TomAiello

Our operating rule has always been that if you didn't need the parachute to walk (or swim) away, then it didn't count. But how high is the center of that span? Looks like fun from the road deck to the water. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

PC101. The PC120 has some features (bluetooth) that you don't really need, and are (IMHO) a waste of cash. Where'd you find the PC 101 for that price? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Dude, big question. Maybe you ought to start a new thread on that? I'll send you a PM with some thoughts, in an attempt not to side track this thread. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Your instructors should teach you to arch and stay stable well before they get you out of the plane. I know when I learned, my instructor made me lay on a gurney and just arch for what seemed like hours. The biggest part of this is probably that your instructor is experienced at maintaining this position, no matter what his student does. He also cheats a bit, by pitching the drogue (that little parachute you tow in freefall), which pretty much locks you into a belly to earth position. Not really. You basically just "fall on your belly" . Seriously, you may have to work a bit on maintaining a stable body position, but that's one of the big things your instructors will be teaching you. You're more likely to have problems staying on heading (not turning) than staying on your belly. If that happens for you, do not pass go, do not collect $200, and proceed directly to freeflying. Many experienced skydivers have spent lots of jumps trying to stay in that position. It took me around 25 jumps just working on staying head down before I could do what you're describing. I doubt it'll happen on accident, but if it does, rejoice--you are going to be one heck of a freeflyer. It sounds like you're worrying about this way too much. It takes a few jumps, but you do have professional instruction, and I'm sure you'll be staying stable in no time. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

It may not really apply on skydives, but our rule for multiway safety is: Worry about everyone with less experience than you. So, the most experienced guy on the jump has to stay out of everyone else's way. The least experienced jumper just has to do the same jump he'd do as a solo. Then, the most experienced jumper gets to make the call as to whether the jump proceeds. If he's not happy, he calls it, and we break down into smaller jumps until the most experienced jumper on each jump is satisfied with the safety/difficulty of that jump. To translate into your situation, I guess that would mean that you (as the most experienced jumper) have to be confident that you can safely stay away from a potentially zooming newbie. Otherwise, call it, and do it later, when you are more confident in your ability to avoid the collision. That way, it's entirely dependent on the variable you control (your skill), rather than the one you can't (his skill). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Definitely. I'd bet that something like a quarter of the folks who finish the training really become "lifestyle skydivers". And I know lots of people just never finish their training jumps. I haven't personally made a skydive in over a year (changing that this weekend, though--gotta put some jumps on the new skyflyer before I head across the pond). I have a lot of respect for the folks who tried it and really decided it just wasn't for them. For example, I know one guy who tried it, decided "yeah, kind of fun, whatever" and is now a world class rock climber. He's still not a "whuffo" to me. A "whuffo" is someone (skydiver or not) who can't break out of their mental mold and understand that not everyone approaches life the same way they do. I've met them everywhere (even at the DZ--fewer of them there, but there are still some). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I'm not sure this is true. Adam Filipino at CR did some tests when he designed his valved BASE canopies. He put streamers inside the cells and used them as indicators of airflow inside the cell (he was trying to figure out where to place and how to orient the valves). Anyway, after seeing the test results (and a bit of the raw footage), I'm pretty convinced that there is a significant airflow inside the cells. It looks to me like a series of rotors, getting progressively smaller, moving back into the tail. The rotors, if I recall correctly, tend to flow across the inside of the topskin, then come down and create a reverse flow along the interior of the bottom skin. At any rate, when you are talking about valves or vents on the canopy, I do not believe it is accurate to model the internal airflow as stagnant. There is air moving around in there, and it can interact negatively (or positively) with secondary canopy inlets or valves. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

The sheath of a climbing rope is the only part that can be damaged by the ink (which will never touch the core). So, um, yeah, I meant the material the sheath is made from is similar to the material that dacron lines are made from. I've never researched potential damage from the ink, but I sort of assumed that Blue Water wouldn't have gone to the trouble to market a two dollar product unless there was chemical evidence to support it. A ten dollar pen, I could see them trying to pawn off on us suckers. A two dollar pen, and I'd bet they're trying to protect their ropes. If you're looking for actual technical info on it, you might try contacting Blue Water directly. http://www.bluewaterropes.com/ info@bluewaterropes.com I've only ever used tape or their pen to mark my ropes, so I don't have any firsthand knowledge. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Sharpies are reputed to hurt climbing ropes (similar to Dacron lines), so Blue Water, a rope manufacturer, developed a "rope pen" with special ink that's supposed to be non-damaging. http://www.mgear.com/pages/product/product.asp?level1_id=0&level2_id=0&level3_id=0&item=610046&level2_title= -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Dude, learn! It's been the ticket into skydiving for a generation of starving college students. With a job, it's a great bonus when the bank account is depleted (and a real savings--packing your own is like getting every fourth jump free). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

How are your packing skills? A good jumpsuit should only be 60 pack jobs or so. With the right DZ, you could do that in a weekend... -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I wrote this piece in the wake of another BASE fatality, with similar family actions after the fact. I'll repost it here. If you are a BASE jumper, I urge you to read and consider this, as well as the complete thread of responses to it: http://www.blincmagazine.com/cgi-bin/forum/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=2650&forum=board These kinds of legal (and other) actions are the reason that many responsible BASE jumpers have left signed (and often notarized) letters to their family and friends explaining their motivations for BASE jumping, and taking full responsibility for any (and all) outcome of their decisions. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com Death.pdf

Bivar, Do you know if there is a legal defense fund for the rescuers, and if so, where donations could be made? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I'm not sure if I should offer congratulations for the success of your community, or condolences for the amount of work it demands of you. Wow! -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

If you get a chance, watch the BASE video "Beyond Extreme" (it's an Australian Video). There's a great scene in which one BASE jumper challenges another to shoot him in the back with a twelve gauge shotgun. A third jumper films the madness. Unlike the Texans, though, the BASE jumper takes the 12 gauge blast like a man, gets up, and geeks the camera. True story, all real, no tricky video editing. You can buy the video at: http://tomarent.tripod.com/ -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I know it was just an offhand comment, and I originally PM'd this to fred, then posted at his suggestion. "Why would you use a retired canopy as your only life saving device? BASE jumps should be made on real, purpose-built BASE gear. The criteria for which reserves (or any skydiving canopy) are built is different from the criteria for which BASE gear is built (for example, a 180 on a reserve ride is no big deal). I sure wouldn't try to save a few bucks (by, say jumping a retired reserve canopy) when picking out equipment for a parachuting discipline which has little or no margin for error. Retired reserves were retired for a reason. The do make good shade cloths, though. And I hear there's a company that makes clothes out of them, too. I hate to make a big deal out of what was probably an off hand comment. But, I've seen way too many people get hurt, maimed and killed by taking the wrong gear into the BASE environment. And way too many expert skydivers think that automatically makes them BASE gurus too, and end up leading beginner skydivers into serious BASE mistakes. Apologies for the lecture. Feel free to flame back at me. " Oh, gosh. I'm becoming the BASE Nazi of DZ.com. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Ready for the lawyer jokes to start? Here's mine: Q: What's the only good thing about a law student? A: He's not a lawyer yet. Just kidding. Good luck on the career choice. It's a ton of work, but the money is pretty good. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

No REI in the New York Area: http://www.rei.com/MORE_STORE/STORE/storeloc.html?stat=header_stores However, Campmor is a fairly good outdoors store fairly close by, which might be able to connect you with some leads for local instruction. http://www.campmor.com/html/about.our.retail.store.shtml Also, check this page: http://www.climbing.com/Pages/rockgyms00.html To locate local gyms. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I own "Freedom of the Hills", as well as several other rock climbing texts. If you're just planning on some basic rock climbing (i.e. Gunks trad), you might be better off with the cheaper "How to Rock Climb" by John Long. It's less comprehensive, so it's easier to get just the information you need out of it. If you decide to take up other kinds of climbing later, "Freedom of the Hills" can be useful. But until then, it's annoying to sift through glacier travel and crevasse rescue when all you really want to know is how set up a top rope. But whatever you do, please don't become a sport weenie. That'd be as bad as being a freeflyer. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Did you try deepening the brakes to dampen the opening surge? This is an honest question. That's how I would deal with it on one of my canopies, but I've never (and probably never will) jumped anything that high performance, and I was wondering if it doesn't work there for some reason. Opening surge and forward speed are two of my personal topics of greatest interest. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Experienced jumpers under high performance canopies loosen their chest strap so that the canopy can spread out further (into the shape it was designed in). This can help the canopy to fly better. The gains are really not very significant until you start jumping elliptical canopies, and even then they don't become important until you get serious about swooping (I'm not, and even though I jump a fairly well loaded Stiletto, I never bother loosening the chest strap). If you want an in depth discussion of it, I suggest posting this question to the Swooping and Canopy Control Forum. Someone there is bound to know a whole lot more about it than I do. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Dude... You've got to be kidding. Are you having lousy sex, or what? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I have been banned from my original home DZ for the last two years. I haven't been back in a year or so, so they might let me jump there again. Basically, I was banned for spending too much of my time jumping fixed objects, and not enough of my time (or money) jumping at the DZ. In my experience (at one of America's laxest DZ's--Lodi) it's totally personal and subjective. If the DZO is having a bad day, he'll ban you for landing out (even if you didn't spot the load--you should have opened higher). If he's having a good day, pulling at 500 feet is ok. Remember, the DZO who bans you is just a person. He has bad days, too. I've never seen a student get banned. Usually, they get banned because they are just not getting it, I think. Take it philosophically. They probably are just concerned for your safety. If they want you to learn, they will let you come back and jump in a bit, and you'll be more careful for the experience. It's all part of the learning process, and probably not a big deal. Since you have a license, you can always just go to a different DZ, and jump there for a while. Think of it as a good opportunity to expand your horizons and meet new friends. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I am not a fan of the Bluetooth (BT) standard. It seems too slow for any serious video work. If you're looking to start into video, I'd get a cheaper camera, and focus on the features you'll really use. Plus, as a beginning videographer, you're at a far higher risk of smashing your camera, so a cheaper one makes sense that way, too. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I'm posting on behalf of a friend who has no web access at the moment. I'm not sure if I should be putting this here, or in the classifieds, so I'll try to do both (if I can figure out a good classification for it). Can someone let me know if this is an inappropriate posting in this forum? Bryan is looking for someone else who wants to buy a Birdman Classic II, to take advantage of the current "buy one, get one half off" special that Birdman is running. If you are looking at buying a suit, and want to go in with him on the deal, email him at: 363ECESEscort72@psab.af.mil If you're not already familiar with the offer, here's the fine print: Must order by August 16 (he'd like to order as soon as possible) Must be same model (he needs to order the Classic II) Must be same colors (he can work this out with whoever he partners up with) 1/2 off is for base price only, options and shipping are regular price. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com