pile in his arms and the lines were dragging behind him. I have no clue how far he walked. When we finally got the story out of him he was still looking rather shell shocked and staring at things like a zombie. I gave the poor guy the best advice I had. I told him to first: Go take a shower. Do not remove your jump suit just start with it on. Second: Go to the big tent and get very, very drunk. Third: when you do wake up tomorrow, plan on sleeping in see step two, come see us in the afternoon and we will talk about getting you a brand new canopy. We have a Raven with your name on it. The last I saw of him that evening he was following my advice to the letter. He did come in the next day and we did sell him that Raven. I have to say that as bleary eyed as he was, even in the afternoon he was still suffering the after effects of step two, he still look better and was more coherent then the day before. And that’s all I know about SOS’s. The story ran long and I’m sorry but you asked for it so there it is. I just could not bring myself condense it any more it’s one of my favorites. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Shit, you have an SOS? Burn it and save a life, perhaps even your own. Lee Yes, there is a story there. Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

What do you mean? Modern rigs able to withstand high-speed dives? We’ve had a number of canopy failures on different designs. We’ve broken lines, blown tapes, blown up cells, that doesn’t even address opening shock. At our drop zone alone we have had two deaths where deceleration injuries are suspected. Most of the designs on the market date back to well before free flying became popular. Booths rig, the “Wonder Hog” now called the Vector 3, which has been altered till it bears absolutely no resemblance to the original design is rated as high as any thing as it happens to date back to “B” standard category. The Mirage “touted and marketed as the “modern” high speed free fly rig, on the other hand dates back to the “Rapped Transit” if I recall. It was in the Low Speed category and is technically illegal and unairworthy above 150 mph. Those are just quirks of their history. Never the less the reality is that we are up against the wall on the limitations of the equipment. We are blowing up canopies. We are killing people with the deceleration. We have damaged harnesses. Was it a racer that lost a chest strap? I’ve seen Javelin hip junctions shear their threads. We’ve bent rings at the hips. And that one in… Russia just came apart. Ok, it was Russia but still no one seems to grasp that there are real limitations to this gear. We turn over a generation about every five years. Most of the people out there have never herd of all the problems we’ve had in the past. They seem all surprised when some thing fails. They want to believe that their gear is infallible that nothing can go wrong. They seem to need that to be able to skydive. And don’t worry they’re safe because they have a cypress, totally different subject. What I’m saying is this leads them to blatantly flaunt the real limitations of there gear. Exit weight, air speeds, all the way down to how many people they can float on the plane. How many more people are we going to have to kill before people will start jumping decent size reserves? Will I ever again see a rig with a properly sized container? I could strangle some of the dealers that sell this shit with canopies two sizes too big. When are we going to get a new generation of reserves that can handle higher speed openings? They can’t even seem to do it with the mains. What’s the hope of them relaxing the low speed deployment requirements? Low cutaways don’t seem to be the killer they once were. If we don’t do something about some of these problems some one else, the FAA, might. They found the fact that Mary Ann was over the recommended max on her canopy very interesting. All they would have to do is begin to enforce the laws that are already there. If a fed were to walk out in to the landing area and pull the cards on an otter full of people at your DZ. How many would be legal, especially when you facture in all the new experience, and elevation restrictions. How many of the reserves you pack are actually on the compatibility chart? Or are you at a DZ where sanity still rains? Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I see a lot of people who learn to pack reserves. They tend to be lost beyond that. Whenever they take on a more challenging project the results tend to vary between amusing and terrifying. Sewing, repair, materials, standards of construction, but more then that the reasoning of why and the purpose behind these things. On any subject off the beaten path they are lost in the woods not simply because they do not know the answer but because they cannot extrapolate from a greater fundamental understanding. If you really want to address some of the scariness in the sport… as a dpre could you hold a rigging coarse out side the U.S.? The scariest shit I’ve seen has been from over seas. There are plenty of countries where they jump that there are no riggers, none. I’ll bet they would all get together and fly you down there. I know it’s not the norm but could a foreigner actually be issued a license? Could you get away with calling a U.S. tso’ed rig a “U.S. registered aircraft”? Even if it were informal it would be an improvement over some of the shit I’ve watched them drag in over the years. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I have no idea what they are saying so I'm trying to understand the pic. Does the front riser come down and wrap around the hip ring and go back up and terminate before it goes through the main 4 point? Does the rear turn back up to become the loop for the RW-1? Where is the diaganal from the back? Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

No. I do have another book by the same name but it's just a colection of exerts by Clint willis. Good for finding other books you might like to read. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Here's another. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Sorry to be slow. Didn't work the first time. Let's try again. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

I said tiger and you're still cheating. Good try thoue. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Who else has been chased by big things with teeth? I'll post a bounty for the first person to post a picture of them selves being chased by a Bengal tiger as they run with their base rig. Stash bag to the winner. No photo shop. In fact, a stash bag to any one that caries a bigger rife then me when jumping base. 3 1/2 in twelve gage but I have a 50 cal on the way for next year. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Sorry, I don't have the pic on this computer right now but I'll try to post some of my own bear pics later. I think this is the best thread I've seen for a while. Who else has some to share? Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com

Your video made it across the ocean and showed up here at the shop to day. Nice. When I was bumming around Europe I was having so much fun in Switzerland that I never made it down south into Italy. I so missed out. I’ll have to come visit you one of these days. Thanks for the vid we all got a kick out of it. Lee Lee lee@velocitysportswear.com www.velocitysportswear.com