TomAiello

I think it was actually in Elsinore. The balloon was used for the Basic Research FJC. If I recall correctly, it was owned by DB (not the bank robber--the BASE jumper). It was definitely tethered. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Anybody besides me find the title eerie in drawing similarities to another BASE fatality? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Made it clicky. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

If you ever decide you want to do that, let me know. I'll loan you a good wingsuit-worthy BASE rig, and let you get an extra 1500 feet of usable altitude out of each flight. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Emphasis added. I think when he said "my company" he meant "mine" in the same sense that you might say "my car" or "my rig." -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Rule of thumb: when your fall rate exceeds the absolute wind speed. So if you are falling 15mph, and the wind is 5mph, you're in control. If you'r falling 5 mph and the wind is 15mph, the wind is control. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Actually, leaving any visible trace of your presence on the object is considered poor ethics in BASE. I've had to advise a couple of my students who wanted to tag our object with stickers (because they were in the habit of tagging aircraft in that manner) that it just wasn't something we do in BASE. Although that's a perception held by some folks, I've honestly never seen a jumper actually do that, and I know a whole lot of jumpers who never would (myself included). I know of one case within the past year in which multiple jumpers all stayed with a fatality, and all got busted, because it was the right thing to do. Personally, I've been arrested staying with an injured jumper, and I know several other people who have, too. Please be careful not to stereotype BASE jumpers based on your perceptions from either this forum, or from what, to us, is ancient history. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Definitely PM bps to hear his poison oak story from there. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

And vice versa. If you read the thread in General Skydiving, you can see that there are some pretty offensive things being said about BASE jumpers in general. Basically that we are all criminals who have no consideration for others. Animosity works both ways, and it's a long hard road to overcome something with 25 years of history. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Ace/Blackjack. I've done some measurements using GPS and I'm pretty convinced that Ace/BJ has the best glide, followed by Flik, followed by Troll, followed by FOX, followed by Mojo. I have not measured Dagger or Rock Dragon. There will always be measurement error, and I don't think anyone can say for certain. Also, my measurements are subject to the canopies I used for them, which means I might have had a particularly high glide Ace, or a low glide Troll, or something, since no two canopies (even of the same manufacture and size) are ever going to be exactly identical in performance. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I think the Toxics do have higher drag (allowing you, incidentally, to use a smaller PC size for a given task, and thereby reduce your chance of hesitation). I'm not so convinced that they inflate faster. More consistently, perhaps, but not overall faster. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Wow! That's not at all my experience, based on around 100 jumps made on my 3 toxics over the past 2 months. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Whoa. That's a weird coincidence. Isn't August 8th BASE Day? (August 8, 1978 was the first El Cap loads with Carl Boenish, wasn't it?) At any rate, happy birthday Joy! If anyone wants to send a card or a present, drop me a PM and I'll send you Joy's mailing address. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

That's a personal attack. Remember, you can't make personal attacks on other people who post on these forums. I'm going to give you the next 14 days away from this forum, to get some work done. No matter how you feel about an underlying issue, you can't attack the people involved--only the issue. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I'm a relatively experienced BASE jumper, but I'm not really a skydiver (I'm fast approaching 3 times as many BASE jumps as skydives). Here are some of my off the cuff thoughts on this: 1) I'm not a skydiver. When I go to jump out of an airplane, there are people with a lot more experience than me, who have organized a system that is meant to keep me relatively safe, and as free of government intervention as practical. I'm in favor of both of those outcomes. 2) I hate when experienced skydivers show up at objects and tell me all about how safe their gear or technique is, simply because it's been tested and proven jumping from airplanes. If I saw someone at my local object with a skydiving rig, I'd be likely to chew on him a bit about how stupid and dangerous that was. 3) I've made jumps from balloons and other aircraft on BASE gear. I think ballon jumps are a great training tool. I've never wanted to put anyone else unknowingly at risk, though, and I've made sure the balloon pilots knew what they were getting into. I've also never done this in a way that left other people on the hook for my actions (for example, jumping at an organized skydiving event). I think it would be pretty inconsiderate of me to put someone else in harms way because of what I was doing. To me, not putting other people's well being (personal, physical, financial, or whatever) at risk without their consent (if at all) is simply the right way to conduct my life. I'm happy to take risks for myself--not for others who don't know what they are getting into. It seems to me that what Gary did here is pretty similar to what I'd have done if Gary (for example) showed up in my hometown with a skydiving rig, ready to jump the bridge here. I'd try to stop him from doing it, give him a stern lecture on how foolish he was being, and then see if there was anyone else around he was more likely to listen to than me, to impress upon him what a bad choice this was. I'm not saying that BASE jumps can't be made on skydiving gear. We all know that they can, and that they have. But it's a wiser choice to use BASE gear. I believe the same thing is true in reverse. Skydives can be made on BASE gear, and they have--but it's a wiser choice to use skydiving gear, and to use it in a manner consistent with it's design. Obviously there are grey areas both ways. Skydiving rigs might be considered marginally acceptable at a terminal wall, for example, just as BASE rigs are probably more acceptable for use from balloons than airplanes. But if that guy showed up at the terminal wall in Southern Norway with a skydiving rig, I know the SBK wouldn't be letting him on their boat or in their van. Why, then, would it be ok for him to show up at the WFFC expecting to take a BASE rig out of an aircraft? The only thing Gary did that I have any problem with is his involvement of the FAA. As a BASE jumper, the idea of invoking a governmental authority in a jumping dispute is pretty much guaranteed to turn my stomach. Maybe that's a cultural difference between BASE and skydiving--not being a skydiver, I can't really say. I guess what I'm saying is this: BASE and skydiving are different activities. I expect skydivers to respect that, and to adjust their expectations, attitudes, and equipment accordingly when they choose to enter the BASE environment. In the same manner, I adjust my expectations, attitudes, and equipment when I go skydiving. It's high time that we realized there are vast differences between skydiving and BASE--and that if we expect skydivers to respect that, we ought to be doing the same. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Yes, the jumper briefing is mandatory. There is also a lot going on at the Holiday Inn on Friday (and Thursday, too). There's a trade show, packing demonstrations, orientation for first time jumpers, and one heck of a good party. Anyone who just shows up for the jumping is missing out on well more than half the fun. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Bridge Day is only one day, Saturday, October 21, with jumping from 9am to 3pm. Bridge Day is always held on the 3rd Saturday of October. If you want to jump, I'd recommend registering ASAP, because space is limited, and registration has already started. Back when registration started (July 1st) we had the registration information stickied to the top of the BASE forum for several weeks. I'm not sure how many slots are left now, but I do know that if you register now, you're unlikely to get a jump slot before about 11am. More info, as noted above is at http://www.bridgeday.info/. Specific questions are best directed to Jason Bell, the jumping organizer, who is registered (and regularly logged on) here as BASE428. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Please refer to this announcement regarding the creation of multiple accounts. The list of accounts you have created, all posting from the same IP address, and all being created one after the other, as the last one gets banned for various violations of the forum rules is as follows (not necessarily in order): 1) 914 2) brodericksACE 3) JTHolmesJR 4) permbanned1 5) scotty2x 6) KT22 7) jtholmes 8) SLCBASE 9) way2cool And here I thought we were actually having a fairly productive PM discussion about this... I'll give you one more shot on this. What do you say you go back to the one account we agreed on? Sound ok? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I taught swimming lessons to adults for several years while I was in college. The vast majority of kids growing up in the US learn to swim. This is not the case with many who grow up elsewhere. Almost everyone I taught was a first generation American, or an exchange student. In much of Asia, the proportion of non-swimmers is much, much higher. I think it's pretty much a cultural thing. In the early 1900's, there was a guy who pretty much wandered around the US getting people to start swim lesson programs and teach kids to swim (biography here). It stuck, and as a result, we transitioned from a nation of non-swimmers (in the 1800's) to a nation where almost everyone can swim. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Um, is that from your vast experience (stated by you as 2 wingsuit flights in this post?). Also, you should note that virtually all of your other 6 logins are still working in this forum. Why not use one of them, instead of creating a new one, yet again? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I'm fairly certain that Mac has spoken with the FJC instructors, and also that they are not in the US. You do have a good point, which can be summed up like this: Even the best instruction in the world can't teach someone not to be an idiot. The only reasonable approach to this I've found for teaching FJC's is to screen applicants in advance, and just not take people on a course who I don't think are going to do well upon their return home (in either a technical or ethical sense). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Ease down there. This isn't BASEJumper.org, you know, it's DeeZed, and we don't allow personal attacks. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Hmmm. Yes, I see your point, but I'd rather see BASE in the "no permit" set of activities (like snowmobiling or climbing) than the "permit required" set (like hunting or fishing). In general, the "permit required" activities (like hunting and fishing) require permits because they involve the consumption of a limited resource (the game being hunted), where the "no permit" activities do not (the rock, for example, is not used up by a climber progressing over it, nor is the air used up by a jumper falling through it). I do realize that this varies from place to place (some places don't require fishing licenses, for example, while some places like a Texas state park require climbing permits). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Yes, but... Let's say the guy who lives next door to me likes to ride his snowmobile. He doesn't pay any more taxes than I do. When he gets in a wreck out in the backcountry, local SAR comes out and gets him, and brings him back to where the help is. I like to parachute off the bridge. When I get in trouble, they do the same for me. Why should I be paying extra taxes that he isn't? I realize that this isn't the case for most of us (jumpers), but for me and other locals, it seems silly that we ought to be paying more taxes than our neighbors who fish, climb, snowmobile, hunt, or whatever else, on the same public lands that we use. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I'm pretty sure that's already been tried, by multiple people, on several occasions. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com