TomAiello
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Everything posted by TomAiello
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I don't actually know. I've only jumped maybe 10 exits in Moab. Jimmy and Marta would definitely be the ones to ask. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I think it's inspirational. I hope I'm doing that when I'm that age. Now I'll step aside as this degenerates into a flame war... "See, Bush endangers the lives of old women!" "No, Bush is an inspiration, Kerry would have locked that old woman up in her house and not let her jump!" Hey, at least we know that Badnarik could have taken her for the jump. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I do that also. RH (the sometimes unpopular one) showed me that trick. That way the tape sticks in place on the F-111 (not sure if there are issues there or not, but I'm not too worried about it), which keeps the whole bundle nicely centered relative to the rest of the pack job. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I don't think the tall cliff by the river will work very well, for several reasons. As you point out, I don't know how we could get Russel to the exit. A helicopter would obviously work, but even with a good jeep and a good driver, going around the back, we'd still have to get him over a lot of rough ground. The cliff is pretty vertical (at least at the top, before it becomes underhung). I think Russel's first cliff ought to be as overhung as possible. Oh, and aside from that, Rusell, I think you probably ought to do some more bridge jumps, and some work on object strike avoidance techniques, before we get to cliffs and buildings. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I actually had a "full time" job at the time, but it was pretty lax, so I spent a whole lot of my "work" time focussed on other things. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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That's exactly it. If your tailgate is too low, the lines may not have enough force, and it can hang up. A tailgate on the trailing edge of the slider would have this problem, to some extent. I was talking to Jason earlier this week, and he was commenting that he's seeing a lot of improperly set up gear these days. This kind of tailgate mispositioning (too low) is disturbingly common. Ideally, the tailgate ought to be repositioned after customizing your DBS, so that it sits right under the line attachment points for the control lines (obviously, on some 5 control line canopies, this is not strictly possible, as these attachment points don't line up). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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It is on actual Thanksgiving weekend. It usually runs from Thanksgiving Day through Sunday. But some folks show up early, and some stay late. You might want to call Jimmy and Marta at Vertigo for more details on this years festivities. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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In the September 11th thread, Leroy commented: I have many thoughts on that, and thinking about it has prompted me to dig out a piece I wrote several years ago, but have only showed to a few people. I've posted this (rather lengthy and self-indulgent) discussion of some of my thoughts about BASE at BLiNC. These thoughts are a few years old now, but I haven't bothered to "update" them, partly out of laziness and partly because they do tell the story as I was experiencing it then. Please discuss or comment there, so that I can keep the thoughts in one thread. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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If you get no response here, try finding a Swede. I know several who seem to spend all their winters in Thailand jumping. Lots of fun to be had there. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Honestly, if you aren't getting into skydiving, I think this is the way to go. It keeps you current, it keeps you focussed on what you want to do, and it makes it less likely you'll make mistakes due to uncurrency. I pretty much did the same thing, several years ago (made my first 300 skydives in around 3 months to prep for BASE). While I do feel that I missed out on a lot of fun skydiving, I think that you've got the right idea if that's your goal. Stop by Twin Falls while you're here, and say "hi". I'd love to see how it's going for you. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Lots of people will be going, as always. I've been to many, many BASE events. While I still need to make it to Russia, which I hear has a similar feel, so far the events organized by Vertigo are _by far_ my favorites. They're somehow able to quiet the egos, still the competition, and remind us that there are some other things that are important about the jumping. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Wish her fast healing for me. I know pretty much exactly what that's like, having once had to relearn to walk in a hospital, after a BASE accident. Support from family and friends is very important at times like that. I'm glad she has you to help, and to care. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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This is a very insightful bit of wisdom, young jedi. BASE is, I think, about different things to all of us. And even about different things to the same person, just at different times. Many of us have gone through a phase where the juxtaposition of life and death was very important to our BASE jumping. Personally, I'm surprised I survived that part of my own career. I'm greatly relieved that not every jumper has to go through that bit. At the same time, I've found some jumpers who have made it past that have somehow acquired great personal wisdom in the experience. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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There are _plenty_ (believe me, I have to read them all) of threads in SC about that. Regardless of what you think about the politics of all that, Leroy made a jump to honor his friends who are there. It's been my experience that professional soldiers only partly fight for their countries. Mostly, they fight for the men (and women) beside them. It's a kind of comradery that I find reminiscent of what we experience in BASE. There are differences between being shot at with friends, and standing on the edge of a building with friends, but sometimes I think the differences are not as large as we might think. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I'm pretty much a purist die hard BASE jumper. There are large cultural differences between skydiving and BASE, and I think that they often create misunderstandings and hard feelings. BASE jumpers who look down on skydivers contribute to this, but so do skydivers who enter BASE without any respect for our (separate) culture and history. Hmmm, perhaps time for me to write at greater length... -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Hook knife on all my rigs. Having learned that lesson the scary way once, I'd feel really silly if I needed it and didn't have it. Also, masking tape. I've played with using the tailgate from time to time, but masking tape is my "standard" method. Has anyone tried stitching a tailgate to the trailing edge of the slider and using that? I know that CR stopped using the stow on the trailing edge several years ago, as Adam felt it degraded heading performance. I've often wondered if you could fix that by just using a tailgate in it's place (since then the lines wouldn't be kinked or turned at all). I've messed around with this technique a bit, but haven't done any real organized test jumps. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I don't know. But getting caught dealing drugs, then voluntarily going on parole and offering to allow inspections of your home, then throwing the inspectors out while loudly proclaiming that you didn't want them there and would do as you pleased, probably is _not_ the best way to start. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Surely after the circulating internet photo, you really don't think Kerry is going to be getting many football votes? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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There have been folks who were "against" him after their local objects got shut down in the wake of a visit by Felix and his crew. Getting a legal object shut down is (in my mind, at least) pretty much the number 1 sin in this sport. While I don't have any objective details about Felix's trip to RSA, I do know several South African jumpers who have told me their side of that story, and I must admit that it sounds like they probably do have a reason to be against the guy. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I see your point; I guess it depends on your definition of American interests. If that was the case, shouldn't we be lined up across the border from North Korea next? Well, in fairness the US military has been lined up on the North Korean border for the last 50 years or so. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Can you elaborate? By "United States" are you referring only to sovereign US territory (excluding embassies and the like)? Would a delivery system sufficient to deliver a nerve agent to Prince Sultan Air Base, for example, be adequate justification? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Just a factual question. Does anyone know where the WMD's in Iraq came from to begin with? Were they left over from some earlier WMD production program there, or were they imported? And if imported, from where? I really don't know the answers, there. I'm not trying to sneak in a debating point. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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I really don't believe Colin Powell knew what quantity of those weapons were present in Iraq. I don't think it's a bad thing. I do think it's a little silly to criticize people for making the same decisions you would have made in their shoes. So, a better question might be: "If you were Colin Powell/George Bush/dictator of the US/whatever and you were told by your staff, who you trusted, that Iraq had the capability to produce those weapons, what would you have done?" -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
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Which incidents of using armed forces against the general population are you refering to? (Preferably within the last 20 years) Some of us are old enough to consider events of 30 years ago "recent". Your time restriction is unrealistic. The govt. HAS used armed force against the citizens many times and I have no doubt it will do it again when it feels threatened. Just to stir the mix a little... Anyone else remember a time when the US government used armed forces against it's citizens--to force them to allow black children into their schools? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com