SullyFlyer

The folks at SNE will advise you to take Marta and Jimmy's FJC; great advice. But I definitely encourage you to go skydive at SNE, it's an awesome place to skydive. And they do sometimes need ground crew. But the objects they frequent are not so great for beginners. If you have 35 skydives, I advise you to forget about BASE and enjoy skydiving, SNE is a great place for this. When you are ready, BASE will come to you. Just one guy's opinion. ~ Fear is the thief of dreams...

29, Oct.04. Tom A's FJC in Twin ~ Fear is the thief of dreams...

I hit a wall in Moab last October (the day before my 1 year BASE aniversary). I had 261 jumps, most slider down and all but 2 lower than 600ft. I was wearing a t-shirt, sneakers, and no helmet. I don't know if I could have avoided hitting the cliff, but I know I hit it 1.3 seconds after line-stretch (I checked the video). I ended up stuck on the talus and was rescued by the jumpers there. I had been jumping in Moab for 3 weeks prior 1 or 2 jumps a day. In my opinion, the only thing I could have done to avoid my cliff-strike was not jump. 3 weeks to the day after my cliff strike I was jumping the ITW. And my new favorite place to open is 1 mile away from the cliff.

Congrats Tom and Cheri. A child is a blessing on a household. ~ Fear is the thief of dreams...

Thanks for the info and tips guys. It's good to know what I gotta work on to play with the big dogs. ~ Fear is the thief of dreams...

Yuri, doesn't the car ride up the the trail-head cost money, too? I ask, because I've had this idea. I'm a very thrifty jumper... OK, I'm cheap Also, do you know if flying over the bar at the Italian Terminal wall is comparable to getting back to the campground from Smell? I don't know my glide ratio so I was looking for a realistic comparison... I figure you have jumped a wingsuit from the ITW. Thanks dude. If you're in Florida this winter look me up at Z-hills. We'll jump those things we scoped last winter. ~ Fear is the thief of dreams...

Yeah, I'm from New England and I know a couple of other active jumpers up here. The Spiders are nolonger an active group. But Skydive New England is not a bad place to find jumpers, in season - the season is over now though so most of us are gone south already. I'm going to Florida myself. Can't think of any beginner objects in NE. The way I got into BASE was by going to the Patato Bridge in I da' Ho. Later. -Bill ~ Fear is the thief of dreams...

Yo, me and Al are here now, until Tuesday. Plus 2 other brits. See you around. -Bill ~ Fear is the thief of dreams...

I'll be there. But I probably won't be jumping due to my recent fight with some Moab red rock. See ya'll there. -Bill ~ Fear is the thief of dreams...

Thanks for your posts guys. Ahh, body armor, no. I was even wearing low-cut trail running shoes, no boots. My boot lases broke last week, too much hiking. I think Han-Wags would have helped. ~ Fear is the thief of dreams...

I am OK! I may have a broken foot, we'll see tomorrow when it gets x-rayed. Other than that I am fine. I am very lucky and here is my story: At 6pm me Matt and Mike went up to 320 feet (no site name, please). I jumped first. I had about a 130 left, hit the wall and impacted a flat-top pilar 80 feet above the talus. (they lasered me as I was sitting there, thanks guys). I remember it very well, and the video helped a lot too. (I don't know when it will be available - it is PAL). I did a 1/2 second stoyed delay with a 42 inch ZP non-vented PC. Slider off, Ace 260 in a Perigee Pro. There was vertually no wind. My body positioned was good and my pitch was too; not even a hint of hesitation or shoulder dipping. My hands were on my risers when the canopy came out and I think I pulled back before I hit and then popped the toggels to stear. I was stearing on the way down. I slid down and stalled back. I think I was going to get it turned but then I impacted the pillar. I want to thank all the folks that helped me down. It was a 2-hour endevour. Thanks Mathew, Stephany, Nickolj, Chad, Mark, and Tony. Stephany had climbing gear, and Mathew climber up to set anchors. Chad talked me down and Nickolj helped me down the rest of the rocky tallus. I can't thank you guys enough, you are awesome

Matt, the V1 is sick! I'm very happy with my choice of progression. 150 jumps on GTI, practice flocking and control with barrel rolls, flat spins (some on my back

Matt, I'm with you. I have a GTI and a V1. They sit side by side in my trailer and don't fight. Sometimes I see them looking at each other, but that's just a healthy sibling rivalry. For the record: My loyalty is with gravity! I'm not even loyal to Skydiving Some nights I sneak out and jump off of stuff - no plane

I looked around the theater, too. I thought, "this is totally lost on you normal people who can't FLY". It's a flying thing, you wouldn't understand! ~ Fear is the thief of dreams...

I think you would be more likely to get your friend kicked out of their building for violating their lease. Have fun, but remember your friend probably doesn't own the building. Treat it with respect and you won't lose the privilege. Also, where ever this balcony is, the roof has to be higher, get the extra altitude, and shoot video from the balcony. ~ Fear is the thief of dreams...

No. My deep brake setting was deemed excellent by a pretty meticulous jumper named Tom A. Funny story: I once watched Tom take a down-wind landing into the water in Twin with a radio and his cell phone in his pockets because he wanted to finish marking his lines while researching a new brake setting. That's devotion. (Of course most of us would have jumped it out of a plane...) ~ Fear is the thief of dreams...

Yeah, dude. I saw that last night. Nice edit job. Good footage too. -Bill ~ Fear is the thief of dreams...

I have a dolphin that I used a Sabre 210 in when I started skydiving. I attach the skydiving bag and pilot chute and jump my 260 Black Jack and my 260 Ace. Haven't tried anything else. I also crambed my Black Jack 260 into the bag for my Wings that holds a 190, but I got some hisitation on that one, so I don't recommend it. Very tight, probably unsafe. Remeber to have a rigger look at it if you have any doubt. If your closing loop is too long, you may lock your container. Hope this helps. PS. Fun experiment for those experienced in the ways of the wing: BASE canopy, mesh slider, 40 second delay from 5K with wing suit. Still opening at a safe 2200ft. Be careful with this one. S&TA's tend to get on your case about pulling low. ~ Fear is the thief of dreams...

Yeah, in Z-hills we're more like vultures than bird-men (What do they call a group of crows?) I'll be around the dayz you mention, we'll do some fun stuff. ~ Fear is the thief of dreams...

That's awesome work, dude. It gives me a good idea what my red and white V1 will look like. I was talking to Morpheous though and I think the small white part just above(inside) the dacron in the croch will be color-coded to the suits main color. So where the original pic has Robert in the orange suit with black croch vents and dacron there is a small portion of white just above. That white bit would be orange. That's what Mr. Jones told me the other day. Editted to add: Also, the vent material is all black all the time, no option there. ~ Fear is the thief of dreams...

I don't think I'd be into doing a huge number in one day, but I did 8 packing and hiking for myself. I was pretty happy with that. I like a quote by Tom M. "It's not a competition, just an exhibition." If I tried to do a huge number in one day I think I'd have to be alone to know I was doing it because I wanted to and not to show off. ~ Fear is the thief of dreams...

This actually reminds me. Most of my jumps are legal. That is, I didn't have to cram shit into a sack and shove it all into a trunk and run away. I think that is what wears the canopy the most. I have had all the time in the world to carefully pick sticks and brambles out of my canopy before stuff-sacking it. But the price we pay for the sport we enjoy is the added risk of gear wear do to all sorts of funky landing areas. Oh, and I've slowed my jumping down to a normal rate. From 130 in 2 months to 1 in a month. I'm actually jonesing a little... But it's a means to an end - I'm jumping my bird-man suit every day. Soon I will need a very tall cliff... ~ Fear is the thief of dreams...

My vents are still perfect after 135 jumps (most slider-off) and all that packing. I inspect regularly, but can't see any wear on my fine mesh vents. I know nothing about Mozilla, but I like the links on http://www.Ground-Rush.com ~ Fear is the thief of dreams...

Yeah, these are all good points. We were going to jump from higher, but day was coming. Even from that alti, the jumper was going to take 5 sec. but you know how 4 seconds sometimes feels like 10 sec when the ground-rush sets in. I think I would have wrapped the primary and secondary line controls tighter, but I didn't like the color rubber bands he was using... So it seems like there was a bunch of things that may have lead up to this almost-malfunction. All of which I was comfortable with in and of them self, but added up make me cringe just a little. Thanks for the input everyone, and be aware of the little things - they add up fast. ~ Fear is the thief of dreams...

(Everone on this jump is fine and everything went great, the following could have been much worse) Recently me and 2 others jumped from about 1000ft. One guy went first and me and the other person did a 2-way after. When the first jumper went (lets call him "Brit") the left side of his canopy slid open kinda slow(an extra 1/4 second) and I recognized it right away as a self-clearing line-over. This was of real interest to me because I helped him pack it. We packed it slow and neat (neater than I've done in 100 jumps). The set-up was: 36in F111 PC with plastic handle on 9ft bridle and Black Jack 260, bottom vents but no ZP (wing loaded ~0.7:1) in a gargoule with dyno-corners. 4 second delay from 1000ft. We took a loose wrap on the slider (fine-mesh), and a loose wrap at the tail-pocket. The line-over didn't catch so it's no big deal but I thought people might want to hear this report. PM me for more details and please wear a hook-knife. -Bill ~ Fear is the thief of dreams...