AirCanada

My apologies if this has been discussed... please feel free to point me in the right direction. I searched, but not knowing the proper names involved, didn't come up with much. I've seen people using a lenght of fiber-optic? to indicate whether their camera is on or not. When on, the wire coming from the camera shows a glowing light that is visible while the camera is mounted on the helmet. Can I do this for me digital still camera? If so, what do I do? Josh

I'll be in Thailand on the 17th for a couple of weeks, rock climbing. Won't be jumping, as I don't have a rig with me, and I ought'nt to be jumping cliffs yet anyway... but would be psyched to hook up with any jumpers there... [email protected] I'm sure with lots of rigging expertise present, we can help to get you to any sketchy exit points that you need! Josh

Yeah, right on Miles. Good luck! As some motivation: One of our local ski tourers (Greg Hill), toured a million vertical feet last winter. Biggest day: 40, 000 ft. So, 25k should be no problem right?!? You don't even have to ski down, slacker! -- Briggs. (1st student of Miles D's Base camp) Oh yeah, and as regards the sponsored athlete thing: In my experience of spending a fair bit of time around sponsored atheletes... the complaints about what they are getting "for free" from their sponsors are usually tinged with a fair amount of jelousy. And if you actually sit down to work out the economics of it, it's actually way more work for Shane / Miles / Will / Othar to set up all the logistics of some sort of "cool" thing and pull it off, to get a free pair of skis, a canopy , a few bucks, and a case of RB that it is for me to just go work and then buy all that shit and pay for the cool trip myself. Think about it, next time you are all upset about people getting free shit that yer not.

When Chris Muller was 15, he took off in his hang glider from the Golden launch with his Dad Willi for his first cross country flight. It was a pretty big, turbulent day, and somewhere down the range to the SW, Willi and Chris got separated and Willi ended up landing (and having to expain to his wife how he had lost their son). They got a phone call from the hospital in Invermere. Chris had landed in the field out front after flying over 100km from Golden. Chris grew up to be one of the best in the world at piloting nylon & mylar craft of all types. There are analogies in other pursuits...

Thank you. Good Info. ... Now, does the same thing apply to actual hard drives? Such as are used in the Archos recorder / player (100GB hard drive), or ones ipod for that matter? I've been listening to my ipod in the plane & in freefall lately (~14k - ~16k)... seemingly no problems with playback...

Can someone explain exactly what the issue is here? I have seen the explanation, that there is an air "cushion" somewhere in the HD, that at lower air pressures isn't enough of a "cushion" anymore, so the HD won't function. So, if this is correct HD or Microdrive based camera systems won't work at, say, everest base camp. Or, that some of the components are gravity sensitive, so don't work well in freefall (irrespective of altitude). The reason for my question is that I have been looking at a camera system using the Sony High Def bullet cam, connected to a Archos AV400 AV recorder. I hear references to this being unusable at altitude / in freefall... but don't really understand why... I'm aware of the resolution limitations, but the small size & light weight are advantages, as is the bullet cam set-up; as skydiving is pretty much the only activity where you have the luxury of nothing to hit your camera (risers and other jumpers excluded). Thanks.

Really?!?!

Dude, Super glad yer ok. Scary. Funny about the riser thing... I did the same thing yesterday while practicing in Beisiker...

You monkeys might want to check this website: http://weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/city/pages/ab-34_metric_e.html[/url] This is, of course, assuming that I am thinking of the right place. The Nakiska Ridgetop weather station is only ~8km away from the WT, so the windspeeds should be ~the same. The wall faces due N to slightly NW. Also, it's in a PP, not an NP, so there's no prohibition against parachuting... just the occasional bear closure. Next time, bring a kite, then you'll have something to do if it's too windy. Oh yeah, the AWWS site can help too: http://www.flightplanning.navcanada.ca/cgi-bin/CreePage.pl?Langue=anglais&NoSession=NS_Inconnu&Page=forecast-observation&TypeDoc=html[url] You'll want the FD's below 18k. The first two #'s are the direction (27 = 270degrees or W), the next two are are speed in knots (~double it to get KM), and the final two are the temp. 9900 means light & variable. I check the Jasper & Calgary forcasts & guesstimate between. --Briggs

I donno... I think that everythig that you mentioned is availible to any who seek it. Heli jumps, balloon jumps, tracking dives, and rigging... not to difficult to find on your own, if you want. I don't think a safe (as possible) approach to BASE progression is really rocket science: take a FJC. buy BASE specific gear. Get comfortable with sub- terminal exits: if you have a slow plane @ the DZ, get the pilot to slow it as much as he's comfortable with for you, befriend a heli pilot, befriend your local PG tandem pilot... jump with someone more experienced who can correct you. Practice tracking, get good, and get coaching. Learn body awareness... freefly, learn basic gymnastics and diving. Jump the bridge alot. Have reliable more experienced friends. Listen to them. Jump some high n-ten-a's. Take the Kjerag course. Just the approach that I've been taking... how difficult is that? -Briggs

Hey Jaap, I presume that this is related to the picture that you posted of the cliff. I'm guessing it's either in the interior ranges or the coast. Looks like granite. I'd like to say the Bugs... but there are other places which would have similar geology, valley shapes and vegitation. Anyway, most such areas sit in Heli Ski Tenure in BC... if you've got a radio (if you don't the Vertex VX 150 is a good buy... radioworld.ca in TO), then just have a radio company who deals with heli skiing or guides set you up (Tridon Communications in Banff can do this). Or just find out who flys / works in the area and get their frequency. If there is a heli ski / hike outfit nearby, then it would make things a whole lot safer to talk to them before and after. If things go bad, they can wisk you away. Anyway, have fun. This pic is from the Adamants.

Nice video. Looks like roughly the top of Kahl Wall. You will want to watch the flying speed of your rig vs. the wind speed. If you got blown back and had to land behind, it would be very unpleasant and quite possibly be fatal. Have fun. Not knowing anything Paraglider.

... this is getting ridiculous. QUOTE-“You clearly did not teach Scott correctly, or this would never had happened. I really hate to see base accidents, I've had them myself, and know all to well that shit happens.”-END QUOTE Huh? This is a logical paradox. If Scott had been taught correctly this would never have happened? Yet you have had BASE accidents... so, were you not taught correctly? Or perhaps it is possible to have a BASE accident, AND have been taught correctly? An accident has occurred, and there are quite likely things to be learned from it, both from the technical details of dealing with the off heading, to greater questions of proper preparation, training, background, psychological preparedness etc. for a jump. However, this doesn’t say anything about Miles, Redbull (Redbull? How did Redbull come into this anyway? Janitor suing them for emotional disturbance? Maybe things have gotten this ridiculous in the US, but up here a judge would fine YOU for making his head hurt trying to figure out how you came up with this.) or the validity of skydiving vs. paragliding backgrounds. Scott did not “blaze his own trail”, into BASE, he just didn’t come from your background. Last I checked, Scott had racked up 50 or freefalls to terminal from his paraglider... sounds like someone getting some training time to me. This doesn’t indicate that “Scott has demonstrated a very poor approach to BASE”... it just indicates that he has had an accident... with undoubtedly things to learn from that. Deciding that PG’s pilots with little skydiving experience have a “very poor approach to BASE” on the strength of one accident is silly. By that reasoning, skydiver’s and BASE jumpers have an exceptionally poor approach to BASE, as they appear to be having plenty of their own accidents. I, for one, am very interested to hear Scott’s own analysis of this. I’m sure that there are things that everyone can learn from this. Josh Briggs Canmore AB, CANADA 5 basejumps, 3 skydives, Lots of paraglider time.

Ok. So... you are familiar with "downplaning" with a canopy? (Two people hook themselves together and fly their canopies in opposite directions, each canopy opposes the forces created by the other with the result that they both fly towards the ground... can also happen with a reserve deployment and a still inflated main canopy on either a parachute or a paraglider) Lockout is essentially the same thing... the paraglider flies out of line with the direction of the tow, such that it's flight direction begins to conflict with the tow direction. The result is a SUPER pressurized canopy that is VERY difficult to control and is traveling perpendicular to the tow direction either sideway's or downward. With a winch system this isn't AS HUGE of a problem (but is still quite a big problem) as the winch with simply play out more line if the paraglider resists more... meaning that any problems happen more slowly. Also, tow systems usually incorporate a "weak link" which will break when forces get too high. So, the analogy of a kite diving into the ground, is probably pretty accurate for what lockout on a static line close to the ground could be like. To paraphrase Mr. Utah... Have fun, don't die.

I don't even know where to begin with this. I presume those 5 were off TF? With all of 3 skydives do you think you're prepared to effectively track away if I hucked you off of one of our 2000-footers? Do you have the body awareness to get yourself turned around and stable quickly if you flailed an exit? End Quote from Zennie-------------------------------- Of course not. I may not be the sharpest french fry in the happy meal, but I'm not a complete idiot. The way I see it, jumping of the bridge (yes, TF) gave me a TASTE of what BASE is all about... and an inkling of what more I need to learn in order to be able to jump the aforementioned 2000 footers. From my somewhat outsider perspective on BASE, I believe that a wealth of ONGOING skydiving time is essential for gaining any margin of safety with more advanced jumps. Watching video's showing jumpers with excellent vs. average tracking skills near cliffs has illustrated this. I would never had any involvement with BASE at all had I pursued 200 skydives before ever trying a base jump. Reason being: I didn't enjoy the skydiving scene. Too mechanized / contrived, to far away from where I live, too much sweet / sick / rad bro, dude sort of attitude. Now having had a TASTE of the base environment, I have motivation for what I want to get out of skydiving "training". So, I certainly don't disagree that the skydiving time is essential for anyone wanting to pursue BASE. I'm just not sure that's it's necessary before getting your first intro in a relatively controlled environment such as TF. As someone else said, they were more concerned about the person who got 200 skydives, then did only BASE jumps than the person with no skydives to start with, but then commited to an ongoing learning process in both BASE and skydiving. By taking the hard line that the only way into base is through the skydiving door, I think that the BASE community is depriving itself of a potentially valuble source of outside knowlege. Based on the fatality lists, accidents en route to exit points, object strike after canopy inflation, and landing accidents account for at least as many injuries and deaths as freefall object strike. Getting some paragliding and climbing background COULD help with this. Those with a climbing background will generally be more secure on approaches and descents and paraglider pilots spend way more time controling their canopies than skydivers... they are also much more used to landing in tight areas. Faber replied to my seeing of exprienced jumpers with bad deployments, off heading opening, and poor landings; that this sort of thing would eventually happen to me and without skydiving experience I would be more likely to get hurt. My point was that skydiving experience may not be the best way to achieve skill in some of these areas. Flying paragliders will give you way more experience correcting off headings, avoiding objects, and landing in tight areas than skydiving. While in TF I had someone tell me about the cliffs that they jump at home, then refuse to walk out of the canyon because it was "sketchy". If you are going to go into the mountains and jump off of cliffs does it not seem prudent that you might want to develop your movement skills as well as spending time at the local DZ? An ongoing diet of skydiving certainly seems essential for the prudent BASE jumper... but is not an ongoing diet of paragliding, climbing, gymnastics / diving, and good general fitness / athletic ability equally wise??

Like calling them "you fucking dipshits" perhaps???? He. He. Touche.

Gee, ya'll have alot of time on your hands around the computer, huh? I don't have much in the way of BASE experience with 3 skydives and 5 base jumps, but I have the unique qualification (in this company) that I have actually taken the course with Miles. I came to see Miles with the aforementioned 3 skydives, and alot of time flying paragliders... as well as plently of ground based flow sports. He was recommended by a number of friends. Obviously I'm not familer with skydiving / BASE instruction, but I do know about learning new activites and ones involving nylon and air in particular. I was impressed with Miles conscientious... almost anal approach to pack job, gear inspection, pre- jump checks, site / landing inspection. I felt safe with the man. While I was in TF I watched a number of jumps by experienced jumpers with poor openings, off headings, and very nasty looking landings. I'm not qualified to have an opinion on whether teaching non- skydivers to base jump is a good idea. There is certainly a precedent for it with climbers paraglider pilots like OJ or Santa begining BASE with no skydiving experience (at the outset). These are, of course, incredible athletes who cannot be compared to general populace. From what I could see at the bridge, skydivers themselves lack some KEY skills for the BASE environment... tight landing skills, excellent canopy control (far inferior to what even a basic aerobatic paraglider pilot has), and athletisism (noone even walks out of the the canyon... how lame is that?) Obivously, if you are going to jump objects with any sort of delay to them, you will need to spend time jumping out of planes to gain even a modicum of a safety margin. But is this necessary before making your first jumps at the bridge? Maybe, maybe not. It could equally well be argued that BASE jumpers might save themselves some death and injury by learning to climb and land paragliders in small LZ's... judging by what sort of accidents show up on the BASE fatality list. In short, I liked Miles, I felt safe with him, I felt confident in his knowledge... and I will go back to spend more time with him. As for the whole self promotion issue... the guy works for Red Bull, you fucking dipshits. He gets paid to sell product. RB sells product by associating with "coolness". Public only knows about "coolness" when you tell them how cool something is. This is how the modern marketing game works. Hate the game, not the player. In my experience very few companies endorse atheletes based solely (or in many cases, even based largely) upon their physical talents. It's their ability to raise public interest, get the brand name out there, and move product. This results in plenty of unknown "Joe Rad's" kicking around out there, who are more talented than the well known, sponsored atheletes. That's the way it goes. This has all seemed in rather poor taste. I'm sure that there are better ways to express your disapproval of a new business venture than calling someone a "dick". To anyone thinking of taking the course... give the man a call. Josh Briggs Canmore AB Canada 5 jumps: 3 HH w/ 1.5-3sec delay all on own pack jobs. Going back... edit to remove names by standing request of named individual. ~TA