Basejumper.com - archive

Have found a few of these lately
with easy access, decent landing
zones, and plan to jump them.

I am definitely going static line
at least a few times, just curious
what the masses have to say.

I have a 220ft freestander not far, I've FF'd it approx 30 times no probs, using a 48" and doing a half second delay, if your not comfortable/unfamiliar with this height I'd suggest SL/PCA first maybe

Here's one that's a bit lower than 250'. 70 meters tops. Canopy is a vented Blackjack 240, pc a 46, go'n'throw- which is what practically all the locals do off this structure.
That said, I climbed off it just the other day for not being comfortable with the method and height. Which was a real pain in the ass (the climb down), so I'll second the suggestion for pca/sl first if it makes you feel better...

Oh, and one of them even has a convenient
out-house for those quick pre-jump-dumps.

Train Spotting comes to mind.

SL it once... then free fall that cousin of mrs cl-10

How fat are you? Size definitely matters when evalutating and jumping sub-300 foot objects.

I would say the real danger lies in shitting in that out house.

I wonder how many of the people who voted for option 3 are serious and are speaking from a point of view that they have jumped from?

If you believe they are all serious, then by the numbers right now; stowed aerials are a more done jump from 250ft freestanders than PCA/SL...

Probably not too many. The ambiguity of the poll of the green one is to blame. He is not asking what would people do. He is asking for suggestions of what HE should do.

And that is not generating a poll that's believable. Nevertheless I would love to see a video of the attempt.

I weigh about 195 pounds.

My canopy is a Troll 285 with vents.

Yeah man, I am with you,
I think half of the people who
choose option 3 are joking
and the other half might
just be dicks

maybe they are insinuating that you deserve what you get if you blindly follow internet advice.

on the other hand,

ill pca you. then ill ff it.

stowed and aerials are not recomended from that height.

love, the internet.

when u own the sweetest gainerform there ever was what u want with 250?

an 8 minute climb.

If you have to clear some kind protrusion of an aperatus off the A it could make a SL or a PCA not an option...

Or if you have to clear some kind of vertical protrusion like trees near the A it could make SL or a PCA the only option...

I have a 250 foot freestander practically in my back yard and it has some trees about 50 feet from the base of the A and 40 feet tall. I've successfully freefallin it many o' times without any incident and have also successfully landed in the trees. In this case the 15' made the difference

EDIT: if its not on video it didn't happen

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

More like 15 minute climb.

I did a hand held jump on a 240ft, bridge my body position was bad (there was cross wind form the south west ) and i had a180,

first mistake was I look for landing area on the other side of the bridge for second ( before the jump I know there was no landing area on the other side because there is tree ever where) I don't know why I think there was and I look around to see and wast time

second mistake was to use my rear riser without looking where I'm at, as i was turning half way all I see is ground coming up under my feet fast so i flare instinctively and I land with no problem. but when I look to see where I'm at, I'm standing on the south side of the hill of the bride just feet from the edge of drop off of 40 to 50 feet to the beach in the middle of poison ive.

so in actuality I made a 190 to 200 feet jump with 180 hand held with rear riser turn,
if you going to jump low object, do flat turn and stick to original LZ. do not deviate from the original plan
there is guy's doing 170-180 ft.hand held,or 180ft gainer, I don't see any problem with 250ft. FF gainer, not me but other have done it.

hay green machine just jump that freckling thing and report back. no video no jump

That was my point...without seeing the object, the LZ, the outs etc there is no sure way to plan for a jump...there is no way to even say a SL or PCA is a sure thing.

Although, my guess is if Green Machine is going to jump it that the LZ is wide open for 17.6 miles in all directions.

Just kidding Tom...


Unl

Ask Adam Lanes about how tight
the LZ was at the crane downtown

In all honesty, aLL 3 of the 250 foot
antennas I have found have limited
landing space with a few obstacles
such buildings, trees & power lines.

"if it's not on video it didn't happen"
is the root of all evil.


oh and 250 ft is not low.

You could have a 120 left or right handheld and still probably land right where you are where you took that picture...

just day blaze it, looks pretty desolate around there, and then you could see the trees

have affirmations from the interweb community inflated your balls enough to jump the bitch?

Last Saturday after doing 10 tandems went back
to the bunk house, packed my BASE rig, was up
for jumping the A in photo above, and started
calling my peeps to jump it or GC for me.

No dice.


Last night after my last class went to the lower
A on my to do list, 225 feet, hopped the fence,
and started climbing up. Quickly noticing how
white the rungs were... then came the sounds.

When I scoped this object during the day I had
noticed a couple big buzzards hanging around.
Well at night those fuckers run a Holiday Inn!

I banged the metal fall line against the ladder
which would scare some of them away... and
man, when dozens of birds w/ 6 foot wing spans
take off right next to you it feels like a scene
right out Hitchcock's "The Birds".

The higher I climbed the more there were but
thought it would be okay as long as I did not
catch some bacteria ridden bird shit in an eye.
Heard the splat of several drops on the way up.

So I get up to where I wanted to exit from,
which was right below the platform and horns.
Was about to pull my gear out of the stash bag
and rig up my static line when those big fuckers
came back! I am stamping my boots trying to
scare them away and one of them posted up,
spread her wings, and started hissing.

The wind was good, the moon was good, the big
scary birds were not good, so I climbed down.

Buzzards 1 ~Tom 0

Guess I will have to dayblaze that one when the
gang is out doing their part for society by eating
dead animals to help keep our roads clean.


On the plus side, I got a load of 2 or 3 set for
the taller one tomorrow night provided the
conditions are right.


Lastly, thanks to all of the cool kids who posted
and PM'd me with their input. To the 'Haters'
I'd like to say Lighten Up

What the hell did you think a hissing buzzard was going to do to you?

I have never heard of a buzzard attack...but I just did a google search anyways. The worst thing they will do is vomit on you. Since they had already shit on you this should not have been deemed too threatening.

I think you caught Vaginitis...

Tom just jump the damn thing. You were already at the top. Dont you think you would have a better chance of getting attacked climbing down.

You should add one more deployment technique to your list.

Take a helium balloon with about three feet of string and tie it to a 46" PC somehow, make sure the balloon is large enough to give the PC a neutral buoyancy. Then at the exit point push the balloon and PC out and above you, then JUMP.

Good Luck, let me know how it goes.

Cool idea! Have you ever done it?

Or is this a joke referring back to my posts
regarding my dream of having a huge ass
helium balloon tethered for jumping?

I tried it in my back yard RUNNING with a really good prime on the velcro and a 42"er. I think it would be good to go. Are you coming to BD? If you are we could try it, after all, WHAT could possibly go wrong with a two way tied to balloons?

This actually sounds like a "good" idea...
Someone should try this.

Hitting 75ft high steel after 180 induced by balloons having time to drift to the side of you just could not possibly happen, guaranteed - or your BD money back. ;)

Yes, I will be at BD.

Lucked out and got on the video team again.

S0Ooo Bro if you want to try it I'll jump with
you and shoot the video --- gives me a good
excuse to be the high guy

go stowed and throw a double gainer.

I dont have many jumps, but of the ones i do have most are 270ft freefalls. Its local and its fun.

From the openings i have i'd be happy taking a 250ft freefall with my Flik/48.

Am i the only person in the world using a 48 these days? I watch others have openings just the same, if not better than mine with 42's from the same heights.

That type of tower without rails is awesome as quite a
bit of airspeed can be developed in the running exit.
If the landing areas are cramped, then what you will
have to consider is if those obstacles are better
negotiated from a higher or lower altitude?
Sometimes it's better to be closer to the ground quicker.
If landing is restricted to near the tower,
will you be able to accomplish that by opening high,
and turning back towards the tower, or opening low,
and shooting a pretty straight landing approach?
Another thing, with an object that is not sheer, poised
exits can have you opening perilously close to it.
Running like hell across the platform gets you some space.
And with that space, you can bust a move, provided you are stowed.
By the way, is that in Indiana?
It looks just like the one I was supposed to PCA Joe off.
Of course, I threw his pilot chute at him as he exited.
Scared the shit out of him, we never laughed so hard!

PM sent.

Hey Hydro,

Hmm, how to explain my frame of mind, well
there were 50 to 60 large, black birds, that are
made to eat dead things... and covered with a
buffet of bacteria from countless dead animals.

Could possibly be the epitome of Black Death.

In spite of this I continued to climb to where
I wanted to exit from... then they got even
more aggressive. Dude, have you ever seen
30 big, black birds fly at you at night? Scary!

Oh, and just like the Irish fucker in The Departed
I am drinking Cranberry Juice for my Vaginitis

Don't feel bad, I've caught it before myself...

Just think though, you could have slipped on the buzzard dung on the climb down...what a shitty way to go in!!!

I was just in WV yesterday and took a GOOD look at the Bridge that is only legal to jump one day a year and I think...

Going off the ramp with the balloon w/ slider down might not get me past all the steel...(a little concern about those 180's)

...but if one were to go off from the steel below the ramp it would work.

What do you think about slider up from the ramp?
I wonder if this would even be allowed at BD?

ever watch a BD video?
most jumps ARE slider up. very few are done slider down. they open very crisply.

I think I got your drift...

As in, basically your balloon idea will be the
same as doing a go & throw...packing slider
up to slow the deployment to get you past
the steel might help...

Wwarped -- I think he knows we are allowed
to use sliders but is the use of helium
balloons allowed.

Of course I have watched BD videos, before, How do you think I learned to BASE jump

When I said "if it would be allowed", I was talking about the Balloon. All my jumps from NRG have been slider up.

Thanks

oops. I stand corrected.

if it's the balloon part...
people use so many toys, I bet they would let it. IIRC, the big issue is things coming loose and falling down. if it is secure, they tend to be liberal.

as far as opening too soon, there are always a few newbies doing "x second delays" that really look like go-n-throws. some pilot chutes are free in the air ABOVE the platform.

heck, what could go wrong?

Bird from one of my tower trips. About 30 of these on the thing but they just fucked off when we started climbing.

i wouldn't worry about buzzards... well, at least not as much as these unhappy bastards.

Or better yet have a bunch of them get startled when your canopy bangs open and fly into your lines. Talk about tension knots.

You've got to be kidding me

Craving some goat milk are ya ??

that's because you're high

Well I did eat some white mystery pill on the hike up.

costaricanoxycontin

"alledgedly"..

Short ones are fun! A love my freefall, but after a long day at the dz training future flyers (skydiving) a 250/300 is just what the doctor ordered. I just make sure not to wear any underwear! Prevents replacing them

Well guys I just got back from
hucking the lower of the two A's.

Did it in the afternoon with only
medium stealth...but felt better
than having vultures licking their
beaks while I jumped.

Gotta say gang: 190 feet
felt really fucking low!!!

I definitely landed closer to the
object than I thought I would.

Unstowed the toggles and went
right to deep brakes, saw tree,
power lines, held, saw ground,
let up a little, and then flaired
right before a soft impact.

It was a solo with cell phone GC.

Congrats GreenMachine. I'll be up there to jump those whores in no time.

congrats dude, low is scary, but scary is fun!

congrats!

ff?
sl?

Maybe you understand why size matters now. If TJ was still around he could tell you a few things about jumping low objects. He was a lot smaller than you.

This particular A is about 225 feet to the top
of the horns/dishes. The exit point I chose
was 190 feet, slightly over hung, and put
the wind at my back towards the direction
I wanted to fly towards my primary LZ.

However, I was on the ground a whole lot
faster than I thought I would and not in the
spot where planned.

Check out the photo, the LZ up close is very
tight with plenty of nice obstacles: building,
fence with barbed wire, power lines, and a
good many trees.

Yeah, there is no way I would freefall this
object! In fact I think the only way I'd FF
from 190' is over water or from a balloon.

Those of you who do FF from 190' well
all I can say is you're skilled & crazy!

Im tellin ya man, try the balloon deployed pilot chute method, just get the balloon and pc over yer head and off you go!

lemme know how it turns out.

Wow! That picture looks intense! I dub you...Balls of Steal! Great job bro!

are you sure maryann is not 130' ???
that looks LOW!

New swing, I found a beautiful 300, in the middle of nowhere, but here is the problem. No ladders. How many out there our peg climbers? Any other solutions? How do the maintenace people get to the top? I got to find a way to jump this thing, 10 minutes from the DZ, huge platform on top, low traffic area, fields on all sides! I backed out of it tonight not wanting to do the peg thing.

pegs are not a big deal. They are annoying, but since you are actually not climbing straight up, but at an angle, it's fairly nice. If uncomfortable on an outside climb you can always biner into the safety cable with your chest strap.

Maybe I will go back and give it a shot, the guy I jump with regularly will bairly do an outside climb, and deffinetely not pegs. Always good to have someone doing something new with you, comfort thing I guess. Maybe I am just a pussy!

why post this? you answered your own questions. if you "have to find a way" then climb the fucking pegs.
otherwise stick to shit with staircases.
problem solved.

Is this not a conversation? A single comment in a long converstaion is usually expected, even if retorical or expecting someone to have a one in a million chance at an idea that is not obvious. Maybe I was just bored because our plane has a bad starter and I felt like telling someone about my attempt at a new jump last night. How have you been? Ever coming back to TSS for work or fun? This is a conversation continuing question. Now you try!

sorry, i don't ever pretend to know where i will be. i'm sure someday that i will make a visit back to TSS though.

on the subject of telling...
i soloed this backyard A this morning just for you.

now my coffee is cold.

Hey Blitzkrieg, cool shots man.

The things you used to climb up are
known as pegs, okay, makes sense,
so aren't almost all outside climbs
pretty much pegs?


2 antennas on my 'TO-DO List' both have
those things for climbing, one is 300ish and
a freestanding cell tower the other is 600ish,
TV, and has the usual guyed wires.

It seems to me that scary feeling of being
exposed is almost made up for by the much
larger room to climb... meaning us tall guys
either scrape their stash bags or have to do
a stubby one rung at a time climbing style
on inside climbs. Is this true?

yes and no. many small freestanders, especially newer cell towers are exactly like my pic. outside pegs. i was recently on an identical tower to this one though, with a ladder running up the face in addition to pegs. there is no standard, just depends on who's building the tower.

smaller guyed As (as in ones you can't squeeze inside), generally have one "face" that has a built in ladder. i.e. a horizontal support every 30" to compliment the standard horizontals in the structure to make climbing easier.

again, just depends on the tower.

also, some As are so tight around the ladder, because some lazy ass construction jackasses ran all the coaxes up the ladder instead of a dedicated wave guide. in these instances, it just becomes personal preference and depends on your level of comfort on where you will climb. personally i will outside face climb 90% of the time. it's just easier all around.

hope that helps!

Nice T-shirt Hell t-shirt!

600ft guyed tower with a peg climb ???? are you sure ?

Hey ...well done Tom !
You've been on about these A's since you started !
Good to see you worked it out and jumped safe

Am I sure about the height, the pegs, or the wires?
Well damn dude, now you got me second guessing
myself... so I will quickly double check - tick tock...

OKAY:

Approximate Height: 630 feet / 192 meters

Guyed Wires: yep

Outside Climb: yep

Pegs: can't see in photo but I am pretty sure

I'd gladly PM you the antenna's number

thanks for noticing!

I doubt it has pegs. We have an 1100ft with a ladder on the face - never climbed it, as the 1200ft smack next to it has a much nicer landing area and inside ladder and far less shit on it. But also got a 400ft with a 30" face, so like mr. EB says it just has one side suitable for climbing with a safety wire and such.

I have never seen a pegged tall guyed tower, nor do I see the logic in that. I could be wrong of course :)

Paul, you are most likely correct. it would be my assumption (that could be dangerous) that there are no pegs. usually just a face climb... or ladder... whether inside or out.

looks fun!

I will double check in
person and report back.

LOL...you havent jumped the tower into the sports field yet? You were looking at that thing in June 07...

You have the biggest playground in the country in the SE part of your state...you need to get down there more often.

Good memory dude!!

I wondered if anyone would remember.
Yeah, that was the first antenna I ever
scoped out and still plan to jump it but
wanted to get a little more comfortable
with packing, climbing, and jumping
before I attempted hucking an A with
wires and an outside climb.

I have a 500 foot guyed with peg climb back in my hometown. Lots of shit you have to go through while climbing those pegs too. Old school TV antenna type shit.

Nice jump dude, cool pics!

Actually, right there in N. Florida/S. Georgia, ther are terminal A's out the kazoo.

Thanks but my lack of jumping tall antennas
is not because I do not know where they are
or how to find them.

says who. stick to your legal bridge. have a nice day.


wowam only.

Towers, towers, everywhere! I'm with GM, I know where to find them, I'm just too lazy to climb over 350', I pay people to do that.

Now about the thread here on pegs. If you don't like outside climbs then go on ebay and buy a Safety Climb. I never liked using a carabiner to hook to the safety climb cable, if you where to fall you would most likely bust your self up in the tower when you get an arm or leg stuck in it or worst yet just keep going down the cable. Look at Tom's pics, on most towers the cable is held by rubber blocks that the cable pulls out of so a Safety Climb can pass by, some Rohn (now Radian) towers have the cable run through a solid metal holder that only one style of Safety Climb will pass over, DBI/Sala Lad Safe. The Lad Safe is the best to have, easy to put on and off and will work on all 3/8 cables. You can buy them for less than $50 on ebay, look for the new style with the swivel. At one time I would give them away, a $250 item new, but then the last time I sent one to someone that PM'ed me here didn't even send a thank-you or nothing, and I paid the shipping to boot and sent a PDF file on how to use it so I don't give them away NO MORE.

Back to pegs, pegs are cheaper than ladder assemblies to make and install and welding in a horizontal "climbing face" on one side is even cheaper than pegs.

Edit--> Also some towers have pegs on all 3 sides but only go all the way to the top on one, usually the leg with the tower lighting cable and the safety cable, the other two legs the pegs stop when the lattice is at the point where you can finely climb the angles safely while building the tower. Look at Tom A's site when I had my bridle snag an antenna mount and cut it in half (my first tower jump), on the climb up I had to change which face I was climbing because I didn't want to be on the leg close the the road while day blazing it with people on their way to work, PotatoHead shot the stills and Ryan from ASC shot the video other than the POV.

Dude.. get to the top and go.. your wing span would scare the fuck out of those birds!

I like this one.. 350 feet.. huge landing area.. hit it 9 times so far.

Wow, she is a beauty!!

Please PM me her location

People with those long line towers near them have it too damn easy. 250'-350'. Big platforms. Almost always deserted, often right off the road like this one...

Those people who get to travel
to cool places on the company's
dime & BASE jump everywhere
have it too damn easy

longlines are nice. 1108 is plain spoiled though.