TomAiello

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Everything posted by TomAiello

  1. The river is dam controlled in Twin Falls. The nearest dam is just upstream from the bridge. The river flow was completely shut down this fall for invasive species management. The river has also been intentionally dropped in the past in search and recovery operations for missing persons (both jumpers and non jumpers).
  2. It was manufactured by Precision Aerodynamics, under contract for Vertigo BASE Outfitters. The canopy was designed by Chris Martin (designer of the Xaos canopy among others), shortly after he began BASE jumping, in consultation with Marta Empinotti and Jimmy Pouchert. I have owned several, and still have two (a 303 and a 288). The pressurization is fairly good. The glide isn't fantastic (especially by more modern standards) as the canopy was designed for tight accuracy approaches. The flare is on par with the Mojo or Troll, but not nearly as strong as other offerings of the time (like the Flik), and certainly falls short when compared to more modern canopies. The low airspeed slider up openings are, frankly, terrifying. I wouldn't use it slider up at any delay under about 8 seconds. Chris died in 2005, skydiving, when the tiny (21 square foot) canopy he was doing XRW with spun up. I haven't thought about Chris (who I did some jumping with in rural Alabama and Tennessee back around that time period), in a good long while. I'm sure I'm not the only one who misses him. I have a photo somewhere of my (then toddler) daughter pretending to fly the 19 square foot Rock Dragon model that Chris brought out to the Perrine.
  3. That's really a speed wing question, not a BASE jumping one. :) Personally, I'd probably fly it on a paraglider first if I wasn't sure I could make the flight on a speed wing.
  4. If you are looking for feedback from students who have taken the course, you might consider posting in the alumni Facebook group.
  5. I can give you all of my thoughts on it, but they're pretty much already on our website: https://www.snakeriverbase.com/courses https://www.snakeriverbase.com/object-avoidance https://www.snakeriverbase.com/object-avoidance-course-outline Do you have any specific questions about the course that I can answer for you?
  6. Sliders are specific to the canopy. If you are mixing and matching sliders, you are a test jumper. If you're going to do that, you should definitely make a substantial number of test jumps from an aircraft to verify the function of the slider. If you can find the dimensions of the fine mesh slider, you can probably just have one made by your local rigger.
  7. For the USA, it's generally enough to show that you are paying a USA business for a service (BASE training). What country in Europe are you going to? If you are going to several Schengen area countries it might be worth researching which one is the easiest to get a visa for. Once you're inside the Schengen area, there is no internal passport control, so you could potentially get a visa for an 'easy' country, fly in there, and then travel to the places you want to visit.
  8. Separately, I'd recommend paying your coach with something other than cash. I have (twice) had to do phone interviews with US customs when a student came through with enough cash to pay for both training and equipment (i.e. they were buying a new rig) and the customs people didn't believe them about the reason for bringing cash. If that's you, definitely try to get an itemized invoice showing the cost of everything you bring cash for.
  9. Yes. But those are visas for the USA, not for Europe.
  10. Are you getting any coaching while you are there? I've written letters (and done interviews by phone) for students who needed a visa. They never asked me "how long is this course" so people would come for a 4 day course but have a visa for the following several weeks to stay and jump more.
  11. I would just say 'vacation' or 'holidays' or something similar. I doubt they'd deny a visa just because you said you were going to BASE jump, but I'd avoid the hassle unless they asked for some reason.
  12. I definitely saw some first person POV video post strato.
  13. There are lots of videos of it. But I'm sure that they were all CGI. Definitely.
  14. You should ask Maurizio di Palma. He should be able to set you up to rent one of the apartments immediately next to the landing area. If that's outside your budget, their are plenty of AirBnB options, as well as a nearby campground that plenty of jumpers stay at. I have never stayed there myself, but plenty of people do.
  15. I own the Tube 5 and the PF Power Track Suit, and I prefer the PTS. It's not about power really, it's about ease of use. The point of a two piece isn't to get the most power. If you want the most power, you should be flying a wingsuit. A two piece tracking suit is safety gear. It's purpose is to give you the ability to move away from the cliff, and the make it easy to recover from instability (bad exits) and to fly naturally. I find the PTS more forgiving (flies well in a wide range of body positions) and easier (less 'twitchy' feeling in max track), which makes it a better two piece suit, by my standards (which are all about safety, not max performance). FWIW, I also own the PF Classic (and about 7 other suits) and I find the PTS easier to fly than the classic (and pretty much everything else on the market).
  16. The All-T is very similar to the OSP 1 in performance. That means it's quite good for tight landing areas, basically. It's going to be slower overall (and with less glide) than the OSP 2, the Vision or the Hayduke. What's the price difference between the All-T and the (still available, you just have to note it on the order) OSP 1? Is the All-T cheaper?
  17. TomAiello

    Labrador, CA

    Baffin jumping is pretty much all done in the 'shoulder season' when the ocean is frozen (to provide landing areas) but it's not deep (and super cold) winter.
  18. TomAiello

    Labrador, CA

    If it's the right season, would the ice be frozen? That would make a much nicer landing area.
  19. TomAiello

    Labrador, CA

    Looks like we need a pilot to organize an expedition.
  20. I don't know anything about this one specifically. Over the years I've been involved in four different access organizations, all of which eventually devolved into infighting between the participants.
  21. I don't think that the location of manufacture creates quality issues. I know lots of Americans who think that 'Slovenia' is some kind of third world sweatshop (it's not--I've been there) and yet some of the world's best canopies are made there. Parapex is a huge operation, and is very good at following instructions. I think that 'check that the trunk line isn't twisted before sewing in the branch lines' just wasn't on the instruction sheet when that canopy was made. I'm not sure if it is now or not. The major issues with Asian manufacturing are about communication, not quality. You have to be incredibly explicit about every single step in the process, to make sure they follow your exact procedures. I've spent many hours writing up spec sheets and then had products made that found every single possible way to screw something up that I hadn't explicitly specified. We tend to have this weird view that you can just send things off to Asia and get them made for nothing. But there is actually quite a lot of work involved with setting up that supply chain and maintaining it. The back and forth prototyping on a new product, especially if you aren't physically flying to the factory, is insanely tedious.
  22. It's a well understood risk, and something you should check for during assembly of the rig, and any time you open the links. If the canopy is assembled to the links properly, the lines will not twist unless you open the links. I don't think I've ever seen a suspension line with a sewn in twist. With traditional control line cascades, there is no risk of improper assembly, but the lines can twist during the jumping process (usually after landing), which is one of the reasons you should check your control lines for twists (and continuity) regularly--preferably on every pack job. So, no, definitely not a new idea. I think the first time I heard that twisted lines could cause tension knots was in the 90s, but I'm sure it was understood even before that--I just wasn't jumping in the 80s to hear about it.
  23. Was there any data to support the thought that the Hayduke had more tension knots? I saw a tension knot on an Outlaw here last week, and on inspection it was found that there was a pretty good set of twists (probably three full twists) sewn into the control line that tension knotted. It was factory original, so I'm pretty sure that the twists and been there the entire time the canopy had been in service. The 'Trunk and Branch' cascade system made it so that it was impossible to untwist the control line during normal packing or inspection, and we had to remove the bar tacks to the branches to untwist the trunk line, then re-attach the branches once we were done. It's possible that if there is a higher incidence of tension knots on those canopies, the cause is not the design, but rather the quality control at Parapex, in Vietnam. I haven't inspected any other Haydukes or Outlaws for the same quality control issue but I would be interested in hearing from anyone else who has one and can inspect both control lines for twists, to see if the problem we saw here is relatively rare or relatively common.
  24. Try here: https://www.dropzone.com/contact-us/
  25. I don't think so. You have a great set up for slider up (and generally all) BASE. The reason to get a slider up specific rig would be to reduce weight and size, not to improve performance. You already have the smallest/lightest general purpose setup on the market though, so I'm not sure you'll really gain much in terms of weight and size by going to a slider up specific rig. The same is true of spectra lines. They aren't going to make your openings any better--they're just going to reduce pack volume. They'll make the canopy fly marginally better, but even the highest performance BASE canopies are basically boats, so I don't know that you'll notice much difference. I have spent a lot of time under a pair of Atair Visions, one with spectra and one with Dacron lines, and if you put me under one of them without me knowing which one it was, I don't think I'd be able to tell the difference from the flight characteristics. And that's the the highest performance general purpose BASE canopy ever made. I do think the ZP is worthwhile, but mostly as the canopy ages. If you're looking at buying a new rig for a slider up trip, it's going to increase the pack volume, and probably isn't worth the extra expenditure on a new rig. I also vastly prefer the loop style brake settings, but I can easily change out the brake settings on my Apex canopies, so that's not a big deal to me either.