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Hey everyone,

The other day my buddy and I went to a tower in our area. Unfortunately I had to be his ground crew because I am still waiting to receive my new gear. He started climbing as the sun began to go down and reached the platform at 540 about 20 minutes later. My buddy was on the platform for a while and because he forgot his cell phone I had no way to contact him. He began to climb down, which was strange because the winds seemed fine. He reached the ground and said, “I’m getting arrested.”

Turns out someone saw him climbing and called the police. He saw the cop drive into a few of the access roads for other towers near the one we were at so he figured he would just climb down. We started walking back through the woods to get our cars and about 150 yards off we saw a bright light come over our cars. It was the cop with his spotlight. We were like “S**T.” Surprisingly we got back to the cars and he was gone. I told my buddy to throw his gear in his trunk while I looked down the road for the cop. He wasn’t there!! We hopped in our cars and drove off. I called him as we were driving off and was like “WOW THAT WAS LUCKY!”

We talked it over with a few of our other base friends and we are thinking that the call probably came out as something other than someone was going to base jump off the tower. We are thinking that when the cop finally found the right tower where we were at and he saw a few of the stickers my buddy and I have on ours cars for skydiving and knew what we were doing and didn’t care, so he left.

If that is the case that is one awesome cop!!

 he saw a few of the stickers my buddy and I have on ours cars for skydiving and knew what we were doing and didn’t care, so he left.
I doubt it. Do yourself a favour and lose the stickers, it will only burn you one day when you think you've made a clean getaway and a cop spots them!

1) as the sun began to come down = in daylight
2) skydiving stickers in you car = "Look at us"

why not just climb when its dark?

 

1. Awesome and cop don't do in the same sentence unless you use them as in "I met an awesome chick who's dating a fucking cop" or something like that.

2. Lose the stickers buddy. I did. No more BASE saved my life, BASE is not a crime, When I grow up I want to be just like Jeb with Jonhny's hair and Jason's goatee, Cutway and be happy, USPA rules!...

3. You get arrested for trespassing not jumping so I would have flicked it

Yea, That’s a good point. The stickers are small though so it would be hard to see with the cars backed in like we had them. It was just a guess cause we can't really think of any other reason why the cop would just leave like that without knowing why our cars were there…

Well what we have been trying to do for night jumps is climb as the sun is going down "gloomy light" and then jump when the light is just barely there that way it’s not completely dark. Most of the time we do morning jumps. Climb in the dark and right as there is a crack of light jump so it’s not completely black. We should probably stick to morning jumps, ey?

Note: I personally haven’t jumped yet other than B-day because I don't have my gear yet.

1. Haha yea for real. What was I thinking!

2. Yea I will. They are small but its not worth the risk.

3. Yea If he would have had his cell I would have told him to jump. I still wonder why the cop didn't wait for us if he saw my buddy on the tower.

Don't climb down until somebody verbally asks you to. I have accumulated three hours of wait time on four different jumps, waiting completely frozen because I thought I had been spotted. After a while, they dissapear. If it's dark, and you don't move, they can't see you. They'll think it's a false alarm, or that they're too late. Patience is your friend, and I can think of few better places to use it than on a jumpable object in the middle of the night. I'm sure most jumpers here have stories of more impressive wait times.

I've not even jumped yet but have GC'd a bit.
Can I also suggest ( if possible) you try and park your car as far away from your object as your lazy ass is prepared to walk.
Fair enough a quick getaway can be the order of the day.
But I'll bet for most of you that being stealthy ,being patient and not having your car on the verge of the turn off road to your favourite object is going to increase your chances of not getting caught....

climb dark, jump dark - that way there is no question..............

That reminds me of the time Spence and I spent about six hours mostly standing on the railing of a balcony waiting for traffic to clear. About midnight there was still traffic milling around, about 2 o'clock the bars closed and there was another bunch of traffic. Just as that was clearing, around 3 or 4 o'clock, people started showing up to fill the newspaper boxes. When they finally left, cabs began lining up in front of the hotel to pick up early-morning travellers. Then the sun rose, the city came to life, and we went to work.

Does it still count as a long wait time even though we never got to jump?

Michael

"Don't climb down until somebody verbally asks you to. I have accumulated three hours of wait time on four different jumps, waiting completely frozen because I thought I had been spotted. After a while, they dissapear. If it's dark, and you don't move, they can't see you. They'll think it's a false alarm, or that they're too late. Patience is your friend, and I can think of few better places to use it than on a jumpable object in the middle of the night. I'm sure most jumpers here have stories of more impressive wait times. "





Yeah that's what I thought. Until I looked out in front of me and at eye level there was a helicopter hovering inside the guy wires shining it's spot light up and down the tower.

Michael has been witness to some of my impressive wait times Never due to the the law though....just scared stupid!

I totally agree with not climbing down. Most of the time you will go unnoticed.

There was a solo jump I did in ***** off a 1200-1700k A from about 600 ft…. This was my 1st solo on the object jump in another state.

Local said not to jump before 12:00 midnight so I arrived a bit after midnight. Had the GF pull GC, had radios and cells for contact. It was 50 degrees on the ground little wind, at 600ft altitude it was about 20k down the middle.

I was going to jump from 300 but climbed to 600 so I could land at a better landing area. Good thing I did. As I was prepping my PC a truck was driving really slow by, so I waited. Then the guy stopped at the front gate opened, entered, and closed. I told the GF to hide. The worker proceeded to drive to the inner gate and did the same. He went inside the building. At this point I told the GF to leave.

I figured I would wait until the guy got halfway or more up and then I would jump and run if needed, but I still kept my calm and waited. Ended up being about 15-20 minutes (and really cold), but he ended up leaving in the same way that he left.

I watched him drive ever so slowly away and even then I waited another 10-15 min to ensure he was gone and hadn’t just hid down the road. I then re-prep’ed my PC for a HH jump, checked my watch (12:40 midnight) did a 3 sec delay and pitched. Opened on heading and had enough time to play with sinking, backing up, and sashaying the canopy. I easily made the intended landing area, gathered the gear quickly as I could…. The only injury (a scratch) was from a barbed wire cow type fence while running away… figures… but ended up being a great jump experience from learning to wait, stay calm, and learning to take the right delay to make the intended landing area.

Why would an awesome chick be dating a fucking cop though?

woah... good pilot! er bad...

 If it happens again go ahead and jump. You will get the same charge anyhow, so you might as well get a jump in.
Well, not true for every country. In Holland, in the first case you might get a ticket for illegal entry, and after jumping, you might get illegal aerial activity. 2 different violations, with 2 very different fines...

Ronald Overdijk

Um, not a bad pilot. A police helicopter called in by the cop on the ground who "thought he saw something"

so did you get caught? did they think you were a terrorist?

Yeah we got caught
I don't know what he thought of us

It turned out to be more of a pain in the butt than anything.

 hey I was the buddy up one the tower, and first off I climbed down because the wind was blowing down the wire. I saw a cop drive by when I was up there but he didnt stop.after I started climbing down, the cop came back and stopped on the access road for a min. then went to the the tower next to us and did the same thing and left. As for the stickers on my car I have a bridge day 04 and a small apex sticker and I wouldnt use my car as a getaway car except its parked a half mile away in the woods. so the chance of it being spotted on a dark country road is slim. (I hope) but I can say I wont be climbing again until it is well after sun set, even though a day blaze jump is so much fun!

 and I had my phone on me, its amazing what dialing the number would have done if my buddy had any questions about what was going on. Would have called him sept I was hallin ass down so I wouldnt get caught.

Haha what up Wednesday,

I did call you, 4 times! Amazing what answering would have done! And I'll be up there with ya soon! See ya at the DZ.

Peace!