Basejumper.com - archive

Those of you in the Pacific NW know who Ray is. Ray put me off for my first 9 (nine) base jumps off of a western us "B" this weekend. Kick ass- I felt totally scared on the first one but never unsafe or unprepared for anything...My background: 2000-odd skydives, tandem instructor, rigger with about 30 helicopter and 3 balloon jumps. The object is well known 486ft or so over a river.

#1) stowed. Slider down on one of his six rigs a velco container and a Fox Vtek. The winds were strong but I was well loaded. Good exit, deployment and landing.

#2) stowed again. slider down again, different canopy slightly smaller and unvented. 40-45 deg off heading (left) after a head-high but uneventful exit. I was slow getting to my inputs and landed 2-3 feet off shore in waist high water. OK jump-needed improvement.

3#)same rig, much better exit and deployment (handheld this time)-I flew the canopy on rears after unstowing the brakes and swooped just onto the shore-winds were 12-15. Good.

#'s 4-8) were all solid, good feeling jumps(all stowed and slider down- I only stood up two landings, the winds were nill @ the bottom and I was workin' the PLF. All deplyments were pretty much right on heading.

#9) I wanted to do a slider up and learn to tie a static-line so I could put myself off things, but not necessarily on the same jump. Ray said slider up static would be ok on this object so I hucked it.

My plan was to fly the rear risers through the slow deployment and then go to toggles once it inflated fully and the slider came down. Nope-not a good idea I should have listened and gone straight to toggles because; as I was correcting the sniveling canopy just under the span, with the left rear riser it opened into a bow-tie stall. Shit. I immediately dropped the rear riser and unstowed the brakes, making a 180 toward the large landing area in the process.
If there was wind I would have been landing downwind in the middle of the the area. Because the wind @ the bottom was 0-2 I just made it over the ditch. Ray's pilot chute was in a tree- no major damage I don't think. I was fine, I thought I had a chance to stand it up so I didn't PLF, my bum's a little sore because I didn't roll the landing out.

I'm ready to start learning some more cool stuff now.

A 486ft Building over water huh?
~J

Congrats Diveout Dan!

Guess you'll be asking Urban for 500' passes over the DZ from now on...

yes this was a span, so "S" for those of you who didn't understand what I intended, sorry for the typo-

I will NOT be asking for 500 foot passes, maybee 1500 for some terminal deployment practice...I've got a 900 and something ft A in my backyard

Did he tell you that everyone else was on "vacation"?

No. I knew some of the rest of the Oregon base crew 4 yrs ago, from the dropzone. He didn't give me the 'vacation line' that is sometimes used with new jumpers in our area.

I've actually waited an entire season to make BASE #1. 2 different people have offered to put me off the A I mentioned earlier, but I refused.

When the decision to start BASE jumping, I bought quality gear (www.baserigs.com) and then told Ray it would be great if he could show me a few things. I've been really scared about it for a month or so, so when I was on the other side of the rail making #1, I was pretty calm. (Edited last paragraph for clarity)

Yeah...why? They're not?!?

Well, Tom?

Do you want to answer that or should I?

They're disjointed and unorganized to say the least... although well meaning.

Congratulations Dan! Welcome to the club! I wish you the best during your BASE career in Oregon.

-=Raistlin

Hey Spence, where the hell were you the other night? Some crap about "sleeping" ... "12 hour shifts"... blah, blah...


Edit: Dan, head up here. Kmonster and I have an object you need to flick with us. Welcome to the bruthahood!

I'd love to as soon as I get a few on my new canopy, I should have my stuff in about 4 weeks. After that I'm all over it -depending on the object...

Are you talkin Earth or Span?

I'm talking "O" nice, tall, forgiving. HUUUUUGE landing area. Ask Ray, he's been there.

Bring helium balloons.

It's you dude! I went there and did a Solo recently and there was not a breath of wind. Nothing. I'm not talking a little breezy but doable. I'm talking nothing.

It was pretty rad.

Sooner than later, Jaap and I will be opening up and tearing up the scene up north ;-)

-=Raistlin

So who's gonna score Vancouver BASE #2

Chad, I'm going to dayshift....2 years straight nights is killing me. Got the EMT-B BTW. I also picked up the PHTLS book....looks like a great course! What do you think of the WEMT program?

Dan.... Hey good job on surviving.
.
In your new BASE log-book / post
You failed to mention somewhere between Jumps # 4-8
You Running over my BASE container, you were jumping. With a Subaru 4x4.
That's right, He ran over my Rig with a fucking Car.
and YES I did make him go up and Jump the container he ran over with out opening it up and fucking around with a perfectly good pack job.
There was Righteous / Karma / payback, though.
In the stash bag with the Rig was his New, Bonehead carbon fiber helmet nicely Fractured and Broke.
..
.
It was nice showing someone that had enough skydives and Tandem jumps the BASICS of BASE jumping.
I had no problems with Dan doing his first jumps. Pilot-Chute Stowed and opening in Strong Winds going straight-down or Backwards on landings.
With as much skydive jumps he has. I just Ground Schooled him in the car drove up to the bridge and threw his Ass Off.
I didn't want to hear any Whining like. "it's to windy" or
"were is my Board to stand on when I climb over the Rail and Launch of on Exit ?" or
"Will you hold my Pilot-chute and PCA me ?"
Skydiving experience, Doing Tandems, Canopy Swooping and Ground Launching made my job very easy for giving him a little more BASE responsibility that I would give most Students. So by the 6th jump I was letting him put himself off flat and stable.
I just stood around and made sure he didn't do anything stupid and filled in answers and Do and Don't advice when asked or Needed
.
He wanted to do a Slider-up and be shown how to Tie himself off on a PCA with some Break Cord.
So I combined the two to put a -little pressure- on him and over load his sensory input on his last jump.
He Did Not fail miserably but he was overloaded and he made a couple bad decisions like instinctively
going back to previously learned canopy Skills and Technique.. but the bridge is pretty forgiving
and that's the place for him to make mistakes and learn.

Dan did pretty good, over all and Will be a good BASE jumper if He puts the work into it.
It was Good and Windy so I cut Him some slack on the Accuracy and desired Flight Control.
________________________

- OK - I even learn when I am Teaching.
Even a Student that has a couple thousand skydives with Tandem experience, Swooping and some Ground Launching skills.
Did not have the proper Canopy Skills that I would have liked to see.
That is when after inflation and Heading assessment or Correction has been done.
The Canopy must be Slammed into Half breaks and use Flat Turn technique to line-up on approach then
-Ride The Wire- in to a desired landing spot.

Twin Bridge is the -Perfect Spot- for repetitious training for Body Position awareness and altitude Awareness.
but, Accuracy and learning how to Fly your Canopy down in a steep descending line of approach. (-Riding the Wire-)
With half-breaks using flat-pivot turns. Is just as important as the first two things.
In real life that will pull your ass out of a Hospital stay when things turn to shit and you are forced to go to plan-B.

So from now on I am going to beat Canopy control into every student I have.
Because If I Do Not. They will -Instinctively Revert back- to there previously learned skills under Canopy.
When they are under pressure and are a little over loaded.
So I would like to thank Dan for teaching me a Lesson and reminding me of this.
* Fun Times.*
.
.

I remember when you yelled at me for landing on the road at the Pizza cliff in Moab.

Ray: "You landed on the road"

Chad: "Is that bad?"

Ray: "The road is your out. Your primary landing area is below."

Chad: "It was easier to land on the road."

Ray: "It's not always going to be easy so stop using your outs unless you need them. Next time, land down below."

Chad:


hehe... memories...