TomAiello

Don't feel bad. There's an Aussie BASE jumper who special orders all his gear in pink, because "pink is a tuff (unts color." -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

The band was called "The Flies". I don't really remember the song. Hmmm. Maybe it was that "Got you where I want you..." bit. Not sure. Anyway, the guy (his name was Nicky, as I recall), and the song are both on the Flyboyz Party Mix. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I jumped with a guy from Perris a couple years ago who was in a band. They had just hit their 10 minutes of fame at the time (he proved it by turning on the radio and waiting about 15 minutes for their song). I don't really follow pop music much, so I'm not sure how he made out after that. I think he was the only skydiver in the band though. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Hmmm. My best guess is: yim666 can't seem to hook up with any. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Now, watch me get flamed... This is probably not the method recommended by your manufacturer. However (everyone with the flame throwers, please note) this is the method that my canopy manufacturer recommends for attaching toggles. 1) Figure out where you want the toggle. 2) Tie a figure eight, or other solid, non-slipping knot (larger than your grommet) just above that point. 3) Bend the steering line over just above the knot. 4) Slip the loop (bend in the line) through the grommet on the toggle. 5) Pull through several inches of line (still in a loop). 6) Slide the toggle through the loop. 7) Pull the steering line back through the grommet until it goes tight. You should end up with a loop of your line wrapped around your toggle, held in place by the knot. This method gives me easy to move toggles (I have to move mine between two different positions quite frequently, depending on the type of jump), and has never slipped for me. Note that my lines are Dacron. Spectra and Vectran are probably slicker (as well as thinner) so you should be very sure of the knot you use if you are trying this on Spectra or Vectran lines. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Almost everyone I know uses a digital altimeter watch (Suunto is the most popular brand, but I've seen several others). They seem to be very accurate, but only sample every 30 seconds or so, making their utility in freefall almost non-existent (we use them on the way up, to estimate altitude, rather than on the way down). Hope this helps. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Got this email from Kim today: ... BirdMan headquarters will be closed 31 July - 15 August. Jari and I are flying at the Hercules Boogie in Sweden. Feel free to email, fax or leave phone messages - they will be retrieved when I return and replied to soon there after. If you are sending an email regarding the BirdMan Buddy Deal, don't worry, as long as your order is dated on or before 16 August, you will get the special rate. For details on the Buddy Deal, see www.bird-man.com Read you soon. Blue skies, long soars... Kim ... I assume that means that no one is back in the office yet, because her email is giving out automated responses. I believe the buddy deal ended on 15 August, but I don't know for sure. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Yep. Digital video shot by Tom Sanders (Aerial Focus). I've got a VHS copy. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Well, it wasn't actually skydiving (I've never been hurt out of a plane), but... See attached. That's my spinal column. The accident involved a loss of altitude awareness, pitching at 80 feet, three factured vertebrae and an exploded large intestine. The recovery involved two weeks in ICU, 18 hours in neurosurgery, two months in the hospital, a dozen intestinal surgeries, three months with nasty appliances attached to my body, and six months of physical therapy. Jump from the cliff to fly, but only if you're willing to accept the consequences. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Clearly, you've never been to Tahoe. That's where the majority of canopies have corporate logos on them. Hmmm, don't like Red Bull? How about a Sobe canopy? No, well then how about... -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I'm giving up jumping on my birthday. Last year, on my 29th birthday, I had an object strike (two, actually, about six seconds apart). This year, I snivelled into the ground, and had to be life flighted off the talus with a fractured vertebrae. Next year, I'm just staying home and getting drunk... -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

My first guess is surface area. I think that you probably get more surface area on your feet by turning them out. I think it also effects your leg position somewhat, possibly increasing "effective" surface area (perhaps a small gap between your legs is actually an effective increase in surface area, because air can't flow between the narrow gap). This is all very speculative, though, as I am a horrible tracker. If you really want a serious discussion about it, I'd recommend posting to BLiNC, or just finding a Norge BASE jumper and asking them. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I know I'm kind of late adding my two cents to this thread, but here goes. The reason I started reporting BASE fatalities on DZ.com was that I don't believe that most skydivers understand the level of risk associated with BASE. We (BASE jumpers) have seen a great many fatalities (about half of modern BASE fatalities) wherein the deceased party, their family and their friends did not realize the risks they were taking. The problem is that, although most BASE jumpers understand how dangerous out sport is, many skydivers (who represent virtually the entire student pool for us) do not. That leads to skydivers getting hurt or killed in their first few jumps, and their friends (and family) accusing (often in a legal setting) BASE jumpers of "misleading" them as regards the risks involved. The problem is bad enough that "skydiver" is an insult to many BASE jumpers. I felt that posting BASE accident reports on a skydiving forum (such as DZ.com) could help to make skydivers aware of the dangers inherent in BASE, and how much greater they are than other parachuting disciplines. Too many times, we see beginners who think "well, I've tried RW, CRW and Freefly, I guess BASE is the next step--it's just another type of skydiving." There are definitely BASE expeditions that foster this mentality (you can hire a guide to Angel Falls, Kjerag or Arco with 150 skydives, a skydiving rig, and an inadequate appreciation of the risk). In short, I wanted to help make people aware of the dangers involved in BASE before they went on a "skydiving" vacation to Norway, Idaho, or some other BASE site. I know I've already said much of this via PM to some people, but I thought I ought to post it here for anyone else who was following this thread. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I was a serious rock climber (lived in my truck climbing for a year and a half). One day, we're finishing up a long route on a big wall in a famous national park. We see these two guys go flying past. My jaw drops. I turn to my partner. "I've got to try that." The rest, is history (well, actually it's research, training, practice, serious expenditure, finding an instructor, and a whole lot of fun). I think about it every time I hop off that big stone. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Ask them to buy you a Cypress... "Dad, I started doing this head down stuff, and I'm worried I might get knocked unconscious. I know I should buy this extra piece of safety gear, but I can't really afford it...." It worked for me! -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Hey, how'd you know what we had on tap for that weekend? Wanna come? Um, that's a joke. No one has ever jumped that tower, no one ever will, and if they did I wouldn't know them. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

"If you ever fall off the Sears Tower, track as hard as you can because, hey, if you're going anyway, you might as well go big." -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Sarcasm/Joke Alert Here's the law your looking for: Everyone has to marry and have children with someone of a different ethnicity. In one generation, everyone looks like a typically Californian. Affirmative action is no longer necessary, because we can't tell who would qualify anyway. I think Tiger Woods owes me some of his winnings, because one of his ancestors oppressed one of my ancestors (or was it the other way around? I forget). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I used this one: http://www01.bhphotovideo.com/default.sph/FrameWork.class?FNC=ProductActivator__Aproductlist_html___124579___KEKUW042M___REG___CatID=2102___SID=EFF51047130 for a long time, and was quite happy with it. I now use this one: http://www.generationfreefly.com/diamond.3/index.html Which was much more expensive, but I like it a bit more for snag and profile issues (no real preference on video quality). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

http://auburnjournal.com/archives/index.inn?loc=detail&doc=/2002/August/09-172-NEWS1.TXT -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

My ancestors were both slave owners and slaves. Some of my other ancestors were living in North Africa and the Phillipines at the time. Who do I pay reparations to? Myself? Who do I collect them from? Myself? Ancestral, collective guilt is a concept for Catholics. I stopped being a Catholic about 15 years ago. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I just saw it tonight (drank a toast to Harry on his last stunt). I was actually quite impressed. I was only watching it for Tim's cool Corvette flick. I expected a kind of silly movie being used as a vehicle for cool stunts. It went well past my expectations. I thought it was at least as good as your average Bond flick. I'm kind of hoping Vin Diesel starts a XXX franchise to rival 007. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

My emergency procedure involves double riser input (front and back) on the same side of the canopy. This yields a quick, but flat turn, with very little forward motion. I've never tried opposite sides (I'd think that would cancel the turn out and make it a sink), but I do know that combining front and rear riser input gives a flat, sinking turn, with no noticeable dive. So, I don't really think it'd be that much fun, in your case. Sounds like a great exercise for learning the flight envelope of your canopy, though. Have fun. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

The legal situation in National Parks (like Lake Powell) is actually getting worse, rather than better. The NPS recently added language to the CFR stating that "BASE" or "Fixed Object Parachuting" was a specifically prohibited activity. Like you, I'd love to see Lake Powell, Yosemite, and all those places in NPS land allow jumping again. But it's going to be a long battle to get there. I guess that's why I spend so much time on BLM land. The NPS is (in my opinion) a powerful argument for voting Republican (as the Republicans keep trying to trim land off the Parks and give them to the BLM, which allows jumping, while the Democrats [and the Sierra Club, and other conservation groups] are forever trying to "Parkize" BLM lands). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

To my knowledge, all the US BASE manufacturers have moved their courses to our legal 486' span. I don't think anyone is still holding their course in California. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com