Basejumper.com - archive

OK.

does anyone jump antennas in wind? 10+mph

my thinking is that as long as you jump with the wind at your back even with a 180 or something screwey on opening you are going to be going away from the object.
(i am talking about freestanders not a's with guidewires)
antennas are not like a building or a cliff. they are made of a structure that is very open and wind blows directly through them so there is no swirling winds and what not. . . just thinking.

just so everyone know, i'm not jumping antennas in wind. its just my curiousity if i might be correct and if anyone DOES do it. (in the wind) da da da dummm.

over and out. grundleson.

One thing to keep in mind is how does your canopy do in strong winds? I know I'm jumping a couple of monster canopies and I sure don't want to be under one of these boats in winds over 15-20 mph. I'm sure you we referring to the freefall aspect, but we still need to factor in the canopy ride as well right. Just a thought ...

I made one jump in the conditions you are describing and that was only a few weeks back with the London UK crew. We climbed this free standing object which is not a solid structure (so for all intents and purposes it very well could have been an antenna) And once at the top, the winds were hauling... At least to my little Swiss standards. I guess the wind must have been in the 20 to 30 mph range...
But since the winds were constant and blowing in the optimal direction, we went ahead and jumped.
Good thing with these kind of conditions is there is virtually no chance to hit the object, even with the crappiest opening imaginable.
But I wouldn't do that on a structure with guy wires or on a solid smoke stack for example which would create bad rotors around it's structure.

I've jumped in winds in excess of 50mph from antennas. There are some key things to doing it safely... You are essentially launching into a relative wind, like on a skydive. If you do a short delay, your pilot chute will be caught by the wind and you will open in a downplane momentarily. I've had this happen with a 90 right and lost a lot of altitude in what amounted to a long arcing swoop. On a high jump, the relative wind at your back can pitch you headdown, similar to launching with your back to a prop blast. Knowing these issues beforehand and knowing how to recover is key to doing it safely. Winds down the wire are a different issue if the winds are very strong. On short delays, I wouldn't do it. On tall objects and a long delay, the wind will catch you and pitch you either 90 degrees perpendicular to the downwind wire direction or pitch you to orient with the wire. This requires actually flying your body to compensate.

On Antennas, so long as you have a good landing area, Wind is your Friend.

I've jumped antennas with tailwinds up to about 45 mph at exit.

Things to be sure of:

1) You need to be able to turn around to land upwind. I got dragged downwind in 20+ groundwind one time, and I can tell you that it sucked pretty bad.

2) Huge open landing fields (thankfully common at many A's) are almost a necessity in very high winds.

3) If the wind blowing you away from the tower is greater than the forward speed of your canopy, it's impossible to strike the object. I used to jump an "A" that regularly had very strong tailwinds, and we called it the "Vertical S".

In most cases, a good tailwind is a big plus for an antenna jump.

aslong as you estimate you can land your canopy whith out getting hurt then its all good

I have a few where the winds up top were way over 20 - and honestly I felt much safer than jumping in nil or near nil winds- as long as you have time to turn 180 for landing - should be a piece of cake. On a guy wire antenna I really see no reason to jump in no wind conditions, as with the winds you are much safer... not much experience here though - but that's what works for me.

P.S. If it's a tall tower - and you are taking a healthy delay - it's equally important to see what the winds UP TOP are doing as well as ON THE BOTTOM. Cuz if at the exit a 40mph is bisecting your exit, and at opening alti you got 15mph from the same direction, and landing into 5mph - I would consider that a safe jump :)

The little time I spent in England, only a handful of my jumps had less than double digit winds up top. Off that same object that I'm sure you visited, there was one jumper that would do a floating back flip when the winds were decent. He said it was good practice for 180's.

Cheers
Pat

>>Sure. Just do a floater!

This brings up an important point.

Floaters are often a better choice in high tailwinds.

If you are pitching early in a high tailwind, I'd definitely recommend either a hand held or floater jump.

If you have a strong relative tailwind when you throw a stowed ZP PC, there is a good chance that the PC will begin expanding and get blow under your arm (in front of you), before finishing inflation.

This could leave you in the not-so-nice situation of having an inflated PC pulling a bridle under your arm, and having to fight it off. I've ended up with bridle burns on my arm twice from this situation, and once had a nasty set of line twists from it when doing a high tailwind low delay jump. Fortunately, the high tailwind also saved me from floating into the object under line twists after that (180 offheading) opening.

I like the idea of strong winds...
unfortunately, I've scouted many towers set within a wooded area. one 1000+ footer had cuts in the trees for the guy wires and anchors. I'm not yet comfortable putting a big, docile canopy in a confined area with turbulence created by high ground winds.

yuck.