TomAiello
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Everything posted by TomAiello
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More than one. If a local doesn't contact you, send me a PM and I'll try to put you in touch. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Ok, the course is full. I had 18 applicants (not counting 3 that came in late). I believe I've either emailed or PM'd everyone who contacted me, but if you did, and haven't heard back from me, drop me a line and let me know I missed you. I plan on doing free weeklong courses Memorial Day and Labor Day this year, that will be significantly more intensive, and include a number of (I think) important skills that take too long to cover for a 3 day FJC. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I'd love to see it. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I'm curious about the second part of that. Which way are you saying there is less mentoring for the rest of the weekend (and the future)? It's been my experience that paying for instruction (of whatever kind) generally opens the door to continue asking questions (without paying) and establish a relationship that allows ongoing support. If someone had paid me for instruction, I'd be more than happy to answer their future questions. I think that's also true if I gave them help without being paid. I guess what I'm saying is that it seems to me that the issue of ongoing mentorship is more dependent on the specific people involved, rather than the instructional paradigm. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I've removed a largish set of posts from this thread. It was degenerating into a flamefest, and I don't think we need that here. Please, let's try to keep this civil. If you have something to say that's just about one other poster, you probably want to reconsider posting it. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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If you butcher the chicken soon after landing, would the chemicals still be in the bird's system, to be distributed to barbecue eaters? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Personally, I've always thought that high rises needed better security, and often considered a career in that field. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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You guys who can reach your risers: Are you getting enough reach to make a good riser turn? Or is it one of those "I can just get my fingers on them" kind of deals? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Given that such certification is not mandatory to provide instruction, simply sharing your opinion that there is an aspect of marketing ought to give people the heads up that they ought to carefully examine their instructor's credentials and experience, regardless of who certified the instructor. So long as the certifications aren't mandatory, and you can still fly without them, you're going to have trouble convincing me there's anything wrong with them. If the USPA starts telling people they can't share the fun with others unless they have a certification, then I'll be concerned. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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The general level of expertise in the field in general must be considered. If there are only 10 guys on earth with 2 hours of experience? Then I'd say you might have a case to be considered an expert. For example (sorry to keep relating back to BASE, but it's my home ground, so I tend to compare to it), there are probably no BASE jumpers with more than 2 hours of freefall time--including all the BASE instructors on earth. The only person who may be approaching that much freefall is not a formal instructor--and I'm not even sure he's hit 2 hours yet. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Perhaps. But until we have such a forum, this is an appropriate place to discuss the development of wingsuiting, the wingsuit community, and the various aspects of training, community and such that surround wingsuits. Jumping (of whatever variety) isn't just about the technical aspects of the jumps. Many of us are attracted to the community that surrounds the jumping, some to the point where it rivals or exceeds the jumping in importance. If you think this is bad, don't even thing about looking at the BASE forum. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Whoa! Slow down there. Those weren't his original words, just something he posted to start a discussion. Also, he posted that because he had shared it with me, and I encouraged him to start such a discussion in the forum. If you want to get on someone's case for that being posted, please get on my case, not his. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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A way to grab the risers immediately after opening, without having to unzip or cut away anything. I've had a couple scary experiences pulling the cables _just_ in time to get turned around and flare. I also once had a friend land before pulling the cutaway, and get stuck in a cactus until someone else could pull his wing cutaway, but that was a rather exceptional case. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Is it like the Access suit? Or a totally different angle? Thanks for the info. I can't wait to see it in the flesh. Leroy, I doubt that the suit was improperly sized, as I'd bet Robi sewed the prototype for himself. Perhaps it has no booties at all? That actually might make sense for a beginner suit, where the leg wing doesn't have to come down so far (and hence you could make a cheaper suit, so more people could afford to try it, by just leaving off the booties). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Why? The force of the tail opening gets transmitted through the lines, which allow some slack, so the tailgate itself takes less force (in terms of blowing it open). If you do a search of this forum, you can find a whole thread on the topic, with comments from several manufacturers. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I tend to agree. I haven't tried the 2 second bit, but a few years ago, at a suggestion from one of those old geezers who we'll just call the "double digits", I did try a number of PCA's with sail sliders and found that (as he said) with no airspeed, I couldn't tell a difference between various slider materials. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I prefer large mesh slider with tight direct control stow (and a fairly large bight of the slider). I roll the outside 6 cells in, and spread the center cell. I've found the openings totally acceptable. I've softened them by using a small mesh slider, but found that, for me, a good bit of direct control was sufficient to allow me to use the large hole mesh, so I don't have to re-rig for terminal. If I was going on a longish terminal trip, I might consider just switching out the slider, but since most of my terminal stuff these days is in between subterminal slider delays, I'm content to go with the large mesh. I've heard credible reports of very hard openings on the canopy, but I've never experienced one on my canopy that I found unacceptable (and remember, I have 6 inches of titanium in my spinal column, so I'm fairly sensitive). I wonder if the newer Troll MDV's maybe open faster all around, and that's why reports vary so much. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I removed a totally unrelated conversation from this thread. This is a good discussion, and I don't want to see it sidetracked into a pointless rehashing of some other issues. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Just because they're getting nailed with the "disturbing wildlife" thing doesn't mean that's really how it went down. The jumpers were regular climbers, and climbers have fairly good notice of cliff closures for nesting. I'm wondering if they didn't throw in the "disturbing wildlife" charges to increase the penalties and hassle. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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K, I've made dozens of small mesh jumps from the bridge here. The difference is small enough that I have trouble noticing it. I think that the changes in slider material (ZP-F111-Small Mesh-Large Mesh) matter most with terminal airspeed--and basically not at all with zero airpseed. If you rigs with all four of those sliders, the openings are going to be remarkably close. If you take them all to terminal, they are going to spread out. At 2 seconds? There is some difference, but it just isn't actually that huge. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Usually because the tailgate insertion is in a non-optimum place (relative to the line attachments) once the shallow brakes are used. If you want to use a "standard" (i.e. line attached) tailgate on a slider up jump, you'll need to insert a second tailgate attachment at the ideal point for the shallow brake setting. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Do you think the two things necesarily exclude each other? Can small DZ's go on with informal mentoring programs, while large DZ's have more formalized instruction? Why not? Would students start going out to the small DZ's to learn? In BASE, we've relatively recently had some wacko just start offering the formal instruction for free. Is this the equivalent of free FFC's? What about free coaching? I dunno. I obviously have a strong bias in favor of the free "pay back the sport later" type of mentoring in most things, and I believe I've put my money where my mouth is quite strongly on that issue. But I'm wondering if the two types can't coexist? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Current Weight: 174.5 Body Fat: 20% or 11% (depending on which setting I use on the Tanita). This week was bad. I was out of town pretty much all week, and basically did no exercise between last week Thursday and this Friday. Hopefully, next week will be better. The last 10 pounds are pretty stubborn, for me. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I'm frequently on another (nonjumping) site that has a "sponsor directory" like this. I find it an incredibly useful feature. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com