Calvin19

Quick and related-
81 meter (260') free fall, with no chance of object strike (read suspension cable over valley), I can land in any direction (big feild) and assuming no wind.
is a 42" pilot chute for a 222 daggar ok? guessing it will be fine, but i do have to be stowed because i have to drop from hanging by hands.
I'm leaving in an hour, please be quick! I dont have a 48, but i might be able to borrow one.

I wish i could say it was the stupidest thing i have ever done, but I cant. I think it is the 3rd (Taking a homemade hangglider off a 1300' launch is the first, but i have Video of that one, the 2nd i keep to myself) but those are stories for other colums. I realized only after starting BASE how lucky we really were that day. shit that was low. I want to go set up that highline again and do a PCA with my Dagger/warlock for old times sake. well, i guess it only was 5 years ago.
still trying to get the pic compressed...

Quote

Yeah it was Travis,

http://www.motopress.net/Main/Riders/travispastrana2.htm

Rally driving better than skydiving????

Well, yeah. Have you ever driven a Rally proven Car sideways? or Navigated? Ahhh, nothing like like looking forward out the side window...

HA! funny story:
"my "first" BASE jump"
I was 14 years old, 2 years before my first skydive, and 3 years before my first base jump, and i was very into climbing. Me and a freind of mine had a highline set up over a valley (about 150' off the deck) just zipping back and forth. We had been building simple parachutes out of tarps, with the 4 corners tied to long lines, orignaly to slow us down on a bike (cut me a break, i was 14). and we got the great idea to tie one to our climbing harness and cut away from the line.

We put a bit more thought into it (5 or 10 minutes) and decided we neede more than a 15 by 18 foot tarp. so we went to ACE hardware and bought a 30 by 20 foot super duty polyurethane tarp. and tied -6- lines, each 40 feet long to the corners and middle of longer sides.

that evening, I slid out to the center of the highline tyrolean, duct taped to apex of my 'canopy' to the high line,(read:static line TARD or Direct bag), slid another 20 feet out away from the 'canopy' and tied into the lines. Wind was about 15 MPH, right down the valley (a 4 to 1 slope downhill). I waved at my freind, on the ground 150 feet below, looked at my parachute waving 45 degrees in the wind and pulled myself up to unhook from the line. (to this day on a base jump i still wait 5 minutes at an Exit, 'I was 14')

Now, the scary thing about this is how well it worked the first time. My freefall was about 70 feet, and the tarp opened beautifuly, off to the downwind side, and i swung underneath it. Canopy ride must have been 5 or 6 seconds, and i tumbled through the grass, and into a creek. Got up and screamed!

Next day, wind was about 35mph, my freind got out on the line with our parachute. and set it up the same way, as he was unhooking from the highline, the Duct tape broke on the apex of the parachute, and the thing opened takeing him with it. He ended up about 300 yards away in a tree with a broken arm and a torn parachute.

oh yeah, dont try it.
I have a picture of the VAlley and a trampoline hanging from one side of the highline, but i dont know how to compress it so i can upload it. any help?


CALVIN-#987

'All of this means is sucks to be a BASE jumper. "

-well now, i wouldnt say that

Forgive me tom,

My post was poorly written.
This is a sport of respect, and In my defense i disagree with things like 50 jump FJCs and 16 year old BASE jumpers, or even FJCs in general.

i meant to say that they are coming or are already here, and i think that BASE jumpers will have to organise (more?) to stop it. and i dont know what i dislike more, said problems or Organised Base jumpers. Organising (past and present attempts look promising) would be the end of an era of BASE jumping (if it can be done).

I also think the days of one person teaching one person to pack, then explaining the art of A jumping, getting winded off 3 times and then a nice, sh!t in the pants freaky first BASE jump, are diminishing.

Sadly, No longer does getting into BASE mean getting up the guts to go talk to the Scragely, tired guys in the corner of the drop zone packing hangar (fresh off an A) and then getting an earfull from them, and after a week of talking, (and the proper # of jumps) you are ready to -MAYBE- crew for them once or twice.

Base in general is gaining speed exponentially, and it is scary and exciting. but there is not much we can do.

maybe an edit is in order.
I stand corrected.

but seriously,
(forgive thati was out of my element.

i started base not much older than her . Ask yourself if she has a good understanding of what she is getting herself into. I feel i did when i was 17 but maybe i was to young to start also. I am just 20 now, and i think i had a fair handle on it (the reality) then.

BASE is gaining speed, and sooner than later we will have to accept things like FJC's with 50 or less skydives, and 16 year old Base jumpers. not only accept, but grasp that -maybe- they are not that bad.

The bright side is, she asked you and told you. My dad is still weary about me, i couldn't bring myself to tell him about it back then. At least she can talk to you.

and of course, does she want to be a BASE jumper? tossing antenaes all night and wingsuiting off buildings? or is it fleeting (sadly((hapily?)) it usually isnt) maybe she just needs a FJC at a nice bridge, and she will realise she needs more Experience from planes. or you could hold her to the bridge until she is older, and by then be wiser.

Whatever you do, i respect you for even considering it. my father was not so open minded. Your daughter is lucky to have you. peace.

Is she cute?

yeah, they definatly move. scarry. beautiful.

Thanks kids. twas amazing.
you saved my christmas. really.

-19' F. in Pine, Co. this morning. my car's block heater didn't even help. and i was ground launching in a teeshirt by 3pm. it was 48'F. I love colorado.

lets,
We prefer bridge jumps as well.
but we got sick of jumping at night.

Tyroleans do add gear,money,time,danger,complexity.

but they have unrivaled energy absorbing ability, and 400m b's are hard to come by.

I was unaware of any activity concerning rope jumping in the national parks in recent years. If anybody has any info on jumpers and legality issues surfaced after 1998 i would love to hear about them. please PM me.

Can the Best Race car driver in the world die in a race car crash? Even if it was his fault?


well said pope, Alex Lowe, what a guy. i cried that day in october.

For purposes of a scientific fatality analysis, bad luck should be re-named.
maybe...
"failure to react fast enough"
Even if it was impossible to do so.
but then i guess we end up sounding like the parachutist magazine incident reports. so nevermind.
'bad luck' it is.

well said.
When I started BASE i still lived with my dad right out of high school. There was a tension about it. (as there was when i started hang gliding in middle school) I am sending this to him, i hope it helps him understand.

you right dex, Static rope is much better.
500' is a lot of dynamic rope., thin nylon static is best
if you dont already have the rope, and want to get rid of bounce entirely, I recomend Sterlings HTP(high tenasity polyester) 3/8" line. Thin, light and doesnt stretch worth sh!t.
(3/8")the stuff only stretches 1.3% under a 300lb load. (with a 5000lb break strength.)

the stuff i use is much bigger, but the applications are to.
again, have fun

What kind of rope?
I have climbed 400+' lines on several different set ups, but the most important part is getting a lot of bounce out of the line your climbing,(a great plus in a long rope ascent and being seperated from the object you are ascending) it really helps. cuts time and effort down quite a bit. (i use the cave method to, but Petzls' stuff like the 'pantin' are sweet). (like dex said)
have a good one man.
Calvin
ahhh... BlueShift.

After 4 years of Hang Gliding and Paragliding, and then getting into BASE, i know a lot of sites that would be perfect for ground launching. But I also know that if any of my old soaring buddies showed up at the site and saw me ground launching my daggar, they would freak. especially at some of the more political sites. (some sites wont even allow paraglider aerobatics) My advice is go talk to some paraglider pilots, be nice, tell them what you want to do, maybe they can recomend a hill thats not so hot. and maybe you can get a huck out of it. (ask, i recomend that) They are all nice people. It is just that their sport has been around so long and is popular enough to have a governing body (USHGA) that works hard to open up perfect launch sites, just like we work hard to keep Bs and As cold and open.

on a different note, for the ground launch junkies, Paraglider canopies are FAR superior to skydiving and base parachutes when it comes to glide, agility, speed, sink rate, precision.(all the things you want in fun ground launching!) This is obviously due to the fact they dont have to OPEN in freefall. I understand a skydiving company is releasing a ground launch canopy. I would be curious to see if they cooperated with paraglider manufacturers. Soon enough we will have special harnesses for drag reduction, (swooping harnesses will be here soon, the body position held by the harness on a skydiving rig looks like it was designed to create drag) and canopies with line so thin it has to be colored to see. and we will have gone in a circle. we will be paragliding. Evolution.

Paragliders can fly at 15 kph or 80 kph. they sink at less than 50meters per minute. I have seen paragliders surf/swoop (toe in the water), no wind for 100 meters. Some manufacturers are experimenting with building canopies with no stitching, and no welding. simply weaving the canopy fabric together. we can learn a lot from paragliders.

Kinda nervous to put this up.
hopefully everybody else is bored with this forum already

Matt "Calvin" Hecker
Age: 20
Height and weight: 5’8, 150 lbs
Birthplace: Denver, CO
Marital status: Girls!? Where!?
Occupation: pilot, MSCD student, dreamer
Hobbies: BASE, Skydiving, Flying, Rope Jumping, hang gliding, Slacklining, Arborist, Basically anything that separates me from the ground and/or includes great visuals through relative motion.

Harness and container: Vertigo Warlock
Parachute: D-222
Home dropzone: Longmont and Brush, CO.
Records or awards: The last I can remember is a science fair in grade school.

Pet peeves: friends burning out.
What is your favorite quote: “Stormclouds have a funny way of keeping a watchful eye over arrogant men” - R. Bach

What is your philosophy on life: Whoa… I can barely vote, but, in the spirit of this cool forum: Everything Beautiful is Dangerous… How far are you willing to go?- CH

What is something most people don’t know about you? I wish I could have a Vampire girlfriend.

Who has inspired you in BASE jumping? D.D., N.K., C.P., K.S, H.C., D.P., Chad, Blake, Adam, B, any jumper stopped to talk to me as I sat watching hero after hero go off tombstone for hours, long before I was ready to join them. The boys and girls of Continuum 1. I wore out the VHS tape. Now I have the DVDs, and am honored to be in C2. And, Of course, a cute UK winsuit pilot, thanks W.

What is your most memorable BASE jumping moment? Standing at the bottom of a local A that I have yet to jump, looking up at 2000’ of steel. Watching flashing white lights in black sky, disappearing intermittently through waves of fog, feeling the vibration of the wind in the lowest wire group anchor, and walking away. knowing the 3 hour drive was worth it anyway . . .*sigh*
or- maybe climbing over the rail in twin falls for my first base jump and my partner telling me to go NOW because her camera is running out of batteries.
-maybe Nick doing a gainer next to me on a “quick” rigged rope/base jump 2-way.

Describe Calvin in five words or less: Oh! The adventures to be had…

I BASE jump because… I don’t know, I see Base jumping not just as just a sport, but as part of a massive psychological and philosophical experiment. Looking sometimes dangerously far into to the human psych, in search of something so beautiful and well hidden, I can only assume it must be the soul.

On a different note, I love pushers. Pushers are the kids who are out there exploring the new edges of any sport they are in, I have tried my hand in a fair pool of cutting edge sports. And I have never seen a more creative and diverse group of people. They are, every day, finding new more beautiful ways to fly. There is more potential here than anything I have come across. I will be here a while.

However, mostly I Base jump by default. It was BASE, or tow-in big wave surfing. And I was born 4 hours from Moab. Maybe in a few years I will move to the pacific.

no expert but i do have some time...

keep in mind helicopters usualy can't stay in a stationary hover when at high altitudes (due to air density. different for every chopper) just be sure your pilot is not already doing 60 knots when you exit for a 3 second delay! (yes, i know the vert+horizontal speeds build and decay independantly)
sounds like fun.

"suicide without doing it... "
A curiosity of my own, (and only that). but i hardly see it voiced much. well put. just wanted to say 'Cheers.

this canopy complex i need to understand. what i have gathered so far...
canopies trimed nose low, this means fast forward speed,and poor flare capabilities because of canopy distortion in brakes.

All lines shorter, turn/dive recovery fast (and predictable?)

I have flown standard triathalon and spectre 135's with no problems, how different is a lightning 143 from these? is the problem with a greenie on a small canopy when relative or on landing?

thanks again

Be careful my friends... you will conquer the sky, but the birds will lose their wonder.

now that i have thought about it, a crispy 143 sounds nice, and i can always add weight. of course, i need to come up with a canopy to use in the meantime and 800 american for the deposite. thanks for your help, any needs on colors? (center cell different color? if its not vital, i would prefer it not be.


"I was wondering why the frisbie was getting bigger, then it hit me..."

Calvin

I am new to the crw world, but know i want in. I have yet to do any contact, and i need some help finding gear. exit weight is 170lbs.
anybody got a 126?
I looked in the classifieds and all there was was some hoser up north that didn't reply and the other guy is on the other side of the world. I was hopeing you kids checked this sometimes.
250 freefly/rw jumps.
based in longmont Colorado or Brush Colorado.
hope to fly with you soon.