TomAiello
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Everything posted by TomAiello
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Yes. And I'm glad that people, even those who don't wish to teach or mentor, still have ethical standards. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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This happens to me all the time. Like Dennis, whenever I'm at an exit without a rig, I get this feeling. I often find myself thinking "...no rig...must not jump...no rig..." I've been in the middle of a bridge with a half dozen jumpers (it wasn't a legal site, so of course we weren't jumping) without rigs, and we actually talked about this and realized that we almost all had the same feeling. I think it's akin to what a skydiver would feel on jump run, if they weren't wearing a rig when the door opened. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I'm scared of mice. Any mice. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Here is the original thread. It turned out about 70% against a technical forum, and about 30% for, with about 250 votes cast. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Miles D. jumps both left and right handed BOC's on his various rigs. The first time I borrowed a rig from him, it had a left handed BOC, and I didn't catch it until I did practice pulls just before exit. Definitely a little freaky. He seems to have it down pretty well, though. I think I've only seen him go for the BOC with the wrong hand once, and he sorted it out very quickly. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I stickied a poll about this to the top of the forum a while ago. If you're wondering, I, personally, voted "yes, create a separate technical forum" on that issue. Remember, being the moderator of this forum does not mean that I'm making overall decisions on the structure of the forums on DZ.com. Those decisions are made by the site owner, and he has good reasons for the decisions he makes. He has a larger community to manage than just us BASE jumpers. He does know about this issue (and my personal feelings on it). It still may happen at some point. But that's a decision that is out of my hands. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Promote the sport through education and professionalism, not self-promotion. Do not attempt to glorify yourself at the expense of the sport's image or the accessibility to an object. Adam Filipino, September 15, 1999, Ethics in a Self-Regulating Group -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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What are these points that the phantom is lacking in? Just curious. The one's I mentioned in the next two sentences, above. 1) Fewer used, cheap Phantoms available. 2) Fewer experienced Phantom pilots to answer questions and give pointers. Remember, we're not looking for the best suit, here. We're discussing recommendations for a first suit. I like a used GTi because it's cheap, common, and lots of people know it (cue lame joke about ex-girlfriend here). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I like the Phantom. And I generally like the Phoenix Fly suits better than the Birdman suits. In my opinion the Phantom is a better overall suit than the GTi (wider performance range, better top end, etc). But the Phantom misses out on a couple of the points I made in favor of the GTi as a good first suit. There are not a bunch of folks out there who've done a bunch of Phantom flights. Tons of people who are now on more advanced suits did time on GTi's and can help with them. There are not a bunch of used Phantoms on the market. Hence it will be harder to find a (cheaper) used Phantom in your size. Not everything is about "my brand is better". -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I read through Walt's story before he posted it. In my opinion, it's largely historical, and has no real bearing on how people are doing things today. If people are doing things the way Walt describes, they should know that the rangers are expecting that--because several years ago I asked a ranger how people jumped that site, and he told me that BASE jumpers "always" do it pretty much exactly as Walt described. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I've been on the roof of a building with each of the three of them. We were...um...stargazing. And, of course we had permission to be there, officer... -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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When I was a student at the University of California, we had the extremely bizarre case of the ACLU v. the ACLU. I don't recall the real case name (maybe I'll look for it), but the California branch of the ACLU was filing things for the University (what are those called, amicus briefs?), and the counsel for the student complaining of censorship was the ACLU from another state (his home state--he was an out of state student and his father was an attorney who was an ACLU member). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I'd definitely buy it, if it were available in any format. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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When you have Little to Lose, You have Everything to Gain
TomAiello replied to waltappel's topic in The Bonfire
So, what are you waiting for? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com -
No, Alti-2's Titan will not use a proprietary GPS receiver. Development is underway to make it as model friendly as possible so that one can use their own existing receiver. Will they also package with a GPS for folks who don't already have one, or would rather have the integrated package all from one source? I've got an Etrex Vista, but if the Titan was available with built in GPS in a smaller, more convenient, or better integrated package, I'd definitely be considering it. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I know several folks who have jumped from aircraft and landed on top of objects, and then re-packed and jumped from the object. It's almost a classic. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Jimmy halliday or are you talking about another jimmy? On the off chance that you were serious (which I very much doubt), or that someone else might read it and not get the joke: I was, of course, referring to Jimmy Pouchert, of Apex BASE. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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As a former Birmingham resident who's wife is a rehab doctor (that's the main Healthsouth field) one of whose main career goals was to never work for Healthsouth; I totally agree. Well, ok, maybe not a moron in the strictest sense of the word (since he's obviously playing his cards in a pretty cagey manner) but definitely a lousy no-good sleazebag. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I think Chuck was probably trying to avoid turning this into a "my suit is better than your suit" type pissing contest. Which is probably why he didn't recommend a specific suit in his public post. You might try PMing him if you want to discuss specifics. I like the strategy of buying a used first suit, so that you can practice on it, "grow" into wingsuit flying, and generally much things up with a cheaper suit. With that in mind, the Birdman GTi is a good choice because (a) it's pretty beginner friendly, (b) it's widespread, so lots of people can give you tips on it, (c) it has plenty of range, so you won't get bored and want to trade up too soon, and (d) there are plenty of used GTi's floating around. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I'd recommend PMing Jaap Suter. He's perhaps the only person I know who has taken the Apex FJC and another FJC, hence the only guy who can evaluate the Apex FJC v. other offerings (if only one). Most people will heartily recommend whatever FJC they happened to take, with zero to base a comparison on (because they've never even seen any of the others, let alone taken them). For this reason, it's very tricky to get good feedback on FJC's. Very few people have taken more than one to give you a comparison. All that said, I've seen several different FJC's and Apex definitely has the most experienced instructors (in terms of number of students they have taught). At this point, I'd say that Jimmy has probably taught more BASE students than anyone else on earth. You can't go too far wrong taking a course from them. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I've got a friend who likes to use "oh, well, it's just a bridge..." for this. I've also heard him use "oh, well, it's just a building..." -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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The most current copy of that article can be downloaded as a .pdf file from my File Sharing Folder. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Like most things, practice makes perfect. Stability on a low jump is, in my opinion, more important than a super fast running launch. Both of those, of course, would be ideal. In general, the harder you are running, the more you are going to tend to rotate head down. To compensate, you'll probably need to launch even more head high. It's very easy to practice running exits into a swimming pool--even without a diving board, -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I had heard there was a problem with the @stud.ntnu.no address not being able to get paypal. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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There was actually a dead animal on the ground, just there. Go figure. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com