TomAiello

Experience in the discipline they're giving advice for. For example, Bill Dause may have 28000 skydives, but he's never flown a wingsuit. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

It's a whole 9/11 terrorist scare thing. They cancelled it altogether last year, and now it's this huge deal where the IPBC guys who have been running it the last 10 years or so bailed because the security hassles were so bad. Anyway, they got some pretty good folks to run it, so hopefully it'll get re-started pretty well again--it's a heck of a party. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

To the best of my knowledge, they'll still require passports of Canadian citizens for the security check. If you contact them in advance, they might allow you to get by with your Canadian drivers license. I've had the best luck getting information about the (rather confused) new organization from Jason Bell (jbell@vertical-visions.com). That may be because he's actually in West Virginia meeting with the Sheriff, or it might just be my personal relationship with him is getting my questions priority status. I'll see if I can ask him about Canadians with no passports, though. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Cost is $60 U.S. Be careful getting into it. If you want more advice on how to get started with it, drop me an email. If not, have fun. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Hey Dick, This is really off topic, but, do you know where I could get my hands on a copy of the Risk Homeostasis paper (by Vic Napier) that you talk about on your web site? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I don't know if any of you guys care, but Bridge Day 2002 registration begins 7/1/02. If you want to go to Bridge Day this year, you should wander over to: http://www.bridgeday.info/ and register (button in upper left corner) as soon after 7/1 as possible. They're cutting off registration at 400 jumpers this year, which is less than in previous years. Plus, the on-line registration is first come, first serve, so spots could go pretty fast. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

22nd Floor with wires? Sounds like it could be anything between "big fun!" and "you go first, mate..." -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Third Floor? Hmmm. How tall is the building? Maybe you could work something out... 850 ft? We don't need no stinkin' 850 ft! -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

And Lummy saves the day! Thanks! -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

The hilarious part of that is the name of the lawyer for the state (the one going to court to get her to remove her veil). His name was "Assistant Attorney General Jason Veil". -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I've been fighting to get my image under 9.77k for 30 minutes now. I'm hovering right around 10.3k, no matter what adjustments I make. Is anyone a Photoshop guru? I've tried reducing the image size (all the way to 25 x 22 pixels), and reducing the quality of the jpeg. I can't seem to find any way to make it smaller. Help! Any suggestions? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I don't know if this will help, but... I've been the other half of that situation--the one who got cut away. It did completely re-arrange my life. I took up parachuting. It will probably be better for your ex-SO in the long run. One word of advice. Do it now, and don't look back. Worrying about their feelings, moving slowly, etc. only makes them wonder if you are sure of your feelings/decisions, and prevents them from moving on and starting their own healing process. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Well, most BASE accidents occur under fully inflated canopies. So, it's logical that we can minimize accidents by minimizing canopy time. Makes perfect sense! -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Here's a small, low quality copy of that video. Let's see if I can figure out how to attach it to the post... Text Explanation: The Jinx: Freefall Tom Aiello freefalls "The Jinx" a legal 150 ft cliff at the waterfront, near the United States' most popular legal BASE jumping destination. Tom used his water gear, a clapped out (and repeatedly patched) FOX 265M Vtec, Prism (single pin close rig) and 48" Basic Research pilot chute, each in excess of 300 jumps and 40 water landings. This jump occurred in June 2001, and was highly controversial in the U.S. BASE community. Many jumpers feel that jumping the cliffs near the popular legal bridge jeopardizes access to the bridge itself, especially in the event that an injury were to occur. It was also felt that this jump exceeded the risk tolerance of most jumpers by being too low for freefall parachute deployment. Note that this is one of those rare BASE jumps where a freefall deployment is safer than a static line deployment, as even a 180 off heading on a freefall deployment would likely not result in cliff strike due to minimization of canopy time. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com Jinx2.mov

See the video Jinx.mov, which I have just uploaded to the skydivingmovies.com server, for my idea of an average Saturday afternoon. I'll try to upload my idea of insanity a bit later today... -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Um. According to me. Generally I've gathered information from a whole lot of sources. I don't know a whole lot about skydiving, but I have spent the last several years gathering information (and experience) about BASE. I didn't say that those were the minimum altitudes possible, just the lowest ones that the gear is intended for, and that I'd personally recommend. I guess that I'm unwilling to get on a skydiving forum and recommend that anyone make lower jumps than that. It'd be a bit like saying that doing a 12 way head down was ok to people with 20 freefly jumps (except that the BASE would be a fair sight more dangerous). Someone would be certain to go out and try it. And the next time you talk to them, tell your BASE friends that I said they are crazy, irresponsible wackos, and that anyone freefalling objects under 400 ft is completely out of control. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

It is a static line jump. Minimum recommended altitude for BASE jumps is 400 feet. Minimum recommended altitude for static line deployments is 200 feet. Actual records for lowest jumps over water are below the height where the parachute becomes unnecessary. Lowest recorded heights over solid earth are 156 ft for free fall deployment and 63 feet for direct bag/static line/pilot chute assist. Those numbers are from memory, so someone may have gone lower in the past six months or so. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

And that's different from today, how? Jefferson originally wrote a section into the constitution allowing congress to meet only three months every second year--so that (his words) "they would not damage over much." Some state constitutions (mostly in the Southeast) still contain very similar requirements. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

>**the government does not have the right to impose their beliefs upon us.** that is the most hypocritical statement i've heard this year.< How about this? The Government does not have the right to impose beliefs derived from faith upon it's citizens. Or, to quote some British magazine, "To impose beliefs derived from faith on those who do not share them is odious." They were talking about Afghanistan, in an article written in 1996. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

In terms of what they allow: Most dropzones won't let you do anything but Solos until you are licensed. Some dropzones have different rules for different licenses in terms of what they'll let you do (i.e. nothing over a 4-way until you have a 'B' or something like that). My home DZ makes you land at a student landing area (a bus ride away) until you get a 'B' license. It's all dependent on the dropzone you are at. Your best bet is to ask the people at the DZ you're learning at what the restrictions are there, because those are going to be the first ones you run up against. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Congratulations! Somehow, it seems like the first jump stories are always the most inspiring. Maybe you're not turning a gazillion points, or building some insane 3D formation, but the raw feelings are always so powerful. Thanks for sharing them! -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Hey Bill, What kind of rounds? Were you using an elastic on the apex? And did they usually open? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

LOL! Ooooh, can I be BASEF #2? Can I? Seriously, though, at 18.5meters, it's high enough that you could get a canopy that would allow you to walk away if you used an appropriate setup (small canopy, bottom skin vents, ZP topskin, extra wide D-Bag, etc, etc, etc) and had just fairly decent luck. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

BTW Mac, Thanks for posting to that forum. The hot topic of discussion haunting the top of the lists is kind of starting to bug me... -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

What's insane about that? Looks safer than most Cessnas to me. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com