tfelber

Carry it on...I've never had a problem. I have checked it twice without a problem, but I had to drink an awful lot on those flights to deal with the stress of possibly losing my gear. And people kept getting upset when I jumped up to look out the window when they were loading the luggage...

You've been black-balled from Moab... Oh wait I think that was eight-balled... FN painkillers are messin with my head...

The range finder gives you the distance from where it's at to the object it's pointing at. If you are som distance from the base of the object you will need to use the pathagorean theorem to calculate the actual height.

I've landed on rears, toggles still stowed three times this summer. It's not really a big deal. However, I'm jumping a flik and it really takes an intentional effort to stall, even on risers. Being able to land on rear risers gives you another set of controls when you need it for whatever reason. It's kind of the whole seat of the pants feel of flying without instruments, which is all canopy flying. You just get the feel and then you know. That said, I have seen some pretty good canopy pilots stall their reserves and land flat on their backs, so maybe I'm just flying canopies that perform predictably on rears. I've flown and landed my skydiving canopy on rears also. As for practicing, you don't have altitude to practice on a BASE jump. Leave that for skydiving. If your landing on rears on a BASE jump something went wrong and you need to be dealing with that, not doing practice flares. However, if your at the potato and doing intentional rear riser approaches that's another story and quite useful.

Congrats Chelle. I didn't even know you were expecting. My son Ayden Zane was born on April 3rd one day after my birthday. You're an Aries also, right?

I still skydive, but I don't do either fanactically. I jump for fun. If I make one jump and have a few beers or 4-5 jumps, it doesn't really matter. I even went out for a jump before BD and just watched. I had my 5yr old son with me, but people offered to watch him while I jumped. It's just not the center of my life. It is however still very enjoyable.

That's a great picture. I keep thinking about this and go through scenarios of how and why, but that picture says a lot. The PC pulls the pack job out downwind of the jumper. This induces a slight turn as the lines are pulled from the tail pocket. This turn has the nose pointing into the wind. The canopy opens nose first and you have your 90 off-heading. If the lines coming out of the pocket take a little more energy to clear the turn induced is greater and the nose is pointing further around. Now I'm not saying this is what happens, but from that particular picture it would be easy to create a theory similar to the above. Prior to seeing that picture I thought the opening into the wind was probably caused by the nose catching air.

Definitely depends on the object. If I'm comfortable with a possible off-heading, this is a short list of objects, I'd do it. But, I'm also a slider off or slider up kind of guy. I don't do slider down jumps.

My other foot's f'd up too. I didn't even know 'til I tried to walk on crutches in the hospital of horror.

Arrested, do you do illegal BASE jumps? My leg is good. As a matter of fact I went to the Dr today and not only are they not doing a second surgery, but they moved my able to walk on it date from 3 mos to possibly 1. I might be jumping by xmas!

I've put my rig on at the exit point with the PC laying on the ground several times. This is usually a HH jump using a large PC which I changed at the car just before the hike. My primary concern was snagging the PC and popping the pins. I also have a practice of ensuring the bridle is clear from my hand to the bottom pin prior to exit, but I can see how this could get me in some serious trouble if I were alone, in a hurry, or didn't check my bridle each jump.

Note I didn't say good regarding the list I said good regarding your efforts. I think these numbers really demonstrate how much it is appreciated and useful.

Hey Nick, Those poll numbers must make you feel pretty good regarding your efforts, eh? Tony

I use one large clamp on the crown of my pc clamped such that it is holding the top folds of the bridle in place while I stuff the rest of the PC material neatly into the BOC pouch. Not only do I count my tools while I put them away, I will definitely not miss a large clamp hanging off the apex of my PC when I check the feel prior to jumping, which I probably do atleast 10 times.

-The crack of a canopy opening is a great sound! -Releasing the toggles and letting it fly feels good.

Tom posted the incident report Nov 3rd at 7:10pm. This was done to possibly save lives of other jumpers who were about to make a jump with a pullup chord tied around their PC. For the most part incidents in BASE, and skydiving, for that matter need to be reported quickly to prevent similar accidents. Sully did not post until Nov 4th at 8:57pm. However, in case you haven't noticed from reading this thread, this bridge is quite valuable to us and anything that jeopardizes it or our acceptance in that community needs to be dealt with immediately. As for your inexperience with BASE and possible inexperience with dealing with friend's death your assumptions about how to deal with the event may be incorrect. I hope in this situation you realize there are issues you don't understand. No criticism, it's just something you don't know you don't know.

I know Apex had a recall on some of their WLO toggles. They sent me a personal email and posted here on DZ.com. I haven't looked to see if it is also on their website.

It's really quite ridiculous. A guy in Corona, CA got a DUI on a horse. I've seen reports of a guy on a riding lawnmower, a skateboard, and a bicycle. Freedom??? Not in America!

No it won't! If this sort of conduct continues we will not be invited to jump the bridge or hang out at the Outback. If your profile is correct, you have 90 jumps, don't BASE jump, and from your post have never even been to TF. I think you are operating on more than a little misinterpretation. I realize you and friends lost someone maybe the first time jumping. It shakes you up and makes you question everything. BUT it does not give one permission or excuse for disrespecting others, jumpers or not!

I doubt it. That's why it would have to be the jumpers who dealt with it. Anyone else would result in a fight or at least some major intimidation and that's what it sounds like happened. I believe most of us understand what it's like to lose a friend and what everyone was probably going through. It doesn't take much to deal with that type of situation.

To be a little more clear on what I think self-regulating could have looked like that night. Keep in mind I wasn't there so I don't really know what happened I'm only going off of hearsay and speculation. The jumpers present should have recognized the problem and offered the guys a ride back to their hotel, since they were probably way too drunk to drive themselves. If the Iowa guys were very resistive to the suggestion, which one may be when they're drunk and dealing with shit they really don't want to be dealing with, the other jumpers present should have walked them outside, had a discussion, and made sure they made it home safely. There's no reason for black listing, ass kicking, or any other violent reaction. These guys just needed the jumpers who were there to handle the situation directly. It should have never gotten to the level of the management of the Outback. I bounce people at my friend's bar all the time. I don't make them feel bad or make threats. I just let them know it's time to go and I will be the one walking them out.

I pretty much agree with wat Bryan said. I reailze I could die doing many of the things I do, however I don't actually think I'm going to die anytime soon. I also realize I could die in some obscure manner like cancer or a plane crashing into my house. While I'm not ready to die, I do feel my life is very complete. If I wasn't participating in life as I wanted then I would feel dead. That participation is entirely personal. For some it's playing golf and hanging at the clubhouse on weekends. For me it's jumping off or out of things, among others. To each their own. I've always assumed I would see friends broken or killed jumping and I have. I really didn't think it would happen to me, yet I broke my leg a couple of weeks ago. Does it make me reconsider? You better believe it! Does it make me want to stop? Not yet. That ability to rethink what you're currently doing and take a different direction, if you choose, is one of the ultimate freedoms. Exercise your freedom as you desire and don't regret your decision. Besides if you really regret the decision you can always start jumping again.

We call ourselves self-regulating, but in reality we are non-regulating. If we don't police this and other types of activity that negatively impact what we do then the authorities will. I feel for the people who's friend went in, but if BASE jumpers asked them to quiet down or leave; one that might have listened and two the non-jumping public would have been left with a different impression. I'm not saying that Sully and whoever else was there didn't say something, but let's be a little more responsible for ourselves as a group. For the most part we are pretty good at dealing with the issues that surround us, but some times we fall a little sort.

I've also seen people using bungee and pull-up cords to tie their keep their lines together near the bottom of the canopy while packing. This is a sure fire way to kill yourself. I'd much rather risk the possibility of a line-over than the possibility of streamering in. It only takes one little mistake to ruin the rest of your life, if not end it forever. One of the people I've seen do this is a friend of mine and he was using a black bungee on black lines. It didn't take a lot of talk to get him to understand.

Bad news guys. It sure seems like we are going through one hell of a spike right now. I wish everyone involved the best and hope this and other incidents aren't making life impossible for the locals. Sure makes you think again about what you're up to.