Colm

Shigoto o yameta yo. kimochi ga yokatta! Well Japan has been suuuper fun but all things must change. Moving to New York... with some travels along the way. I'll be in L.A. (Redondo Beach) from around the 23rd of August to the end of the month. From there going up to the potato Bridge for a week, through Labor Day. I'll be in upstate new york the following weekend. Later will be down around The Ranch / Mohawk Valley and plan on skydiving semi-full time & learning rigging. As for labor day weekend... anybody flying into SLC who's interested in carpooling and/or splitting a hotel room? Would like to PM the locals... anybody else besides Mr Aiello live there? And as for the other places, any locals I could get in touch with? I'm not really experienced enough for a B or E but would love to: -jump something else, -help groundcrew, -squeeze as much learning out of you as I can -party with some cool folks, -go surfing with ya if 1-4 don't work out don't worry the last thing i will do is go blaze your home stuff by myself. Please of course PM me if you would like some references & info on my experience level. Ryan if you're reading this, I'll give you a call when I get into town... Colm

The111, Having recently done what you are pondering, I thought I'd humbly offer my experiences. I'd like to start out by saying that jumping my Dagger out of a plane is one of the most educational things I've ever done with it. Extremely eye-opening, especially for a low-experience guy like myself. As far as rigging it up, I spent a little bit (ok a lot) of money and tried to keep things "standard". I bought a used Mirage M-8, old reserve, old cypres, and got it assembled & reserve packed. The M-8 is not a size listed on most Mirage size charts I looked at, because it is so big, but it is out there. This container holds my 278' very well and can theoretically go down to about a 225 if I recall correctly. But I bet it could also hold a low-300' canopy. Don't trust my guesses, check with the manufacturer's recommendation. Next, I basically took my BASE rig, cut away the canopy at the 3-rings, and hooked the BASE risers to the Mirage. I put on the mesh slider, made sure to reroute the steering lines properly, and replaced the bridle/PC with a standard skydiving bag + collapsible PC. Packed it just like a normal skydiving rig. Some people have talked about freepacking it or whatnot, but since I have never freepacked a canopy into a skydiving container, and had been advised against trying, it made no sense to attempt something I hadn't done before when the standard skydiving rigging & pro pack would work fine. I was also advised against any non-standard routings of the brake lines. Having heard of the resulting scenarios that have happened to people, I can't imagine I'll ever try that, either. Even with a mesh slider (I haven't done a terminal BASE jump yet) I was surprised at how fast the canopy deployed without sacrificing any comfort at all. I suspect that using a tailpocket, the opening would be a little firmer, but I'll leave it to the experienced folks to comment yay/nay on that. (Any takers?) After the first skydive on it, I was convinced it was worth every penny & effort. You can definitely do it for cheaper by renting student gear, but I don't live where I can do that. Plus it's my own gear to learn on as I see fit, on my own schedule, and I can't use laziness as an excuse for not futzing around with borrowed/rented gear. To me, the ongoing & future benefit of having this rig handy is worth the somewhat tall expense. I plan on keeping this rig and when I get my next BASE canopy I will probably skydive it before I ever jump it. One newbie to another, my only regret is not doing this sooner! I also suggest searching through the archive for Jaap's threads regarding his experience when he was asking questions about skydiving his new canopy. I'm not saying I did everything right, and if someone notices an error, by all means let me know before it becomes self-critiquing!

I'm really excited about my first trip to Bridge Day this year. After reading Jason Bell's web page regarding the proposed expanded jump plan, I decided to finally do something productive today. So I finished up some letters I'm mailing in support of his proposal. His proposal, which was rejected by the West Virginia Department of Highways a few months ago, can be viewed at the link below along with other pertinent information. I'm posting my letters on this forum in TXT format, just to encourage others to send letters too. If you think these don't suck too much, feel free to fit them to your needs, or use as is. Thanks to Jason for feedback on the idea and some useful links. I wrote letters to the following: Mr Paul Mattox Commissioner, WV Department of Highways Building 5 1900 Kanawha Blvd East Charleston, WV 25305-0430 Governor Joe Manchin III 1900 Kanawha Blvd East Charleston, WV 25305 Fayette County Chamber of Commerce 310 Oyler Ave Oak Hill, WV 25901 And if anyone posts some good addresses here I'll gladly write more. Please, write one yourself too! This should be enough to help even the laziest writer get started. Sheesh, do you want someone to sign it and stamp the envelope for you too? Here is Jason's clicky, plus some others. http://www.bridgeday.info/legal365.php http://www.fayettecounty.com/ http://www.wvgov.org/

Big congratz for the first Bs folks!!! That was quite a sight, thanks for having me & April out there, wish I could have stayed longer and caught up with yall again. I'll be back, i promise, with or without a job! Take it easy everybody. Malcolm

Here's my entry. I jump because the government told me to. The Homeland Security Department recently raised the threat level of all objects > 199' to "Hot Pink with really bright polka-dots." So what do you do if you happen to be atop your local object and a terrorist tries to burn it in broad daylight? Jump off, of course. Blind faith in our government, and your pack job, is the only way to keep America safe for freedom. Although neighboring "Allies" such as Canada and "Mexico" say they are cooperating, foreign jumpers are known to exploit weak border security and enter the country illegally. Ok, I know it's a little too long, but that's due to hidden WMD. I swear. Colm Colm

I'll be in the Newburgh - Albany region later this month, looking to get in touch with any locals! Thanks... Colm

Perhaps because they are not as low-profile as three-rings, so in addition to aesthetic issues they would be more prone to getting knocked by steel, rocks, etc. on the way to the exit point. I've never actually used Capewells, but my impression is that if the cover got knocked loose, you would be one step closer to an accidental release. I am somewhat familiar with Capewell connectors due to my job. I have had to release them before, but I've never had to cutaway a 3-ring setup. I think Capewells are probably pretty reliable based on their military record (just don't buy from the lowest bidder! ) but I would rather have a good 3-ring setup anyday. A couple reasons I like 3-rings -Familiarity (and lots of data on their use) -Less painful if you get whipped in the head -Easier to inspect Dislike Capewells: -I don't see how they're any less immune to rigging errors -Extra bulk, & some pointy components -Once it is set there are parts you can't examine -It is possible (though unlikely) to set it wrong without getting an obvious visual clue. One nice thing about capewells, you can selectively cut away one side or another, which I suppose could be handy under certain circumstances.

Looking to get in touch with any jumpers who are in the New York Air National Guard, especially Scotia. please drop me a PM if you get a chance! Thanks, Colm

An amazingly enlightened viewpoint for an American, a BASE jumper, and a pilot. Sometimes, I have hope for us.

Here's just a couple more. probably comparable height. who cares about a wall strike, f#cking look out for landmines! PM me if you are interested in some other locations. all I can say is... a drop in the bucket...

Mm tell me about it cargo over here

LasE/Ik... wish I could! maybe some day. for now, I'm doing the "try before you buy" thing with SportRX's 103 model... sounds like no one has any problems with distortion, so I will contact the company. For what it's worth, here's been my experience with rX lenses... tried Silverfish's whistler model, but as advertised there is a lot of distortion above 2.00. and flying belly down it lets too much wind on my eyes. I'll keep that one in the surfing bag. I contacted WileyX about their XP-1, and they said that too would have a lot of distortion. Instead they recommended the XL-3, JP-2 or the SG-1 for strong prescriptions, neither of which appealed to me for various reasons. Maybe this info will be useful to someone some day...? Thanks for all the advice so far. If anyone else has any anything to add I'm all ears. Colm

Since I wear a fairly strong eye prescription (Sphere ~ -2.5, Cyl ~ -1.0) I read with interest many of the helpful past threads about eyewear. I am trying to find a good pair of sunglasses and/or goggles for use with both skydiving and base jumping, so my two absolute needs are good peripheral vision and minimal distortion. unfortunately those can be competing characteristics. For me, a little distortion is more tolerable than obstructed vision. My questions to the SportRX wearers out there, if you have a strong prescription, are these: Do you notice any distortion past a -2.00 cylinder, and is the peripheral vision good in the up/down direction as well as the left/right direction? My question to other blind folks, is what other options have either worked or failed disasterously (or expensively)? Thanx...

That's a good question. And given the rumors we hear about the NPS, you're not alone in wondering if that is indeed the case, Tom. http://www.stanford.edu/~clint/pin/birdc05.htm http://www.stanford.edu/~clint/pin/balconies.gif So I looked into it, and found these websites. Are they accurate? I don't know, maybe, maybe not. But it could have meant the jumpers picked a particularly bad time and place to jump. I don't know exactly where they jumped from, I'm not familiar with the area, and these links don't provide me with all the info I'd like. If I've misinterpreted them, someone who knows please let me know. To me it appears that there may be legitimate grounds for a "disturbing the wildlife" charge. This charge has been levied many many times against hikers, climbers, etc in the past, so why should jumpers be exempt? I don't think one can plead "selective prosecution" of the law either; if you get caught breaking the rules, ya take your hits. Then change the law if you disagree with it. Having been involved with birds of prey for a while I admit I'm a little biased. But as for NickDG's statement that "we're wildlife too," I agree with him 100%! In other words, as part of the ecological web we must live with the consequences of our actions. Is one jump going to scare off any of those raptors? Highly doubtful, unless you 180 into their nest. Will five in a season? Maybe. 20? Almost definitely. When do you stop? You can apply the same line of reasoning to the extinction of species. I'm not saying we need to rescue every dying Jakovasaur (southpark reference for those who don't watch it) but raptors are not exactly Jakovasaurs. The country made tremendous effort over the last 30 years to bring many of these species same back from the brink of extinction, and we learned a lot in the process... why chip away at all that hard work. Even if you completely dismiss environmentalism... It's bad PR for our cause, and birds of prey are still pretty cool to have around! Not ripping on anyone here, and definitely not criticizing any jumpers for making a choice I would have avoided. I just think that these are some good reasons to avoid doing it in the future, that's all.

I have size 13.5A feet, though found that the hanwags were too wide for me in both size 13 and 14. quite a bit of side-to-side space in fact. i obviously can't speak for other sizes though. I found a good fit with the Belleville goretex combat boots (style 700 & 790), which come in large half-sizes. Not as sturdy as the hanwags but I like everything else about them. I'd like to test them with some ankle inserts. just noticed the boots were kinda pricey on the civilian side unfortunately...

Well my mode of transportation has broken down in NW MO.. no idea for how many days. unfortunately I didn't bring gear, but if there are any locals who are interested in another ground crew member, gimme a call at 8162336192x191, i'd love to meet some more folks before heading to places more sandy. Cheers, Colm