Basejumper.com - archive

Well I have an idea floating around in my head. (I have 0 base, and 4 skydives) anyway is it reasonable to think that a buisness person could build a Base structure, say 1000' tall with a simple elevator and charge a few bucks a lift. I realize that this takes away the whole rebel image but. What do you think?

Cost: prohibitive
Liability: Extreme
Potential market: Small
Affluence of potential market: low
Availability of financing: Zilch

Aside from that, no problem!

And if you're going to do it, you'd want it bigger than 1000 feet. What's the tallest antenna? Somewhere over 2000? Anyone think some guy wires could hold up a mile high antenna structure?

I dunno, but maybe some girl wires could.

I believe that the US government prohibits tower structures over 2000' (I have seen some that were apparently grandfathered in or granted waivers, at 20xx feet). This is more generous than in most other parts of the world.

I have a better idea. Rent a 250' crane, set it up over some sand somewhere and set it to spinning. (Most cranes can only spin a few times in either direction, so you'd have to plan for that.) Jumpers go out on the end and do poised exits. A lot more time to set up for landing than a "normal" 250' BASE jump since you have some airspeed to work with at exit. You can even spot!

Anyone know how big cranes can get?

Better yet, set it up over the edge of a cliff. The cliff doesn't even have to be overhung, since the crane will get out far enough to avoid the face. Hmm, now where have I seen that...?

I don't do aerials (in which case I'd want a span) and am not real interested in making a lot of jumps off the same object (arround here we joke that you can only count the first 50 off the span in Idaho, and after 6-10 in a trip I'm ready for something else). Some subset of the BASE community seems to subscribe to the same theory and wouldn't be back for many repeats.

When it comes to travel, for me it needs to be close (Moab is under 6 hours away), spectacular (the popular cave in Mexico, maybe Norway), or someplace I'd like to go but just need an excuse (Italy, Kuala Lumpur). I don't know how typial that is either.

IOW, you might have a small subset of an already small market.

As far as tower costs, I did a search. Estimated total installed cost was as follows:

350' $100,000
500' $165,000
1050' $620,000

What about something to launch basers into the sky. Something like the superman ride at six flags but have no restraints so once the car stops the baser keeps going to ~2000' before they start to return to earth. (Kinda like a 2000' catapult)

To launch somebody 2000 vertical feet they would have to come off of the rail at about 240 miles per hour. This is assuming that we are back in high school and can ignore the effects of Earth's atmoshpere. Unfortunately, it has such a huge impact that it just isn't possible to dicount it. A launch speed high enough to guarantee that the jumper makes it to 2000' no matter how wildly they are tumbling (read: how un-aerodynamic they become) would probably put people in the hospital.

In my country the USO (United states of OZ) Australia lol

there is a tower being built (well more of a building) that will be a little over 1KM High or 3000 feet

it will be 1Km high at the top and 3 Km wide at the bottom

its going to be this big sollar energy thing , the tower will be like a Huge chimy with Fans in the centre and hot hair from solar panels on the 3KM circle on the ground will rise up the centre of this tower to 3000 feet in the air spinning the fans inside generating electricity

this will be built out in the desert in the state of Queensland. and it will have a Observation deck on top and a elevator running up the side
for matainence perpouses but also for a look out

I aint a base jumper so i dont know if there is mant taller towers then this but i do know id like to Jump it

Here´s a couple of pictures of it and a link to the project: http://www.enviromission.com.au/index1.htm

Atle

> (...in OZ...) there is a tower being built (well more of a building) that will be a little over 1KM High or 3000 feet
We all know quite well since few months that this tower is under construction...
Apart form the fact that it is located just in the other part of the world with respect where I live (Europe), so it is of relevant interest to me and to other European/Americans/whatever as an object to be jumped "any day", but can you only imagine, granted the value and strategic value of that solar tower, and how precious the sun panel that cover all the bottom (=landing area) are, how difficult (=impossible) is to jump that tower?!?!?!?
I think that as soon as you approach the area, there will be someone that shoots in your back as soon as you show up (by far).
A remote possibility to jump it would be when under construction, but apparently they are assembling the huge underneath area ALREADY with the (very precious) solar panels, so, I think, someway somewhow they would place in force an outstanding service of patrol, guarding the structure from ANYBODY.
Just my 0.02€
Moreover, the theory is that, YES, it COULD be possible to manufature a "fixed structure" suitable for BASE jump, but in PRACTICE it is simply impossible to do it in the sense that the accessibility to people (=BASE jumpers: first there are "few" and second if they have to pay to jump this "man-made-BASE-wonder-object", they would stick to their usual local objects, that costs 0 (zero)...) and the economic outcome would be WAYYYYYY neglectable with respect to money spent to build it and to manage it, left alone ALL the liability issues regarding possible accidents/fatalities/whatever.
For me: discussion about building up from scratch an object suitable for BASE jump = game for the mind and nothing more
Another time: just my very personal 0.02€

unless you suddenly gets alot mony you dont know how to spend...

Im whith you,its a dream,that posily will stay as a dream...

Trying to charge the BASE community enough to cover the cost of construction is ludacris.
The trick is convincing the general public to pay for the tower.
You would not believe the numbers of first-skydive students who tell me that they want to take up BASE jumping. The problem is that few of them have the determination to make the two or three jumps required for freefall, much less the 200 or 300 before I will introduce them to a BASE mentor.
The trick is develop an idiot-proof parachute that will allow them to survive a single jump, then charge their friends and relatives an arm and a leg to watch, double if they want to take pictures. From an instructor's perspective this is way safer than dropping students out of Cessnas: no hassles with spotting, static-line guarantees they will have something overhead, etc.
Yes, I know this concept runs counter to BASE philosophy, but it is the only way I can see to convince jumpers to pay for a tower.

> The trick is convincing the general public to pay for the tower
"general public" = too few people... (see after...)

> You would not believe the numbers of first-skydive students who tell me that they want to take up BASE jumping
"1st-sd-BASE-wannabe" = still too few to even think about sharing building and running and maintenance costs...

> The trick is develop an idiot-proof parachute that will allow them to survive a single jump...
So far away from reality... If such a parachute existed, we (=world BASE jumpers) would use it for ANY jump!!!!!

> then charge their friends and relatives an arm and a leg to watch, double if they want to take pictures
Still too few for sharing costs of tower/whatever like...

> Yes, I know this concept runs counter to BASE philosophy, but it is the only way I can see to convince jumpers to pay for a tower
Theoretical. Theoretically it COULD work, in the real world: never in a million years.
Building up a tower is tremendously costly, left alone the "cost-of-purchase-the-field-where-tower-is-to-be-manufactured" or even the "rent-the field-where-tower-is-to-be-manufactured"...
Left alone all the liability issues anything could go wrong...
Left alone all security means that must be put in force to avoid any BASE-wannabe climb it night time in a self-taught BASE jumping fashion ("hey, mate, you saw the tower? Yes? What about this night..."), left alone BASE jumpers in activity which are NOT going to pay to jump it (but they are going to jump it anyway )
Just my 0.02€

I have an idea floating around in my head that I got from combining BASE and these silly MBA classes that I am taking... Essentially, it would include getting an antenna and having BASE jumpers own it, for free!!! If someone would be interested in hearing about it, PM me...

How much would a 500-1000' antenna out in typical BFE location be worth? Are there any expensive FAA or FCC permits that have to be updated, or is it one of those things that once you own it and have it sticking up in the air, it is low-cost?

that 250' freestander on ebay sold for about 5 grand I believe. It had a half acre of property too iirc.

Actually, it is pretty easy to build 99.999999% reliable parachutes.
Armies around the world do hundreds of thousands of jumps per year from less than 1,000 feet (300 metres) with static-lined parachutes. Malfunctions are almost non-existent on military canopies.
I would cheerfully jump any modern military static-line canopy from an airplane flying at 500 feet, without a reserve.

well.. theres two small villages in my country with a river between, they ask for a bridge for long, so...

I've had an idea for awhile...

What about some sort of really light gas? Why couldn't we incorporate some sort of baloon into our rigs to take us up and then just release? I understand that we would be at the mercy of the wind on our ride up... but we could use some sort of guide wire for the first couple of hundred feet... right?

Just a thought.

Chaps

Like this? (Hope the link works, I'm retarded at this sort of thing.)

Hot air balloons take skydivers up all of the time. There was a thread a while back about whether a tethered balloon qualified a BASE jump or not.

you are then alowed to call it a low skydive.. a ballon aint a BASE jump,it could be a cool jump anyway

Oh yeah... I need to think about what base stands for first! Anyway, I agree with you... wouldn't that be cool if we could have some baloon in our rigs that we can set for a certain altitude... then just release! I wonder how expensive light gas is?

Probably not realistic... just neat to think about.

Chaps

I can't seem to get your link to work Miranda... I'd like to see something like what I was talking about... seems cool.

Chaps

> I can't seem to get your link to work Miranda... I'd like to see something like what I was talking about... seems cool.

It's video of someone disconnecting from a veritable cloud of (what appears to be) regular size birthday balloons. He falls for a bit looking up, then looks down (last few frames) and it looks like a skydive to me.

I wonder what his climb rate was on the way up? :)

You need WMV to view it, I think... anyway, here's a link to the pictures, but it doesn't give you the full effect.

http://www.flyhigh.no/article/view/7

It's in Norwegian, and I'm not for sure on some of my translation, 'cause I speak Danish and not Norwegian, but it gives you a good enough idea... Something to the effect of:


The video was from this page:

http://www.flyhigh.no/article/view/9

It shows him cutting away from the balloons and going into freefall. Fun.

Website says about 4.72 m/s (14 and a half minutes to get to 4110 m AGL).


Each balloon was about 1.7 m in diameter, and they used 130 of them. Wonder how many it would take if they were regular sized...

it might be easier to calulate the amount of gass it takes to displace your weight

Actually jumping from balloons this way could be quite inexpensive... Mnay of the early exhibition parachutists from the times before airplanes (and long after airplanes arrived on the scene) were so-called smoke jumpers - they used hot-air (smoke) filled balloons to ascend and then parachute down from them, usually static-line type jumps... This went on pretty much since the Civil War until the last official smoke jumper retired in the 1960's...

Basically involved digging a pit, lighting a fire with some smoky fuel (often damp hay), so the smoke ran through a pipe to the open end of the balloon, which was initially suspended between two tall poles over the end of the pipe. Usually used a trapeze bar instead of a basket to save weight. When the balloon had enough hot air in it the jumper sat on the bar and the balloon was released... Typical smoke jumpers might drop off at a thousand feet or higher. Usually a weight was attached to the apex of the balloon so that when the jumper let go the apex dropped below the balloons skirt, letting the hot air out in a huge belch of black smoke, which added to the show. It also meant the balloon was closer and easier to recover...

This way you could do it as a one man operation. Probably the biggest drawback to doing things this way was trying to get enough altitude to be sanctioned by USPA (or CSPA) - the original smoke jumpers would routinely go from around a grand, probably...

Ataching picture of balloon at Calgary Exhibition in 1906 and jumper at Montreal in 1910.

I know that you are right. I know that if money were no issue it's even possible that one little baloon(probably not like any conventional baloon) size could hold enough of some type of light enough gas to get a certain weight to a certain altitude... I just wonder how I could find out how realistic this is.

Miranda--- thanks for the links! That's really cool that a skydiver did that! I'm so jealous!

Chaps

I was actually researching this.
http://www.chem.hawaii.edu/uham/lift.html

for helium
Diameter=18 feet
volume = 86474 Liters
lift = 195.66 lbs

Thats alot of helium.

its alot of helium? how much would that much cost?

Found a better quote.
$90 for 7,362L
so thats
12 Tanks == $1100 for enough He to get you up there.

is there a way you can recover or keep the helium? i mean an 1100 jump tickect should be able to be used a couple times...

Awesome work Jeff! Unfortunately... this info. makes me realise that, at least for now, it's unrealistic to think skydivers coud use this method for anything but a one time type shot. Boy, it sure would be cool if we could. Imagine getting the same rush with your friends and not having to waste millions of gallons of jet fuel at the same time!

C-ya!
Chaps

You could always buy one of these things:

http://www.aerophile.com

Carries you and 29 of your closest friends. Last I checked they went for about $1.2 million US, but I know a guy who has one sitting around un-used that you could probably get for half that.

NO there is no way to recover the helium. As soon as you released, the balloons would go up until they explode and then just the remains of the ballons would fall back to earth.

NOPE sorry not for 1100 bones..... I would have to get a 1k ft rope and do like the germans do... let out the rope.... jump.... then pull it down and do it all over again...

Skypuppy... that's amazing! I can't believe they did that on a regular basis! Thank you for telling me that.

Chaps

I did.
I will fly my catapult for the first time in public on January 10, at Tignes Airwaves festival

Highest one I jumped was about 900-950ft

J.