TomAiello
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Everything posted by TomAiello
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Vertigo/Apex does not recommend using WLO's slider down. I believe they've had some issues with bent pins from hard openings. It's an eventual gear wear issue, rather than an immediate failure/malfunction issue, though, so if you are careful about maintenance and replacement, you could use them. Expensive to keep replacing, though. I had an interesting conversation last night about slider down line release with the keeper rings. I'll wait and see if he posts some of his ideas. Since they're not mine (the ideas), I'm not sure he wants them discussed here. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Another Multi Discussion. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Certainly a bad idea for PCA. BR/Apex no longer recommends that. I'd use the brown ones, cut in half. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Two votes. I stopped using the black rubber bands altogether a while back. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Nope. You could probably pay me enough to jump your gear, but you wouldn't be able to pay me enough to keep my opinions to myself. My mouth is just too big, I guess. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Clicky Links: French English -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Me. Next and last. Ray, Kidwicked, I think you guys ought to get a beer and talk about this. You'll find that you aren't really having much of a disagreement in person. I don't think this thread is helping you reach that conclusion, though, so just in case anyone feels tempted to keep it going, I'm calling it. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Tape should work ok for doing it a couple times. If it becomes a regular thing, I'd install a tailgate (which is only 10 minutes work, anyway). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Video of Erich provided by TruckerBASE is here. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Was it a cliff? Hmmm. Let me do some thinking. Do we have video linked somewhere here (I missed it, I think). I had a very similar (but much more pronounced) experience jumping a prototype Blackjack several years ago. the canopy actually ended up underneath me as it recovered from the stall. No changes at all from previous configurations, and no wind? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I think KidWicked has some good points here. BASE ethics aren't really related to legality, 90% of the time. Something can be illegal, but still ethical, same as it can be legal, but unethical. And we all, regardless of experience, comprise some part of the BASE community, and our group ethics. Everyone, just remember, Ray _has_ been around this wheel a few more times than most of us. You see it spin a few times, and your perspective does change a little. Anyway, why bother going from the rail when we can put a plank out and go from there? It's just as good a launch, and distracts the drivers less. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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BASE ethics are not now, have not ever been, and likely will never be, absolute. They operate on a sliding scale, like most things in life. Ray has been around a long time, and seen the slides of the scale. So has Avery, and several other folks posting in this thread. Getting into ethics arguments over absolutes is kind of pointless. We evolve a community standard and stick with it as a community. Ray knows this, and whether he wants to stir things up here or not is relatively unrelated to what he does in the real world. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I can think of 6 off the top of my head. Know why I'm not sharing their names here? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Serious? Dude, I'll show you the video next time you're in town. It's freakin' hilarious. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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It was illegal then, and it is illegal now. If you are caught on the steel, the cops will arrest you. Jumpers getting arrested would be _very_ bad PR for BASE in Twin. Please stay off the lower steel. I've even worked out a way to set up rope swings from the sidewalk, so that those of you (you know who you are) who climb out there to do that have no excuse. Drop me a line if you want to see how it's done. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Traffic accidents are the major problem. Even a minor fender bender on the bridge backs traffic up all the way down Blue Lakes, usually as far as North College (Cafe Ole/La Fiesta) and sometimes as far as Addison. I am a BASE jumper, and I get pissed when it happens. What do you think the non-jumpers in town think? Any time they hear that the traffic back up was "caused" by a jumper (I know we don't actually cause it, but anything that draws attention out there causes jumpers to slow and potentially collide), folks around here get pissed at jumpers. Staying off the rail is a good idea. Not because it's illegal (it's not, actually), but because it's considerate to folks like me, who live here and like to be able to get to the store. Blue Lakes is _the_ major thoroughfare through town, and when it gets backed up, it's no fun for us. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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In honor of Dwain, I thought about busting out a marker and putting X's over some of the folks on this photo. But I will never be Dwain, so it didn't seem to fit me. As an aside, BASE813, if you remember your story about where each of your mates had gone with the journey, and the number injured and dead, have a look at the attachment. 7 jumpers. 3 gone. 3 with nasty injuries at one time or another. Only one still unharmed. And I was the least experienced when the photo was snapped (July 4th, 2000) with around 200 jumps. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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My money is on the tailwind. Were you opening in a tailwind? And if so, had you opened in comparable tailwinds before? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I've put canopies up to 290 in a container sized for a 232. With no bag, and more importantly no delay, I don't think it's going to be much of an issue. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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That was my original goal, too. I just made it. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I'd definitely recommend using a tailgate. I've seen all manner of high performance canopies direct bagged, slider down. The worst hazard appears to be line twist, so I'd watch out for that. If possible, I'd recommend wearing your normally packed BASE rig as a backup, with extra rings to hold the high performance canopy. Then, if you have a nasty mal, you can always chop the Sabre (or whatever) and pitch the BASE PC. It's not an ideal solution, but it's far better than spinning in under a malfunctioning skydiving canopy. Have you d-bagged your paraglider this way? I can't remember. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Most jumps and most jumpers are two different answers. The most people show up Memorial Day. I've got absolutely no idea why, as Memorial Day has some of the worst jumping conditions of the year. Labor Day and 4th of July have far, far better conditions. In my opinion, the best time of year for jumping in Twin is the fall. If we convinced everyone that the "big" weekend ought to be Labor Day, instead of Memorial Day, we'd get better conditions, a lot more jumping, and far fewer accidents, in my opinion. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Um, yes, I can. A few times. Since the original book was written well before either of those other things, I believe the last bit was just for this edition. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I edited your post to take out the name. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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clicky -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com