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Jumps from ascending parachutes using base gear

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Obviously not quite base jumping, but I wondered if anyone here had released themselves from a parasail type ascending system and done a skydive or base style jump? Also does anyone know the highest altitude achieved by a parasail?
Life is ez
On the dz
Every jumper's dream
3 rigs and an airstream

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Check out the ABA videos for some footage of that sort of thing. I think it was on the 2005 ABA compilation? I can't remember exactly. I seem to recall some on the Rob Fry memorial segment, too.
-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com

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The list talks about a guy that paraglided off of mount everest (seems like a lack of respect to not say his name, but I can't remember the link to the list). That's probably the highest a paraglider has ever been. John Kittinger is probably the highest a parachute has ever been deployed by a person.

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www.baserigs.com

copy and paste this link in your navigation bar. it is morpheus technologies home page. then click on video gallery. click the video link on the bottom of the video gallery page. it is a jump from a paraglider using base gear. pretty sure. ENJOY!!

-jake:D
Step into my (sub)terminal Playground

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I've jumped from a paraglider before, and know of many other jumpers who have also done this. Treat it much like a balloon jump: you can't really launch hard or the pilot will get swung all around and never take you up again. Also, if you are going up in a tandem paraglider harness, be very aware of your pilotcute and all of the little snag points on the paraglider harness... its REALLY easy to pull your pilotchute out accidentally when you are standing up in those tandem paraglider harnesses ;)

I have heard of people rigging up 3ring cut-away systems for releasing from a NONtandem paraglider harness (connecting your base hiprings to connection points on the paraglider harness, putting the jumper in the same position in relation to the paraglider as a paraglider tandem passenger would have). But I have only heard about his, and did not see the setup, PM me if you need the name of the jumper who has done this.

Lets see... I also talked to a paraglider base jumper about the possibility of using a basecontainer as mounting points for a paraglider wing. The idea was put on your base rig, hookup a paraglider wing, launch the paraglider wing, get up to altitude, cut away the paraglider wing, take a delay and deploy your base wing. The paraglider pilot seemed to think this would work, but that it would be uncomfortable, and not nearly as efficient of a body position as the true paraglider harness would offer. Other than that, I think it as a 5-7.5 pound weight that needed attachd to one of the two paraglider toggles before you separate to make sure the paraglider wing falls straight down.
BASE #958

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There were at least three guys jumping of of parasail rigs towed behind boats at the 2003 Panama City PST meet. Two guys PCA'd, but there were at least two other guys that freefell stowed from the ~200 feet they were at, right near the beach in front of the Spinnaker Beach Club.

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I also talked to a paraglider base jumper about the possibility of using a basecontainer as mounting points for a paraglider wing. The idea was put on your base rig, hookup a paraglider wing, launch the paraglider wing, get up to altitude, cut away the paraglider wing, take a delay and deploy your base wing. The paraglider pilot seemed to think this would work, but that it would be uncomfortable, and not nearly as efficient of a body position as the true paraglider harness would offer. Other than that, I think it as a 5-7.5 pound weight that needed attachd to one of the two paraglider toggles before you separate to make sure the paraglider wing falls straight down.



Corky Ferguson has basically perfected such a system, and uses it quite regularly.
-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com

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Hey Chuck/SkymonkeyOne,

I was there at Panama City Beach and saw the two freefall jumps made from the parasail that you are talking about. Wasn't there was a twist on the first jump? To give the crowd a scare the announcer acted as if the jumper had accidentally fell out of the harness at first...

The jumper was a thin male, with blonde hair, about 30ish. I want to say the annoucer called him 'Johnny Lighting', but it might have been
Johnny Utah.

At the time I remember thinking it looked low as shit, even over water.
Rigger, Skydiver, BASE Jumper, Retired TM

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In late 1982 or 83, Carl Boenish filmed a large hang glider off of Half Dome carrying the pilot and 2 jumpers. They disconnected out over the valley only one hung up for 5 seconds and still tracked down to the first one to get a 2 way before opening. Great footage. Pilot was a great old 10 man star competitor with Jerry Bird's Allstars.
Rick Harrison

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You don't need to do anything too fancy to jump out of your own PG... just fly wearing your BASE rig in the normal harness, undo harness... fall away.

The weight of the harness will pull the PG more or less straight down (drifting with the wind of course).

You could build some sort of cut-away, but there's no need...

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Have anyone done a solo paraglider ascent/wingsuit flight? :)
Can you stand up in the paraglider harness (single) and jump?


Edited to add: AirCanada already answered the 2nd question, thanks.
Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps:
L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP
iOS only: L/D Magic
Windows only: WS Studio

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Corky had a good pics of him doing a cutaway from a paraglider wing with a BASE setup (skydiving magazine a few issues back). He also claims to do a paraglider launch - cutaway - wingsuit flight - BASE deployement.

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Also does anyone know the highest altitude achieved by a parasail?


dont know about a parasail... To get high, use a paraglider with a towing winch. I made it to 3,100' behind a boat last summer.
Solo jump recommendation- attach a ballast (water bottle) to one brake to bring the wing/harness down faster.
I've never seen a tandem tow, but would guess its close to the same- much depends on the boat/equipment.
check out www.towmeup.com to connect with the tow pro, Stu.

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theres been one guy here in the UK doing "parajumping" for two or three years now...just a double three ring system...he calls uut his portable BASE object but thats another story

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Obviously not quite base jumping, but I wondered if anyone here had released themselves from a parasail type ascending system and done a skydive or base style jump? Also does anyone know the highest altitude achieved by a parasail?



We had a parascending club in Saudi Arabia back in the mid 80’s, towing a 290 sq ft 7 cell canopy behind a 4x4. It was set up specifically for ascending canopies with a tensiometer (monitoring lbs/sq ft) on the tow rope, an in-line drag canopy at the ascending canopy. This brought the tow line down in an orderly fashion when we’d release from the tow. Finally, an ascending harness with a special yoke and quick release was important.

With 500m of 10mm tow rope, we’d get to 1400 ft or so, allowing pretty cheap and easy accuracy “jumps”. Getting higher was not simply a matter of adding more tow line for a corresponding climb in altitude. After 500m, the weight of any additional line made it all less efficient as far as extra altitude was concerned.

But two of us were determined to make a free fall from the ascending canopy, so we could put Saudi in our skydiving log books.

So we ended up with 1000m of tow rope getting us close to 2000’.

Wearing a skydiving rig over top of the ascending harness, we would take off, climb to max, signal the tow vehicle to stop, tow rope tension lowered, release, turn away from descending tow rope, throw yoke over riser connector (to get it above and out of the way), cutaway, 5 or 6 second freefall, deploy normal skydive canopy for a fun jump. In our log book, aircraft type was “Chevrolet Blazer”.

Of course, with a base rig, the 1000m tow rope could be drastically shortened.

Blue Skies,

fergs
;)

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Fergs, that is wicked, 2000' is nice altitude. How many minutes did that ascent take roughly?
Life is ez
On the dz
Every jumper's dream
3 rigs and an airstream

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Brenan,

It took only a couple of minutes to get to altitude. The process was:

-driver in the 4x4
-"spotter" in the 4x4 watching the flyer for signals (drive a bit faster, drive a bit slower, stop as I'll release from the tow, etc) as well as keeping an eye on the tensiometer and telling the driver to slow or speed up.
- the guy who was in the ascending canopy
- Two wingmen holding the canopy so it would be inflated evenly
-an additional person to oversee the takeoff and communicate with the tow vehicle

Take offs were especially easy when there was some wind, enabling the canopy to be inflated and under control prior to the 4x4 starting to move. Also with a bit of wind, the tow speed was pretty slow, maybe 10 to 15 mph only.

It would climb rapidly when the correct balance between tow speed and tension on the tow rope was achieved.

After rope release, the little in line drogue chute would inflate and travel down wind. This meant tht the released rope would not "spagetti up" into an unruly pile as it landed. When there was a bit of wind, it would land in a nice straigt line. The tow vehicle would release the tow end, and drive to the drogue end, hook it up and drag the line back to the take off point - often arriving before the canopy landed. Then it would race back to the tow end and hook up. The canopy would land by the drogue and a helper would hook it straight up for an almost immediate take off.

For practicing accuracy, or just for the fun of flying a canopy, we could make multiple fligts in a short space of time.

fergs

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Check out the ABA videos for some footage of that sort of thing. I think it was on the 2005 ABA compilation? I can't remember exactly. I seem to recall some on the Rob Fry memorial segment, too.



Rob's idea of fun at the local park with some mates, a car, some rope and rigging and asstd. parachuting stuff;

* Towed behind a car using an x-300 canopy to get to approx 250' altitude

* Cutaway the tow-rope to achieve free canopy flight

* cutaway from the canopy for free-fall

* deploy BASE-rig

Sometimes he'd do this at night.

Rob's balls were very big indeed.

g.
"Altitude is birthright to any individual who seeks it"

.

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Very cool, did you guys attach the tow rope directly to the harness? My dz's jumpers tried this type of thing, our dzo thought maybe they'd be better off attaching to a pulley on a line between the 3 rings. What mods were there to the canopy?
Life is ez
On the dz
Every jumper's dream
3 rigs and an airstream

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Very cool, did you guys attach the tow rope directly to the harness? My dz's jumpers tried this type of thing, our dzo thought maybe they'd be better off attaching to a pulley on a line between the 3 rings. What mods were there to the canopy?



DO NOT attach rope to a skydiving harness. We had a specialised parascending canopy on a specialised parascending harness. The harness had a yoke from the shoulders to a quick release. The quick release was a specialised one build for parascending. The tow rope was "approved" for parascending. At the vehicle end it was attached to a tensiometer to ensure the tension did not exceed limits.

In other words, 100% or our equipment was built for one purpose, parascending.

Do not try parascending with skydiving equipment - skydiving harnesses and canopies are not built for the stresses imposed upon them when ascending. There are dangers of which will inevitably show themselves - causing serious injury or death.

If you want to do this activity, do as we did - and buy specialist parascending equipment. Get trained in it's use. Have all support people doing the various jobs necessary to be able to enjoy it safely.

fergs

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Ya, it didn't seem like a good idea to me either, but that's bored jumpers in wintertime for ya. I believe 3/5 injured themselves and their rope broke. Also worse, they weren't towed, they used high wind lol.
Life is ez
On the dz
Every jumper's dream
3 rigs and an airstream

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http://www.profly.org/english_new/gurtzeuge/groovy_cutaway_body.htm

Here's a PG harness with 3 ring releases on the MLWs, a back mounted BASE type parachute that's deployed by the departing PG canopy (a la Skyhook I guess), and one (or two) hand deployed round reserves under the seat.

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I have ascended to 1100' behind a car useing my dagger 222. i used a homemade teeth-release for the tow line. I used a 5000' runway as the usual site. never jumped it. the was logistical priblems we thought of for that. but it was fun as hell.

ON A DIFFERENT NOTE
This month of my life very well may have been the most dangerous time of my existrance. Note, please, that i do more dangerous shit than most people in the world. that includes base jumpers. This parascending may be the most dangerous thing i have ever gotten good at. be careful.

PS-figure out a payout winch. Trust me.

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