davelepka

Look friend, you admit you're new to it all, but you really don't seem to appreciate the time and effort that others have spent to give you detailed answers, you just question every point as if they're kidding. Wingsuit BASE jumping, and doing it right next to cliff, is the absolute edge of the sport as it stands now. To participate with anything close to adequate preperation, you need to have years upon years of experience in skydiving, wingsuits and BASE jumping. You will need to dedicate your life and a good deal of money to the persuit of the skills and experience needed to achieve that goal. That's how all of the guys in Youtube got there, and that's what you'll have to do to get there. No shortcuts, no express lane. If you can stick with it for five or six solid years (which means no getting hurt, which can set you back years at a time), and invest an honest $15k to $20k per year, you can absolutely be right there, making your own Youtube videos. Good luck.

***Would rather jump a smaller infinity container *** This should have nothing to do with your gear buying decision. The difference in rig size between the two reserevs would be very slight, and nobody will ever notice one from the other. People aren't checking out your gear that closely, and you can't even see your rig, so it's a shitty way to choose a reserve. I'm not sure if you'r ever seen a landing with no flare, but the one's I've seen have been brutal, and they were all students on 280 sq ft Navigators. If you really want to plan on a no-flare landing, you should start with a much bigger reserve. I vote for the PD reserve. At least then you can call the factory and speak to someone in english and if you need to send it in for service, it only has to go to Fla, instead of Germany.

It's been done before, and they shot skydivers in freefall. I can't remember who, when, or where but I do remember hearing about it when I first got into cameras. 1995 or earlier, for sure. I'll bet Mike McGowan knows the story.

The jump would be just fine, the bad thing would happen after I land. I'd call your mom and tell her you have a gun.

I never said that it was a regular occurence, but the fact is that malfunctions do happen regardless of who you are, or what you know. If you aksed me which was safer after deployment, I would say BASE for sure. The equipment selection is well suited to the purpose, and the intent is just to get down safe, but that's not the question at hand, and a deployment is a part of, and adds risk to, every BASE jump.

I am a smart guy, which is why you should start paying attention. The difference in your above example is that it takes a world class swooper to do what you said. The skill of the swooper determines how 'big' the swoop will be. Every BASE jump, if it's the jumpers first or 1001st involves the successful deployment of the main canopy, followed by making a safe landing. A swoop only requires the safe landing, the successful deployment has already occured. Compare going handheld off the Perrine to a simple 180 with no traffic. The BASE jumper could go in clean, the swooper is already under an open canopy. Compare the top level swooper in an actual competition jump to any of the BASE jumpers in "Ready To Go", and the swooper still has an open canopy to begin with (not to mention the skill set of a top level swooper). No matter how good the BASE jumper is, he still has to survive the 'unknown' of a parachute deployment. I'm telling you something you should already know - in any freefall (or static line) descent, the real turning point is getting an open canopy over head. Being in freefall is one level, and being under an open canopy is way, way under that, figuratively speaking (and literally sometimes too).

No way man. I'm a swooper, and I know what can go wrong on a swoop. It's not that hard, really. Turn the canopy, don't hit the ground. The only thing that can go wrong is that you fly yourself into the ground (or another canopy). If you're a good canopy pilot, and have good traffic management, you have a good deal of control over your situation. BASE jumpers give up control over their situation during the deployment. You can pack and rig everything correctly, and still have a problem. Even if you get a good canopy, BASE jumping LZs are often small, dark, and full of obstacles. That's why the opening sets BASE jumping apart from swooping. Swooping starts with an open, fully functioning parachute, and that really is the #1 concern for every skydive or BASE jump. Having that already in the bag makes swooping the safer bet. Neither one is really that 'safe'.

Dead is dead, but the question wasn't which is more fatal, it was which is more dangerous. I voted BASE because the consequences for making a mistake in the areas that make BASE unique from swooping (such as opening a canopy) are more dire than making a mistake in the areas they share (like canopy control). You can live through plenty of botched swoops, but not that many no-pulls or total mals in BASE.

BASE jumping is more dangerous. Swooping starts off with an open canopy, and BASE jumping does not. There are just more things to go wrong BASE jumping, and more dire consequences when they do.

Slow your roll brother, and check your facts. I asked a fair question as to if his profile was correct, and put the focus on whoever would sell a newbie a Stiletto. His response is what set the thread off course, and his response was very telling. It's the old concept of getting a bit too defensive that you start to make yourself look guilty. A little research would have revealed that this is the same poster who thought it was a good idea to tech himself to be a rigger, and tried to get questions asnwered in the rigging forum. No surprise, he was met with comments stating that rigging is not a self-taught skill, and of course he replaied that he, 'had it all under control, and was doing just fine'. See the pattern forming? I also learned that this same poster is in the process of teaching himself to BASE jump. Do I need to tell you the response he go to that over on the BASE board? This isn't a court of law where everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty, this is an interent forum where we have seen (several times) jumpers get themselves killed by procceding contrary to the advice given. As such, I view everyone as guilty until proven innocent. Until you can show that your equipment are in line with your skills, and that your questions are in line with both of those, I'm not giving anyone the benefit of the doubt. If you have nothing to hide, come forward with your story, and there is a wealth of information to be had, some of it the posters may want to hear, and some of it they won't. This is not a court of law, and it doesn't have to be fair. If you don't like it, don't log on. The reason that this forum exists, and that people do continue to log on is that the members have found a way to keep it honest. It's not honest because everyone is all warm and fuzzy, it's honest because we're realistic and straightforward. Skydiving and canopy piloting is a high risk activity where good intentions and kind words don't mean squat. Realisitc and straightforward words are of real value here, and that's what I'll provide.

All the more reason you don't need a patch to segregate the jumpers, and make it easy for you to spot people you might want to jump with. How about being open to jumping with everyone, regardless of their expereince, abilities, or jumpsuit adornemt? You had a thought, and I made some very vaild points as to why I thought it was unneccesary, and not going to succeed. I went on to offer, what I thought was a much friendlier solution to your problem of finding people to jump with. You started with name calling, and I replied in kind. Maybe I'll tell you what I really wanted to post in the first place. Your idea is lame. Nobody is going to sew a ptach on their jumpsuit to be in the 'freefly club' any sooner then they're going to sign up for the 'freefly sunset song and dance number'. It's not going to happen. You want to call me a douche? Fine, I'm a douche, but at least if a new person shows up at the DZ I can try to hide it, You on the other hand will have a patch sewn to your jumpsuit so everyone will know that you're a douche before they get within tne feet of you. On second thought, produce and distribute the patches to anyone interested. I'll know who to talk to next time I have a smelly vagina.

Hey, fuck you too, pal! Just because others don't agree with your idea doesn't mean that everyone else is a douchebag, it's way more likely that you're the douchebag, and it explains why you need a patch to make friends at the DZ.

You're right, end of story. Whatever the case may be, you're right and he's wrong. You're the guy with the pile of brand new rigs you hand out as no-cost demos, and the customer has no jumps. I'll bet it all that you know a shade more than he does about gear sales and the related business practices.

How many other interent forums have members go out and get themselves killed because they chose not to follow the advice offered on the forum? PA removed - Ian. Come back when you have a clue, or never, I'm cool with either one.

I'll just come right out and say it, that's a dumb idea, and I'll tell you why- For starters, what does the patch mean? Unless it means you can turn 10 points on a VRW jump, then you're right back to doing it the old fashioned way, just talking to people. Even with a patch, you still need to find out if the wearer has 12 sit fly jumps, or a gold medal. Beyond that, it's a dropzone where everyone is a jumper, just talk to them. If you were standing in line at Walmart behind a guy in a PD shirt, you'd strike up a conversation right away, but put you at a DZ full of these people, and you want a patch to do the talking for you? In the words of Rodney King, "Ouch, that hurts...", ok not those words, the other words, "Why can't we all just get along"? Just be a skydiver and make friends. I'm a great freeflier, and I would never wear a gay (not sexually) patch on my jumpsuit. If you visit my DZ and want to jump with me, you just have to ask. Talk to anyone at my DZ about freeflying, and they'll point you in my direction, it's as easy as that.

This is why I'm not a fan of full face helmets or jumping in sunglasses (at least in a working environment). Being able to make eye contact, and for the TI to see your facial expression is what turns the pull signal from just pointing at the guy into the pull signal. No offence to TIs, but I would guess that very few are in the mindset to accept hand signals during the skydive. An AFFI, on an AFF dive, might be a little more likely to 'get it' right away because the hand signals are part of the jump and used (on the student) every jump. On a tandem, however, it's easy to forget about them, and this is why the hand signal, combined with eye contact and facial expression gets the message across. Just to be fair, I don't think I would 'get' a hand signal thrown in my direction right away either. It's too far outside the normal course of things, and I'm used to hand signals being thrown as poses for the camera, or rude gestures in my general direction. With reagrds to the video in the thread, hand signal or no, when your d-bag hits in the back of the head (at 1:12 in the vid) during drougefall, that's a pretty good sign something isn't right.

That's the whole point. If the helmet is only good up to a certain point, and that point is short of the maximum impact you could experiecne, then whatever point you choose the helmet to protect you to is just arbitrary. Whatever you go with, there will always be the argument, "But what if you hit harder than that helmet can take....". Realizing this, people assume the best, and get a helmet that's light and comfortable, and good for fending off the bumps and scrapes your nugget could pick up while skydiving. If you're facing a more significant injury, they just take their chances and let the cards fall where they may. Besides, if you're going to bulk up your lid to protect your head in more severe impacts, you should really protect your bady to match. How about armor and padding built into your jumpsuit like motorcycle racers, or a HANS device ala Nascar? Where does it end? It ends with what we have now. Light, comfortable helmets with good visibility, and un padded jumpsuit (except for kneepads, but those are to protect old men who have to kneel in the plane, not protection from impact).

Your instructor could probably give you good idea od the speed. They should know how fast the tunnel was going, and your instructor could probably guess based on his jumpsuit, body position, and skydiving experience. I would be surprised if you were exceeding 150 mph. For one, your instructor would have to either be very heavy, or in a very different body position to stay with you. Also, did i read correctly in another post that you have previous skydiving experience? If that's the case, your arch probably won't be an exaggerated student arch, but more relaxed (flatter) like an experienced skydiver. Combine that with a little wing on your suit, and you should be well under 150 mph. You could easily be at 130 or 140, and this is something to think about in terms of your deployment. That's a lot of airspeed, and it might 'firm up' your openings. Maybe bring this up with the packers, and have them take extra care to slow up your openings. You might even see if they can rubberband your slider up to your C line attachment point, just to be sure. Ask and see what they say. Make sure at least one of your AFF instructors is wearing a data recording altimeter, and let us know how fast you end up going.

Upgraded to what? Unless you can build a helmet that will withstand going in clean, you're always going to have a skydiving helmet that will come up short in the worst case scenario. There's nothing out there that can really protect you, so you might as well go with light and comfortable with just enough protection to save you from 'inconvieniences' like a black eye or a bloody lip. If you have an incident that can cause real injuries, you're going to be injured no matter what.

Maybe, but there's a chance you're performing at an appropriate level, and your weight (or lack of it) is the limiting factor. Don't misuderstand jumping with weights, they won't do the flying for you. You still have to perfrom to make things happen, the weights just make things happen at a different speed. Let's say that you can fall as slow as 95 and as fast as 115 on your belly. If you're on a dive with a fall rate 112 you can stay with that by going fast. If the skydive should speed up or funnel, you don't have very much room to 'speed up'. If you put on a weight belt, you'll have the same 20 mph speed range, but maybe now it will be from 105 to 125. You can still fly with the formation at 112, but you can also pick up the pace a little more if you need to. The weights will not change the moves you have to make, or the flying you have to do, they will just change what you're looking at while you do it. No more looking down at everyone, and more looking across at everyone.

This is true for everyone from jump to jump. Each jump has it's own fall rate, and somewhere in the middle is the average. Even after you put weights on a jumper, they still have to work to match the fall rate, they're just better equipped to do so. My feelings are this - if you took a jumper in their RW suit, and tossed them out of the plane solo to fall on their belly, whatever speed they happen to go is 'their' speed. This is their comfortable speed, and if it's not close to an 'average' RW speed, then adjustments need to be made. They should be able to stay with other jumpers, and be in a comfortable position.

Just a couple more quick points - The OP here has 50 jumps, and all of the thought she puts toward just satying down with the formation (without weights) is thought that she cannot put toward taking grips, maintaining lateral proximity, eye contact, altitude awareness, etc. Again, Joe Jumper gets to sit there in a realxed body position, and he can focus on all of those other factors. When you take a newbie and direct their focus to a basic (and easily repairable) problem, you remove their opportunity to learn the other things the average size guys can focus on. Just to clarify exactly what that perspective is, you're as average as average gets. The problems you tell the OP are really 'no problem' are not problems you yourself have struggled with. I'm sure you have examples here and there, of out-of-the-ordinary situaitons where you had to struggle to keep up, but to go through it every jump for the entire freefall is another story, and can have some real negative effects on a new jumper.

Maybe so, but why? Why should this jumper have to manipluate their body, and make all sorts of special considerations when Joe Jumper who's 5' 10" and 175 lbs, gets to be comfortable and relaxed at the same speed. Just like fat guys use baggy suits, little poeple use weights. There are always exceptions to the rule, and jumpers who 'make it work', but it's never going to put on the same level as Joe Jumper, who gets to wear a comfortable suit, and just relax through his jumps. There are several solutions to this. For starters, how tight your wear the weight belt, how wide it is, and how the weights are distributed around the belt. All of these will vary from jumper to jumper depending on body size and how their rig fits. Another solution is to have two sets of straps to secure the belt, one tight and one looser. Wear the belt with loose straps right up until jumprun, and then fasten the tighter straps. Once on the ground, or even under canopy, release the tight straps (it's like unbottoning your pants after Thanksgiving dinner). To follow up on that, you can remove the weight belt right after you land, and carry it in to the hanger over your shoulder. It's true, there are ways to make things work, and all of these tricks are good to know and indispensible for the odd AFF student who turns out to be a 160 lb cannon ball, but to learn them with the purpose of using them as an 'every jump' solution is setting the jumper for frustration. They'll be working harder than everyone else, and if they have an off day, they can't stay with the formation. Kallend is really the guy to consult here, as he's (I believe) a physics professor. It's just a fact that the lightweights and big boys (and girls) can't do what Joe Jumper can do.

This is an area of debate, and if you notice, I never actually said do 'x', I said it was a tricky situation. The concept of having one set of EPs is legitimate, and that's why you were taught that. At the same time, if you have a total malfunciton, or a PC in tow, there is no tension on the risers, and the cutaway will do nothing at that time. I'm not going to assume that you're instructor meant one thing or another, and neither should you. Ask him directly about these situations and see how he replies. He may indeed have a plan to expand your training/thinking at some point in your instruction. At this point in your training you may find that you can go through your standard EPs faster than you can analyze the situation, deciede to only pull silver, and then pull silver. Either way, never ever hold back if you have any questions for your instructor. There is nothing more important than you being satisfied that your training is complete. It does not matter if it's a busy day or your instructor is running late, simply do not board the aircraft until all of your questions are answered. Your instructor works for you, and even though they don't like to see it this way, you have the authority to put the brakes on at anytime. They control how fast you move forward, but you control if you move forawrd at all. If your handle is not in place in the plane, either find it (with help) or don't jump. If you cannot find it in freefall, that's a total mal, and we're right back to the first part of this post. What I meant by check your handle is in place was to see that it was still seated up against the mouth of the PC pouch. If the PC had begun to work it's way out of the pouch while you were moving around in the plane, then the handle would be loose and flopping around. This could lead to a premature deployment, and this is one way a PC could get hung up on you or part of your rig. If the PC should finally escape the pouch while you were in the middle of a backloop, you might find yourself with a PC wrapped around your leg, like the OP in this thread. All of the other things I mentioned are also things that could lead to premature deployments. Like I said, if things start coming out when you're not flat and stable, you run the risk of some very nasty malfunctions.

I have a kite I like to fly on wind holds. It's 103 sq feet, and it's made by PD. They call it a 'Velocity'. Kiting your canopy is only fun when it's windy. Handle it properly, or get dragged across the landing area.