TomAiello

A hypothetical: Let's say we have Bush as president, but an overwhelming majority of democrats in both the House and Senate, at the time of the next major terrorist attack on US soil. Do you think that combination would enact a "Patriot II"? What about Kerry as President and an overwhelmingly Republican congress? Personally, I'd guess you'll see a relatively silly, over-reactive move by the government against individual rights _no matter which party controls the presidency/house/senate_, even if it's different parties. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Stefan shot the vid. I PCA'd both of them (one on either side). The only stills I have are screen shots (hence low quality), but I put a (low quality) video up on my web page, and uploaded a (higher quality) version to skydivingmovies.com. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Would you consider Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will to be a documentary? It used only "real" footage (not sure exactly what the definition of "real" is in this context). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I know you know this, but the administration doesn't make laws. It's something of an oversimplification to say "if you want such-and-such a law, vote for so-and-so for president." What if I vote for (for example) a Republican president, but a card carrying ACLU member for congress? Have I, in your view, voted in a way that will "give" me Patriot II (isn't that a missile system?)? Complex issues don't necessarily simplify very well. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I'm not sure if that was serious or not, but in case it was: A stash bag is a small, collapsible bag (basically a stuff sack with shoulder straps) that BASE jumpers use to carry gear. When you jump, you wad it up into a pocket (or wherever) and use it to stuff the gear into after the jump. You can also "stash" the gear (in the bag) somewhere, and come back for it later (so that if you get stopped by cops, you aren't carrying gear). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Russel Metlitsky made his first BASE freefalls this weekend. Using an exit point we can only describe as "the contraption" (essentially a trapeze bar hanging out past the edge of a bridge), Russel, who is a high level paraplegic, was able to make a solo BASE jump and take a two second delay. Russel pretty much did the whole thing himself. Once he was over the rail on the platform, we just stepped back and let him do the rest. His performance was fantastic. This was his 8th (I think?) BASE jump, and he did better than most of the BASE students I've seen at 8 jumps. I've been involved in a lot of BASE jumps. This was by far the coolest, most inspirational, thing I've seen. I'll try to get some video up later today, and I'm sure Russel will have some photos and video on his web site some time. Wow. Freakin' amazing. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Here's a still frame grabbed from a jump we (DexterBASE, KMonster and I) did yesterday. Can anyone figure out what's happening? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Depends on how you figure it. The engine is actually brazilian, but the car is assembled in England. I guess nothing is ever purely any nationality any more. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

German cars? What about English cars? Ok, I'll take it--but only if you give each of us a new MINI. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

What he said. Sooner or later, all those "little" and "reasonable" things add up to some pretty big, unreasonable losses of freedom. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

One of my friends was up this weekend. He just got back from spending some time over there. In casual conversation over dinner, he mentioned that his team had dug up two mobile scud launchers, buried in a similar fashion. They had also apparently been attacked with Ricin based booby traps made from artillery shells. I don't follow every little development in the media on the war in Iraq, just because I have a life to live here, but I was somewhat surprised when he told me this, as I'd gotten the impression that there were pretty much no WMD found, and personally I'd class SCUD launchers and Ricin as a pretty effective, but relatively indiscriminate weapon. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

This web site primarily serves the skydiving community. We (BASE jumpers) are here through the goodwill of the site's owner (who, if you haven't noticed, is a skydiver who does not BASE jump). I think it's pretty damn rude to walk around his place, constantly expressing your contempt for a class of people that includes the owner. We already have a place where we (BASE jumpers) primarily hang out, which doesn't have a bunch of skydivers. If you want to gripe about skydivers (sometimes I need to do that too) let's take it to BLiNC. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I've cleaned up this thread. This web site primarily serves the skydiving community. We (BASE jumpers) are here through the goodwill of the site's owner (who, if you haven't noticed, is a skydiver who does not BASE jump). I think it's pretty damn rude to walk around his place, constantly expressing your contempt for a class of people that includes the owner. We already have a place where we (BASE jumpers) primarily hang out, which doesn't have a bunch of skydivers. If you want to gripe about skydivers (sometimes I need to do that to) let's take it to BLiNC. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

This technique was used successfully in the (someone help me out here?) late 80's or early 90's to jump a major stadium in the US. I also know the Belgian guys used a similar technique to jump a building a few years ago. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Hardness of openings are very relative. Several years ago, I did a 3 way from the Italian Terminal wall. I jumped with PG from Germany and BPS from the US. We opened, flew down and landed. PG had pretty much only jumped Trolls. BPS and I were used to jumping other canopies. On this load, BPS jumped an Ace, and PG and I were jumping Trolls. When we landed PG ran over and exclaimed, "wow, we all had such hard openings!" BPS and I had been thinking "wow, those Trolls sure opened soft." I guess what I'm saying is that most of the folks I've heard talking about hard openings on the Troll have very little experience jumping other canopies--even though sometimes they have hundreds of jumps on Trolls. In BASE, we have a great tendency to describe our personal experience in absolutes. We hear people who have only ever jumped one type of canopy saying that it's the "best", when what they really mean is that it's the "best I've jumped". In fact, it's pretty much the only thing they've jumped. Most of the people I've heard describing hard openings on the Troll fall into this category (when asked further about their experience on other canopies)--i.e. that the vast majority of their jumps have been on the Troll. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

It's legal to have all kinds of properly demilitarized and/or deactivated weapons. Heck, you can buy 50 caliber machine guns, so long as they no longer fire. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I prefer him to the alternative. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Video is here on my web page, or in my folder on SkydivingMovies.com. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Well, if I really wanted to, I could always edit the wikipedia entry to support whatever my position was, then link to it as an authority. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

What makes you think that whoever happened to write the Wikipedia entry knew more about ROE than folks who actually have to know and follow them? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I use them on virtually every BASE flight. I also use them frequently on skydives, just because they're easier than the zipper (plus, I busted the zipper head on the leg a while back and was too lazy to get it fixed for a bit). Nope. No malfunction. They're just quicker than getting at the zippers, for me, and I like to have the canopy time to set up the landing, rather than grope for the zippers. Very easy. I do a lot of practice handle touches. Again, easy. I've used them on Classic II (retrofitted with leg cutaways on both sides, which I liked), and Skyflyer. Probably a total of about 100-150 uses. Hmmm. Well, I guess maybe this wasn't the kind of info you were looking for. Sorry. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

What other canopies are you comparing to, when you say the Troll has hard openings? My experience has been that my Troll opens softer than most of my other canopies. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Actually, I think it's more like voting for a team captain. He's got a team when you vote for him, but he's allowed to change it later, without consulting you. There are still people out there who vote on issues, too. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Um, no. Did I seem to imply that I thought that? Still, I think there are varying degrees of honesty/bluntness/lack of tact shown by various people. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Personally, I'd prefer that they tell us what they're really thinking, rather than sugar coat it for public consumption. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com