ROPE JUMPING MOAB!!!!

[Calvin19 0]

Our 1st system we set up when we were in 9th grade, out of tree hanging on the edge of a cliff we called "Flight Simulator" we thought it was the coolest thing in the world. only 60 feet of freefall, but it was way fun. we spent a whole summer at that sight, changing stuff around.

Our systems changed a lot after that (it was a sketchy system, but we still rig it up for just us every now and then, to see if we still have it) But then, 2 years ago, we started designing a new system, and after we started testing it we realised it had a lot in common with the old Flight simulator, just much more elaborate.

Alex and I are pilots by trade, and when we were in training we used a really high budget version of Microsoft Flight Simulator, an actual flight simulator. The company that made them was Called FRASCA, thus, the name.

All our sytems have names, so we can keep them organised, and they all come from different parts of our lives.

IE-

Flight Simulator Tree"
Flight Simulator CIA" (Conifer International Airport)
Flight Simulator Moab.
Jump Program"-a really cool constant tension freefall system, the jump line has no slack, the system keeps it tight for the 100' freefall (name from the matrix...)


BlueShift I, II, III
Sidereal I,II
RedShift I,II
(all astronomy terms)

Wee1Top, Wee1top I,II
(Biological Chemistry)


FRACA I, II.1, II.2, II.3

The system at Walshmens Walk was all FRASCA II.2/II.3

yeah, we are weird.

[n_pertuset 0]

Thats really cool. How did you guys get started with it... just decided to see what you could do and how much fun ya could have in high school?

Nathan

[ImagethisPhoto 0]

The tyroleans had no noticable change after we let them recover on the long ride home.

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I havent rope jumped in years, good 2 C the images! My experience has always been from bridges...

I was surprised to see the rope attached to a Tyrolean. Can you describe the anchor system? Was it cable or a rope tyrolean? If rope what diameter and kind (Static or Dynamic)?

Please keep me posted on future endeavors.

feel free to PM me, since this isnt BASE jumping.

Josh Morell
http://www.imagethisphoto.com

[spidrmnky 0]

Hey all, this is nic, if i met any of you in moab. i just thought i would add that the Wee1Top name came from the combination of an inhibiting kinase of CDK (Wee1) and the cool Topoisomerase enzymes 1 and 2 (Top1 and 2)which cut DNA and hold on for their life as supercoils and torsional stress swirl them around... they're just like us! I know, i'm a nerd, but at least we have an EMT everywhere we go now.
and if hecker hasn't addressed the question about our anchors, they're a combination of about everything attempted to be equalized with so much stuff that you really have to see to make sense of.
Also, if anyone knows how to get a hold of Russel, please let me or hecker know. thanks.

[TomAiello 26]

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Also, if anyone knows how to get a hold of Russel, please let me or hecker know. thanks.

You can PM him on this forum (username: pBASEtobe, or email him via his website. If neither of those work, PM me and I'll send you his phone number.

-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[pBASEtobe 0]

PM sent.

[Calvin19 0]

Dude, you are a nerd.
I get my new base gear in a month, buy my old rig and we are set, the boys will be unleashed on the world. how bout it?

-SPACE-

[mostwanted 0]

@calvin19:

how much time do you spend on CALCULATING forces, rope-expansion, etc. every time before you set up those tyrolean-rope-jumps?

[Calvin19 0]

not a lot, just rough estimates to be sure we are well within limits. we do most of the measuring on sight to learn more. we use a dynafor Load cell, and a few creative measuring teqniques

[mostwanted 0]

ah, ok - very interesting!

how much force do you accept on each of your horizontal ropes and how much do you accept on the vertical rope (on the jumpers body)?

is the force cell rigged on the tyrolean permanently or do you remove it after being sure, that you are within the limits?

what do you mean with "creative measuring teqniques"?

[spidrmnky 0]

... Trial and error

[linny 0]

Super impressive!!!


So let me get this straight,.... all the shock is absorbed by the two cables(?) running across the divide?

That's pretty fuckin awesome!! I wanna jump

[mostwanted 0]

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not yet, if we put up FRASCA again, then of course. but it will take us awhile to get confident on anew system. especialy a tyrolean rig in moab. Frasca was 2 years old, with about a thousand jumps on it.

do you mean, that you used the same ropes for over a thousand jumps?

[leroydb 0]

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Frasca was 2 years old, with about a thousand jumps on it.

do you mean, that you used the same ropes for over a thousand jumps?

That is what it appears to say...

Leroy


..I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio...

[Calvin19 0]

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not yet, if we put up FRASCA again, then of course. but it will take us awhile to get confident on anew system. especialy a tyrolean rig in moab. Frasca was 2 years old, with about a thousand jumps on it.

do you mean, that you used the same ropes for over a thousand jumps?

We dont count very reliably, but the two 200 meter tyroleans have seen 7 different systems, and have taken somewhere between 1200 and 2000 rope jumps.

the dynamic lines we use as 'jump lines' take 50-500 jumps each, depending on how they are rappeled on. a mammut line we used for 4 diferent moab trips took about 500 jumps, 150 of those 70 meter FRASCA freefalls. we still use that rope as a tensioning amplifier. looks in mint condition.

the only reason we retire a line is if it is melted through. (grigris get hot) or the sheath was not twilled correctly and it slips. the mammut line was just, well, old. it still had brand new dynamic propeties (we measure this stuff after every system)

[TomAiello 26]

What's your experience with rope brands? Any of them clearly better in your opinion?

I've had a Mammut rope last for 4 months of pendulator, and then replaced it with a Maxim rope (it was cheap) which got trashed after 2 sessions (cut the sheath completely through). I went back to another Mammut rope.

-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[Calvin19 0]

I have posted a few times in other Rope Huck threads that our best jump lines BY FAR are mammut. we put 500ish jumps on one once, and only retired it because we got scared of useing a 2 year old rope.

keep in mind that every jump has a 10-100 meter rappel at the end of it, in our systems this is on the lower part of the jump line. and grigris get really hot. Dynamic loading of a rope is a VERY small part of its wear-life. rapping destroys ropes quick, and Maxim ropes were the worst we have ever seen. poor impact absorbsion, and bad sheath life.

DEF. Mammut.

Best static ropes are sterling. also hands down.
Blue water is good value, but they have poor handling.

[RJmoney 0]

yeaH! i was the fatty that cut the cheap rope!

word to your mother,
RJ$$
BASE 1117

[flydude 0]

This looks just like a hell of a lot of fun! I so wanna try thi s some day!

Is this something a person can use to learn to exit properly for a BASE jump? Just saying..?

A skydiver's famous last words:
- Hey! Hold my beer, and watch this...!
- If that guy can do it, so can I...!
- In 9 out of 10 this will work out just fine. Don't worry about it...!

[mostwanted 0]

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yeaH! i was the fatty that cut the cheap rope!

do you mean that the rope really broke? jumping rope or tyrolean traverse?

[TomAiello 26]

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yeaH! i was the fatty that cut the cheap rope!

do you mean that the rope really broke? jumping rope or tyrolean traverse?

The sheath failed on a pendulator launch. The core of the rope survived and we were able to lower him to the ground without injury.

-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[CactusJack 0]

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yeaH! i was the fatty that cut the cheap rope!

do you mean that the rope really broke? jumping rope or tyrolean traverse?

The sheath failed on a pendulator launch. The core of the rope survived and we were able to lower him to the ground without injury.

Although it was a lot harder with all the screaming and crying . . .

[Calvin19 0]

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What's your experience with rope brands? Any of them clearly better in your opinion?

I've had a Mammut rope last for 4 months of pendulator, and then replaced it with a Maxim rope (it was cheap) which got trashed after 2 sessions (cut the sheath completely through). I went back to another Mammut rope.

i catolouge the rope failures i have had and seen, could you give me some info on how this happened? a picture maybe? i cannot see how a rope could fail on a belayed pendulator. (i know nothing of your setup) please enlighten me!
the worst we have had on our rope jumps is a full sheath failure and 4 of 7 core strands severed. but that was a rigging mistake (not me, stupid moe)

[TomAiello 26]

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...could you give me some info on how this happened? a picture maybe? i cannot see how a rope could fail on a belayed pendulator. (i know nothing of your setup) please enlighten me!

I've since modified the system to prevent this, but I think what happened was that as the jumper exited, some slack was created in the pendulator line, and the carabiner that was attached to it bounced up, somehow snagging it's locking ring on the sheath of the rope. That's my best guess, anyway. It was a pretty weird thing, and I still have trouble visualizing how it's possible. At any rate, I've switched the attachment point to 2 pulleys (and 2 separate lines), and it's no longer an issue with that system.

-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[mostwanted 0]

this will be off topic but maybe interesting though: tom, how big is your pendulator. i once saw a norwegian pendulator in a video and was very supprised how small the system was: they used a ladder to jump into a mini tyrolean traverse which was rigged about 6 meters above the ground. is this a usual size for base-training-pendulators?