Basejumper.com - archive

A big shout out of thanks to Tom Aiello, his family and assistant instructor Dan. Two years ago a friend recommended the SRBA course to me, so my wife and I planned a trip, saved up and left New Zealand for Twin Falls and had a great time for three (and a bit) weeks thanks to Tom and Co.

I did the (very comprehensive) four day FJC including 13 jumps, hung out and jumped afterwards with some of the guys from that course, Ale and Roxy from the next FJC, then some of the guys from the next FJC and sat in (for free ) on the following (object avoidance) course.

I managed 54 jumps. Two S's, one A. The A was at 1.30am. I nearly shit my pants

A mixture of S/L, PCA, H/H and stowed jumps. Poised and running exits, rollovers, tards (under and over) and an intentional water landing with a round canopy.

Tom also took us shooting in the desert. I have video of my wife who has never touched a firearm in her life, shooting a Glock pistol and other things like assault rifles and shotguns and with a big grin on her face. We probably fired over 1000 rounds.

We went to the Aiello home for dinner three times and shared other lunches with them as well. They are wonderful people, very generous and Cheri and Tom cook great meals.

If anyone's thinking about enrolling on a SRBA course, I can't recommend them enough and if you can, stay for some extra days.

We stayed at the closest hotel to the bridge, to save us hiring a car and driving on the other side of the road. The Quality Hotel was $69 + taxes (around $73) for two people per night, including breakfast, swimming pool, gym and a whirlpool which is awesome after a day's jumping.

If anyone wants anymore information, please feel free to PM me.

Thanks also to the boat driver Cathy, photographer Luanne, the volunteers at the Visitors Centre, all the other jumpers we met at the bridge and George, our Aussie neighbor.

Cheers,
Frank.

Can I "Approve this message"

+1

I can't say enough good things about Toms course. I have met plenty of base jumpers since completing toms course (may 2008) but have yet to find anyone with as much knowledge on the sport as him. He gives plenty of info but is careful about the pace he puts it across so that his students can take it all in properly. He always goes the extra length and usually packs more rigs over the course than all his students combined. Tom was also down at the bridge on days where his courses weren't on helping out inexperienced jumpers free of charge and even lending them a second rig. I myself took Toms course after doing another popular FJC at twin falls, he allowed me to sit in on the course for free provided i helped out with the driving (a very small price to pay). The other course I took comes recommended from plenty of base jumpers and it was also a great course, but i found Tom's course exceptional and by the end of his course, his students had progressed more. If my brother was to take up basejumping, i would refuse to let him learn from anyone other than Tom. Oh and did i mention he was charging $200 less than most of the other twin falls FJCs? Not sure if he still charges this but even if he charged double it would still be well worth it.

Couldn't agree anymore with what everyone said above! If I had the money and time I'd pay him just to hang out with, as he is truly the most interesting man in the world... Dos Equis man doesn't have shit on Tom! haha (and helpful + knowledgable + all around great guy!)

I took his course when I was 24 and I swear he has double the energy that I did even after 5hr energy shots and redbull!

+1 and then some. Well said Frank.

+2 :)

try2live - Certainly

Greig474 - Yes, he's still around that much cheaper and you reminded me: Tom will lend you a rig for as long as you are in Twin Falls and he has it available, which is usually the case as he has around 30 rigs I think.

Mchamp - We started calling him "Wiki-Tom".

Surfers98 - Thanks Brian. How is Rick taking it? Have you encouraged him to take the course?

Well done, Frank. Let me know when you get lucky enough to be in Tennessee.

Not sure if I remember correctly, but this is because his parents have bought him so many... Right?

When I teach a course, I pay myself $600 to take home, and leave the rest of the money at the school to improve facilities, which includes buying student gear, study materials for students, pendulator, indoor packing area, white board, video screen for debrief and intructional video, etc.


I'm pretty sure my parents have never bought me a rig.

My dad did buy me a Cypres a long time ago, though.

Isn't that where they have that ugly orange football team?

And BTW, did you see who beat #2 Florida yesterday?

Thanks for the kind words, everyone.

Frank, Cheri says you guys need to friend her on facebook.

All done.

Thanks J, will do...and you too, when you come over to the "land of the long white cloud" - Aotearoa.

It's the Quality Inn and they have a great breakfast, it is easy walking distance to the bridge, if it's your first time there you can walk under the bridge to get to the other side. (kinda hard to tell at night and yes I ran across it)

The Outback Steakhouse has 2-1 house drinks happy hour for base jumpers but they close a 9 during the week and 11 on Friday and Saturday, for free drinks just tell them to put it on Tom's tab!

Kathy the the river goddess is partial to bud lite Clamatos and donations talk if you are the only one jumping all day to get her to stay.

If you have a free minute take some river shoes and have her drop you off at pillar falls for and hour or two, it freakin rocks.

"Isn't that where they have that ugly orange football team?"

Frank forgot to mention that one of the added benefits of Tom's FJC is his hilarious wit.

"And BTW, did you see who beat #2 Florida yesterday?"

No one cares about a "cocktail party" where no one is allowed to drink.

Are you referring to the World's Largest Outdoor Family Friendly Alcohol Free Entertainment Event?

Years ago I was a guest in Tom's course... Our experience was just as wonderful as yours...

You might on future As want to be the bottom guy as you climb the ladder... Just in case...

Assault rifles, huh? Most folks I know can't afford the $8,000+ for a full auto or select fire weapon. Which assault rifles did she shoot? Unless you guys gave her a good bit of coaching, it would seem irresponsible to let a complete novice fire a select fire weapon, since she had zero previous experience with controlling such weapons.

Ha! Yeah, but then I might get "shat" on.

TDFbound:

No full auto, only semi-auto. I don't know if that's the same as select fire.

I can't remember the names of them. Tom do you want to come in here?

I stand to be corrected but, I believe you can go to Walmart and buy these semi-auto weapons and ammunition, fairly easily.

We had a good coach - Tom!

$8000 for a gun? Where do you shop?

By definition, assault rifles are capable of select fire, which is burst or automatic fire. Market price for an M16 A1 service rifle is around $15,000. Even parts to convert AR-15 style rifles to full auto cost around $8,000 on up to around the price of a full rifle. Check GunBroker and AutoWeapons for current prices on assault rifles and sub-machine guns.

On the other hand, I own an AR-15 style rifle, which has all the same features of an assault rifle except for mine is semi-auto only, and it only cost me around $750.

likewise. it was a great experience

Dude, consider the source...

We got winded out SKY jumping one day
so took a group of Limey's to the local
gun range and shot a bunch of stuff.

They thought my sawed off 16 gauge
was some kind of Road-Warrior weapon

LOL Road Warrior... need to watch that movie again. Beauty of short barreled shotguns is the low price of ownership, since it is an AOW and not a Class III.

+1

You see, folks, TDF knows the difference between a true "assault rifle" -- a select-fire or full-auto-only weapon designed for, you guessed it, assaulting fixed-base targets, and semi-automatic rifles designed for sporting, hunting and quais-military purposes.

The confusion arises from anti-Second Amendment types in the US corrupting and bastardizing terminology and doing the firearms equivalent of saying all parachuting fatalities occur because "the 'chute didn't open" and/or "all BASE jumps are illegal."

Willful and/or deliberate ignorance, in other words.

But hey, Tom, it's a testament to your organizing skill that you could marshall all these people to say so many nice things about you simultaneously --- well, either that, or you're doing a great job and it was all spontaneous!

LOL... just kidding. I know it's the latter because no one is good enough to organize BASE jumpers for a write-in kudos campaign.

Good on ya for providing such a service; too bad more peeps don't avail themselves of it; if they did, the BFL might be several names shorter.

44

The Class 3 registry for machine guns (that's the ATF's term, by the way, so please let's not quibble on the definitions) has been closed since the 80's. Those privately owned firearms that are on the registry have climbed dramatically in value. I'd say $8000 for a select fire AR-15 or a genuine M-16 would be a real bargain in the current market.

The rifles we fired in the desert were all semi-auto. Basic instruction in firearms safety was part of the process. In depth discussion of firearms terminology and current US law regarding private ownership of fully automatic firearms was, however, not part of the process.

Frank's wife fired a Tantal Sporter, a Robinson Arms XCR, and an FNH PS90 (long guns), as well as a Glock 35 and a Glock 17 (handguns) and a Benelli M4 (shotgun). None of these firearms are machine guns (using current ATF definitions).

Hey Frank!! this is Ale and Roxy!!

Just have one thing to say, WIKI-TOM is the man, his knowledge of the subject is amazing and he had a correct answer for every question we asked.
As someone told us before even meeting him "Tom Aiello is an Encyclopedia os BASE"...

When I first saw the bridge it scared the shit out of me, but after taking his course we were pretty confident in what we were doing and had lots of fun!!!

He also taught us some BASE Rigging... a MUST KNOW if you are in the middle of nowhere and by yourself!... and we learnt a lot about BASE Rigs, canopies, PC's, Wind, turbulence and how it affects to Base jumping, etc etc etc etc etc etc etc and so on...

And About gun firing day, that was even better for me as I love guns but in Argentina we can't get Assault Rifles and that kind of stuff... I got to shoot a PS90 (my favourite gun ever... but I only had the chace to shoot it in my Playstation hehe) and an AK.... and he even let us go HOLLYWOOD shooting two Assault rifles at the same time... !!!

thank's Tom for everything, we are really looking forward to go back to ID and take the Object Avoidance and Advanced course, next time we come to the States for sure we're going...

Also thanks to the entire Aiello Family, wonderful times and a real dinner in more than 2 months we've been in the states!!

Frank, we'll stay in touch and hope to jump or groundcrew together soon!!!

we didn't want to go back to skydiving after BASE jumping...I hope we can stay current!

Thanks again and see yaaa!!!
Roxy n' Ale

Thanks for the reply- I wasn't trying to start crap or stir up trouble or whatever. I DO however, get very upset when people carelessly sling anti-gun propaganda and misused terminology. It is wrong to propagate mis-information of any kind, but especially about a topic in which the .gov is actively using the same mis-information to convince the masses to support efforts to suppress our Constitutional rights.

Also, congratulations to you for safely, and in a friendly manner, introducing people to the wonderful world of firearms. I myself am partial to Benelli and Glock- own both and love shooting them, and I carry the Glock 19 everywhere legally allowed.

OK, here it is...the video of our trip, put together by my mates. It's got some skyjumping in New Zealand, but mostly it's 20 minutes of fun in Twin Falls, during and after my course at SRBA.

http://vimeo.com/56280319

Thanks guys 'n gals

I can't agree more. I took Tom's FJC, then came back 6 months later and went through the advanced exit course. I can't even imagine attempting to jump any object without having the training that Tom provided.

Tom & Cheri truly are wonderful people and really take care of you while in town. On my second trip my entire family joined. Cheri took my wife and kids out several times during our stay, Tom set-up top ropes in the park so the kids could rock climb.

Although, I would have to say Cheri cooks the good meals.

It's so awesome to have you guys out there! Can't wait to see you all again!

you know what would be cool?

a FULL first BASE course, with human hunting the last 2 days. almost like that movie "the game", with ICE-T.......remember that one?

we could take out elderly folk and midgets

Hey CW, I'm elderly, haha...and on my course I met a famous jumper (whose name shall remain secret) who took up jumping after he retired. Last count he'd done nearly 4000 sky jumps and 200 BASE jumps.

I hope I'm still jumping when I'm THAT elderly.

Frank

The French dude, Yeve or Eve? looked about 60 plus to me and homie was doing roll overs among other stunts...mad props to him...

No, the elderly gentleman I was refering to was 70 years old. His first name is Jim. Kudos to Jim

He was doing unpacked jumps and stunts.

Jim is the man around Elsinore