Basejumper.com - archive

I was looking over some old emails and PM's today. It occurred to me that the number of technical questions I've asked him via computer number in the hundreds and probably approach a thousand.

There's no way I'm the exclusive jumper that has been doing this for years. I imagine he's received literally thousands of emails from various jumpers both new and more experienced.

I know the questions I've asked have been answered very thoroughly and were often followed by a thread of emails (more questions) relating to the original topic.

It's also clear that he spends many, many hours moderating the BASE forum here. He keeps this place somewhat tame and without a moderator like him, this forum would have gone to shit very rapidly. Not an easy job telling your friend that their post was removed from the forum for being inappropriate.

BASEd on the above, I'd like to publicly thank Tom Aiello for his selfless contribution to the online BASE community.

In addition to what Dex said..... I'd also like to personally thank him for one of the worst hangovers of my life........ the day after Bridge-Day......I owe you one.....or two maybe ??? Look at what he did to my poor room-mate.

LOL! I love the pic!!

does anyone have a text file of what the full waiver says? I would love to use it in a BD intro video...

I'd have to ditto that, in spades.

Thanks for everything, Tom.

Damn. That's a helluva start to that waiver. Enough to make me want to see more. There are some things that really turn on a lawyer, and it looked like it was something pretty damned hot!

POST MORE OF THE WAIVER!!

post the whole waiver please

Sorry Fellow....... thats all I got ............ I wasn't exactly the model of sobriety that evening either.

yeah what Dexter says..

Tom do you ever BASE anymore We really apritiate your help thanks.

Hope to buy you the beers i owe you next summer

I wondered for a while if he had really even made a jump. I never saw him jump in real life until he followed me down after my 4th or 5th jump.

I'd also like to thank Tom (and his wife as well!) for all their help with "Project pBASE" and for all the help I'm sure they'll provide in the future.
I too am one that has asked many questions via e-mail and many by phone as well.

Thanks!

You should see the dissertations I used to get from Dwain, when I asked him questions...in fact, maybe I ought to gather them all up and post them.

The number of people who have taken the time to provide thoughtful, useful answers to my questions is very large. The first two were Nick and Yuri, in an old forum that Nick used to run. But there were dozens of people after that, and there still are. I'll refrain from trying to list them all, because I know I'd miss a bunch.

The wheel keeps on turning.

I concur with Dexterbase.

Tom must spend an inordinate amount of time at his puter moderating the B.A.S.E. Zone.

His helpfulness is evident on the majority of posts especially when he researches a subject when someone is too lazy or 'not yet competent' to use the search facility.

Keep up the good work Tom!

Ken.

>>Could you? I'd love to see that. And thanks for all the dissertations you've given me!

[ZegeunerLeben]
I vote for that too.

and big thank you to Tom, not only for the time spent here and on BLiNC, but also the many other ways he gives to BASE

thanks Tom

Well that and the porn, right?

>>The first two were Nick and Yuri<<

Thanks, Brother.

You are making anyone who helped you look pretty good . . .

NickD
BASE 194

Thank you very much, Tom. Not only for your answers to my posts on Blinc and answers to my questions via e-mail...but thank you (and our former friend Dwain) for the B in you know where...it was a newbie's wet dream!!

thanks for starting this thread.
Tom deserves all the accolades.

but the thread title made me nervous.

what would be your first take to these threads?
"JeNnEjEnN...hmmm....",
"KMonster...hmmm....", or
"Rhonda Lea...hmmm...."

I totally agree! I just figured this is Tom's full time job. Thanks Tom, you help educate us all, which is invaluable.



Peace all,
Karen

Yeah thanks Tom!

I'd like to speak up for all the lurkers here and say thanks for all your effort in getting important knowledge (for newbies and BASE Gods alike) out to the masses.

Cheers Ears!

P.S its taken a face full of amphetimines to pluck up the courage to post in here.

Alas, the secret is out. Tom has never actually jumped off anything taller than a milk crate. . . the "jumps" others have seen were all staged using body doubles.

I had hoped that Tom would end the charade years ago, but the deeper he got the harder it would be to call it off. Now, it's just gone careening wildly out of control and I don't think anybody is driving the bus.

I remember, once, when Tom was playing along with his "jumping" story on a crane in Belgium. Not surprisingly, he wanted me to jump first so that his stunt double could rush out and "jump" for him after I landed. On a hunch, I offered to pin check him. Sure enough, once I popped the pin on his rig I noticed that the "canopy" inside was just a couple of high-threadcount cotton sheets. Left clutching the sheets as I flopped off the crane, his face was a pastiche of emotions.

That reminds me of back when he and I used to sing in that barbershop quarted back in Skokie, but I digress.

Having discovered his secret years ago, I've been in a favorable position to exert pressure on him to say what I want. This, surely, explains alot.

In the end, though, does it really matter if Tom jumps or not? I mean, he's got an iPod full of Jimmy Buffett tunes and a hella cute car to boot. . . all the rest is tantamount to rounding error.

Peace,

D-d0g

Doug,

I love you man.

It's good to see you in your old form, with a little less bitterness.

Perhaps I need to come see you and the boys.

Please do. I'm not jumping yet, but I've learned how to hook a canopy to a rig now ;).

i look in your profile and see you have 170jumps(skydives i guess).
Now thinking of USpa and rigging skills..
Do you need to be some sort of a rigger to do simple stuff as hooking up a canopy in US??
In DK ALL skydive students gets a packerslicens(often whith in the first 20 jumps or so,due weater arround here),which also is required to get a danish skydivelicens(licens that states your off student status and no longer need instructors arround,but you´ll need atleast 40 skydives at that point).

To me hookong up a canopy to the risers-to the 3 ring.regular gear maintain and so on(no sewing),it looks weired to me that you cant hook up a canopy after 170 skydives

Anyway i know US has some rules i dont understand,guess this is one of them.. sounds like your in good hands anyway

glad to see you are on here now!

No, not quite. In fact, I already knew how to do it. It was just that I managed to screw up one riser three times in a row, each time resulting in walking up to the canopy and finding a big wad of fabric turned inside out. Quite embarrassing.

I'll blame it on it being dark and being tired after a full day of jumping ;).

Honestly, Jaap is one of the best prepared BASE students I've seen. He not only taught himself to pack before his FJC, but he actually took _two_ separate FJC's (one from me and one from Vertigo) so that he was able to be exposed to multiple methods, and do some more post-FJC skills under supervision, with Jimmy.

not picking on you it were uspa general

I think he's in Canada, so that would be CSPA, wouldn't it?

yup he is in canada

heh my bad sorry
Just seems that most from that "island" over there miss what we in europe call normal "packingskills",which means basicly knowing what to do whith a canopy which is not attached to any risers.The knowlegede of knowing how to hook up a canopy,chek if it were sampled corectly and pack it them self whith out knowing how to do it all by them self.
In dk the packing test is in 30 mins were you should be abel to do all that..
I dunno if people in us/canada get this education and if they does,it might is lost as they might usaly use packers and riggers all the time?

Again it wasnt to pick at 1 person

dunnobut guess you guys knows it better than me