TomAiello

My BASE openings have been much nicer than my skydiving openings. I think the lack of bag helps my heading performance because there is no chance of the pack job spinning on the way to line stretch. My first several BASE wingsuit openings were kind of nasty, because I was pitching from full flight and got some wobble, which threw me into line twists under the canopy (openings were mostly on heading though--it was my body spinning under the already inflated canopy that caused the twists). Be sure to practice full flight pitches on skydives if you intend to use them BASE jumping. Also, be sure that you either go with a full flight style pitch (which is my personal preference), or a full stop (and fall straight down) style pitch. Going somewhere in between can cause a great deal of turbulence around your inflating PC. I'd use a bigger PC. I know people who swear by extra long bridles (11' or so), but personally I don't think they're really necessary. For wingsuit flights, I like a 38" PC (which is what I use for the subterminal slider up range [5-8 seconds] as well). I haven't had any issues with vented canopies--they seem to behave just the same as they do on standard terminal BASE jumps. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

That's a nugget!

Please post this discussion in the original thread instead of starting a new one. Thanks! -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

In your back yard? They are very easy to construct. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Do you BASE jump? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

BASEjump.hu -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Well...one every 30 seconds is probably a better estimate. I've had a student stay on the pendulator for over an hour, doing exits at approximately that rate, though. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I bet these folks can help. Have you asked them? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Yes. But a better mechanism is to practice them into a swimming pool, or to construct a pendulator. Practicing them from balloons, or on BASE jumps, allows only a very small number of practice exits per hour, whereas a swimming pool, pendulator, or foam pit can allow you to practice literally hundreds of exits per hour. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

There are existing threads about those photos in the BASE, Wingsuit and General Skydiving forums. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I tend to use "non jumpers." It's descriptive, simple, and easily understood by most people. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Personally, I find the term "whuffo" offensive. People tend to use it to refer to non-jumpers, but the truth is that it really ought to be used to refer to people who don't understand, and often condemn, anyone who wants to enjoy a range of diverse experiences. I've seen plenty of whuffos who jump out of planes. They just ask things like "whuffo you want to have kids for?" or "whuffo you want to go BASE jump for?" or "whuffo you want to get married for?" By the same token, I've seen plenty of folks who've never jumped out of a plane, but who don't experience those mental blocks trying to understand different perspectives. "Whuffo" is a mentality--not a description of any specific experiences. And it's just as common on the dropzone as off it. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Note that the links have been corrected in the updated copy of the article which I linked in my post. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Start with your local BASE Gear manufacturer (in Z-Hills). Especially being female, you ought to be on the lookout for issues like those discussed in this old thread. I'd say you ought to talk to Kathy at Morpheus to get an experienced, and female, perspective. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Yep. Thanks for pointing that out. After the death of Will Forshay (the producer, videographer and owner of the Lemmings footage), the Lemmings website is gone. Fortunately, Jason Bell has acquired the rights to distribute this footage, so it is now available from the Vertical Visions Web Store. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Several hundred more. Try to do as much CRW and Accuracy as you can. Sport accuracy is probably more applicable than classic accuracy--if you use a classic accuracy style canopy (which is quite similar to a BASE canopy). Consider switching to a large 7 cell canopy for your skydives (Ravens can be found fairly cheap for this sort of thing). A complete list of FJC providers can be found at the end of the article here, which is an updated copy of the one linked at the top of this forum. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

oooh. there is a difference? which one works best? I've read nice things about purple... You laugh, but a while back we noticed a significant difference in the feel of the fabric in different colored portions of some Toxic pilot chutes. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Most of the popular Norwegian sites are very near sea level. But the flights in Switzerland (for example) are often quite high. I can think of one US flight that has a landing altitude around 4000' MSL, but I don't think anyone has ever flown it for max glide (even with his old Classic, YK probably would have smacked the other side of the valley there the first time he flew it, had he not started diving over the landing area). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

You could have won the contest at Russia with that GR. I don't think the GR translates very well from skydiving to BASE. I'm not sure why (wind, perhaps, or air density, or measuring precision?) but it seems like the best BASE flights (where GR can be measured more precisely because altitude and distance are pretty close to known from topo maps) are significantly exceeding the GR achieved on the best skydives. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I'll stand by my statement. Trying to start BASE at his level of experience (that's less than 10 total times under a canopy in his life) is foolhardy at best. Don't confuse "level of experience" with "number of skydives", or "his level of experience" with "your level of experience when you started." In both cases, those are two different things. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

There is a complete list of BASE gear manufacturers at the end of the My First BASE Rig article. This article is linked at the top of the forum page here, but the copy I've just linked in this post (it's a .pdf file which you can download) is more current. Definitely read through the materials on this forum, and elsewhere. Trying to start BASE at your current experience level is foolhardy, at best. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Corky Ferguson has basically perfected such a system, and uses it quite regularly. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I've often seen jumpers spin into line twist after openings because of either (a) a good track, or (b) poorly set brakes (too shallow), or both, combined with an off heading opening. When the canopy opens heading one way, especially if it surges that way, and the jumpers body is moving a different direction, the jumper tends to get slung around to face the same way as the canopy (the jumpers body being pulled by the risers), which can start a rotation resulting in line twists when the jumpers body rotates past the canopy heading. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Can you go up during the day and just stay there until it gets dark? Honestly, if you aren't going to heat up other objects nearby, and it's not something that anyone else wants to jump, you can pretty much do whatever you want. The central question to ask yourself is: "What will this do to other jumpers?" If the answer to that question is "nothing," then you're doing good. If the answer is "it will hurt their ability to jump by..." then try to find a better way. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

One was a 370' cliff, with a 2 second delay. That jumper tossed a toggle (LRM) and landed safely on reares. The second was a 2.5 second delay from the bridge here (486'). That lineover was cleared by the jumper pumping the toggle repeatedly, and the jumper landed normally. The third was also here, and was around a 2 second delay, and that jumper "froze up" (his words) and spun into the water with both toggles still in hand (the canopy was LRM equipped, but the jumper simply did not throw either toggle). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com