TomAiello

You do realize that education in the US is funded primarily on a local, and secondarily on a state level, right? Federal budgeting has virtually no impact on education funds. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

[url "http://www.robesonian.com/articles/2004/10/06/news/news/story02.txt"]Clicky -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Actually, it sounds like plenty of people are trying to help you avoid getting arrested. In all seriousness, you _really_ need to adjust that attitude. You've definitely hit my personal "do not take to any sites" list. Want to take bets on how many other people have read this and put you on theirs? BASE is about people. Pissing off the people is a really bad way to start. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Sure. But if the stiff wind comes from behind you, and the landing area is good (or, especially if the jump is over water in case of greater than offheading malfunction), then the offheading won't matter much I believe this is a good generalization for slider down BASE jumps. Slider up, I'd tend to disagree. Short delays slider up are going to be worse than long delays slider down in the same wind, I think. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

If I had to write that list, I'd include wind, especially for slider down openings. I'd also include the random black death factor that just tries to kill us. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Send a PM to Bennii. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Vintage skydiving gear is more similar to modern BASE gear. So a skydiver who has experience with the 7 cell F-111 canopies, flatpacking, and such that were staples 15 years ago is going to find it easier to pick up BASE packing skills. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

If you start a separate thread with details on that, I'll sticky it to the top, both here and at BLiNC. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Please read my Naming Names Post, linked at the top of the BASE forum pages under Before you Post!, for my rationale on this. In relevant part: -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

It varies, I think. Of the five folks scheduled to come out last weekend, two were of the "loads of time" variety, and three were relatively young. It definitely showed in packing, when the older jumper would finish way ahead of everyone else. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I am temporarily locking this thread to clean it up. When I unlock it, please do not name _any_ names. Local jumpers have contacted me and their current situation with the authorities will be greatly aided if we do not discuss specific jumpers in public until the heat has died. Once things have been sorted out, we can revive the discussion and include some names, but I will edit out names of anyone involved in the legal action in any way who wishes to have their name removed. Thanks for understanding. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I agree with your sentiments. However, consider this: He has probably already learned this lesson. Leaving him alone to ponder it, or talking to him nicely about it is far more likely to have a postive outcome in terms of his future behavior than yelling at him. In this sport, we have a great tendency to yell at people. I've found that talking to them, making friends with them, and showing them things is a _far_ more effective way to help them become safe, ethical BASE jumpers. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Expressing your dislike of the manner in which a jump is done (especially an instructional jump) is very appropriate. The moment this becomes a name calling contest in this forum, I'll start banning people. I've already issued warnings to half the DZ.com BASE forum posters who live in North Carolina. Consider this a warning to the other half. Comment, discuss, rant. But _do not_ make personal attacks on people who post here. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

My information is third hand. I'd say the ABA forum, where the info will be second hand (from jumpers on site) would probably be better. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Clicky I heard about this last night. Slim is definitely one of the good guys. To my knowledge he has not yet regained consciousness, but doctors are saying there is no brain damage. So aside from some healing, he'll be the same old Slim in no time. Also, I've heard mixed reports on the impact. One source reported that he had impacted the side of an adjacent building. Jumpers on scene reported that he had landed under line twists on the roof of the adjacent building. Regardles, my best wishes for a speedy recovery go out to Slim. He's given more to this sport than 95% of us, and he's had this sport take more from him than anyone I know. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Todd's initial reasoning was sound (i.e. that the top pin is the one with consistent pull force, so if you can always extract that pin first, the rig will open more consistenly). However, it's looking as though results from the field disagree with the theory. I don't know. I actually prefer my pin rigs with only one pin, where possible. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Although you're not going to agree, yes, I do. The line gets drawn somewhere based on ability to consent, for me. So children oughtn't be getting into lifelong commitments, as they havne't developed sufficient capacity to consent to them. Dogs and sheep? Do as you wish. Correct. I do not feel that the government ought to issue licenses, or sanction marriages of any kind. Many of the things we view as "marriage" can be created with an equivalent set of legally binding contracts that would not require government sanction to create. And if "marriage" as a government sanctioned state did not exist, I'd bet that employers/insurers/extenders of benefits in general, would be more lenient in allowing folks to extend their benefits to anyone they claimed as family (extending reasonable limits as to the number of non-biologically related individuals who could be considered family). What the heck do I care if you want to marry a sheep, a dog, three women and a man? I don't have any personal moral beliefs that find that repugnant. Note that, as I said above, I do understand that many people do, and I respect their right to hold those opinions. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Honestly, I see Ken's point. I recently removed an advertisement he'd put on this board. The thing is, I don't think he was making any money personally. It was all slated to go to maintaining the ABA site, buying rescue gear, etc. It's a slippery slope. The question is where it starts. The point at which you charge seems like a good one. But perhaps it's even before that. Or perhaps it's after that, when you start to skim a profit. I don't know, and this site does not belong to me. I'll wait and see what the Head Honcho has to say. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Actually, the only person to have said anything was Jimmy, and he was quite positive. No negative comments at all. Me too. I do have concerns about that. I don't want to take food out of the mouths of folks who are working hard to make a living doing what we all love. At the same time, I think BASE training is stagnating a bit, and I'd like to change that (look for me to hold free courses [symposiums?] next year on things like object strike avoidance--unless someone else steps in and offers them at a reasonable charge, in which case I'll likely match that cost). At some point post BD, I'll likely try to write up a "why the heck am I doing this and what the heck do I hope the impact is" and post it. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Perhaps we ought to start another thread on opening headings? Seems like a bit off thread drift here. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

To be fair, I'm not completely sure that I'm not violating the DZ.com policy. There has been some discussion of this in the moderators forum, but no clear conclusion reached on advertising "no cost" things. I'll ask Sangiro to clarify for us. Should his decision be that this is advertising, I will, of course, remove both of these threads. As I said to you in PM, advertising BASE related things, both for free and at prices, is allowed on BLiNC, so we can always advertise there. Other options for advertising include the classifieds here on DZ.com, the classified forum on BLiNC, and the events calendar here. At this point, until Sangiro clarifies, feel free to posts announcements of any free products or services here. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Sadly true. Due to the prevalence of commercial packing at DZ's here, I've met many skydivers with hundreds of jumps who actually couldn't even pack their skydiving rigs competently. They'd "learned" to get the license, then promptly forgotten, since they never did it. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

He gives more time by running his course for a week. In terms of individual attention per student, obviously one-on-one tutoring would be better. However, I believe that a group of 4-6 allows some work on group dynamics and teamwork. I think that this is actually very important on many BASE jumps, and is badly overlooked in most FJC's. Johnny's is the only one where there is any real community building, becase (a) it's longer, and (b) it's got more students. I'm still tweaking things in my own courses to try to find the optimal balance here. I think that adjusting the student group helps a bit. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

There is an events calendar on Dropzone.com, but (rightfully) only events for beginner BASE jumpers tend to get on there. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I don't know. Are you? You're not going to get much satisfaction arguing this issue with me. I tend to think that the government has no business being involved in the institution of marriage. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com