JaapSuter

I shot some video today of what I believe was a big factor in my recent incident. This pilotchute packjob combined with a less-than-ideal throw, can lead to unbeatable groundrush... This video only shows what myself and a few others believe is not a good way of packing a pilotchute for base jumping. It does not show how to do a good one. I don't believe that somebody with my level of experience should present himself online showing how to do a mushroom or super-mushroom. Ask your mentor or a manufacterer if you have questions about how to do it properly. Windows Media (2720kb): http://www.jaapsuter.com/do_not_share/dead_jaap_pack.wmv I hope it is useful to somebody. I tried making a Quicktime version too, but I can't get it small enough and maintain a reasonable quality. My apologies. Cheers, Jaap

Jaap and Ted's Excellent Adventure

Speaking of which; did you put a tailgate on before you went downstairs with that girl? Dead Jaap; shaken, but not stirred.

Quoting myself from another thread: Are there any other experienced jumpers that want to comment on these thoughts, or on pitching techniques in general? Cheers, Jaap

I just reread my post and realized how women-unfriendly my description of the past six days must seem to readers. Rest assured that we were just as men-unfriendly, with much mano-a-mano pillaging, flagellation and the ocassional inapropriate remarks.

Warning, this post contains display of male-to-male affection, sharing of emotions and other romantic appreciation. Homophobes, misanthropes and bowling fanatics, be forewarned and flame away! I just got home this morning from the most incredible six days in my life. I don't think my life has been very boring up to this point, but the past few days have been a ride that I will never forget. I always write a little story about each jump in my logbook, and here's the one that will accompany my recent jumps at the potato bridge. I figured I'd share it here, because it accurately describes why I base jump. Why I BASE jump My plane left Seattle at six in the morning. I had to take the bus from Vancouver the night before, so I had to spend the night somewhere. I dropped DexterBASE and KMonster a PM, knowing they lived in the area. Maybe I could drop by and visit a relatively easy local object. What I got went far and above the call of duty. Not only did they pick me up from the airport, drove me to their home, then to the object, didn't complain when I decided the winds were too strong, drove back and offered me a place to stay.... They woke up at 4:30am to personally drop me off at the airport! What other sport has people that would do such a thing? Thanks guys, that was amazing! SBCmac was right in this thread Shortly after arriving in Twin Falls I met another number of people I had previously only communicated with through Dropzone.com. Like a real internet blind-date, there is always some initial hesitation and holding back of emotions. This time however, it took us about five minutes to turn into a group of people that behaved as if we had known each other for ever. Case in point; third jump of the day, Abbie is on the bridge and I'm about to do a rear-floater. I start my count down, three, two, and pause.... "Hey abbie..." Then I jump and scream.... "I F'ed your mom!" Okay, that's not that funny, I agree, but here's the best part. After my jump, Abbie does a two-way with Collin. They exit, and in mid-air Abbie says, with the driest possible voice... "Hey Collin..." ... "Jaap F'ed my mom! I knew Abbie about 24 hours by that point, and instead of punching me in the face, he acknowledged that I had slept with his mom. (she's pretty hot, by the way) After that jump we had to hike back up. We all agree that we're pretty damn hungry, and decide to go for pizza. When we get to the top though, a young attractive pizza girl is already waiting for us with two pizza's. Initially we guess that one of us was smart enough to cellphone ahead and order, but instead she says: "Is any of you Marty?" Well, there was no Marty in our group nor was there a Marty anywhere close to the bridge. So instead we decided to buy the pizza off of her, effectively stealing it from Marty. Imagine that! Having fresh pizza delivered to the bridge right as you climb over that brick wall. A blessing! Meanwhile, some of us are chatting up to this girl and invite her over to a party at Tom's place that Tom himself didn't even know about yet. Then we find out she's still in highschool though. After she gives us her phone-number and walks away, one of us screams: "How old are you?" What followed can only be explained as the horniest expression of the number eighteen I have ever heard. She turns around with total excitement screaming: "EIGHTEEN!", but really saying: "I'm only sixteen, but don't worry guys, I'll take each and every one of you that night as long as you get me drunk first!" Twin falls girls... crazy! Later that night, a group of six base jumpers spend some time in the outback, drinking beers and margerita's. Some are trying to pry a phone-number of a cute waitress. At one point, this girl comes over to grab six of our finished beer glasses, and precisely as she is holding them at nipple height, Jason points out: "nice jugs..." That was probably the most intelligent joke of the entire trip, and in hindsight I don't think it got quite the appreciated it deserved. Anyway... Everybody's getting to the point of drunkenness, and when the night is almost to a close, one of the waitresses comes over. She points to a group of whuffo's across the bar and whispers: "they're trying to start a coaster fight." Faster than any base-jumper reaches for his risers, the entire contents of our table came flying over the bar to these unexpecting whuffo's who promptly retaliated. Never before have I seen a group of people be triggered by a simple comment so quickly. Coasters, menus, salt and pepper, sugar-bags, almost a knife... Everything went to the other side. We clearly won! Then there was the night jump. I had packed myself intentional line-twist on this one, and it freaked some people out in unexpected ways. It didn't freak us out quite as much as the one guy who accidentally managed to unclip one of his B12 clips when climbing over the railing though. The night jump was amazing. Standing at the bottom of a dead-quiet canyon. Seeing the bridge against the starry night, lit up by the lantarn poles. It is there that I hugged two male basejumpers that I had only met one day earlier. In what other sport can you not be gay and still get away with that? This was to be Russel's first night BASE jump. Apparently he went a little headlow, and managed to hurt his knee in the process. We ended up all riding the boat back. Don even took the boat out of the water onto his trailer, so with everybody still in it, we road the boat all the way up to the gate. It's quite a surreal experience to ride the boat from the water onto the land all the way back up. How many people have done that...? At this point, Russel wasn't feeling too well so it was decided to take him to the hospital. Imagine two guys bringing a third guy in a wheelchair to the hospital. Apparently the conversation went something like this, although I hope that Russel will join us and share the whole story. "He's not feeling to well, he has a headache and got into the water." Doctor: "What happened, a car accident?" "No, he jumped into the water." Doctor: "Huh? He's not wet." "Yeah, he was wearing a dry-suit." Doctor: "Why is a guy in a wheelchair wearing a drysuit and jumping in the river?" Russel: "Do you want the long version or the short version?" After which they shared with the doctors that Russel was the first ever paraplegic to make a night base jump. I can't imagine the doctor ever having heard a crazier ER story. That is, until we had about six people sitting in the hospital room, and we started talking about Twin Falls girls. One of us pointed out that we'd f_ck anything as long as she still breaths. Another one quickly pointed out that even after they are dead, you could still microwave them and have great sex. And that's when the nurse came walking in again... A little later the doctor comes in too, and one of us says: "Hey Russel, tell us why you hurt yourself..." Russel: "I was smoking it low!!!!" Low altitude smoking had been a running theme this weekend, after I almost killed Abbie when I turned a promised three second delay into a two second delay (and he went from one to one and a half). Russel had smoked it quite low, , something that wouldn't be beated until later that weekend... Then comes Saturday. I had been packing myself malfunctions all day long. Intentional line-twists and random toggle releases. The last jump of the day was to be a nice fun jump with no problems. Just a nice exit, a two second delay, enjoyment of groundrush and then a nice canopy ride. The jumper before me was going to try and do a triple-gainer. I had seen two earlier triple-gainers by him (his first two ever) and they were executed flawlessly. The execution on this one was slightly less optimal, and he ended up pitching quite low and on his side. The audience sure got a treat on that one. So when it was my turn, I must have subconsciously decided to give the audience an even better show, by taking a two second delay, yet opening fifteen feet above the water. You can read all about that in this thread That night, there was a great but chaotic party at Tom's place. I got to eat my first meat (tri-tip) in six months, and it tasted great! Foolishly enough, I had earlier that week confessed that I had never been pied for my 100th skydive. Apparently base jumpers remember, because I would quickly learn that they had come to the party prepared. Fortunately, Tom had prepared a little revenge and he had armed me with a spraycan full of whipped cream. So what was meant as a single-person pie attack, quickly turned into a full on seven people whipped-cream fight. Shortly after, people started putting tri-tip streak down their pants. Who would do such a thing? Anyway, my last two days in Twin Falls were spend avoiding Rauk and PeterK's fire-work attacks. Unfortunately we got winded out so I never got to have my revenge on the bridge. Hopefully I'll be back on Memorial Day for some more fun. On my way back to Vancouver, I "accidentally" missed my bus in Seattle, so I was forced to stay another night in Seattle. The winds looked perfect, and this time another local jumper was willing to come pick me up and offer me a place to stay. Thanks Tom D! We climbed the object, but at the top we encountered some of the nastiest winds ever. I think it must have been the wind-vents that messed around with us. You never know which direction they point, eh KMonster? ... I hang out on these boards way too much, and I know I write a lot of crap. If you made it this far in reading, you clearly have nothing better to do. Go outside and jump! It was great to meet all of you DZ-dot-commers and the rest in person. It felt like a family from the moment I arrived in Twin Falls. If I could meet any of you guys at my local bowling alley, maybe I wouldn't have to be a base jumper. So yeah, this is why I base jump. The people. The silent bottom of a canyon in the middle of the night. The beautiful hikes back up. Riding a boat over land in the middle of the night. Seeing a paraplegic guy make his first night base jump. Witnessing and participating in complete anarchy in restaurants, hospitals and people's houses (sorry Jamie and Tom). Laughing for 24 hours a day, for six days straight. Oh, and did I mention the great people? That is why I base jump. Yeah, and sometimes you get to make a base jump too. I suppose those are kinda neat as well. See you around guys. Thanks! I had a wicked time! Everybody who reads this; you're all welcome in Vancouver and will always have a place to stay. Be safe, have fun. Five seconds.... Dead Jaap

Exactly. So here's the biggest lesson I got out of this incident... Do not ever assume something doesn't matter in BASE, because maybe it does matter and could save your life. I think that in my short base career, for every valuable question I have asked, I have asked at least four questions about things that didn't matter. I recall doing courses with both Tom and Jimmy and asking lots of silly things about micro-reefing, weird folds and position of fabric. Most of those questions were not relevant, because as long as the lines are straight and in the middle, the fabric folding is a lot less important (within reason). This can lead to a point where sometimes you don't ask about some things because you assume that it's not something that matters. I've heard one experience jumper say: "I've seen many different PC (mushroom) packjobs, and they all work." Apparently not all do it equally well... If you're a beginning base jumper (or an experienced one for that matter), don't ever be afraid to ask something, even when it looks irrelevant. Try to reach a ratio where only one in every ten questions is one that actually had a useful answer. Maybe you'll piss some experienced base jumers off. Maybe you'll get your base mentor impatient. Maybe people will think you are stupid and that you can't think for yourself. In the end it doesn't matter. It might save your life some day, and there are always plenty of experienced jumpers who don't mind the silly questions. They were once beginners too... Surprisingly not. Weird...

I am inclined to agree. This was done for sure! In fact, I wanted to get a jump in early that day on my new gear, but postponed it because I wanted Tom and Tedd to take a look at my three-rings and big-grab toggles because I had some questions about them (I had just gotten a new container). At least three experiened people looked at my pilotchute. They all agreed that it felt 'waxy' and more rigid than other PC's, but deemed it jumpable. That is not to say that they are to blame for what happened obviously. This accident was solely my mistake and my responsibility. Which brings me to what I believe is the most important lesson of this incident. (See next post...)

That is what I have done. If not for rational reasons, than at least to make me feel better at the exit point. The material is noticable more rigid and plasticy. If you extend the ZP all the way and hold it so it points upwards, it takes more shaking to have it fold downward than with other ZP pilotchutes. Maybe it'll wear and become more flexible over time, and probably it's a neglectible effect, but I like my pilotchutes to provide zero-resistance when inflating. I'll be in touch with the manufacturer with some questions about the pilotchute. Just to reiterate though; I'm currently blaming my packing technique and a PC-throw that we'll never find the details on.

I must admit that I am slightly relieved to see that I am not the only one who is using this packjob. Other experienced jumpers have commented that if they saw me pack my PC, they would at most think: "Huh, that's different...", not "Dude, you're going to die!" This leads me to believe my pitch was a factor as well. See my comments below. No problem. Glad to be of service! Yes, that's a great drawing. Thanks Gus! Unfortunately we'll never find out, because we don't have video. I will honestly admit that I was never a death-grip baseball-style pilotchute pitcher. The line of thought being that throwing your PC too far away might cause oscillations. My throwing technique has always worked for skydives (never had burble problems) and in all my stowed base jumps, so I figured it was strong enough. Rest assured that I am now a converted death-grip pitcher. I am going to get that PC as far away from me as possible. I would rather risk having an offheading induced by pilotchute oscillations than a pilotchute hesitation or failure. Maybe once I get to a more advanced level, I can start thinking about putting back some moderation in my pitch, but for now I'm going to huck that thing away from my body like it's a ticking timebomb.

I have nothing better to do during my two hour layover at Salt Lake City airport, so attached is a sketch of the packing techniques. I still plan on shooting a little video that displays the technique and actually demonstrates how it can create a snag. If you open up the picture, you will see two cross-section drawings of a good and a bad pilotchute packjob. The black line is the bridle. The green line is the mesh. The red circle is the cap. The blue line is the fabric (ZP). One advantage of the top bad packjob, is that the bridle is cupped inside the mesh. That means that if you grab the pilotchute and pull it out, you are certain that you will pull the bridle with it. This reduces the risk of bridle being left in the pouch causing a hang-up that way. However, a much better way of making sure the bridle comes with you, is making sure you actually grab the bridle by making sure it is all the way deep in the knob sticking outside the pouch. Anyway, notice the purple arrow. That is the direction in which the bridle needs to feed out in order for the pilotchute to get away from your body. In the bad packjob, the bridle cannot feed out until the pilotchute actually inflates, because the mesh is cupping it in there, creating a snag point where the purple dot is. Now there are two important things that happen at once, that lead to the ultimate problem. The bridle cannot feed out from the pilotchute until the pilot chute inflates The pilotchute cannot inflate until it gets sufficiently far away from the body. And for this, the bridle needs to feed out. Notice that a sufficiently powerful throw will make this packjob work most of the time (like on all my previous stowed jumps). Several witnesses agreed that my throw on this jump was not sloppy. Yet apparently it was not powerful enough for the pilotchute to unfold enough for the bridle to feed out. Anyway, I'm paying 56 cents a minute for internet here, so I'm going to stop writing. I hope this posts made sense, and I encourage everybody to pack their pilotchute the bad way and see how it can create a nasty "tug" or "snag" point when the pilotchute is still close to your body. Ofcourse, don't actually jump it. My drawing of the 'good' packjob needs to be taken with a grain of salt, as there is also the supermushroom, which would have a different cross-section, but also works great. I'll post a video in one or two days, and I'll also share some thoughts about the lessons that can be learned from this incident. Cheers, Dead Jaap

Roflol. There's actually a theory that me not flapping my arms but tucking them in is what ultimately caused the PC to dislodge. Yeah, I agree. I must admit though, that despite the calmness and the peace, there's definitely still a part of you that thinks: "This sucks, I hope it's not going to hurt." Interestingly enough, I only had a sore neck the next day. Which has me wondering about the opening speed of my canopy. Normally a slider-down five second ride can bust you up pretty badly. I hear carrots are good for eye-sight. I'll have to start eating some, so next time I can experience the groundrush even better! Unfortunately we got winded out today. We're going to try and get two jumps in tomorrow morning before my flight leaves. Haha, nice one! My canopy ride was definitely too short for that. I hadn't realized my canopy had opened until I was under water and noticed I was still alive. It went pretty much like this: shit I'm going to die brace-for-impact unexplainable last nano-second slowdown massive splash into the water coming back up and seeing canopy floating in the water yelling I'm okay seeing huge grins on Denise and Clem's faces

Oh by the way, there's a much bigger lesson we can take away from this than how not to pack a pilot chute. Always leave the camera running! No, unfortunately we do not have video of this incident.

Hey everybody, I've been getting some PM's after my drunken post from last night. My comment about hitting line-stretch fifteen (15) feet above the water was not a joke. I went stowed and took a two second delay. I was using a 42-inch non-vented ZP pilotchute. There were about five basejumpers who witnessed it. One was on the big landing area. One was on the beach. One was on the bridge and the last two were on the boat. There were also another 20 whuffo's standing at the side of the bridge. They got quite a show. Two of them drove down to the boat later to make sure I was allright, and to give me a hug for my mom.

...and if Tom wasn't too busy cleaning up his house, he might have time to delete this thread. Maybe I'll share my story about the time my canopy hit linestretch 15 feet above the water once I'm sober.

I'm no biology expert, but I believe the depicted animal gets its forward speed from the jump or leap from a tree branch. Afterwards, the wings are for glide and floatyness, and ultimately for landing. I don't think such animals ever lean headdown to go faster. As such his wings have much different goals than human wingsuits. But that's just my layman's biology observation. Maybe these creatures actually do some hardcore flocking.

Wow, that's a massive difference. Did the manufacturer do some sort of recall, or did you just happen to need a new slider and they recommended a new size? Edited to add: Thanks for measuring and taking that picture DexterBase!

From the Apex website: FOX 185 and 205 use the PN 1724 slider measuring 17 x 24 inches. FOX 225 and 245 use the PN 2024 slider measuring 20 x 24 inches. FOX 265 and 285 use the PN 2328 slider measuring 23 x 28 inches. From the Consolidated Rigging website: When installing a slider be sure it is the correct slider for your parachute. Consolidated Rigging manufactures different sized sliders for the 6 different sizes of Aces and Black Jacks. A slider from a different sized Ace or Black Jack, or from a different manufacturer, may not be compatible with your parachute.

Out of curiousity, how much is "noticeably" larger? Also, can anybody provide more detail about how slider-parameters like length, width, sail vs large- vs small-hole mesh affect opening? I know they have an effect on the duration of the opening/snivel, but as DexterBase pointed out it can also affect your heading performance. Maybe indirectly because of longer snivels, but also in other ways? Are there any detailed explanations on why sliders work the way they work? Something that goes beyond "they keep the lines together for a while". Knacke's and Poynter's manuals are on the way, but until then DZ.com and my rigger are my only sources of information. Mmmm, maybe post in gear-and-rigging instead.

Good point. Having experienced the water in November, I know how cold it can be.

Yeah, I recalled something like that, hence my asking. I jump a 266. The Mojo is a 260. If the slider isn't compatible, I'll just jump the Mojo slider off. I can always put the slider on my Rockdragon later in the weekend. Thanks, Jaap

Does anybody see any problems with putting a Vertigo Rockdragon slider onto a Mojo to do some slider-up jumps at the Perrine? If anybody with a Mojo compatible slider could post its dimensions here, that would be greatly appreciated. I'm jumping my Rockdragon slider-down, but I'm bringing a Mojo too, so I might as well configure it differently to spice things up a little. Thanks, Jaap

Can you guys elaborate why you think this is the best gear available? Thanks, Jaap Suter

What are the recommended skill prerequisites for flying this suit? I guess it is somewhere in between traditional wingsuits and the pants/jacket setup?

Absolutely. This is why I asked, since I don't want to cause any trouble. I most certainly will. Thanks for explaining Tom!