Basejumper.com - archive

http://thestar.com.my/...93940&sec=nation

:(

I am shattered, She was such an awesome and bubbly chick, She was always smiling, always laughing, fun to be around. What a horrible week. rip , u will never be forgotten.

my condolance to family and freinds.
any eye witnesses that could tell more exact what caused this?

the news says strugeling to pull but failed,can any coment/confirm this?
the picture shows the canopy out but it could be caused by impact or if she infact got it out but too late.

RIP

words can not describe how i feel


BSBD

RIP:( This is such shocking sad news. I'm shell shocked.

Fly Free.

http://www.sbs.com.au/...16/latest-from-wire/

Sad sad week for Aussies!





RIP - you are a legendary personality.

what a bummer bsbd rip buffy
hope for the best for malaysian base as well
"we've" been there ten years, this is the first fatality

4.20, her 3rd jump of the day. with a couple of people we were standing on top of the tower. Buffy launched on the left site of the tower with a slight wind from the right. this was her first, or one of her first hand held jumps from this object.
her exit was a little head low. she hold her pilot tight and totally closed in her hand. she pitched after half a second. The pitch was firm, but a little low.
Her bridle entangled (about 60 cm below the pilot) her gopro, what was attached on her helmet. she tried to fight it off, but was too late. her canopy was inflating on the moment of impact.
the combination of the low height (for incidents as this), the head low, the pitch, wind and the gopro became fatal.
fly free buffy, we had fun, mazzels!

Such a tragic loss...fly free, Buffy. It was great to know her, even if for such a short time.

thanks for the repport.
fly free Buffy :(

 
I always thought those gopro cameras looked like crazy snag hazards.

+1

me 2.. never bothered to make a snag free case for mine..
This could have happened to me on any my last jumps...
It's always the shit you didn't think of -or thought of but didn't do anything about.....


BSBD.

This is very sad and scary. Almost everyone in my crew has jumped this scenario.

I have not gone over the list in quite some time. Has there been other fatalities of this nature in the past (bridle tangles with camera gear)? I've personally had a couple incidents where the bridle has tangled with arms/legs (which obviously I cleared), but never camera gear. I always choose to jump top mount with camera in a case and very minimal snag points.

This fatality seems like one of those "shit happens" scenario? Or did winds play a big factor?

Sorry for the loss of yet another jumper

Unfortnutaly i have watched this happen before but luckily with a better out come. Jumping a 360ft A crosswind (right to left). rear mounted Gopro on rok helmet, jumper exited very short delay, handheld, pitched bridle snagged around go-pro for what seems like an eternity, cleared itself, ofheading opening, landed ok.

if I'm understanding this correctly, both you and the fatality had issues going handheld, with the pc in the upwind hand.

I've seen bridles dance around in the wind. why not go lefthanded and let the bridle blow away from the jumper?

thanks for posting this, i've learned something today.

one of the cool things about BASE is how technical it is and how the little things can make a major difference in the outcome of any jump.


R.I.P chica, i'm sorry i never got to meet you.

I was the jumper on that load with browny exiting after me.

Your correct, going left handed would have allowed the bridle to blow around without snagging the gopro.
Also taking the appropriate delay for the PC size may have had a different outcome.

With my camera setup I use the Cookie mount over the ones supplied with the gopro.

http://www.cookiecomposites.com/...ssories/87/index.htm

This mount secures the camera with a counter sunk bolt rather than the finger tightened bar that sticks out supplied with the camera.
I believe this played a part in the bridle freeing itself relatively quickly, although this is still not good enough and we are currently working on removing all the snag potential.

The gopro is my secondary camera and after that jump I decided I would not be using it anymore in conditions where this the risk of this scenario was higher than normal.
Terminal etc I will still use this setup but with the modifications to reduce/eliminate the snag potential.

The technical stuff and your thinking is good. Another way to stop accidents. All else being correct.

But the focus should be on snag points and fundamental techniques in this discussion. Adding more strategies increases complexity. When your knowledge is not complete to start with, more complexity is not good. The fundamentals need to be right first.

i.e. Minimise / eliminate snag points and deploy into clear air. For example, one thing you used to be taught as a parachuting student is that if you have lace hooks on boots, you should tape them up or not wear them.

Modern BASE jumping:
- hiking boots with lace hooks
- mini crampons
- cameras and their mounts in multiple positions
- non-vertical deployments (either rotating or tracking)
- unpacked deployments
- aerials
- combinations of any or all of the above (wanting to be the first person to do ??????? add in 25 defining factors to make it the first or different)

Add to that wind - at what level should you start jumping in wind???? At what angle to the relative wind should you jump? What should you expect on deployment and opening?

All this adds to complexity.

All this increases risk.

All this leads to . . . . . . . . . . .

And

Luck and shit happens is not the reason for the outcome.

The person in the post above who has had several bridle entanglements has either rectified the reason for these problems, or is the walking dead. There are a limited number of empty chambers in the gun. No p/c means no p! I hope it's rectified because just accepting it as a part of the "game" is deliberately not fixing a known problem.

Cameras mounted on inexperienced jumpers is another issue. They have too much to think about without that as an added hazard. It does not sound like much, but it is an extra thing that has the be dealt with.

A classic situation is where a jumper throws the p/c and things don't happen quickly enough (this could be real or psychological). So they turn sideways to look over their shoulder to see what is happening..........

This is general commentary only.

Sorry to ask, but was this a factor or are you stating the actual time?

cya Buffy

i am not sure that europeans (or non-us-americans in general) get the point of "4:20". no such codes are used by our law and order forces.

RIP Buffy...
My heartfelt condolences to friends and family.

flummi

4.20 refers to smoking pot in the US. I see no reason for that to be made an issue here.

I truly think the poster was sincerely asking if any of that was going on and if so was it a factor. I dont think any disrespect was meant (I could be wrong).

I also wondered when I read the detailed post about what happened. Didn't realize it was only a USA based term.

condolense to all basejumpers

I dont think using the cookie attachment would make any difference ,yes the screw in go pro seems like it sticks out as a snag hazard for sure...but also the actual box is where the bridle can become tangled underneath and wrap around , i would think as we have done with skydiving camrea helmets another slick looking safety box will come about out of this...like the cookie boxes we all mostly have in skydiving to prevent snags in the future..

plus with slider down sub-terminal exits with go and throws i would suspect that it would be more of a danger then terminal base jumps....

not saying it cant happen on slider up terminal stowed base jumps but i would expect it to be more possible on hand held ,go and throw on low jumps with sub terminal airspeeds and bridle next to your head....

After this summer i always was thinking about the old hook boots theory as well and really after doing some jumps...i believe that the hooks on boots can only really be a problem for slider down jumpers once again...

wingsuit terminal the bootie is over the hooks so no problems there..

Phoenix Tracking pants, the legs are already over the hooks and your button or thread is going thru shoe laces and leaving a streamline look over shoe creating no hooks showing.....

BUT

sub terminal where you are jumping low shit the jumpers are using normal civilian clothes and this with sub terminal airspeeds i would be thinking wearing hooks on boots would not be the smartest option....especially if you are having a bad exit on a go and throw and you are head down on exit ,this would ask for trouble....but if you only have boots which make you feel comfortable then it would be suggested to roll your socks over the hooks or use tape around socks over hooks..but really buy a new set of boots with no hooks..

Just my 2 cents i would like the thread to be split and thrown in technical department to move away from this fatality thread....

and would like to know what everyone else has been thinking ....as i know i have started to see some facebook threads being shared about buffys fatality....

no guys.. it just was 4.20 in the afternoon.. or if you want to say 16.20 hrs.. (i don't know what makes the difference, but it seems that even a time notice makes people wondering, mad, pissed off or doubt..) this was just the time this all happened.

Can someone say what the method of PC folding was used for the jump, how the bridle was routed, was it tucked, did she have much excess between hand and tuck, was she able to throw it to full bridle extension, how strong of a wind?

There is more than one way to throw a PC.

As said in this thread, you can choose to have the PC either in your left or right hand. That will already take care of it.

If you don't want that, or don't like that and always have it in your right hand, consider tossing the PC backwards (that is, upwards). Of course, the less slack on your bridle the better. PerFlare taught me to keep you arm almost fully stretched and the bridle too, for jumping in windy conditions. With a pin rig this creates the/a pin being extracted before you actually exit though. Up2you.

Another thing I never do is jumping with the PC fully closed while handheld. It will only lead to extra time for the PC to inflate. (does not matter jumping stowed as you have more airspeed).

I have not seen the actual jump but IMHO going head low, throwing the PC not too hard after only 1/2 second in a closed configuration might lead to the PC floating a bit next to you (either head or body). Not my cup of tea. Either away from me and my elbows, ankles, helmet, camera, or more airspeed.

Ronald

My deepest condolences go out to everyone.
~J