TomAiello

Guys, Let's not turn this into a re-re-re-hash of the NC threads I locked a while back. There is good discussion here. The re-coverage of the NC tower strike incident, and/or replay of NC turf politics are not included in my definition of "good discussion." I don't want to have to prune out the last half of the thread, because there are some useful thoughts (like Kevin's) interspersed in there. But if it comes to it, I'll do that. Okay? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Me too. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Was he using a BASE rig? Pulling that low on skydiving gear sounds super scary to me. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Personal attack. 14 days. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

This has happened here several times as well. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

In theory it could. I don't think there's enough empirical evidence to draw a conclusion, though, as I only know a handful of guys using soft links regularly. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Tell Tim I said "hi". It's been too long since I hung out with him. I think the last time we did a jump together I had less than 50 BASE jumps. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Congratulations! You've won a fantastic prize! Yes, that's right, your post will now be moved to... ...Speaker's Corner. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Probably Tim then. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I don't think Nick's book has hit the stand yet. But I'm in for a first edition, for sure. There's not really a good BASE history book. Pretty much the only two things that have reached print are BASE 66 by Jevto Dedijer, and Groundrush by Simon Jakeman. The only one that's still in print, and easy to acquire is BASE 66. Both of those books are "one man's experience" books, though, rather than historical surveys. The best encapsulation of the history I've seen easily available is the History Section of the Apex-Moab Library. There are also several other interesting historical bits floating around on the web, which I haven't got time to dig up. Perhaps others will post some links. You might also have a look at NickDG's historical video lecture, which is on the Skydivingmovies.com server. Hope this helps. Nick, your public is eagerly waiting.

Clicky: http://home.att.net/~jdburch/polar.htm http://www.phoenix-fly.com -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I'm of two minds on this. As a user, I really like being able to place hyperlinks in my signature. I think contact hyperlinks are pretty useful, especially for new users who need help, or people who just have an off the cuff thought to share privately. I click to get to a PM is just easier, and hence more likely to be used. As a moderator, I agree with Phree. Signature hyperlinks are often abused, and the fact that they are a global feature means that we always have to bump problems with them up the food chain, rather than taking care of them quickly. Which added step means that I'm more likely to let things in signatures slide. I dunno. I can see it both ways. I guess that given a "send PM to" tag on posts, on balance, I'd say get rid of them. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I think that rationally I have to agree with Ray that it's easier to manage one story, and one person in custody. So if only one person is needed to care for the injured, I'd generally say it's best for everyone else to split with the gear. Several years ago, I was struck by something Adam Filipino said, discussing this topic. "We play a high stakes game called BASE. We are also involved in being human beings." Thinking about this, I realized that I just can't leave an injured guy after a jump (or heck, any other time, really), unless that's the only way to summon help. I, personally, am just not wired that way. I'm not sure what's at the root of this, but the bottom line is that I wouldn't be happy with myself if I left an injured jumper behind. So I don't begrudge those who bail. And if they're going, I'll send my gear with them. Rationally, I think that getting people out of harms way is a better course. But I also understand those who simply must stay, because I'm one of them. It's a tough topic. It's something that really needs to be discussed with your jumping group before you jump. And, like everything else BASE, it's got a large element of personal choice involved. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

What I meant was the the service you get through T-Mobile functions seamlessly overseas. This is not true of all tri-band phones from U.S. providers. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Bill is an odd fish. He has a reputation for being pretty anti-BASE, and has apparently thrown BASE jumpers off his DZ for packing BASE rigs there. But when I was making my 2nd BASE jump, I was packing in his bunk room (where I did not live), and he wandered in and helped me straighten out my lines, then told me not to pack my BASE rig on his DZ anymore. I believe his exact words were "take that to the bridge, or wherever you people go." -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Chevy's are for sissies! Ford! -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Do you think that this forum would be a more effective medium for communication if it were split into two separate forums; a) BASE Jumping chit-chat Would include things like Jaap's shirt thread, or "I got my number" posts, or other incidentally BASE related things. b) BASE Technical Would include things having to do with the actual physical act of BASE jumping, like the Riser/Toggle Grip thread, or discussion of appropriate PC sizing, or similar topics. Please vote in the poll based on that proposed format (either yes or no), but feel free to respond to this thread with additional ideas for potential subdivisions, reasons why you wouldn't like to see a subdivision, or whatever else pops into your mind on the topic. Thanks! -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

My experience has been that riser turns take more altitude than toggle turns. I think that you are essentially stalling half the wing, so the other half spins around it (to minimize forward travel). Contrast this "stall and spin" style turn with the tail deflection of a toggle turn, where the airfoil is deformed to create the turn, but is still flying (albeit slower on one side). At any rate, that's my rationalization to explain what I've observed. I do think it's possible to over-amp the riser turn, and stall well more than half of the canopy (even all of it, in theory, although I haven't been able to do this with properly customized brakes) creating an excessive descent rate that could be avoided by more delicate riser control. This is a good reason to practice your riser turns, in brakes, before you need them in an emergency. One of my friends has pointed out to me, however, that I must be crazy to think that anyone is going to respond "delicately" when faced with imminent object strike. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Unfortunately, as with so many things "it depends." Using more time is usually a non-issue (in fact, often positive). The critical issue is usually horizontal distance consumed. But if you have a headwind on a solid object (i.e. blowing you back into the cliff), the "time" sort of faster becomes important, which is why you will sometimes want to use toggles on a 180 off a big wall (since you're unlikely to be jumping any low solid objects in a headwind, I hope). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

In the US (probably elsewhere too) you can order a Swiss phone on the internet, have it delivered to your house, use it in Switzerland, and put it back in the envelope to return when you get home. Very handy. I had a very hard time getting a cell phone in Switzerland. Hot tip for Americans: T-Mobile phones work all over the world, most of Europe calls cost a buck a minute or so, but you get to keep your US phone number. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Dude. Train from Zurich to LB is super easy to catch. There's a metro station in the airport that will take you to the main train station, and pretty much all the ticket agents in Zurich speak English. Swiss trains are efficient, polite and multilingual. Kind of like everything else in Switzerland. I am 100% sure that if you land there, you'll be able to get to the valley before the end of the day. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Got mine today. Nice! -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I'm with Nick on this one. For a while, the conventional wisdom appeared to be shifting to toggles for object avoidance. I believe this was a result of (as Nick points out) experiences on big walls. With the onset of "potato jumping" (i.e. people with literally hundreds of potato jumps before they ever jump anything else) we're also seeing a massive opportunity to form and ingrain bad habits (like correcting heading on toggles--or even just being lazy about the whole thing on every jump). This place is a fantastic training ground. It also gives us the chance to become very complacent. It's my opinion that if you must avoid imminent object strike, risers are going to be the best choice 99% of the time (of course, this depends on your definition of "imminent", so I'll borrow from Dwain and say that imminent means "your body is bracing for impact.") -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

This was also Slim's opinion. He was pretty much just going by the video, too, though, as (at least when I discussed it with him) he had no memory of the incident (due to massive head trauma, in case you missed that part). Slim told me that he thought a big grab toggle would have been the solution in this case, and allowed him to avoid striking the object. Personally, I disagreed with him (I would have gone for risers in that case), but he made the point that the cliff was relatively low, and using toggles (assuming he had avoided the strike) he might still have been able to control the landing, where with risers he likely would have lost sufficient altitude that the landing would have been one of those ugly, high speed PLF's where you are just hoping to limp away. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

...My canopy is a whole bunch faster to initiate a turn using risers.... Can you guys define what you mean by "faster"? I see a lot of people arguing that toggles or risers are "faster", but few people actually agreeing on what they mean by faster. Is faster: a) Makes the canopy change heading while consuming less horizontal distance toward the object? b) Makes the canopy change heading while consuming less vertical distance (toward the ground)? c) Makes the canopy change heading while consuming less time (in seconds)? It's important to agree on what you mean by "faster" because either toggles or risers is "faster" depending on which of the above (or any other) definitions you choose. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com