nicknitro71

I got two Tonys. Do yorself a favor and get a Bev. Memento Audere Semper 903

Playing devil's advocate here. Many of you stated that the problem is not the age of the girl but the fact that she has no skydiving experience or the proper maturity yet I did not see this hell raising with any of other death camp candidates. If you claim your only concern is the lack of "aerial" skills than you are an hypocrite. The BIG problems I see here, the ones that piss off a lot of people, are the age of the girl, to a lesser extent the gender, and the fact that the trainer is Jimmy. Many of you are boosted by big egos so you cannot face the fact that a little 16-year old girl can BASE. Face it. Many of you are genuinely concerned that she lacks the maturity to fully understand the consequences of jumping off things. That could or could not be true. If you don't know her than there is no way you can know for sure that she lacks the true understanding of the dangerous nature of our sport. By the way I know plenty of "mature" people who don't understand the danger of BASE, PLENTY... Many of you throw laws and ethics here and there just to boost up your arguments. As far as law is concerned I don't think that Jimmy is braking any (besides trespassing), and as far as ethics go, well ethic is an hypothetical construct. Every single one of us lives by different ethical principles. By the way the vast majority of the word out there believe that trespassing and jumping objects is unethical...and many also think that burning Jet A for satisfying our adrenaline needs is unethical... If Clair dies during her training chances are Jimmy won't get prosecuted (an actual attorney please comment on this one) but her parents or heirs will most likely win a civil law suit against Jimmy if they decide to sue but I don't know how much money or goods the dude has. I bet that if Tom was training a 16-year old boy skydiving "virgin", the responses seen would look much different than the oned on this thread (just an example, I know Tom would not do it). Again, playing the devil's advocate here. I neither condone nor undermine Jimmy's act and not knowing the guy I cannot form an opinion on him or his motovations. Memento Audere Semper 903

So I can hook up one of my buddies with his BASE rig on top of the tandem harness, unhook the guy, let him jump at 500'. Can I relly do this leglaly? There is no intention to descent to the surface using the tandem and he is not jumping from an aircraft with a single prachute system because he is hooked to me. Am I reading this right? Memento Audere Semper 903

I was the asshole with the purple and black Wings who had the super premature! The cost was: One blown main canopy, one lost camera with some cool BASE footage (very pissed about it, no back ups), damaged suit. The free stuff: Stitches on my ankle (free at the WFFC!) (the damn thing is still not healed), free reserve repack (I pack my own crap), free 10-day sored neck, free pain killers from Tony, and the lifetime thrill of almost killing myself! Lessons learned: Back up your footage. Don't do 200 Knts exit with WS. If you do, don't wear a camera and don't use the BASE pouch, and make sure other pilots don't rush the exit. Memento Audere Semper 903

But...is this in violation of the FAR or not? Memento Audere Semper 903

Tom, that was no personal attack, the demented is the guy Mark knew You might want to reconsider your decision, just my 0.02. My wife and I are just LOL about this whole thing. On one corner we have Jimmy pretty much stating that if a 16 year old can ski, snowboard, rock climb, drive, and ride a motorcycle then they can sure BASE. On the other corner there are people stating that "maturity" and a shit loaded of skydives are needed to start BASE. The truth is people died and got fucked up doing this thing off the hook and by the "BASE book". Memento Audere Semper 903

Memento Audere Semper 903

This is from FAR 105.45 NO manufacture covers the use of the approved harness with the use of a sport rig. I guess this stunt could be a FAR violation in the States. Memento Audere Semper 903

I'm with you that additional safety gear should not lead to lack of training or different emergency procedures. However if you carefully read incidence reports for the past 15 years you'll find out that many lives could have been saved if an RSL was properly connected. Those who died I guarantee you that they did not want to fuck up, get low, cutaway low, pull the silver low and many probably felt that they had the right training to overcome any circumstance. I once read a woman who died because the airbag broke her neck so airbags must kill people Same with the RSL, there have been probably few incidences where an RSL might have contributed to the tragic outcome BUT I assure you that in general RSLs could have saved more lives than they have killed. I do CRW and don't have an RSL there. My emergency procedures are not any different if I jump with or without one. For all non-CRW jumps I want one because I know I can fuck up as I have in the past and probably will in the future. Again if you think you have all the training and answers you are in a very dangerous territory. Socrates used to say "Know to know nothing"... PS Only day you will fuck up. When it heppens you will need all the help possible: Training, skills, and additional safey gear. Memento Audere Semper 903

My point is that EVERYONE can fuck up and if you think you cannot then IMHO you are in a very dangerous territory. I've heard a zillion of times "I know what I'm doing, I don't need no stinkin' RSL, I got 3000 jumps, 40 non-RSL cutaways and I'm still walkin, I invented skydiving, so piss off" Then one day you pull a little lower than usual to track the shit away from a 30 way, you get line twists on a 2.4 Velo, you are on your back spinning like a mother eating 500' every 360, you go for the red and it feels like your hand is holding a 50 LB dumbell, so you use two hands and chop. Now you are at 800' and you wait to get stable to pull...splash. When things go wrong they go wrong fast, very fast, sometimes just two seconds can make a difference between life and death. Memento Audere Semper 903

It's good rig closer to a Wings than Jav. To make look pretty you have to stuff the sides a lot and leave a big hole in the center. The ears should not be stuffed as much as with the Jav (kind in between the Vector and Jav). Like Wings it might take few tries to make it look good but that is true with Javs and Racers if you don't know few tricks. Memento Audere Semper 903

DO NOT leave it inside the container wet. Go to the DZ unpacked. Spay, pack, jump. At the end of the day leave the canopy unpacked. Do it for about 20-30 jumps or so. Then try to pack it without the water. Memento Audere Semper 903

At the WFFC Parachute Systems had the new "Machine" canopy, a X-braced 27. They only had a 98 demo and even though a bit too big for me I wanted to try it but in the end I simply forgot. Did anybody fly one? Memento Audere Semper 903

Moist not damp!!! Use only distilled water so when it evaporates it won't leave any residue (minerals that could be abrasive to the fabric). Sweet is not that great for fabric due to the high mineral content. Memento Audere Semper 903

Fill a spray bottle with distilled H2O. Spray the canopy for the first 20 jumps so that it's moist but not damped. Memento Audere Semper 903

According to you there is right and wrong Given my own very small sample number I would like you to explain the outcome of my two cutaways. The first one was a spinning mal under a highly loaded FX. I was spinning on my BACK pulling some serous Gs. I cutway, the RSL was connected, and I was under a fully inflated reserve WITHOUT line twists in under 100'. The second cutaway I released my main at 6000' (after disconnecting the RSL) due to a high speed premature deployment that blew up my main. I went back in FF to 2000' pull my reserve very, very stable, ended up with two line twists. The reserves were both Tempo 150s. I packed them the same way. Only the containers were different: Jav in the first one, Wings in the second one. So how do you explain a perfect reserve deployment after a RSL deployment due to a severely spinning main and a two line twists after a super stable terminal deployment? Those two guys at the WFFC sure got stable after cutting away, that did not seem to help much. You don't feel you needed RSLs and AADs because you think you had superior training and skills. I know that one of those two guys felt exactly like you. Memento Audere Semper 903

I'll take him BASE jumping Memento Audere Semper 903

Your call but the idea is to have different "feels" for different handles. Take the Sigma tandem rig fro instance, that is designed for safety and operate it by experienced jumpers: the drogue has a different feel than the L or R release, the cutway has a different feel and also color than the reserve rip cord. Nowadays you can get a low profile sliver handle that has the pro of both: different feel/look and the additional passive "security" of the pud. Memento Audere Semper 903

You forgot to mention that one AZ Otter dumped a load on TOP of the climbing Carvair! A friend of mine was on the load sitflying. He looked down and was right above the sucker. He got on his belly and tracked away so not to hit the bird. Yes it is the responsibility of the jumper to look before jumping BUT...at times it's not easy to spot other aircrafts and it's nearly impossible to do so out of a tailgate if the plane is coming from the front. Both aricrafts were from the convention so a little talk would have prevented a near disaster. As for the landings. The winds were mild for the most part. After fews days they built a big carton-box arrow to show jumpers the direction to land (as stated SEVERAL times by the manifest) despite the winds. Did it help? To some extent...I landed in the direction of the arrow seeing two jumpers coming at me from the opposite direction, one a swooper, the other one a not-so-experienced jumper who panicked and crash landed on his butt (just few grass stains). What about exit separation? People just rushed out of the door between groups because they were afraid to land out! Every time you gave the RIGHT amount of separation, jumpers started bitching to go, fucking awesome. An example: the DC3 load. We were the second group out after a 8 way speed star. 8 way means a mim of 6 sec of separation, no shit. The DC3 does not fly that fast on jump run. Well after four secs the whole load started to bitch. You gotta love that! Then people were bitching because groups were on top of each other! Did I also mention the lack of seat belts for about 50% of the jumpers on the DC3? NOICE! At times the WFFC felt like a skydiving hell week: if you survive it, you are able to jump anywhere! Despite all this and more, just two went in and both incidences were not due to the lack of general-common-sense/WFFC-organization. I still had fun, but I'm sick in the head...and I also managed to fuck up with a WS jump off a high speed CASA pass...not the smartest thing to do... Memento Audere Semper 903

Hey Omar, The camera I was using belongs to a local guy because mine had a nice 14000' FF Anyway, as soon as I get a hold of the footage I'll upload it (probably ths weekend). Your exit was dead on! Thanks for the video, it's good! Memento Audere Semper 903

NOTHING is mandatory but FAR part 105. People keep forgetting that USPA is a MEMBERSHIP organization, i.e. their regulations cannot be enforced unless one day the government decides to separate the FAA from skydiving and give USPA federal control and some tax money. Memento Audere Semper 903

One guy on the same load blew his wings off. So it's not just the PC. WS are not buit to fly at 200 Knts. Don't get me wrong I was a dumb ass for just thinking about doing it especially with 8 other WS pilots. The camera was a Canon Optura...going foe a low end Sony next. Memento Audere Semper 903

My wife got there with 55 jumps and did just fine. Attendance was down big time this year even though the weather cooperated, for the most part. Some blame the economy but that is just a lame answer. There are few problems in my view. The jump tickets were 21 bucks so the same of what we pay anywhere else. The admission ticket was priced fairly only if you did stay for at least a week or so and camp in. I like the idea of pro-rating. Nowadays big turbine DZs are within driving distance from almost any location so people don't see any advantage on going to the convention. Aircrafts delivery...that has been a problem for quite sometimes...remember the jet...they love to fuck with us... A lot of jumpers don't like the idea of the off the hook parting and jumpers leaping off still half drunk or stoned. This is especially true at the convention because of the no-rule policy. Load organizers is another problem. The Knights did not have the dough to come and the FF ones were missing. The RW and WS guys did a great job though. Vendor's ticket is steep. I was helping Augusto from Rigging Innovations and it takes a lot of rigging to cover the initial 1000 bucks and we are talking just 9 days of work here. I heard that the Aircraft's owners were getting ripped off too...flame away. I actually kinda liked this year convention and the much calmer atmosphere but this might be it. Memento Audere Semper 903

Blown main: 1000 bucks Lost camera: 600 bucks Damaged S3: don't know yet Few stitches on my ankle: free at the convention Getting extracted at 200 ktns...priceless! My neck is still sored after over a week. It could have been broken very easily so it's all good. I just removed the stitches on my ankle. The cut went all the way to the bone... For future reference don't do WS jumps off high speed exits! The opening was so fast that the bridle attachment point at the canopy blew away. Also the three left end cells are gone. The canopy is worthless. As for the accident we were facing the front of the CASA. The guy in front of me started backing up faster than the guy behind me hence I ended up on my back on exit. I hit the tailgate with my ankle and a split of a sec later my main was deployed. I was using the BASE pouch set up. It took me about 1000' to regain some sense. My canopy (Viper 105) was spinning to the left due to the damage. I flew it back towards the DZ and I cut it away at 6000' not to risk getting hit by falling bodies. I went back in FF to 2000' and deployed my reserve that flew me back to the main landing area. I lost my camera. I got back everything else. I had some cool BASE footage on it so I'm more pissed about that than the camera itself. Oh well, I'm alive so it's all good. Memento Audere Semper 903

I guess I must be in the wrong field Memento Audere Semper 903