DexterBase

I was thinking about this today. It really makes me sad. Raising beer in their memories, we continue.

WOW... that was pretty sick footage...

Who's going? I know I am !

Tommy, is your Fox vented?

Damn dude, I hope the foot turns out to be okay. I'm also glad your injuries weren't worse. Were you wearing body armor? I'm relieved that you're well enough to post.

Who else is picturing Ray sitting on the living room floor watching the little mice run around fucking with the cats... and laughing his ass off?

Exit time will be so super critical. Scary, scary, scary....

About the beer, I'm actually going to have to agree with this one too. I actually refuse to drink cheap beer. I call it "highschool beer" because that's about all we could get our hands on then. I prefer good beer.

Thank you, that was nice to read.

SBC Mac is a fraud anyway. He doesn't even BASE jump... much... anymore. Although I did watch some cleverly edited (probably computer generated) footage (that I shot) of him using ascenders to gain access to the roof of a building in rain and high wind... Then jump from the corner and land (actually, to be fair it was not a landing any more than a meteor crashing to earth is a landing) in the street... THEN, jump into a taxi cab and drive off into the sunset (well it was actually dark)... Worst of all, he did it just to impress the girls (although there weren't actually any girls present)... What a poser! Michael, call me dude.

**Yawn** No thanks.

Oh man... not again!

Hell no! We're doing a 2-way.

Dude, if NASA can do it, surely I can figure something out.

Burning up on re-entry... blah. Some things are just too cool to worry about little details like that. I bet with a wingsuit your speed would be low enough that you could make use of insulating material of some type.

Yeah, that's the stuff I'm talking about. What a ride huh?

I'm not going to 13,000+ feet. I'm riding that thing to a couple miles and getting off. I want to be able to pack up and do it again. What I think would be cool though, is a super high jump where your terminal velocity is several hundred miles per hour. That is going to be a pretty wild ride. Better nail your exit though.

Hey Faber, you might actually want to consider using this method. I know for a fact you have the fart power for it.

I agree, but if there's a possibility that you will be jumping an object where the vents are important, the investement in the vents will be far outweightd by the cost of buying a vented canopy for that jump (or the cost of the outcome of a strike followed by a canopy collapse). I think if you have a canopy that is not vented and you're presented with the chance to jump a solid object, you're far more likely to use the canopy you have, rather than the canopy you could have. I've jumped non-vented canopies from solid objects before. There is only one canopy currently made that I would feel comfortable doing this with now. Given the choice, I would always choose the vented one for that type of jump.

I hope they leave the balloon up at night. Maybe a cable ascender will fit around the tether cable?

Even if you do a go-n-throw from a 900 foot cliff, you can find yourself in a situation where the vents and valves will be very beneficial. If you have a 180 and fly into the wall, the nose will be closed off by the rock face and the canopy will collapse. Once the canopy starts to collapse, you're going to quickly lose your ability to turn (or control at all) the parachute. Then, you will be sliding down the wall at an unsurvivable rate of descent. If you have vents, the canopy will still maintain a degree of pressurization from the bottom skin and you will actually have a fighting chance to get the canopy turned and flying away from the wall. Between the jumper with three BASE jumps, and the seasoned BASE canopy pilot with 1200 jumps, who do you think is going to need that extra bit of safety buffer more? If you aren't able to appreciate the above, you either do not jump solid objects, or you're not fully aware of the risks you're accepting. If not, then your risk analysis/management process is seriously flawed and needs to be reviewed. edit:typo

I'm going to disagree with a lot of what you posted. I have owned and jumped FOX, Ace, and BlackJack canopies. I have jumped Mojo's. The only difference between the Ace and BlackJack is the vents. Other than that, the canopy is identical in every way except the name. The Ace has super clean openings, but they're not as clean as the BlackJack. I feel that the openings of the Ace are as clean as many other vented canopies. I love the Ace canopy. The Mojo is older technology. The mojo is still a great canopy and will serve you well, but there are options available that are clearly better than the Mojo. I would prefer a Mojo over every non vented canopy except the Ace. I would prefer an Ace over a vented Fox. In my opinion, the BlackJack is more versatile than the Ace. It flies just as fast in full flight but it's more stable in super deep brake/stalled approaches than the Ace. You will never get the Ace to land/flare like a BlackJack after an aggressive stalled approach to a tight landing area. I think some of your conclusions are wrong. Why do you think that? ------------------------------------------------------- I think all BASE specific canopies currently manufactured are appropriate choices for a first BASE canopy. Where personal decisions may need to be made are in regards to the type of objects the new jumper will be hucking themselves from. If you live where there's nothing but terminal antennas, and you don't intend to jump solid objests with serious strike potential (and you aren't a dirty low-puller), then the swoopiest BASE canopy will be just fine. If you will be spending most of your time below 300 feet on solid objects with tight, boulder filled landing areas, then that same canopy may not be the best choice. You'll definitely want something with secondary inlets. To the original poster. Rather than ask which canopy is the best, try to find out as much as you can about the individual flight characteristics of each canopy. Then, try to match the canopy to the type of jumping you'll be doing. Stay alive... educate yourself.

Yep. If I'm only doing one jump that night and I want the freefall but don't want the issues related to a three to four second slider up opening, I'll take four slider down. Sure. But you won't see me doing that often. Once I pitched at four seconds and had a PC hesitation that lasted just under one full second. hehe. RUNG MY BELL!

He was banned for not following the rules of the forum.

Average BASE openings are not equal to average skydiving openings. Especially if the camera flyer is jumping a canopy known for soft openings. I still jump a Sabre and a hard opening on that is still about normal for a four second slider down BASE opening.