DexterBase

Well as the saying goes; A good landing is any landing you can walk away from. A great landing is one where you can actually use the plane again. Glad you're alright!

You are correct. BASE PC's are non-collapsable. The purpose of a collapsable PC is to reduce the amount of parasitic drag on the canopy thus increasing speed and improving performance. In BASE this isn't a problem, and the complexity of a collapsable PC brings risks into the equation that we'd rather leave to the relative safety of the skydiving arena. Sliders are typically not collapsable for some of the same reasons. Most BASE jumpers use larger rapide links so even if you could collapse the slider, you would not be able to pull it past the links and bumpers. As a rule in BASE, if it is complicated and there is a more simple way to do it, we choose the simple way. Simple is safe and reliable. Too many moving parts increase the potential for a rigging error or a malfunction.

You might want to PM TomA and ask him about his view on PC's. In a private email a while back, he listed his preferences on all sizes of PC's. I know he's not the final authority on BASE equipment, but when he says something gear-related, I listen carefully.

I was going to post this when I came online but I'm happy to see someone beat me to it. I would still like to say, have a fun weekend but be as safe as you can out there. Look out for each other and do good gear checks! I wish I could be there but I'm still stuck far away from home. C-ya!

Well, if you feel like it, post it in the new thread and hopefully we can all learn something.

It was discussed Here

I think it would work better to attach it to one of the lines. This is a pretty scary idea, but sounds cool enough to try.

I went to a big "s" in N. Cali. (which is my favorite object now.) and I hatched this wild plan to go off the pillar. I had about 10 BASE jumps at the time, and I considered myself technically competent. (what a laugh huh?) There was a wind coming through the canyon but didn't seem too bad. So quick gear check and I was off. 1-1.5 second delay, 110 degree left. Way too close to the pillar! I grabbed both rear risers, gave the right a hard tug in panic,and let up some input on the left. I ate a lot of alt. with this, but got turned around alright. Now it was time to get my ass on the deck but I was afraid of releasing my toggles 'cause I didn't want to surge into the ground. I wasted the time I had left to react, trying to decide, so I riser flared and buried my shoulder in a rock. I walked away with everything but my pride intact... and my shoulder hurt like hell. A little too cocky and way too inexperienced. Lessons learned; 1.)If you don't know what you're doing, take someone who does know. 2.)If you have 10 BASE jumps, don't do solos. 3.)Offheadings are f***ing scary! 4.)Have a reaction plan ahead of time and stick with it if possible. (Here I should have considered how much altitude my deployment would consume, and factor in the amount of working time I would have left if I had an offheading opening or other malfunction.) 5.)Develop your BASE specific canopy skills outside the BASE environment before you need them on an actual BASE jump, because you WILL need them. Well that's mine. I haven't come any closer than that..... So share your hair-raising tales if you want. No flames!

I tried to start a new thread like that a while back on Blinc but didn't get many replies. Perhaps we could start another thread like it here. Who would be willing to post their stories?

It's kind of interesting the double standard people use to judge participants of high risk activities. If a football player is injured and then rehabilitated he may be able to play again. This return to the arena will be viewed by most as a heroic action. How brave to face your fears and continue on... No one will say, "See how dangerous that is?" The same goes with a lot of sports. I personally feel that contact sports are very risky in terms of personal injury. A hiker stumbles and breaks his leg. No one will tell him to stop hiking. He'll never hear someone say, "Wow, I bet you never do that again." What is said to the skydiver who breaks a leg landing? "Look what happens when you risk your life on a regular basis?" The skydiver's injury is identical to the football player and the hiker. The difference lies in the way the injury was sustained. Because we knew of the risk beforehand, do we deserve the outcome and should not be surprised when we're injured? Maybe because we're acutely aware of the danger involved, we're at least able to look out for it and prepare for the eventuality that we'll someday be injured or worse. At least we KNOW danger is near. I see too many people who are risking a lot and don't even know it... not until the unthinkable happens. Do you too see the double standard?

If I was going to put money on something, I'd bet this is a troll with no connection to the sport whatsoever.

I don't even think he was being serious.

Last night I had probably the most disturbing dream of my life. We launched a 4-way and turned some points. The first part of the jump went really well. We got to breakoff altitude and I turned and tracked away from the formation. At pull altitude, I tossed my PC and somehow got feet low. The bridle seemed to snag one of my reserve flaps and towed behind me. I was burning altitude and decided to chop and go to my reserve. I chopped and nothing happened (obviously) then pulled my reserve ripcord. I saw the reserve PC deploy out of my peripheral vision and to my horror it floated away without the freebag or canopy. Still getting lower and fast. At this point, I panicked and pretty much lost all stability. I reached back and tried to open my reserve flaps. I was still trying when I impacted the ground. I lay in the grass and saw several pieces of my rig sitting in the grass. One was my reserve PC with it's velcro attachments (how's that for a bad rigging idea!) It seems this particular bridle was attached to the freebag by two velcro strips... anyway... I got up and was in a lot of pain but seemed to be okay. I remember thinking that I needed to get to an ER quick because I probably had a lot of internal bleeding. I also remember thinking that I needed to find my main (but I never lost it in the first place???) That's about all I can remember. The scary part is how realistic this dream was. I woke up shaking and it really scared the hell out of me. Wow...

Does anyone know how much this mod would cost? Would it be appropriate for the narrow body 182? It seems like such a cool mod, if it wouldn't cost too much and met the FARs, maybe I could talk my DZO into it.

While family issues and how to deal with a significant other are a couple of the emotional issues in BASE, I think the biggest issue is the inner struggle. BASE forces you to evaluate yourself on a level most people will never have to. Standing alone at the exit, there are a million things running through your mind. I have questioned my dedication to the sport, and my need to take such senseless risks. I have questioned my knowledge of what I am about to do. I have questioned whether or not I am worthy of the task. As time goes by and I get a little more confident in the simple fears, new ones arise to take their place. This seems to be an ongoing process and I wonder if it ever stops. I wonder if DW,TomA, D Dog, or Outrager are scared before they jump anymore. They must be. They would have to be. Fear keeps us alive. Personally, I'm friggin' terrified. Hands shake, mouth is dry, stomach feels funny, heart is racing... but I'm not sure I ever want that to go away. Families need to be made aware of what you're doing and you should offer your best explanation of why. It's also important that they know your wishes if something should go wrong. But they can never truly understand. No one can...

Yes, post the pics!

It's really sounds like a cool rig but your exit weight with pads, helmet, camera, thick pants, long sleeves.... is going to be over 180. You may want to consider going up a size into the 240 range (245 fox, 242 for Flik, etc.)

So it does work huh... That's pretty funny. Not an abundance of seagulls where I grew up.

Have you actually SEEN this done? I've heard a lot of people who say their friends did it, but I have yet to meet someone who actually tried it for themselves. I've never done it either...

Someone told me once that if you drop a couple aspirin inside the battery and let it sit for a few minutes, you can sometimes get enough charge to start the car. Never tried it though...

Nope, ram-air refers to an induction port where the forward speed of the vehicle (canopy) increases the amount of air taken in.

When you say "bridle dump" you're referring to the way the bridle comes out of the folded PC when you toss it? Before I give my thoughts on this, why does this concern you? Is there a potential problem with this that you're thinking of? At the airspeed of a 1 second delay, you will want the entire bridle deployed when the PC inflates. The whole reason for a nine foot bridle in BASE is to provide "snatch force" to open the container and extract the canopy. If you stow the bridle inside the BOC and toss only the PC, you have a good chance of placing the PC in your burble and having a PC in tow or worse. Aside from this risk, instead of having immediate snatch force at bridle stretch, you will need to pickup enough speed for the PC to start extracting the bridle from the BOC. If you're already doing a 1 second delay, I assume you don't have the time or altitude to wait for this to happen. Another thing to look at is the way the bridle will rub against the BOC spandex while it's being pulled out. It will cause unnecessary wear to the pouch. These are a couple reasons I can think why you wouldn't want to do what your friend has been doing, at least not for BASE. I cant see any reason why this "bridle dump" is cause for concern. Probably a good thing actually.

No, each deployment method has it's own record. The guy who did the 98' freefall was still in ICU last I heard, and the jump was quite some time ago.

I thought the 98 foot freefall in WA was considered the lowest. Even though the guy was almost killed, he did freefall it. So what are the requirements to make it unofficially official? (heh heh...) *must be a jump that is not normally survivable without a parachute. (like over hard earth, jagged rocks, or knee deep water) Basically any surface that will bust you up bad or kill you. So, say someone decides to freefall a 50 foot cliff over dirt. The jumper goes in. Jumper dies. Is this a record?

Ha ha ha ha... You nailed that one dude. I'm just trying to comprehend the logic here. After sitting and thinking about how the canopy would act deployed with different brake settings near the stall point, I managed to confuse myself. I'm pretty sure I understand it a lot better now.