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BASE Beginners

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How would you exit/fly this A?
Freestanding A with pretty large overhung platform on the top.
230' AGL
Hazards due east. Powerlines and building. Open on all other sides.
South wind. 5mph on the ground, 10mph at exit point.
Handheld deployment. Vented canopy.

In order of what I think is most appropriate to least appropriate:

1) Green: exit NW corner to the west. Crosswind (pitching with the wind). turn 90 and land into the wind.
2) Blue: exit on north side to the north. Tailwind exit. Turn 90 and land crosswind. If everything goes perfectly and altitude is available instead turn 180 and land into the wind. (this would be choice #1 if the object was higher or SL/PCA)
3) Orange: Exit as above and take a downwind landing
4) Magenta: Side-floating exit to the south.

I chose the NW corner as the exit point for 1 and 4 because in the event of an offheading to the left, with the canopy in deep brakes it's likely that the wind will push the jumper north of the antenna, facilitating a landing on the north side of the antenna. (If the offheading is minor could also turn it back to the south)

How much would your answer change if the object was 20' lower?


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Re: [xnewmanx] How would you exit/fly this A?
Gainer. Next question.
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Re: [hjumper33] How would you exit/fly this A?
Perfect. Now onto the more difficult question of which direction I should mount my gopro???!?!
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Re: [hjumper33] How would you exit/fly this A?
110 right off the north side would suck
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Re: [xnewmanx] How would you exit/fly this A?
i like green. jumping cross wind from low takes away the necessity for a pattern. left to right crosswind tensions left riser and opens you up into the wind (usually). fly straight and land.
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Re: [baseknut] How would you exit/fly this A?
That's what I was thinking too. I would certainly anticipate something offheading to the left in the green path, but wouldn't count on it.
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Re: [xnewmanx] How would you exit/fly this A?
Handheld is dumb. You need to do a PCA. The scenario you have illustrated would make me terrified if I had to do it by handheld. Too much shit going on. Value your health and the ability to walk.
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Re: [460] How would you exit/fly this A?
What if there were no hazards to the east? Would that change anything?

Is it the altitude that deters you? Because aside from the hazards to the east, it's about as simple as a "low" freefall can get, unless it were from an S.
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The question is "How would YOU exit/fly this A?"
How quick can you turn around an off heading regardless of the direction of opening or direction of wind? Is this the first time you or anybody else jumped it? What did they do? What does your mentor think?

Why dont you try answering all the questions yourself and see what you come up with? After all it is you that is deciding to jump. You have come up with lots of possible ways to exit and fly. Why limit it to that? Take all the exits and flying and add as many different off headings to it as you can. Take into consideration the wind and how hard or easy it's going to be to turn around and land in a safe place. If a lot of the scenarios take you to a perticular side, plan on going there anyway. What about an off heading and a dropped toggle? What about a pilot chute hesitation and then a line over or an off heading with line twist? Why not just jump off the North side and take it down wind? I think there is a good video of a good face plant on here when hind sight would have taken the Orange route. How well can you make a low turn? On and on and on...

Seriously
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Re: [gauleyguide] The question is "How would YOU exit/fly this A?"
All valid points.

As far as I know, no one else has jumped it, besides me.

I have static lined the object a few times, every time I turned the canopy around 180 degrees and landed into the wind.

Other info:
I have about 8 freefalls from a 210'S. My lowest A freefall to date is 265'.

I have made many SL jumps from 185'S, a few from 155'B and one from 125'B. With the exception of the latter, most of these jumps have required some maneuvering in the LZ.

I am "comfortable" flying low.

Jumping off the north side and landing either crosswind or downwind would be based on heading performance and available altitude. 110-180 right would be ugly, require major heading correction burning precious altitude. A 110-180 left would be similarly bad, but lessened due to lack of hazards to the west. (just need to clear the object then can fly south)

Exiting to from the NW corner to the west (or even northwest) drastically cuts down on offheadings that are "ugly" anything from 0-90 left is "ok". 0-170 right is "ok". Anything in the remaining degrees will at least have a wind pushing away from the hazards.

A number of your other points are things that I consider on EVERY base jump.

I wasn't really looking for someone to say: "go ahead and jump the (color) route." I was interested as to what other jumpers would consider to be the best option, and more specifically WHY.

I don't even neccessarily plan on freefalling the object, but was interested to hear how my considerations of possible scenarios stacked up to more experienced jumpers, after all, I'm here to learn.
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The Blue Pill
I would take the North Exit with clean tailwind
regardless of the deployment method used.

After unstowing brakes, pull left toggle down.
Leave it there and just pull your right hand
down to match it for your landing flair.

FYI: S/L from 230' = ~12 seconds of canopy
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Re: [GreenMachine] The Blue Pill
Typically for something low with a nice on heading opening I'll unstow right into deep brakes to avoid the opening surge, then immediately raise a toggle to initiate a flat turn, then flare out of the turn as you recommended.
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Re: [xnewmanx] The Blue Pill
Seems to me that if the north side is totally clear and you have 10mph tailwind then its a no brainer, take the north side, and exit close to the NW corner. No point in doing a crosswind exit on the west or a floater. If you have any off heading right then take it back to land parallel with the power lines or further round and do a down winder. Landing ideally left hand circuit into wind but crosswind totally fine.
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Re: [xnewmanx] The question is "How would YOU exit/fly this A?"
Well since you put it that way, I'd go off the NW corner with the wind at my back, then get turned around before I got into slower ground winds.
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Re: [xnewmanx] The Blue Pill
xnewmanx wrote:
Typically for something low with a nice on heading opening I'll unstow right into deep brakes to avoid the opening surge, then immediately raise a toggle to initiate a flat turn, then flare out of the turn as you recommended.

I think it is bad idea to go into deep brakes immediately after opening after free-falling a 230ft object. Your canopy ride will be 6 to 8 seconds. its too low to risk stalling. you are better off to let that thing fly and gain some good pressurization and speed before landing as to achieve a nice flare.

As far as exiting, this is a no-brainer. when base jumping you ALWAYS, when possible, exit with a tailwind pushing you away from a solid object. that is a basic one.

A 5 MPH downwind or cross wind landing on a big ol base canopy produces negligible discomfort at worst. An object strike can produce an injury or death.

My plan of attack would be similar to green machine. First things first, jump and avoid the object. then try to achieve a landing into the wind with your available leftover altitude. The higher you are when you initiate that toggle turn, the more aggressive you can be with that toggle turn.
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Re: [GreenMachine] The Blue Pill
GreenMachine wrote:
landing flair.

These leaves dancing images in my head...
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Re: [jtholmes] The Blue Pill
jtholmes wrote:

I think it is bad idea to go into deep brakes immediately after opening after free-falling a 230ft object.

This is something I do regularly on low jumps. Not super deep, just deep. I never let it fly full speed but if given the option, I will let it build up some speed.

I clear the brakes and let it fly just enough to get a slight bit of speed, then hit the brakes more and let one up. It turns around much quicker and stays flatter that way.

If I have altitude, I let it fly faster, then hit the brakes and let one up while pulling the other down. If you do it correctly, you can spin it 180 losing very little altitude rather than making a wider diving turn.
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Re: [hookitt] The Blue Pill
Yes, my thinking is that I want to control the amount of forward speed by gently releasing the brakes instead of going full throttle and having to dial it back. It's worked for me on many occasions thus far...
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Re: [hookitt] The Blue Pill
I bet you do do that. ANd I bet it works well. But this is the beginner forum, and a beginner immediately going into deep brakes at the beginning of a 6 to 8 second canopy ride... not so sure that is that call.

I am not very good with the brakes. It is an area i need to improve. I tend to jump easy places where I just fly to the LZ and flare the canopy for a soft landing.
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Re: [jtholmes] The Blue Pill
I see you're getting at. It's a good skill to have if you must actually turn the canopy in tighter areas. They are good to perform say, starting with skydives, then easier objects. Accuracy and turned approaches are often mandatory so may as well get started on them early so as not to hammer into the ground unexpectedly.
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Re: [jtholmes] The Blue Pill
jtholmes wrote:
...As far as exiting, this is a no-brainer. when base jumping you ALWAYS, when possible, exit with a tailwind pushing you away from a solid object...

How do you have a tail wind that pushes you away from a 'solid' object?
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Re: [gauleyguide] The Blue Pill
My understanding is that dams are different in that it can appear that you are jumping into a slight headwind because of the air flowing up the dam because of temeprature differences as the ground heats up in the sun.

283 could explain this better.
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Re: [gauleyguide] The Blue Pill
gauleyguide wrote:
jtholmes wrote:
...As far as exiting, this is a no-brainer. when base jumping you ALWAYS, when possible, exit with a tailwind pushing you away from a solid object...

How do you have a tail wind that pushes you away from a 'solid' object?

My friend hit an "A". He claims it was solidWink

(Ok I know what you mean, but then again I bet JT does to)
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Re: [jtholmes] The Blue Pill
jtholmes wrote:
I bet you do do that. ANd I bet it works well. But this is the beginner forum, and a beginner immediately going into deep brakes at the beginning of a 6 to 8 second canopy ride... not so sure that is that call.

I am not very good with the brakes. It is an area i need to improve. I tend to jump easy places where I just fly to the LZ and flare the canopy for a soft landing.

If this guy is really a beginner, FF 230 foot towers seems like a bad idea. (but maybe i'm just a big puss). To the OP, remember things happen fast in BASE, and really fast once you are doing freefalls from 250 and below! Oh yeah and get video.
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Re: [Halfpastniner] The Blue Pill
I have close to 120 BASE jumps and a good number of them are low, but would still consider myself a beginner because I'm still LEARNING a lot.

I posted above about my previous "low" jumps.
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Re: [gauleyguide] The Blue Pill
gauleyguide wrote:
jtholmes wrote:
...As far as exiting, this is a no-brainer. when base jumping you ALWAYS, when possible, exit with a tailwind pushing you away from a solid object...

How do you have a tail wind that pushes you away from a 'solid' object?

Ask anyone who has struck a bridge or got hung up on an antenna, or slammed into a building with open floors such that wind goes through, if that object felt solid upon impact and I promise they will say that it did.
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Re: [hookitt] The Blue Pill
hookitt wrote:
...I clear the brakes and let it fly just enough to get a slight bit of speed, then hit the brakes more and let one up. It turns around much quicker and stays flatter that way.

If I have altitude, I let it fly faster, then hit the brakes and let one up while pulling the other down. If you do it correctly, you can spin it 180 losing very little altitude rather than making a wider diving turn.

This is a video clicky of me turning my canopy around. Its not a 180, more like a ~140'ish. Im in shallow breaks and as soon as Im in the saddle I release the left toggle and let it go to full flight. I take the right toggle and bury it. Once my desired heading is aquired, depending what is left, I fly it accordingly.

Since this is the Begginers forum, I thought I might add this is what it means to jump a forgiving object and practice practice practice. This object has several outs and they all have been used by me or others. I dropped my right toggle once practicing this and took it in the river on a toggle and riser. Some local boys rag me about jumping it all the time,(I don't care) but, I know I can turn my canopy around when I need to. That's not to say I'll slam into a cliff on my next jump, but I have a good skill from "jumping a forgiving object, and practicing this over and over and over."
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Re: [jtholmes] The Blue Pill

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Re: [gauleyguide] The Blue Pill
Awesome. I feel like my reaction time is pretty good but that's lightning fast. I like it. What is the altitude of that object?
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Re: [xnewmanx] The Blue Pill
300ft to the river.190'ish to the tree tops that surround the LZ. 265ft to the LZ that is back behind and under the exit point.

That turn isn't necessary on this object to land at the main LZ, you can make a long slow flat turn just over the trees and then sink it into the clearing. I'll put a diagram up later when I'm home.
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Re: [xnewmanx] The Blue Pill
Went down like this:
46" ZP NV PC.
East wind, <5 on the ground, about 5 at the top.
Exited due west.
On heading opening, enough canopy time to turn it around and land into the wind, albeit a bit briskly. I flared right out of the turn but was able to stand it up.

No vid. Pirate
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Re: [xnewmanx] The Blue Pill
xnewmanx wrote:
...

No vid. Pirate

didn't happen then. everyone jumps with a camera. What would be the point of the jump if they didn't?
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Re: [rippedbx] The Blue Pill
I'm assuming that last part was sarcasm? haha
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Re: [BaseK] The Blue Pill
I only log my jumps if there is video proof.
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Re: [xnewmanx] The Blue Pill
Rule #1
Things you need to Start Base Jumping
A GoPro !!!!!!!
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Re: [BaseJumpBrian] The Blue Pill
Wrong.
Rule #1 is 150 skyjumps
. #2 is a RedBull logo on your chute
#3 is a gopro ;-)