TomAiello

Clicky -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Yes. Regardless of how remote the possibility is, bridle/PC entanglement did kill a leading BASE jumper (see #69, on the List), and we would be foolish not to take a hint from that and try to minimize the chances of it happening again. The more lessons we learn from each accident (for example, the floating handle from that accident), the less chance we'll have to experience them again. Personally, I know 3 cases of this occuring (one is on the list, one cleared after a hesitation, and one landed with a full knot in the bridle). I am absolutely certain there are many more. If we can avoid this problem, I think we ought to. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I've played with that, too, a little, but haven't had time to actually build anything. I'm not sure if Rob (or anyone else) has done any testing with it. I found that it was difficult to create a "bridle pocket" with minimal hang-up potential (the fact that it's wobbling makes it harder to predict extraction direction and encourage clean feeding, making it much more challenging to create a good setup) and that doesn't effect the inflation of the PC (because if you don't want the pocket to wobble, you will eventually try attaching it to the PC itself, which looked to be a pretty bad idea when I played with it). I can see that also. The easiest way to avoid this is to do short delay jumps hand held, and route the bridle over the shoulder. I tried that, too, as well as using a tailgate rubber band to gather the bridle together. So far, the Morpheus bridle staging pocket is, in my opinion, the best thing going. That doesn't mean we can't improve on it, though. I'm not sure that the canopy tail pocket is the right place to look for a model, though. Things are different in the two systems to a significant degree. And don't forget that we usually deploy round canopies with the lines stowed in the pack tray, rather than on the parachute. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Any chance to pre-order? I've not been disappointed in an ABA video--ever. I think they're pretty much the must-see videos of the BASE world. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Morpheus, certainly. I think that Rob at Morpheus developed it. I've watched video of it in action, and played around with it a fair bit. My personal opinion at this point (based on perhaps 15 jumps on it, and slow frame video) is that it is a damn good idea. It's pretty much like a tail pocket for your bridle. It stages the bridle in the same way you want to stage the lines. I'll write more later when I have more time. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Be sure to read this thread especially the initial post from Douggs regarding the safety issues involved with tracking suits. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Fortunately, that's already been done. Parachutes for Kids is a local charity established by jumpers to help disabled children locally. I don't see why we couldn't just donate to them. Alternately, we could donate to any number of other local charities. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

No. In theory, I guess you could say that I am, because I won't disqualify anyone before seeing their application. So, someone with zero skydives is, like everyone else, welcome to apply. But it's unlikely in the extreme that they'd get selected in a competitive process with other candidates possessing skydiving experience. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Quite a few, actually. In my last camp, of 4 students, 2 were from the US, 1 from the UK, and the fourth was a Swiss national living in Mexico. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Yes. And it continues to do so. I got about 30 applications for the camp at labor day last year. Since I'm screening out approximately 85% of applicants, and only accepting about 15%, I'd say that I'm far from letting anybody in. Although I do not have a stated minimum number of skydives, the competitive nature of the admissions means that applicants with more previous experience are more likely to be admitted, and the size of the applicant pool means that successful applicants tend to have significant previous experience. I don't have the numbers handy, but for my last camp, I'd say the average number of skydives of the accepted applicants was running somewhere around 1000 (although Kate's huge number of skydives might skew the actual statistical number). If I had to guess at the reason for relatively increased demand, I'd say that it is (a) more people are hearing about these offerings, and (b) when you took my class, I was offering shorter (long weekend) courses every month or two, whereas now I'm offering only 2 free courses per year, each a week long, at Labor Day and Memorial Day. This means that instead of 25 or 30 spots each year, I've got 8 or 10. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

The Snake River BASE Academy will host Spring Death Camp 2006 from May 20-26, 2006, in Twin Falls, Idaho. Death Camp is offered twice each year, at Memorial Day (the 3rd week of May) and Labor Day (the first week of September). Death Camp is free, and admission is highly competitive. Typically, we receive approximately 30 applications for 5 places. Admission is offered based on evaluation of student applications, reference checks, student preparation and class composition. Death Camp is the most comprehensive introduction to BASE available today. The course will focus on basic BASE skills, with an additional emphasis on the history and ethics of BASE, and the teamwork necessary to many BASE jumps. In addition to standard First Jump training, the course will cover appropriate brake settings, advanced packing techniques, object avoidance techniques, object evaluation, and landing skills. Time and jumper aptitude permitting, we will also cover unpacked jumps, particularly as used for emergency situations, and multi-way jumps. The Death Camp curriculum assumes that students begin with no previous BASE jumps. However, applications will be accepted from anyone having fewer than 20 BASE jumps. To Apply for Death Camp, please fill out the following information, or submit the answers to these questions via email to tbaiello@mac.com or submit the answers to these questions via mail to us at Post Office Box 2493, Twin Falls, Idaho, 83303, USA. Please do not send private messages via the forums. All answers are optional, but providing more information will improve your chances of admission. (1) Name: (2) Age: (3) Place of Residence: (4) Number of BASE Jumps: (5) Primary Skydiving Disciplines: (6) Home Dropzone: (7) Number of Skydives: (a) Number of CRW jumps: (b) Number of Accuracy jumps: (c) Number of Demo jumps: (8) Any rigging certifications: (9) Other relevant experience (paragliding, climbing, rescue, etc): (10) Name and telephone number of any BASE jumpers who know you: (11) Name and telephone number of a BASE jumper who has agreed to mentor you: (12) Name and telephone number of any instructors from other related disciplines who know you: (13) Name and telephone number of your home dropzone S&TA, Chief Instructor, or both: (14) Mailing Address: (15) Telephone Number (mobile preferred): (16) Emergency Contact Name: (17) Emergency Contact Telephone (mobile preferred): (18) Emergency Contact Address: (19) Emergency Contact's relation to you: (20) Explain why you want to BASE jump: (21) Tell us something about yourself that is unrelated to parachuting: (22) Are you married? (23) Do you have children? (24) Have you discussed BASE jumping with your family? Admissions decisions will be made with many criteria, but be aware that a recommendation from a BASE mentor whose judgment I trust will be weighed heavily in favor of applicants able to provide it. There is no charge for this instruction, however, accepted applicants will be asked to make a $100 donation to a local charity. Applications will be accepted from now until April 15th. Admissions decisions will begin on April 1st, with the last decisions made shortly after the 15th. It is to your advantage to apply before April 1st. More information, including a course syllabus, can be obtained by emailing tbaiello@mac.com. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Off topic, but there has been some discussion of trying to create a "carrot" to go with the "stick" of moderator bans and such on these forums. We could call them "gold stars". -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Please review the forum rules, in particular: Calling someone a "fuckin' re-tard" is a personal attack. I've banned you from this forum for 14 days. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Have you seen the UK BASE shirts that say "Not a Terrorist"? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

The only way to guarantee that you will not strike the object is not to jump. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Nugget alerts: Eric, I'm glad your all right. All of us can have accidents, and sooner or later we all will. It takes guts to share your experience with other people, and I salute your for that. It takes smarts to learn from your experience, and I respect your for that. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

For those who don't know him (he's been a bit inactive for a while), Cliff is a very solid jumper with a ton of experience. I've made many jumps with him in several places (Northern California, when we both lived there, Malaysia, the rest of the US on road trips). He's a good guy, with excellent skills, who won't burn your sites. Plus, he's got the coolest every name for a BASE jumper. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I think it's posted in this forum, but you can contact Gary Cunningham at the Australian BASE Association for more info. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

>>Sure. Just do a floater! This brings up an important point. Floaters are often a better choice in high tailwinds. If you are pitching early in a high tailwind, I'd definitely recommend either a hand held or floater jump. If you have a strong relative tailwind when you throw a stowed ZP PC, there is a good chance that the PC will begin expanding and get blow under your arm (in front of you), before finishing inflation. This could leave you in the not-so-nice situation of having an inflated PC pulling a bridle under your arm, and having to fight it off. I've ended up with bridle burns on my arm twice from this situation, and once had a nasty set of line twists from it when doing a high tailwind low delay jump. Fortunately, the high tailwind also saved me from floating into the object under line twists after that (180 offheading) opening. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Yes, I know of at least one: a freefall wire strike in the Eastern US. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

On Antennas, so long as you have a good landing area, Wind is your Friend. I've jumped antennas with tailwinds up to about 45 mph at exit. Things to be sure of: 1) You need to be able to turn around to land upwind. I got dragged downwind in 20+ groundwind one time, and I can tell you that it sucked pretty bad. 2) Huge open landing fields (thankfully common at many A's) are almost a necessity in very high winds. 3) If the wind blowing you away from the tower is greater than the forward speed of your canopy, it's impossible to strike the object. I used to jump an "A" that regularly had very strong tailwinds, and we called it the "Vertical S". In most cases, a good tailwind is a big plus for an antenna jump. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Not completely. It depends on the context it appeared in. The only reason that I got suckered into being a moderator in the Bonfire was to sort out BASE objects discussed in the threads there. If it was just "nice picture" than it would be fine. If it was "hey, let's go jump off this," it would probably get pulled down. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Some more options that you might add, since you don't have enough: a) Shallow brakes suck! Shallow brakes contributed to my strike. b) Other: I struck a different kind of object I know about 10 people who've struck dams. And shallow brakes have definitely contributed to more than a few strikes. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Maybe you should quantify what you mean by the various levels of experience. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

It actually depends more on when the last time the moderator logged in was, and how much time he has to monitor the forums. Sorry if I can't be on here 24-7 to meet your every demand. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com