Skydiving Rigs and Terminal BASE Jumps
In reply to:
I'd be interested in hearing why you, or others, feel that BASE gear is inherently safer than skydiving gear at this site.
1) BASE gear is more reliable. The system is (a) less complex, (b) designed for BASE, and (c) engineered with several years more experience thrown in.
2) A beginner requires instruction. More experienced jumpers hanging around there, even the majority of the qualified instructors, won't be able to provide nearly as much help with the converted skydiving gear as they will with real BASE gear. This is simply because their experience is more focused on the BASE gear (since with a couple exceptions, the vast majority of their jumps have been made on relatively modern BASE gear).
3) Having a reserve can lull a beginner into a false sense of security. This means that they are less likely to treat the BASE jump as a separate exercise, and more likely to treat it as just another skydive. I mean, it's the same gear, so it's got to be a pretty similar jump, right?
4) Having a reserve can encourage people to pull way too high. If the canopy is packed for terminal, and people are pulling 3 seconds down (so they will "have enough time to use the reserve") they are going to see some pretty squirrely openings, and they are going to be pretty close to the wall for those openings. It's actually far safer to take a reasonable delay (and actually reach terminal) than it is to open high to "save altitude for the reserve."
5) Using their skydiving rigs will encourage people to use undersized canopies. If they are trying to stuff a canopy into their skydiving container, people are not going to be able to get a full size BASE canopy in, and we'd see people putting in whatever canopy they could fit--even old skydiving canopies with less than desirable opening characteristics. If they are going to buy a second rig to make the jump, they're better off buying a (cheaper, even) real BASE rig than a (more expensive) larger skydiving rig, for all these reasons.
In reply to:
I would have no reservations about jumping my old stored-in-the-closet rig, ( Centaurus, Pegasus, Raven 1 ), at this site with no modifications other than using the tail pocket already installed on the Peg and using an appropriate bridle / pc.
You have vastly more experience on that gear than pretty much any of the rest of us. In addition, you have far more experience with the jumping than any beginner who might be headed out there. These two things combine to make something acceptable for you that would be completely unacceptable for a beginner.
I'd write more, but I'm out of time.
