TomAiello
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Everything posted by TomAiello
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I didn't mean to avoid learning from guys whose experience was older. More that some people think that person X might be an "experienced" BASE jumper, when person X only has a very few BASE jumps. I once ran into a student-instructor pair on the catwalk at the Jolly Green, and it turned out the instructor only had 4 prior BASE jumps (all from that span). The student ended up breaking his leg (had line twists, drifted across the river and landed out), and when we were picking him up I asked him about his choice of instructor. He said something along the lines of "hey, he was good enough to teach me to skydive, so he's good enough to teach me to BASE jump." I sometimes fancy myself qualified to teach BASE. I know for certain I can't teach skydiving. It kind of bothers me when people who are in my boat, in the opposite direction, make a different decision. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Do not assume that the people at your local skydiving clubs are experienced enough to be BASE mentors. The may have made some BASE jumps, but that is not really enough to be an effective mentor. I have seen lots of people who think "well, he's an AFF instructor" or whatever, and end up learning BASE from someone who has only 10 or 15 BASE jumps. Be certain to carefully investigate the BASE experience of a potential mentor. Some of Sweden's most experienced jumpers are on tour in the US right now (see thread here). You will need to wait another 2 weeks or so for them to return home. Any of those guys would be a good choice to learn from. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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In a nutshell, yes. CRW is the only skydiving discipline where you fly a canopy in close proximity to other things (in that case other canopies). It requires precise canopy control. You need to be on your opening immediately. CRW uses 7 cell canopies. It teaches you the flight envelope of your canopy in all directions, and to use all of the available control inputs. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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One should be extremely careful in labelling jumps done by previous jumpers as "just talk" merely because you were not in the loop on them, or they did not receive wide spread video publication. Such could easily be taken as intentionally offensive. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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This doesn't appear to be working. Is there another link for the English version, or is it down for maintenance? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Check out the articles section on the Australian BASE Association site. Also read Tom Begic's article on CRW and BASE similarities (does anyone have that link? I can't find it right now). Have a look at James Boole's Wingsuit BASE article on the Phoenix Fly site. It's good if you want to do wingsuit BASE, but it also gives you an idea of the kind of detail oriented mentality you need to bring to other BASE dub-disciplines, and BASE in general. I'd say also click over to this thread which has a rough draft of an article of mine about ethics. There's another BASE informational site in the works that I have very high hopes for, but you'll have to wait a few more weeks to see it, since it's not quite ready yet (I've already removed links to it by request of the admin of that site). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I think "Chief Instructor" may have a different meaning in the US and the UK. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I think they invited around 100. Jumping is 3 days. Jimmy at Apex can give you more details, if you ask him. Apex is the jumping organizer, and Jimmy has been the lead contact. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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That is correct. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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...if it was built in the USA and is being jumped in the USA from an airplane, the rig must carry a USA TSO. Since the Zak and Troll are both manufactured outside the US, does that mean that you could legally jump a Zak/Troll combo out of a plane, with a chest mounted reserve? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I am strongly considering writing a "Become a Rock Star in 10 minutes or less" post... -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Nice. My wife had a friend at the game who kept calling going "did you see that?" Only bad spot was the broken leg. I'm not an Alabama fan--but my second favorite team is whoever is playing Florida. Plus, my most favorite team didn't play. Woof! -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I've jumped canopies with wingloadings down to about .55 or so, and up to about .9. I've really not had much trouble with the low wingloadings, and am pretty confident with the openings down to about .65 or .6. After that, I start wanting to know more specifics about canopy, venting, etc. Be aware that poor inflation characteristics of a canopy can, to an extent, be "masked" by high wingloading and/or small canopy size. Potentially slightly slower openings. I've only seen this make a difference with very low freefalls (under 200 feet). Very low wingloadings (under about .6 or so) have given me some weird openings, too, but only with unvented canopies. Vented canopies appear to have eliminated that issue. That's the right canopy range for your weight. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I jump rounds fairly regularly. I've got several of them, including a belly mount reserve. I've never tried to land one on hard ground, though. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Dude. I hope you're not broken. Lots more fun to be had between now and Bridge Day. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Jimmy, I edited your post. Please read the Forum Rules, specifically this bit (emphasis added by me): Thanks! -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Honestly, I'd say it's a pretty big achievement for any American jumper. There are lots of Norgies and quite a few other Europeans who could do that easily (I talked to some guys last week who wanted to give it a go without any special tracking garb). But Americans tend to track like lead bricks, and we've lagged several years behind most of the rest of the world (especially the Norwegians) in developing tracking jumps. Good show, JT! You're one of the very few Americans who can track on a level with those folks across the pond. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Way cool. I like it. Maybe HH can do it over here, too. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Why? I tend to put post in whatever thread I ban folks from, explaining why I did it, and for how long, so that everyone can know what kind of things are and are not acceptable. I'd love to start a discussion somewhere about that kind of thing. Perhaps we need a "moderators' round table" forum. And while we're at it--can someone explain what "tarpitting" is? Thanks! -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I'd like to see it as a 3 way, personally. First guy pitches to second guy. Second guy catches and holds. Second guy pitches to third guy. Third guy catches. Third guy pitches his own PC and initiates PC chain below him. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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What is the fastest wingsuit available at the moment?
TomAiello replied to Trae's topic in Wing Suit Flying
I have removed the lengthy pissing contest that was developing at the end of this thread. Let's all try to grow up and realize that this forum can be used for actual constructive communication. If you just want to argue for entertainment, I recommend making a post about gun control in Speaker's Corner. Thanks! -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com -
There is a DZ.com regular who was one of Dano's regular crew. He's got some ridiculous stories about that stuff. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I dunno, dude. Climbing a wall can be 4 days of total, abject terror. Getting through that takes a lot more than any skydive I've ever done. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I've moved it. It's certainly not going to get buried as fast here, so folks with stories to share will have more time to see it. There's still a pointer in Bonfire, so people will see it there, too. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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In other words: "Whuffo you wanna climb without them ropes for?" -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com