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How high of a building would be needed to ground launch a Raven 2. Would a 7 story building be tall enough?

My advice,
Get a Paraglider

Josh Morell
www.imagethisphoto.com

Honestly, it sounds to me like you're in way over your head, and potentially about to do something really foolish.

I'd recommend contacting some paragliders for advice on ground launches. I'd probably also learn to do ground launches with wings intended for such before trying to launch anything else. And I'd definitely practicing kiting and launching from a gently sloping grassy hill before I tried launching off a building.

Slow down there. You could really get hurt trying some of that stuff.

Depends on the wind and what type of building.

Hey Troll, I think you should do it, but make sure you get video.

~Chachi

lives in a cave....
style of fishing....

I'm with tom. You're literally one step from getting busted up at best or killed at worst.

Having said that, if you watch that awesome film "terminal velocity" , Charlie Sheen's bad ass character Ditch pulls off a ground launch with his reserve from a factory tower which would be about that height so it MUST be possible.

Like Phil Nike said. Just do it.


ps. if you're quick you might make the next Darwin Awards book.

I would like to hear why everyone thinks this is so dangerous, if you can get a fully inflated canopy to the edge of a drop (a building doesn't seem good for that), what things would you be worried about going wrong? I can imagine dropping a few feet before the canopy starts flying properly and maybe having a 180 in the meantime. What other dangers can you think of? I would like to do some ground launching too, for "free" canopy/accuracy practise.

Definitely go from a grassy hill first, it's a lot harder than it looks. I had an x228 (7 cell) out last week trying to launch it from a hill but no luck, i was getting it inflated but even on a hill with about a 45 degree slope i couldn't get it to launch, i concluded that it's useless without a bit of head wind to help with the pressurisation (not ideal for this location).

I was talking to a guy about bladerunning, where you fly a high performance canopy down a ski slalom course and he was saying that they are ground launching at the top of runs, maybe post on one of the skydiving forums to see if anyone knows about that, should be more practical than a paraglider.

Ground launching is an acquired skill. Even paragliders, who ground launch almost every flight, occasionally screw it up and end up bouncing down a hill. Doing it without practice, off a building, just sound incredibly foolish. I've seen experienced paragliders (again, people with lots of practice at this kind of thing) screw up cliff launches and fall 100 feet under collapsed canopies.

In short, I think the idea is dangerous because of the lack of practice and preparation.

Does this even belong in the BASE zone? It sounds more like stupid skydiver tricks to me.
Darwin loves you
~J

dude, none of us are perfect and all of us have done, before. Therefore, is such a redundant comment necessary?

Yes,yes it is.
I'm just surprised Tom let it stay in the BASE zone since it doesn't sound like a BASE question, atleast not in this context. I figured it belonged in another forum.
(Especially when it solicets responses like the one about thinking it could be a nice cheap way to practice accuracy landings.
2cents too many,but I'm bored
Never mind, Have fun...take video.
~J