CReWpilot

I am gonna be here for a while, minimum 1 year, so I guess I would make the 11th rig for now. I would like to get in touch with some of the others to at least get the skinny on the scene here (as little as there is) and in the areas around. So anyway... Ahoy.

PM Sent

Ahoy. I am looking for any locals in the Czech Republic; specifically Praha. PM me. Dekuji.

Any ideas on the container?? All the ones I can find listed are complete rigs, mine is a container only.

I have a couple of pieces of gear that I need to unload because I am moving out of the country, but I have no idea what to ask for them. - Dolphin D2, Manufactured 9/96, Very Good Condition -Altec Cypress 1 Pin, Manufactured 9/98, Never Fired, Needs 4 Year and New Batteries. Was mainly only doing CReW when it came up for 4 year and battery change. Since I didn't ever turn it on, it seemed silly to pay for the service at the time since I was in college and broke. I know these are not worth alot, but they would make for good starter gear for someone right off SS who is going to be doing RW. Any ideas about how much I should ask? Thanks.

If you don't know if you are ready, odds are, you aren't. Be patient. Don't use a jump number as a guideline, use your head. When you are ready, you will know it. That may be at 500 jumps, 1000, or you may never be. Just wait

They can give you an idea of what a BASE exit is like. To get ready for BASE, you need to prepare for the things that will probably hurt you. Bad exits are not what kills. Focus on canopy control. Do CReW. There is nothing out of a plane that will develop your skills more than this. It will also improve your mental skills as well. The same quick thinking under pressure you need in BASE is the same you need in CReW. Beyond that, BE PATIENT AND REALLY THINK ABOUT THIS!!!! Starting BASE is a decision you should really think about long and hard. In my opinion, you would have to be an idiot to start (and yes, I jump). You will spend hours of time (mostly in the middle of the night) doing the work for a base jump, just to get to the object and find out the winds are bad. You will most likely have a run-ins with the law or some other authorities. You will see friends get hurt, or worse, and at some point you probably will too. All of this for a few seconds of freefall and a short canopy ride. Not to burst your bubble, but if I were you, I would stick to skydiving. It is a lot less trouble. BTW, I am not trying an asshole or anything. I am serious. I don't know why anyone would want to take up a sport like this. And if you don't beleive me. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=443442;search_string=search_string;#443442

or just in a hurry, or in a situation where you may be field packing a rig, or any other number of situations. In an ideal world, we would all be perfect and never make a mistake, but we're not. I agree with the earlier post, it is just one more thing to go wrong.

Nothing scary about CReW. Your just flying around with somebody's feet wrapped around your A lines!!!! Seriously, get some CReW jumps under you belt. You will learn more about flying your canopy in 10 CReW jumps than you will on 100 by yourself.

Here's the source that the memo was leaked to. They have a summary of the memo/bill and the full document available. http://www.publicintegrity.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=502&L1=10&L2=10&L3=0&L4=0&L5=0

Jump which ever your MENTOR tells you to jump.

In this this post 9/11 era, look at it like this. The feds can prosecute if they feel you pose a threat to national security. Since antennas are vital for the spread of information, they are in the interest of national security, so in theory, the feds could prosecute you for trespassing on any antenna. It should be known also, and highly protested by all citzens, that right now, there is a memo, that is in bill format, going around the dept. of justice. This bill is on its way to congress. In short, it gives the government the right to take citizenship away from any persons, even natural born citizens, that aid in or participate in any terrorist act. Here is the scary part, the definition of terrorism in this bill, is so vague, it could be easily extended to mearly trespassing on a building, antenna, etc. if they so wish. Would somebody ever lose citizenship for climbing an antenna, probably not, but the key word is probably. If this bill goes through, they could. Kind of scary, huh???

Just curious. Has anyone of you guys started BASE after, or close to when this forum began? 1.Has is it helped? How much?? 2.Do you feel you are more confident as a new jumper as a result of this this forum?? 3.Has anything your read here made you question your decision or intentions about BASE jumping?? 4.How does your mentor feel about this forum and the information you get from it? Does he lurk it, post, or even visit it? 5.Has anything you read here made you question something you mentor has taught or told you?

As someone who is not yet in the sport, you are speaking without understanding the base community and knowing what it is like to be in it. First, we do not want to see anyone get hurt in this sport. Someone going out and trying to figure this complicated and dangerous sport out on their own will get hurt or worse. There are just many things to learn and to many variables to consider to try and learn trial-by-error. Whether you agree with how it was stated, the writer of this letter was first and foremost looking out for the safety of this new and uneducated jumper. Secondly. Not being in the sport, you do not know the time and energy we put into finding, and maintaining safe objects. We spend alot of energy trying to make sure that the objects we use are never damaged and never show that we were there. I know of several people that operate our local objects that are aware we jump them. So long as they are never damaged or we never leave evidence we were there, they do not care. Though, the first time something is broken or a pile of trash is left, they will close the object to us, add alrams and start prosecuting, no matter if it was us or not. So when someone comes along and uses an object that we have put hard work into, then burns it because they don't care or just don't know, we take it very personally and there will be consequences. Not only does this result in the loss of a good object for the community, it reflects an even worse image than we already have as base jumpers. So, in a year, after you have been in the sport, read this post again and see if you feel the same way!!!

WATCH YOUR SPOT!!!!

This was kind of my point on this thread. You will trust your life to these guys. You will trust them to give you guidance and the knowledge you will need in order to survive in this sport. Will they be your only source of info.....no. Should you go out and seek other advice.....OF Course. But, if you feel self conscious about asking them any questions, then maybe these are not the right teachers. This forum should not be where you go to ask the questions that you feel too stupid to ask your instructor/mentor. That was kind of what I was getting at in my first post. If you are not 100% comfortable with them or have doubts about the stuff they are teaching you, then they are not right teacher for you. I know I have replied to alot more than you actually said, and it may not all apply to you, and if it doesn't, then ignore it. I just felt that I needed to say it. I know it seems all of the posts I make are usually lecturing or complaining, and I am sorry, I just have some concerns about information mediums like these and I would rather address them when they are not needed than risk ignoring them when I should have said something about it. Thanks.

Not to stray off subject or rub anyone the wrong way, but I want to to ask you a question. This goes to my curiosity of people looking for information here as opposed going to jumpers they know and can actually see and speak with. You know some good base jumpers that you skydive with, so my question is this. Why did you post this question here instead of asking them? I am just curious. I am still trying to decide whether or not I think this forum is a good thing and just wonder why people choose to ask thier questions here instead of asking jumpers they know in "real" life. Now i understand that not everyone has access to qualified jumpers to ask questions to, but you do, so why come here??

One point and I'll get off my soapbox. What can be gained by naming sites on a web forum?? Not much. What can be lost?? Alot!! So why do it???

I hope this doesn't mean you are taking up newbies and teaching them.

Just Curious. This is mainly directed to you guys who have not jumped yet. 1. What are you thoughts on base jumping?? (i.e. scares you to death, can't wait to do it, etc.) 2. Does this forum affect your feeling toward you base jumping and why? (i.e. do you want to do it now from stuff you have read or not do it now) 3. If you do want to jump, how many jumps (just a guess) do you think you will have when you will be ready to jump and has this forum affected that number? Has it cuased the number to be higher or lower and why? 4. Hypothetical- If you made a couple of jumps with a experienced jumper or attended a fjc, would you be comfortable continuing your jumping on your own, with just the information from here or Blinc? The reason for these questions is this. I had a short im conversation with Tom about this the other day and wanted some opinions of the people in this forum that i worrry it affects. I am new to BASE (about one year). I have had a fairly uneventful first year; no accidents, no horror stories. While nothing has happened, I am fully aware that it can and probably will at some point if I keep jumping. This is not, by any means, a safe sport. Although it has progressed, CONSIDERABLY, since its beginnings, there are so many variables involved that the chance that someting will happen is much higher than, say, skydiving. This is something I have accepted. I would like to get some insight from the people who don't jump or have just started as to how this forum affects your thinking about the sport. As I am still, very much, in the first stage of the learning proccess, I would like to know how you guys, who are getting some of your info from a different source feel about the obvious dangers and your confidence in your skills to do it? Thank you for your time and for reading my, way to long, post. Russell

I am gonna make this quick. Alot of the people here don't base jump and don't know the rules. DO NOT NAME SITES!!!! PLEASE!!! Dont' show pics, tell the area, put the name in abbreviations, anything. By naming these, since you don't jump, you don't have much to worry about, but the people that do jump will. It is a big enough pain jumping in the US as it is, please don't make it harder by naming off sites please.

Sorry If i Sound like an conservative @#$hole, but if niether of you have done any crew (excluding your one jump) then before you guys go out and try to figure it out, make some jumps with someone who does know what they are doing. I know a two stack may not sound like much, but I have seen some two stacks get pretty nasty. If neither one of you are real experienced, then you can get yourselves into real trouble

i hope this doesn't sound innapropriate, but i believe i made a jump with Jason last year at another dz, but am not sure. Does anyone have a pic?

For two Sabre 170's, the speed is around 75 mph. For the canopy you are jumping it depends on what size it is. The actual wing loading does not have any affect on the speed of the downplane. Only two things will change the speed, the size and the type of canopy (i.e. two vx's will come down alot faster than two triatholons). I have never done any d/p's with lightnings or prodigies (don't know which you are jumping) but depending on the size of them it is probably somehwere around 70-80 +/-.