Basejumper.com - archive

I got bored a while back, as in yesterday. should have been doing homework, should have been trying to make some money for the europe trip, should have been calling a doctor to get my medical back.

but I made a 27.5meter KITE instead. It had to be anchored to an oak tree, and on the 2nd flight it BROKE a 8mm climbing line. I should have brought my load cell. I will next time we go out with it.
its a modified paraglider, with a really simple control system. trims had to be made on the ground otherwise it was either to slow and would buffet and stall, or would break the brake lines. (lots of repairs were done)

the final goal with this project is to build a anchored kite platform, where a jumper could ride the 'kite' to above 300'. the next setup will use cable, with a more reliable control system. possibly an automatic one.





(for the retarded americans who have yet to make the switch, or learned both systems, 27.5m is about 300 sq feet)

http://www.facebook.com/...aa9&id=203002032


i cant upload pictures? huh, well the link for pics is just right there.

Hmmmm... have to watch those things that break free and fly - I flew past a bunch of kids party balloons at 13,000 feet the other day. Could have had serious consequences in my engine....

its a kite.

if the line brakes at 300', or any altitude for that matter, the OTHER line holds the kite down, because if one line breaks not only does the kite have no directional stability, it has little or no power. also, if BOTH (all) lines were to break, it would fall to the ground. much like a skydiving canopy. its not made out of magic or helium, its just fabric.

I'm a commercial pilot, and sure as hell would not endanger any flying aircraft.

I'm a commercial pilot too, and was shocked to see them up there as I was being vectored into London. Kids party balloons aren't the only thing I've seen floating around that high....

like other airplanes? hang gliders? weather balloons? paragliders? skydivers?

balloons are pretty small, but i doubt (i'm not sure though) but i doubt a few grams of plastic rubber in a helium balloon would even make a GE turbine cough. worst case, it hits some small PT-6 turboprop and destroys the hot section. or it covers up the intake on a reciprocating engine.

even though we are IFR, we still have to be looking for stuff right?

I agree though, were any kind of airplane to hit a 30' paraglider, it would fuck em up somethin fierce.

in all reality, this would be like a tethered balloon on a windy day.

it would take a lot more experimenting and testing for me to go up on it though.

Hmmmmmm, got my head in the books at the moment cos I'm in the sim at the weekend for an LPC, so engines failing on me are at the forefront of my mind. You're right, going through (for me an IAE V2500), it may cough a little but not much.

2 years ago, with my old company, I was on short final (in a Dash Q400) at night (halloween) and someone was firing rockets at us from a housing estate that was at the and of the runway. On my side (RHS) it was so close to the window, even over the sound of the props, the captainand I heard it bang.

What do you fly?

hahahah... well, at the moment nothing.
I before my accident, i was a tow pilot and a jump pilot.
single/mulit commercial/ins tailwheel, acro. 900hrs.
flying kingairs and pawnees.

2 years ago i hit my head, really really really hard. spent some time in calvin land (coma) and dont have a viable medical cert anymore.

I have a few doctors and a few lawyers working on it. its basically just my doctor saying I'm good to go to my lawyer, and then the lawyer telling Oklahoma city to give me my medical.

I already had a neuropsychiatric test done, above average in all categories, but not spelling

its been 22 months since I was PIC of anything but a hot air balloon.

your dash 400, thats a big plane. as soon as this medical goes through, I am going to fly about 50 hours with a few skydiving companies around and try to get picked up by lynx (doubt it) or Mormon air force or mesa. can't be that hard, had some freinds get on with 100multi and 500 total last month. I have 250 multi, no sweat right?


sigh. im delusional.

I've always wanted to fly a pawnee. I did all my hours building flying jump aircraft - Cessna Caravan and Turbine Islander, and got my first commercial job with 740 hours. I got inside one of those Air Tractors once - whata beast!!!! The Q400 s big, but I'm onto slightly larger now.

You're not delusional!!! Jump flying is the best training I could have had - ever. I still fly the jump aircraft as often as possible, or when my days off/hour permit. But right now, I'm off to bed. I have a stack of books as tall as a small child to get through tomorrow......

Always wanted to fly big kites.....

start paragliding... you ARE the kite. I would pick paragliding over BASE for sure if i could only do one for the rest of my life. but i like BASE jumpers WAY better than paraglider pilots.

study hard. any left seat stuff yet? and watch out for those anti-aircraft Halloween fireworks. i doubt it would hurt the plane, but if the news noobs get a hold of that, we are talking industry panic.

Who's the instructor here?

I believe you were the instructor nate.

freaking hilarious.

 

That's what ATC is for.

speaking of ATC-

they have their radar sensitivity turned so far down they would never see a paraglider. defense radar can see it, but not civil ATC.

they turn it down because they get reflections from 18 wheelers on the freeway from 10 miles away.

When I *used to* paraglide, my instructors and acquaintances said the same thing about "those skydivers"....

Of all the canopies I have sold, hobbies I have quit, and people I have taken joy in never talking to again - the paragliding community takes the cake...

Although, when Boyd is not looking, I might hijack his powered paraglider....

That's what I thought when in Class A airspace......

it's G again above 60,000 right? I need Burt Rutan about now.

Have you been to bed yet?

nope. i drive taxi, 'night shift' plus I'm insomniac.

I was a god damned commercial pilot, but all i can drive these days is a freaking taxi. damn the man.

Work on your medical - I know more than 4 pilots in the last 3 years who have lost their medicals, 3 of those guys worked at it and got them back.

I don't know about your FAA Class 1, but here in the UK, they don't do the EEG brain scan anymore, because the UK CAA deemed that it had no relevance to flying and strobscopic effect. This was (I believe based on American research).

I'm having my medical done soon, I can ask my Doc if you like - for some info about it. He's the one that kicked off all the nonsense with EEG's in the UK in the first place then decided they were irrelevant (ruining many pilots careers on the way....)

Last WE was Diwali in India, the local new year's eve. The whole country was just an explosion of fireworks and crackers, it was incredible to see that from the sky.

Long final at Mumbay airport, we could see those big fireworks exploding BETWEEN the runway and us, that means right on the approach path, loc and glide... the preceding aircraft complained after touchdown they had been hit by a firework, and then came our turn... 2 rockets for us, one 100 ft in front of the left engine, and we flew in the middle of it, wonderful...

Pink...

Somebody was there, giving flak to all landing aircrafts with heavy firework artillery, and let me say that nobody gave a fuck, including ATC.

Edit to add: Looks like we're turning basejumper.com into PPRuNe...

Blimey!! can you imagine.... we could have our own forum as base jumping airline pilots on pprune. That'd give them someting to bump their gums about

I personaly know 3 airline pilot BASE jumpers not on this forum.

and dont worry about asking your aviation doc, thank you though!
I have a group in LA i am paying $3000+ US ($1500 Euro?) to do it. they are supposed to be the best. they do all the re-certifications for United and most other big carriers.

oh... and i got a PM from a friend about my earlier post, above 60,000 (FL600) it is E. its been a LONG time. i need to brush up. and fast.


PS- isnt this thread supposed to be about a kite?

Don't think I'll ever make it up to FL600, nice though that may be.......

>>we could have our own forum as base jumping airline pilots on pprune<<

That would surely be an elite sub-species of BASE jumper but I did know one already . . .

He's dead now but I had a good friend who BASE jumped and was also a 747 Captain for Britsh Airways. He wound up on the "died outside the sport" part of the original BASE Fatality List .

He was a very cool cat and I miss him dearly . . .

NickD
BASE 194

Martin Siddell, May 11, 2003
Age: 52,
Impact (Skydiving)

Martin is a BASE jumper, a British Airways Captain, and is killed while skydiving at Z-Hills, Florida. It sounds as if he found a wind rotor while turning final over a tree line on a bumpy day.

It's funny now and I'm glad for it, but when he last visited me, along with his flight engineer Mark, we drank ourselves silly and took my boat on a perilous midnight ride.

After making the last Basic Research trip to Norway he really had the BASE fire in his eyes. He kept pumping me for all I knew about BASE jumping, and I kept interrupting, because all I wanted to know is what's it like being the Captain on a Boeing 747 flying to San Diego across the North Pole from England.

Martin is dapper in a way only some English men can be. But, he's really just little boy at heart. I think he had fun that night, navigating the boat, and laughing like men do when there aren't any woman around. The next day they both returned to my sailboat and replaced the beer they drank twice over.

  3.6m, 5m, 27.5m have all been successfully BASEd altitudewise. Not sure about kites though I have a nice 2.5m,
take care,
space

I remember when this happened, I was in the throes of my commercial training. Although I didn't know him, it seemed particularly poignant, as he had everything I was aiming for. It was yet another mortality check.

At the time I had stopped skydiving because I couldn't afford to and shelved BASE because I wanted to focus on my flying and get through the course in one piece.

Now I'm back to doing both, and loving every minute of it! People who fly planes can't seem to get their head around skydiving, so I don't even venture down explaining the BASE side of things: why I do it, or what even first excited me about getting off fixed objects.

I just smile and wave at the passengers who step backwards and take a second look at the woman who is sitting on the flightdeck, and is going to fly them to their holiday hotspot that morning.

If only they knew......

what does the cap say when you tell him/her? or don't you?

Depends really........ If its relevant to the thread of the conversation and I think they won't be too freaked out by it, then I have talked about it with a couple of them.

If, before we actually get to the first cup of tea, they say something along the lines of "are you the one that does that crazy falling out of planes stuff" or "I heard you like to throw yourself out of a perfectly seviceable ........" I tend to switch off and ask them if they have any pets.........

Even though pilots are termed "airmen" by the FAA when you get a little air on them, most freak out . . .

NickD
BASE 194

well said. many I have flown with don't even like the windows open.
it is very sad to see that 95% of my generation of pilots decides what airplane to fly by how much "glass" it has in the cockpit. instead of flying a $70/hr Aerobatic tail-wheel airplane (that I was renting), they would fly a $120/hr Cessna 172 with a $100,000 G1000 navigation computer installed. they would not even go anywhere, just fly in the pattern, maybe go to an airport 10 miles away where you can SEE the airport beacon from the taxiway of the departure airport. hilarious. these kids will be flying heavies in 5 years, and may never have the joy of a doorless windy midnight snap roll high over the moonlit mountains.

When I owned a Citabria, the door and windows were rarely attached to the airplane. this was for the joy of flying an 'open' cockpit aerobatic airplane (as well as certain other airborne personnel 'access' issues)

we BASE jumpers are better Airmen than most pilots out there.

I did my stall/spin training in a Citabria, what a blast that was . . .

NickD
BASE 194

NICE.

scary to instruct in those Citabrias... the instructor has not mixture/starter/fuel shutoff control. you have to trust your student wont 'bump' the fuel shutoff with their knee during the spin! I guess you did fine... I guess engine out landings on one is not very hard. dont turn to low and flare, its all the same stuff!

i did my aerobatic training in Decathlon and robin (canadian aerobatic side by side ) I spin the rental cherokee few times it spins easy than 172, if your on the budget 152 aerobat is nice too but not much power, all pilot should have at least spin training, they need to bring it back for all pilot, it is the most fun part of flying I think, A roll a 747 lately ?

agreed, spin training should be required. so should mild aerobatic training.

I did my spin training in a Slingsby Firefly; I was laughing so much during the spins we had to stop so I could compose myself to carry on. I'd love to do more aerobatics.

A good friend of mine (fellow jump pilot) who is a first officer on the 747 did a loop-the-loop in the sim. It took 13,000 feet to get it over....

I remember career day in high school, me and some friends went to the United training center and flew 757 between buildings and under bridges. it was spring of 2001. kinda weird. the instructor did a Ailoron roll over the San Francisco bay.

we all remember Tex J right?!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra_khhzuFlE

one of my heroes.

I have heard some impressive verbal defecation from fellow pilots when they find out I BASE jump. I usually respond with “what you just told me is the same as the guy who tells you helicopters are dangerous, they just fall out of the sky when the engine quits.” Most of the time this leads to head scratching, then wanting to learn more about it and where the motivation and desire to do it comes from.

aerobatics in a 727...

A friend of mine and I put together a business plan to buy three 727s and fly them at air shows, didn't come together.

nice shot of the 27 though... thats sweet. they are acro oriented liners, more so than a 707

Hi Cutter....What do you fly?

spent the last year flying Eurocopter AS-350 B2 and Bell 206 L-3&4

the company doesnt really seem to care what i do as long as i show up for work ready to go. as soon one guy sees the picture on my computer it spreads from there. i mostly get crap from the old timers that are looking to push some buttons or are living in the past. i like to push back and most of them end up fascinated and keep asking question to learn more.

there is some old and new pilot the is ego-driven, when they see other that is more daredevil than they are they get offensive, I bit patty wagstaff must got lot of flack at the beginning in her career

Ha hahah.... ok guys, I'm getting the picture here!! Like i said, everyones comfort zone is different, that's the point I was trying to make here, and I wouldn't want to make anyone feel uncomfortable because mine is in a different place to theirs.

I was not talking in particular I was just stating the older pilot think like they are bold pilot and some body that is more bolder or crazy(non jumper thinking) they get bend out of shape, but if you explain to them more in depth some will understand, I say some

The same thing happened in skydiving when BASE started gaining steam in the early 1980s. A lot skydivers resented us for no other reason than we pushed them off the top of the danger heap . . .

NickD
BASE 194

What we really do at work.........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE1rE2vxUyM&eurl=http://widget-63.slide.com/widgets/sf.swf

I've just had my 2 days of beasting, failures and captain dying on me....... I'm off out now for a beer with friends.

that was a good one... I have never seen that! aussie pilots are awesome. I only have two stipes on my shoulder though.

Sometimes i wish i had a FLIR.....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFtLWScKXGE