Basejumper.com - archive

Well, you'll get a little bit of both from this video by my friend and yours, LeRoyDB.

Check it out - might just pucker up your butthole a little bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmy1PhosOnY

Nice vid, thanks for posting it.
Yeah, LeRoy is a character!



In response to a comment on BoobTube
regarding the PC being pulled out by wind:

I have been on an A standing on a 2" metal
beam 190' up just waiting for the wind to die
off so I could jump and also had a static line
but I pulled the PC in cause watching it dance
around was not helping my confidence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmy1PhosOnY

Is there any advantage to attaching the pc below you? It seems to me that you would be slightly more likely to get some sort of funky leg or foot bridle pc entanglement. Also, it would make it more likely for the static line to break prematurely.

attaching the pc below you

Depends on the object...
Quite often it just works better.

more likely for the static line to break prematurely

Um, why?

The jumper would fall a further distance, gaining more speed, before the initial force is applied to the static line, thereby compounding the force. The same principle is the reason that some jumpers shorten the bridal on SL jumps to prevent premature release.

I'd rather in this case have it below me.

#1 I can see my work.... The tie off, the bridal s-folded and rubber banded... if it is above me its harder to see and double check.

AS far as foot/leg entanglement... I just had my feet on either side of the PC and the bridal excess was rubberbanded...

another issue on this jump was the X-braces were tight and hard to get on the outside of the A...

it is 80lb break cord. doesn't matter how far you fall, it still (theoretically) breaks at the same 80lbs.


???

what jumpers? i've never heard of this principle.

in fact, i'm more used to the opposite. extend the distance by making the attachment point on a leash to create more distance from the object. never had a problem with "premature release".

80 lb is the tensile strength. The greater the distance fallen, the greater the snatch force and hence it breaks at a lower poundage. That was my understanding anyway.

It originally started when Apex did the Super Bowl demo. As I understand it, they had to test their systems because of the demo contract, and figured out that attaching the s/l system halfway down the bridle (rather than at the end) reduced the chances of a premature breakage quite significantly. So, they sewed a loop into their bridles about halfway down to attach the break cord to. If you don't have a special loop in your bridle, you can just tie an overhand knot to create a loop, then use that loop to static line from.

When you drop something, it accelerates. As it falls further, the forces it exerts when it stops become _much_ greater. Dropping your rig multiplies the opening force it in much the same way. Reducing the distance it falls before pack opening will reduce those forces, and this reduce the chance of a premature breakage.

oh yeah, that.

well, just tie two loops and don't be scared.

I found his choice to wear an altimeter as opposed to maybe using a laser range finder interesting.

I use my Suunto which has a digital
altimeter function to confirm altitudes
since I don't own a laser range finder.

How accurate are they supposed to be? I can see if you wanted to get it to say 300 and you were doing a Sl. But I don't think I would trust it around the 200 mark.

They display altitudes in 10 foot increments
hence I always assume an error margin of
plus or minus 5 feet.

Of course it is not the only tool I use to
evaluate altitude but it does work for me.

I had a Suunto yrs ago that measured in 3ft increments and tested it against known altitudes and it was very accurate. Used it for jumps sub 200ft up to slider-up altitudes

Sounds like you guys got it figured out then.

honestly i use all of those methods to figure altitude. but really the easiest on an A is to just count the flanges. most common tower sections are 20ft. if you can't tell what 20ft sections look like, well....