eipmoez

Thanks, much appreciated! "...I've had to get used to is the dramatic difference in drive between the 220 and the 266..." In what sense did you have to get used to it? Would this get to the point where you have to open higher on a Rock Dragon to be able to reach a far landing area that used to be easy to get to with your Ace? "in moderate wind conditions" Here's another one of those questions I really should know the answer to already I guess... In higher wind conditions, would a smaller or a bigger canopy be preferable, and how much does this depend on wind direction on opening (into the wind, with the wind, perpendicular to the wind)? Thanks, Eipmoez [edited to add: sorry for highjacking this thread, feel free to split off Tom or somebody else] $e^{i\pi}+1=0$ how humbling, an error

Sounds like an interesting wingloading for base. Is that your weight with gear and clothing included? Edited to add that I am referring to the Ace 220. Do you still use this canopy, and if so, in what conditions (more wind, bigger landing areas, terminal vs. non-terminal)? Thanks, Eipmoez $e^{i\pi}+1=0$ how humbling, an error

Thanks BASE813, much appreciated! One more thing I was wondering about. What kind of turn does your canopy make when you unstow one of your brakes and leave the other one in there? I was actually jumping a certain canopy a few weeks back, and the person I rented the gear from had warned me about the toggle settings. He told me to "pull the toggles below the nipples" to make sure they come unstowed. Of course on my first jump with this canopy which was also one of my first base jumps overall (at the Potato bridge) I forgot about this and I didn't pull one of the brakes far enough. This only resulted in a really slow and flat turn, easily correctable by counter-steering with the one unstowed toggle. Of course, if your DBS is deeper it would turn more aggresive, and even more so if you let the other toggle completely up. Plus, your jump environment was a lot more advanced (you were lower, at night, obstacles, etcetera). What kind of toggles, and toggle stows (velcro, rubber-band, tab) did you jump with, and how far do you have to pull them down to get them unstowed? Ears, neck, nipples, belly or below your feet ? I tried finding this information in your report but couldn't find it. My apologies if it's already in there. I'll have to play with this kind of stuff once I can take my canopy for some skydives. Once again, thanks! Cheers, Eipmoez $e^{i\pi}+1=0$ how humbling, an error

Hi, This is awesome. I wish more people would (and less people should, of course) do this kind of thing. Your list of perceived errors does not include the fact that your brake setting hung up. It seems to me that this ultimately became the final error that lead to your accident. Am I right in assuming this? What kind of brake setting hang-up are you talking about here. Did you miss the toggle, and would different toggles have helped? Or did you not pull hard enough, or all the way-down, so the brake-setting didn't come unstowed? Or was there an actual packing error that resulted in a lock-up that could not have been fixed even if you would have had the time to do it (opened higher)? While you may have come to the decision to no longer freefall under some altitude, there are going to be jumpers who will continue to try this (not me, mind) and they're going to need technology that will prevent such 'hang-ups' in the future. I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on what could have been done to prevent this from the gear point-of-view. Also, if you're not too busy, I was wondering if you could make a simple 2D sketch of the landing area and its obstacles, and then draw out the planned landing pattern (what the other jumpers did), your actual flight path, and any winds/turbulence. Can you elaborate on what kind of trauma training your friend has taken? Is it much beyond what a two day first-aid/CPR course offers? Are you planning on taking such a course yourself now? What kind of shoes and body-armor were you wearing, and would different shoes and armor have affected the outcome at all? Finally, was anybody on the crew carrying any painkillers of some sort? Any thoughts on this? Thanks! Eipmoez (edited to add question about shoes and armor) $e^{i\pi}+1=0$ how humbling, an error

Sweet, thanks! As long you don't spend too much time on it, because that would just slow down my Phoenix Pants order . $e^{i\pi}+1=0$ how humbling, an error

Does either the ProTrack or Neptune do a lot under canopy stil? I'll go check their websites, thanks! I'm worried that it might be accurate enough actually. I would think that for anything useful, you'd need accuracy to at least something less than 2 feet. Mmm, perhaps a gyroscopic device to measure acceleration would be better. Thanks! Eipmoez $e^{i\pi}+1=0$ how humbling, an error

thanks. I will never be an expert on canopy theory. But I am not afraid of physics, and you gotta read something while taking a crap or riding the bus to work . I could either read the newspaper, or try to pretend I'm reading something more useful. Eipmoez $e^{i\pi}+1=0$ how humbling, an error

Hi, I've done a little searching on the forums, but the information is scattered and mostly catered to in-freefall or in-wingsuit requirements. I was wondering what the ultimate device is for accurate altitude and position measurement while being under canopy. Consider for example if I wanted to jump several different canopies many times, and analyse altitude-loss and distance traveled while doing different types of turns. I would basically need a device that allows me to download a 3D path to a computer. Does something like that exist? Or do I have to combine the results of a GPS tracking device and altimeter myself? Thanks, Eipmoez $e^{i\pi}+1=0$ how humbling, an error

Does anybody know what the de-facto resource (book or online) on canopy theory, mechanics and design is? I'm particularly interested in learning about the trade-offs and constraints that base manufacturers have to work with and within. Things like: "if you want more of property X in your canopy, you get less of property Y and Z". Ideally we want to maximize all of X, Y and Z, but because we can't have all at once, we decide which one of those features is most important for a particular jump. Thanks, Eipmoez $e^{i\pi}+1=0$ how humbling, an error

Yes, absolutely. I have experienced this myself in snowboarding. I started snowboarding when most resorts still considered it illegal and when seeing another snowboarder meant instant phone-number exchange. How time has changed... With the invention of the snowboard, powder became accessible to everybody (powder is a lot harder on skis). The result was an exponential growth of backcountry accidents. The snowboard movies make it look really easy with pumpin' soundtracks, nice solid lines through the snow, the perfectly landed cliff-jumps, etcetera. What they don't show is the avalanches that bury people, and the cliff-jumps that went wrong. What they also don't show is how much practice people put into getting that 360 or 540 correctly, so that when the time comes to take it from the man-made obstacle into the backcountry, they know, not guess, they can pull it of 10 out of 10 times. In the backcountry, the margin for error is a lot smaller. And don't get me started on all those people that run off into the backcountry without having done a backcountry course, don't bring avalanche-peeps, and don't have basic snow cut-through knowledge. (I've lost a good friend that way, and it wasn't pretty.) While base-jumping is arguably more dangerous than backcountry skiing, it's an interesting parallel. If skydiving is skiing on the slopes, then base is taking it to the backcountry. Perhaps we can look at how ski-resorts dealt with this problem. Because as base-gear becomes safer, more people will take it from the slopes into the backcountry. /me runs back into his cave now. Must practice more skydiving landing accuracy on base canopy first. Eipmoez $e^{i\pi}+1=0$ how humbling, an error

Hi, are there any lawyers, friends of lawyers, or other people with immigration-law knowledge or information on how a trespassing offence could affect somebody's status? Please PM. Eipmoez $e^{i\pi}+1=0$ how humbling, an error

Hi, I'm a total newbie, with only 7 jumps from the legal span. I'm currently trying to make up my mind about what gear to get. My first jumps have been on a Soft Cock velcro rig. I'll be back at the span in November to make more jumps on the Warlock pin rig. Also, I will not be doing Wingsuit base for a long time to come. I thought I had made up my mind about getting a pin rig, but after actually having had the opportunity to spend some time packing a velcro rig a few weekends ago I'm slowly starting to change my mind in the pin vs. velcro debate. I have no experience packing a pin-rig (in base) yet, but that will change soon. Hopefully I'll have a better basis for a decision then. In the meanwhile, I'm hoping people here can add to the debate. The two main benefits of velcro-rigs I see are the following: Less chance of distorting the packjob when closing the rig. (I know a pin-rig can be closed without distortion, but why make it harder on myself?) The rig makes noise when it starts to open, meaning that accidental openings (while climbing an object for example) will be detected sooner. Anyway that was just to explain where I'm coming from. This thread is not to start a pin vs. velcro debate. There's plenty of existing threads about that on DZ.com and Blinc already. The actual reason for starting this thread is because I'm having some trouble finding opinions about the different rigs out there. I'm sure most existing rigs from the major manufacturers will all do their job satisfactorily, but while I'm shopping I might as well try to find out what's the best out there. I've read Tom's article about "My First BASE Rig" and he recommends the Gravity Sports rig. Unfortunately I've also been told that for the time being its manufacturer has dissapeared of the face of the planet . If anybody knows if Dennis McGlynn does custom orders and how to get in touch with him, I'd love to hear. Otherwise, I guess I'll have to look elsewhere. Is there anybody out here that has jumped different rigs and has any opinion on existing velcro rigs? I'd love to hear your stories. I think I should at least be looking for the following features: Stiffened Velcro (probably standard on all rigs these days) Finger-pockets in the top and bottom flap that go underneath the velcro. This will allow you to close the top and bottom flap tighter without exerting pressure on the pack job. A piece of velcro near the bottom right corner (on the face of the container though) and then another one near the shoulder, for routing the bridle on handheld jumps. I suppose any rigger could add this to a rig easily though. Wide velcro strips. I've seen what small strips can do, while climbing over the railing . Fortunately it was for a practice exit over grass, 2 feet high . Pocket in the top flap for the shrivel. No just for premature openings in flight, but it also seems good while climbing, etc. Are there any other features I'm forgetting? It seems (living in North America) the following containers are the obvious options Medusa Reactor 4 Perigee 2 Wizard Any opinions on these are more than welcome. I tried the reviews on Blinc but there's not much information out there. Feel free to add a review there instead of adding it here. I'm particularly interested in hearing from people who had the chance to jump a velcro rig from more than one manufacturer. Thanks! Eipmoez $e^{i\pi}+1=0$ how humbling, an error

Hi, does anybody have any experience with using flaps in the tail-pocket to fold in between each stow? There might be a proper technical term for this mod, but I don't know it :). Basically the tailpocket would look like a multi-page book where after each figure-eight stow you would fold a page down over it. I guess the pages would have to be cut through the middle for the figure-eight to come through to the next level. I am wondering if anybody has seen or owns such a mod. Is it worth it? Are there any documented incidents related to stows getting entangled? Are there any potential drawbacks (flaps actually causing entanglement)? Thanks, Eipmoez $e^{i\pi}+1=0$ how humbling, an error

Sadly true. Due to the prevalence of commercial packing at DZ's here, I've met many skydivers with hundreds of jumps who actually couldn't even pack their skydiving rigs competently. They'd "learned" to get the license, then promptly forgotten, since they never did it. Hides in shame.... Although I have no problems doing a simple packjob, when it comes to hooking up a pair of risers I've aptly demonstrated this weekend that a monkey could do a better job :) haha. Yeah, it's the same in both Canada and Holland. 'm mentally handicapped when it comes to knots and lines, so I always take two times as long as other people when it comes to line-checking. And trying to keep up with other people (to make the next load) only aggravates things. Interestingly enough, I'm wearing shoes with velcro at the moment. I guess even tying my shoelaces is too much Anyway, I had the good fortune to be able to attends Tom's course this weekend, and it was an amazing experience. First and foremost, I met some incredibly nice and friendly people. Tom, the other students, the Twin Falls regulars, the jumping Twin Falls visitors and even the non-base jumping tourists. The vibe at the bridge is incredible. I've learned a ton of things, and managed to get seven jumps in. Two PCA's, two hand-helds, and three stowed jumps. I can't compare Tom's course with other courses (yet), but I can definitely recommend his course to anybody. Thanks so much Tom! Eipmoez $e^{i\pi}+1=0$ how humbling, an error

Hi, does anybody recommend flying to Twin Falls over flying to Salt Lake City and driving a rental car from there? Or perhaps there's an even better option? Is the Twin Falls airport close enough to the city? Thanks, Eipmoez $e^{i\pi}+1=0$ how humbling, an error