980

dude... I see your profile says Nitron150 @1.6 and that seems to be what you are flying in the photo, which looks like maybe tension knots on one or both sides keeping the slider stuck up there. What canopies were your spinners on and what was your canopy experience at that point? I have a few hundred jumps (almost always in a Birdman S3) on a Nitro 120 @ 1.6 and that thing resisted spinning up in twists like nobody's business. I did chop a Nitro 135 though when I just downsized and went elliptical at 450 jumps and I was flying my wingsuit at the Holiday Boogie in elopy with a MAX pull height of 2500ft. Spinning on my back below 2000ft in a wingsuit freaked me right the hell out the first time. Since then I have learned to deal with deployments better and given that same situation now I am confident I could have fixed it before hitting my hard deck. Just wondering if your spinners are the same kind of deal. cya sam

WARNING: picking up fresh roadkill rabbits from the side of the road that leads to mineral bottom with the intention of doing a 2-way BASEjump with said fresh roadkill rabbit could cause bad karma resulting in the driver of the vehicle used having a cliffstrike later the same day and the roadkill rabbit spending 2 days and nights in the back of the borrowed pickup truck before you finally decide that it would be entertaining to throw it off the ropejump exit point for the video and then when your friends at home see said video they will think you are mentally disturbed. In addition the bad karma might cause the passenger in said vehicle to badly throw their canopy on a low TARD only days later and limp around with a bruised ass for several weeks. OK, that's the really serious warning. I thought the funniest part of that entire experience was a vegetarian who helped throw said rabbit off the cliff with initially much disgust, but who said something like: 'That was the grossest thing I've ever seen. Next time let's find a dead deer and throw that!!' after the rabbit splattered and made that ungodly sound in the process. Seriously folks, learn from me and the Maggot's mistake, I am sure it was the bad karma from this rabbit incident that caused his cliffstrike and my TARD incident. I was going to put that clip in 'When Good Times go Bad - Part 3', but thought it is a bit disturbing as some people might think the rabbit was not dead when you hucked it off that cliff. If you are a strange freak or concerned individual who needs to see this kind of bad karma inducing behaviour (hopefully to avoid doing something similar) send me a PM with your motivations and I can include it as a special feature on a 'When Good Times go Bad - Part 3' DVD if I am convinced your motivations are honourable.

looks like this is going to be a record-breaking year

Yes, everyone is entitled to their opinion. We are also entitled to ask what you are basing that opinion on. I know Lonnie has a few hundred jumps on both Aces and Blackjacks of the same size and therefore a very valid statistical sample to make conclusions on heading performance of the two types of canopies. I would like to know how what experience you based your statement on, as I am sure do many others who read this thread. thanks sam

Uhm, actually that is true! WARNING: 'When Good Times go bad - Part 3' features a song that contains strong language of a sexually explicit nature and is therefore not suitable for younger audiences. Hopefully this will prevent more such incidents.

I saw a guy do that with a large 7 cell ram-air canopy. It worked fine both times. Maybe it helped that he made them really right, started at the canopy and worked down to the risers and made sure nothing could get in the open loop. Doing hop'n'pops could've helped too I guess.

I started skydiving solely because I wanted to get into BASEjumping and it seemed like a good idea to do some skydives first. I quickly realized that I really like skydiving and since I got a wingsuit and after that a fast canopy and the swooping-bug, I don't think I'll ever get bored of those... So I am a fairly active skydiver and BASEjumper. I don't see that changing anytime soon.

I dunno dude. I got Vertigo WLO risers when I got my first rig, as you needed them to use the Vertigo WLO toggles and I heard they were the hot set-up for slider up. So I got some SYKO toggles for slider off. I did 111 jumps on that rig, mostly slider off, so mostly with the SYKO pin toggles. I never had a brake fire. I think it makes a huge difference how well you set it up, pack it and look after it. I have since switched to non-snap risers to use cloth-stub toggles slider off. I still have Vertigo WLO risers and toggles for slider up. I also have some of the new Apex WLO toggles to use slider up with my normal risers. I still need to try these version 2s, I had version 1s and did some intentional releases with them and was quite happy. cya

Glad you liked it. It took me half an hour to figure out how to make a PAL version, I guess it was worth the time! I had so much stuff I wanted to put in, that I didn't allow myself any slo-mo in order to pack it into 10 minutes. I hope people who watch it will slo-mo some parts, as there are many things going on that are hard to see. See if you spotted: -the canopy collision -the tailgate hangup -the kneepad that stayed in the railings after the jumper exited -the headdown deployment with bonus kicking of the packjob as it hits the jumper's feet to induce linetwists... -the linked, unpacked 2-way -the blown toggle on a Raven from a 230ft span -the ho-bag! cya sam

Thanks for posting that Bill. I am very saddened that you needed to. I hope people take note. I would like to point out this: it can be found in the jumping site guidelines thread Everybody who travels to someone else's community to BASE jump, PLEASE inquire about the site specific guidleines BEFORE going and abide by them, as you can see, they are EASY to find. You have no excuse for offending people in THEIR OWN COMMUNITY because you are ignorant of their REQUESTS in regards to your behaviour. I'm rocking a new sig-line because this is getting ridiculous. cya

apparently Slim and Dwain from that object

Some people have said that due to the skydiving gear that Brian used to jump, he might have valued a stable deployment much more than we do now, due to the unreliability of that gear. IF the cause of Brian's fatality was overdelay to get stable, due to a fear of unstable deployment, then being current on modern skydiving and/or BASE gear COULD have made him more comfortable with deploying unstable due to the better reliability of gear now. Being a current skydiver (but inexperienced or low-experience BASEjumper) will also have the effect of making you used to having a flying parachute above 2000 ft. Therefore stepping off a bridge at 876 ft will have you nervous about being low already and therefore way more likely to under delay (even if pulling unstable) than overdelay. All you need to do to verify this statement is surf the bridgeday pics to see many unstable deployments from short delays that worked out just fine. As for those zero-skydive paraglider BASE jumpers who have mad canopy skills, I have this to say: Scott Watwood

I heard 230ft from more experienced jumpers. I have checked the altitude there by using my Suunto X6 HRM 'wristtop computer'. It came close to 230ft (from catwalk or I-beam exit to landing) every time, which is to say all 13 jumps that I have off that bridge. I have great confidence in the accuracy of the X6, as I have used it on just about every basejump I have made and it frequently comes up on the money for known-height objects. So a sample size of around 450 basejumps using an X6 makes me trust it to within 10ft if there are no strange wind or weather conditions. I'm not too sure about height to impact, as I have always landed a little uphill from the impact point. cya sam

because there's idiots everywhere... My point is that even (I think especially) jumping the skydiving canopies most different from BASE canopies (crossbraced canopies at high loadings like 1.9 and above) develop mental skills that help you when flying a BASE canopy on BASE jumps. As homework I leave it up to you to see what percentage of active BASEjumpers regularly skydive a loaded crossbrace canopy and how their BASE landings compare to BASEjumpers who don't, as you obviously have too much free time.

no, I did not mean that it's better practice for stallpoint drills. I meant it is better practice for the skills I listed after that paragraph:

RhondaLea, I disagree. BASE jumping and skydiving also have the following in common: -freefall -development of better awareness through experience (both in freefall and under canopy) -pull priorities (1: pull, 2: pull on time, 3: pull stable) -development of better judgement through experience and being exposed to incidents different - yes entirely different - no. While the specific movements involved in safely deploying, flying and landing a large, lightly-loaded, 7-cell, BASE canopy compared to a small, highly-loaded, 21/27 cell crossbrace skydiving canopy are very different, the mental processes required to do so are very much the same. While many people might say you cannot learn anything applicable to landing a BASE canopy in a tight area by landing a highly loaded crossbraced canopy on a huge dropzone LZ, I say that you do learn many applicable thought-processes and those are far more important than simple reflexes. One of the most valuable things you can learn from (a relatively large amount) of skydiving experience is to control your body and parachute through a feedback loop. To do this you must learn to understand how your possible inputs affect the system and how the system communicates its state through its outputs. Case in point is stalling your canopy or riding your canopy very near the stall point to set up a landing in a specific spot. While the stall characteristics of a BASE canopy and loaded crossbraced canopy are very different, the feedback is very similar. The crossbraced canopy has a much smaller flight range and control stroke and is far more sensitive around the stallpoint, which makes it better practice than a large 7-cell because they are so forgiving and therefore only develop your awareness and skill to a lower degree. Doing 200+ skydives a year on a loaded crossbraced canopy has you: -on the permanent lookout for everyone else in the sky and on the ground -thinking about and keeping track of the wind conditions -walking the landing area before ever landing there -aware of your altitude and location at all times -plan escape routes or 'outs' before exit -constantly evaluating the canopy traffic and your location and height in order to move to a contingency plan if needed -making contingency plans before you need them -keep stable through deployment or suffer the consequences -thinking 2 steps ahead of where you are The skills above transfer directly to BASE jumping. I believe this is only true if you are a bad skydiver or a skydiver who has built up lots of ego and no real experience but lack the judgement to know it. I am also not advocating doing all your skydives on high performance canopies either, doing jumps on a large 7-cell lo-po canopy is needed also.

Hi. After some replies from this thread, I am now offering copies of my entry into the Bridge Day 2006 Video Festival for sale. The price is a measly $15, which includes shipping to wherever the hell you might be (as long as I can mail it there). I would like to clarify that the title is mostly a joke, it is not a carnage video, although it does have some parts that can make you cringe a little, but then that is part of the sport and bound to happen, so that is why I have included them. It is only 10 minutes long, but I feel it has more impact that way. It won't come with a fancy cover or anything, just a DVD with some permanent marker writing on it. All proceeds from this will go towards the video equipment used to make this clip. To get a copy, PayPal me $15 to: [email protected] and include your shipping address, or email me your shipping address separately. thanks Sam

looked about right for an Ace 310 to me I don't know if you have noticed that bigger canopies take longer to open. Unvented canopies also take longer to open than vented. you have to compare apples with apples

hey hey if you can't arrange a compilation, then persons wanting a copy of: 'When Good Times Go Bad - Part 3' can contact me through PM here, or email me at: jumpersam AT gmail (replace the AT with a @, remove the spaces and stick a dotcom on the end)

Hey Tony Glad to see you're OK enough to post. Sorry I didn't stick around to see your jump, I was busy carrying another jumper out to go to hospital. Good lessons learned, I would like to add the following: the exit height is 230 ft the section we went from is NOT in center between the pillars, there are 11 sections and we went from number 5 from the pillar to the left you have enough canopy time to hit either pillar with a staticline, a PCA, a freefall assist, a handheld freefall and even a stowed freefall, if you had gone from the center between them and got an offheading towards either pillar you only need to watch where people land to realise this heavier people with bigger canopies cannot safely freefall the same low heights as lighter people with smaller canopies no-one should be freefalling this object if they are not QUICK on the toggles and know how to fly their entire canopy flight in deep brakes and get a stand-up landing while flaring from deep brakes hope you recover well and quickly cya

bingo! I have video of that and I'm pretty sure it's in the 9+ second region. It's amazing what wingsuits have done even with so little working time, James opened pretty much at the landing area.

that would be 2004 for the panoramic picture in front of the holiday inn I stand corrected (via PM) apparently there was a photo in 2003 also. Guess we'll have to do it again this year!

with your high wingloading, low number of basejumps and the low exit height... I would suggest doing a static line jump first and going from there. I would also suggest making sure the deep brake settings on that canopy are customized for your exit weight and to jump in winds that are higher than your forward speed in deep brakes, which also bisect the wires. Those are your most favourable conditions for a first jump off a 250' guyed antenna, start there and repeat until you are sure you want about half the amount of canopy time you are getting, then move to handheld, then keep doing handheld until you are sure you want noticeably less canopy time - then consult your psychiatrist! seriously, no need to be freefalling 250' guyed antennas at this point when the static line is the bomb cya sam

The crossfire doesn't like being deployed in full flight? If you like hp canopies and wingsuits and getting out low... then you might really like the openings on a the Xaos-21. It seems to be quite happy deploying from full flight too. If I'm opening at or above the minimum deployment altitudes as stipulated by skydiving associations, I am happy deploying my 100 sq ft Xaos-21, which I load at 1.9 lb / sq ft. therefore I do not see the point in getting a less fun canopy just for flying my wingsuit from 5000 ft - 2200 ft

Quote I recall one incident where I asked somebody else to put in one linetwist (without me looking to make it harder) as low as possible on the risers. When I jumped the linetwist pinched my full face helmet down (slamming my chincup on my chest). I was flailing my arms above my head trying to reach lines but there was nothing I could do. I bailed, kicked out of linetwist first, and then turned it around (and landed fine). Fortunately that was at the Perrine, otherwise I might have had to spend some time on the wall again. That said, I don't think having linetwist that low is a common occurenceQuote I've had a 180 with a half linetwist that low on a 3 sec slider off from 550 on an antenna. My head was pinned, I couldn't get the risers, I couldn't turn head to see where I'm flying. I managed to get a rear riser linegroup (hooray for red centre C-D lines!!!) and haul on that to turn it around. By luck I grabbed the side that undid the halftwist as I turned her around. I've had a few different kind of 180s, but that one was super scary. cya