base698

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It takes a while to learn all conditions. Too long to be supervised that whole time. And there is something hard in the way.... the ground. One jump won't prove anything.

But... I was mainly thinking about having to do at least a few hop and pops to learn the recovery arc somewhat and braked turns then a check out dive. In other words you do a hop and pop at altitude for a few jumps. Granted most people when jumping a new canopy do this anyway, but some people are hard headed...

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Were not Nazis, we just don't like picking you up off the ground.

I know a DZ that almost didn't let me jump my 1.8:1 Stiletto at 700 jumps (partly because my logbook said I had 620 something). They had a guy biff in at a wingloading of 2.1:1 (recently downsized from much smaller and was already trying 180 degree hooks) in front of spectators and he had 300 jumps. I can understand not allowing that but their new rules are a bit much I think. I also think the person has much to do with it. Basically all I'm saying is if there was some kind of rule the DZ wouldn't have to enact policies such as the one described.

Doing a balloon or two and then several (20 with video review) bridge jumps comes to mine.

Point being I wouldn't try wing suit base without at least 100 BASE.

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Question for some of your birdy-base people... what was your progression to doing base birdman? Did you start out doing base first if so how many jumps, etc.

You definitly want to have mastered a still air exit. Think about this you go off wildly unstable and just as you get control and start the wing suit flying you are heading toward the cliff and boom... I actually have seen video of this almost happening. But the said person had 800 BASE jumps and that is likely why it didn't...

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Also, if you're doing a birdman base from 4K feet, do you need a base rig?

Considering you want the most predictable gear possible why wouldn't you take a base rig? Do you want to snivel to impact with a sail slider considering the lower airspeeds of a birdman deployment?

Has checking a person out on a canopy before they are allowed to fly it been discussed? Perhaps, have a sign off in your logbook after this is done you could show at a new dz. Seems it would get around DZs that have Nazi like policies regarding what you can fly.

Maybe one mandatory jump with an instructor to demonstrate braked turns and other canopy necessities?

How far is the advanced course and what does qualifying for the advanced part contain? What events are in the advanced meet?

What are the prizes?

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Would you be in favor of a law that prohibited reporting of aviation accidents to anyone other than pilots?

"What's that column of smoke over there?"

"Sorry, you're not a pilot, you have no need to know."

Thats not what I'm saying at all. Of course the public can have free discourse of information. The only thing that gets selected to be on the news is if its worthy of ratings. If the public wants to know about aviation accidents they should consult the ntsb or maybe an indenpendent organization devoted to that.

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Perhaps have a state-run news agency, that only reported the government-approved news? Personally I'm glad we have private news organizations. Wider variety of views that way.

So in your view you have a false dichotomy of our current media system versus a state run system. There are of course other options. Not for profit private organizations that are not based on ratings could be a start. As is the news agencies only report what they get from their sources. There is less plurality of sources here than elsewhere where the news is state run. All our news does is report what the people in power say anyway. There is rarely any questioning of the reasons, logical, and factual basis for what their sources say and that shoulc be the basis for good journalism.

I don't get why its any of the publics concern. We are the only ones that need to be informed of an accident so that we may learn from mistakes. I think if they want to do an article on a skydiving accident it should have all the information within to understand it. If that is impossible I don't think it should be reported.

That and I'd really like to ban for profit news agencies...

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If he is, it is for the purpose of making the NRA spend money to send him a magazine. He is a complete anti-gun person. He is a liberal on his soapbox. How else do you explain the "returning bullets to K-Mart" stunt?

Michael Moore is a lifetime NRA member first of all I don't know what the returning bullets thing was about. Second of all I think the documentary basically said the media is the problem, which I agree with. Look at how they report on skydiving for f*** sakes!!! They just show things to perpetuate fear. That was a big issue in the movie. Fear motivates people to buy things irrationally. People listen to everything it tells them. Buy new diet plans--don't get off your ass and stop watching TV.

I thought the documentary showcased one of the things skydivers have figured out in life. You have to take responsibility for your own life and actions and its up to you to decide how dangerous things are without letting the media tell you. Virtually everything you here on the news is someone else's spin on a fact base that you can find out yourself. Why let someone think for you?

Towers in our neck of the woods are pretty random.

Just some quick examples:
A 1000' guyed we just looked at 130 ft per red light.
2 2000' guyed: 300 ft per blinking white.
260 ft freestander: one blinking strobe at the top
280 ft freestander: 2 red lights about 140 ft apart.
250 ft freestander: one red at the top.
1500 ft guyed: 200 ft per blinking white.

So be careful. Best general rule is if its tall and has lots of lights (over 5) its high. But you should always plan your jump to the altitude you will be exiting from and the landing areas. Taking a range finder with you is an excellent idea!

Is the Canadian BASE association for sale anywhere? I saw it at bridge day... Actually it may be that continuum thing.

What was the combination?

I have a 120 stiletto and a 143 pd reserve and will probably downsize to a 103 velocity. Is that really really bad?

Have there ever been any fatalities or more importantly entanglements from two grossly different sized main/reserves? I know hooknswoop posted saying he was unable to get them to entangle. I was just curious about this real incidents.

I will do that as well of course but I'm looking for public opinion at the moment

This recently got me. I just did a new building Thursday. I've seen the thing for 4 years and never did I think it could be jumped (granted I've only been into BASE for 2 years). It has an ok landing area but was 17 stories. I always figured it to be 170 ft at the most.

Turned out it was 240 feet, and boy was it fun :)

I have a Gargoyle with a 245 Fox in it. I was wondering about putting a 280 Mojo in it. I know the Fox packs bigger and a 260 Mojo would be ok, but I think the 280 could be pushing it. It was fitted for a 245-260 it says.

Thanks.

Anyone going to the boogie and planning on hitting up any local sites? Is there anything you can pop off in the morning and do some skydiving during the day? I was thinking of a particular high cliff but I've never been and won't have a rental car :)

D-bag = black death.

Prone to off headings and how would YOU like bag lock at 200 ft?

That's why most hard core crew dogs use tailpockets like we do.

While my girlfriend is seemingly very interested in BASE. I have spent a good deal of time talking her out of it. I also have spent hours on end explaining this phenomena. I told her to be wary of me and especially any others willing to take her on a jump. We've agreed that if she decides to get into it she is going to skydive the hell out of her first BASE canopy followed by a 1st jump course and a lengthy stay at the Perrine.

I definitly think this isn't a joke. I've heard of girls with 60 skydives being taken on BASE jumps by less than qualified people. Not cool at all...

If you are guilty of above offense you should definitly question your motive for participating in BASE. Looking cool isn't worth the death of another.

Why not have a fast/slow contest? Take the difference of your fastest and slowest speeds on the same dive. We did that once. It can be fun.

83 in a track.

And to further break down the classification. There are Muslim extremists who are non-violent. One in Egypt springs to mind just prints newspapers.

Wonder why we never hear of them on the news???

Hope noone has done this yet.

There should be a ? I guess.

Why are these crap? Why should you avoid the cap on top? Does it just make it more unstable?

Anyone else doing the same and planning on taking the Shuttle and want to split costs. Anyone have any other travel plans that could give two people a ride there?

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down to about 80 MPH

I am about 190 lbs and 6'. I can get down to 85 mph avg without these pants in a freefly suit and 95 in tshirt/shorts. Dwayne is quite small if I remember correctly. I am very eager to try these pants and see if they are all cracked up to be as they say. I'd love to demo a pair of pants. I'll likely go down to Deland just to try them out whenever they get a demo. If I can get under 80 easily I'll likely get them and another ticket to Norway :)

I talked to Birdman today and they said the BASE pants just won't be good for back tracking, and they will not impede headdown or sit.