TomAiello
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Everything posted by TomAiello
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This is actually very commonly done on one of the regular Northern California objects. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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That's the way I read it too. 87SupraT can you clarify? Is this what you meant? If the canopy inflates before line stretch the opening is going to be very, very hard. The jumper will hit the end of the lines and experience a very sudden deceleration. I'd guess that if repeated, this kind of thing will rapidly destroy gear and/or jumper. At the very least you're going to see people getting knocked unconscious by hard openings on deep slider down delays. Further, a canopy inflating before line stretch will throw slack lines around, which could encourage tension knots. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Incredibly poor gear selection. Specifically, taking a slider up rig off a slider down altitude building, and impacting before the slider had fully descended. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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What I was trying to say, perhaps not too clearly, was that even though your pro-track may be saying that your downward fall rate is slower (hence, in BASE terms, you need a bigger PC), your overall rate of movement (the diagonal flight vector which is your actual overall speed) is not that slow (hence, in BASE terms, you don't really need the bigger PC). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Not trying to start a brand war, but honestly interested in your thoughts, since you seem to be fairly open minded as far as the brand thing (which is a rarity around here, it seems). Have you tried the Phantom? What's your take on Phantom versus Firebird as intermediate/all around suits? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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No. But my general thought is that the larger PC is for burble issues, not for lower airspeed or greater extraction force. The relative wind in a wingsuit deployment is of the same magnitude as in a regular one--it just comes from a different direction. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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It should be very easy to just simulate the system by free stowing the lines up the sides fo the container. You could also improvise some kind of covers if you happened to have a spair container you could attach them to. And if you lived in Twin Falls, you could run out and try it pretty easily. And if there was a bored jumper from Canada in town, you might even be able to convince him to side float and film the deployments. Hmmm. I wonder if we can find someone who meets that criteria. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I thought that was very nice. I had a lifeflght kind of rescue on my 30th birthday. EMS has to ask your birthday for all kinds of forms, and so do the hospital folks. So I got "oh...well, happy birthday..." about 15 times that day. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Apex has one that they've used for test drops. From talking to Todd a long time ago, I think unmanned test drops are pretty destructive to the gear. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Nope. I've really got no ideas, aside from "sometimes that shit happens." -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Why do you need them to "close" at all? Would just a loose flap work? Or even just freestowing the lines in two groups, one on each side of the pack tray? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Is that because you want more extraction force from your PC, or because of wingsuit burble issues? I've seen 32" PC's used very successfully to extract 300+ sized canopies on slightly subterminal jumps. I don't think that you'd have much problem using one at wingsuit terminal with that size canopy, in terms of extraction force. I think people greatly underestimate the amount of force the PC exerts, relative to how much force is required to open the container and move the canopy to line stretch. The extraction force increases greatly as air speed increases, meaning that at terminal even very small PC's have sufficient drag to get things out to line stretch. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Because the inertia required to turn a canopy with the risers and lines seperated is bigger than with the lines and risers together. In my experience, the vast majority of slider down line twists occur due to the motion of the jumpers body under the canopy, not due to the canopy twisting as it moves to line stretch. Virtually every time I see slider down line twists, they develop after the canopy is at least partially inflated, as the jumpers body is spun around (or because it was unstable and spinning to begin with) to match (and in this case swing well past) the canopy heading. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Another thought: Are you proposing extremely short risers on this rig? I see that you have the end of the riser at the top of the pack tray, and I'm not clear on how it got up there. Is it a very short riser, or is it somehow doubled, or folded back over to get back to the top of the tray? And somewhat related to that: Do the lines come around the canopy at the top or the bottom of the pack tray? Looking at it again, I'm guessing you've left the lines in the pack tray, used ultra short risers, and the "line pockets" are open both top and bottom? Is that right? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Can you explain how/why such a setup would change the incidence of line twists and off heading openings? Also, are the lines stowed on the canopy, as per standard gear configuration (hence, requiring some weird shaped tail pockets that would stretch way up the topskin of the center cell)? Or are they in the pack tray? Putting the lines in the pack tray is an interesting idea (and potentially a good one--I know a couple people who've tried moving their tail pockets down there). But it would, in my opinion, have some potential for serious negative consequences in the event of an unstable deployment in which the jumper's body impacted or entangled the lines (because getting tangled in the bottom of your lines is a much better--and slower--situation than getting tangled in the top of them, which looks to be pretty quickly fatal). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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There is a jumper up here (inactive for awhile) who actually made this. His intention was to make something ideal for reefing on about a 4sec delay. Tom Manship spent some time playing with one after he saw some guys (I think from Pennsylvania, or Massachusetts, or some such place) out here with one. If I recall correctly, Tom said he didn't think it did much. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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My Local news had a piece on 1 800-SKYRIDE!!!!
TomAiello replied to Kid_Icarus's topic in The Bonfire
Do you think it would be helpful if many people wrote letters complaining? Or is it not that kind of process? I wonder if an automated online letter writing system would be useful in this kind of situation. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com -
SkydivingMovies.com. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I'm not sure about that particular instance. There is another similar clip floating around entitled the "Death Jump", where the jump is a 3 way with a similar outcome. That clip even made it onto national TV. You can find it at BASE416.com. In that case there were no injuries. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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If you are going to manufacture a slider for this purpose (which you'll have to, because there are no collapsible BASE sliders) why not just make it an "outline" slider (i.e. no fabric in the middle of any kind, just the outside tapes)? It would be cheaper and create less problems. Alternately, you could use a "jock strap" configuration, with the strap joining just the rear risers (and presumably your control lines). What is the upside of using this arrangement? Maybe I'm slow on the uptake, but I'm not really seeing one. If the slider acts enough as a reefing device to inhibit a line over, then it will act as a enough of a reefing device to slow the opening. And if that's the case, you're just doing a slider up jump. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I'm pretty sure they all won. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I thought the funny thing was that he had enough room for every object he'd ever jumped. I know several guys who'd pretty much be out of skin if they tried that. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Skydive Moab ought to be able to answer your questions. Clint and Shelley are great people, and if you call them up I'm sure they can answer questions for you. There's a campground out there that is owned by a jumper, and in the winter (off) season the hotels are pretty cheap. I'd definitely head out there. If you're driving, be sure to research the wacky Utah alcohol laws and conduct yourself appropriately. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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The DZ.com forums have a member directory that's pretty easy to use, and Iiro is a registered user. I have his phone number and such, PM me and explain why you want them (and who you are), if you'd like that info. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Nope. I'm just using pretty standard skydiving gear. If you wanted to modify skydiving gear to make it more BASE-like, it'd be pretty easy to put together a "low pull rig" using existing gear, though. I've seen a couple of those wandering around. Freepack an undersized BASE canopy with a mesh slider into a skyhook equipped rig, and you're already pretty close. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com