pBASEtobe

It was more than 5 seconds but it didn't feel like it. I think it was around 10 or so. This gives me an excuse to try it again with someone filming. Me and my landing gear produce a wing loading of about 0.8 on that canopy. Yes, it was.

It may have been less than 10, I'm not sure. It seemed like 5 to me but I didn't want to say that and sound like a fool. I knew it was going to be short but I guess I didn't realize how short. Someone mentioned to me beforehand that my canopy time would be less than 10 seconds but it never really dawned on me how short that was until I got to the ground. Those of you that freefall those heights officially have MUCH more respect from me!

Better yet, can we just have them heat the water below to a nice 80 degress or so?

I’m not as good of a writer as DexterBase so deal with it! I’m not quite sure if this should be here in the BASE section or not. I used a BASE specific canopy and it was within what you might call BASE altitudes. I just had quite a bit of fun doing this and thought I’d share. Tom if you feel this post doesn’t belong feel free to move it! I generally do quite a bit of paragliding during the year. I’m trying to do more BASE jumping but at this point I’m stuck to legal bridges and water landings and the only really good one is a tad cold for me this time of year. So the only excitement I get is from my paragliding. **mental note – find another fun winter sport** The last month or two, here in Southern California, haven’t been that great for paragliding. First there was the rain, and lots of it, then because of the rain the roads to launch were closed and then when the roads finally open the Santa Ana winds were blowing. Santa Ana’s are the winds from the desert. Usually strong warm wind out of the north, 180 degrees the wrong direction for paragliding around here. So, today was the first day in a long time that it was actually flyable. I showed up at the LZ along with about 50 other pilots. The conditions really weren’t that great. The wind was out of the south (that’s good) but only at about 1mph. That makes launches a little tricky. You really have to run, quite a ways. Yes there is a BASE aspect to this story eventually. You could tell there wasn’t much lift either, all the hawks flying around were flapping to stay aloft not soaring or thermalling gracefully like usual. Seeing as how I knew it wasn’t going to be a very long flight (we call a flight with little to no lift a sled ride) I decided rather than grabbing my paragliding wing I’d grab my Fox 225. I had it already packed in a specially made setup which allows me to do d-bag jumps from my friends tandem paraglider. As I was grabbing my d-bag I yelled to my friend to grab his tandem instead of his solo wing. He knew exactly what I was thinking. He looked at me, then at the hawks flapping away and said, “Good idea!” We threw the gear into the car and off we went. The whole way up I was trying to figure out what I was going to do. Would I release from the tandem as high as I could and practice a few canopy skills or did I want to try release from a low altitude just to see what it’s like. The lowest I had done so far was a little under 400 feet. I have a rule in life…you should try to scare the shit out of yourself at least once a month. It had been a good few months since I had done anything scary so…low altitude it was! We got to launch, set everything up and off we went. My friend flew the tandem out towards the LZ. On the way out he asked what altitude I was going to release at. I told him 250-300 feet. He leaned forward and said, “You crazy, no 500 feet!” (he’s French, his English isn’t that great) I said 300, he said 500 and we continued to bicker for a good few minutes. Finally he gave in. Truthfully he didn’t have much of a choice. I’m the one with the cut-away cables in my hand so…We finally got to about 700 feet, I looked down and thought oh that’s not too bad. Then came 500 feet, everything seemed much bigger. I was getting kind of nervous at this point. I thought, ok I’ve done this altitude several times at the good old potato bridge, no biggy. Then we got to 400 feet. Now I’m a little more scared. “Ok, I did this altitude last time.” I told my friend flying the tandem to do one more “S” turn and that should be good. After he finished the turn I looked at my altimeter, it read 253 feet. I looked down at a paraglider that was just landing. His wing looked awfully big. I’m pretty scared at this point but as I reach up for the cut-away cables my fear leaves and a huge smile gets plastered on my face. I say “cya!” to my friend and I release. The canopy opens nicely and on heading (no slider, d-bag…opens fast). I love that sound, the sound of the canopy opening. I’m pretty quick on the toggles, I release the brakes, make a 90 degree right, fly a few seconds, then a 45 left, fly a few more seconds and flare! The landing was fine and everything turned out great. I was quite surprised how little time I had under canopy. I’ve read all these stories aobut people freefalling sub 200 feet so I figured if I was d-bagging 250 I’d have a bit of time under canopy. I swear I only had about a 10 second canopy ride. I wasn’t timing it so I don’t really know but that’s what it sure felt like. Any input from people as how much time they have for different delays from different heights? It sure was fun to d-bag from that height, definitely an experience. I had several people come up to me afterwards saying something to the fact that they thought I was going to land and never release because I was so low. Anyway, I thought some of you might enjoy a story. I’ve attached some pictures someone took of the jump. The second picture is funny to me to see one guy all by himself flying around on this HUGE tandem wing. Enjoy!

A little disturbing but funny!! Definitely make a shirt. I want one!

Now that is some funny shite!!! [inline uglylol.gif] I've wanted to give those head smacking funny faces a try for some time now!

So. Cal. locals I’ve got an “A” question I’d like to ask. Could one/some of you PM me? I don’t want to post the question because it would be too specific I think. Thanks!

I had some problem with Blinc ealier but it's ok now.

Hee hee... Here's a quote from the translation. "They hold national and international meistertitel in the "Indor COUSIN jumping" and participated already world-wide in several record attempts. COUSIN stands for jumping firmly standing objects." Cousin Jumping

Uh...is there a way to get that in English? Did I miss that somewhere?

I like that sign on the back of the wheelchair. I might want to put one like that on mine.

There are a few paragliding wings that were made with airlocks. I'm not sure if they're still made. PG wings have very small cells (compared to skydiving/BASE canopies). PG wings also tend to collapse. Airlocks made the wings slower to re-inflate after a collapse. Although you would think with airlocks it wouldn't collapse as ealsiy. It seems it's just like the skydiving/BASE world. Airlocks were tried but just not deemed worth it.

Ooh, me me me!

Does anybody have some close-up pictures of all the different designs in vents? It's one thing to be told about the differences but to see what they are helps a lot too.

I know he wasn't, but I just had to say that they're still exciting as hell for me. Whenever I get to do them that is. Damn winter! Tom can you do something about the weather out there? I looked on-line a few days ago and it said, "Feels like 18 (degrees F)." Bbbbrrrrrr!!!!!!!! Sorry for being off subject.

Not for me! I'd guess there are even some people out there with a few hundred BASE jumps that still find solos exciting. Maybe not every solo but...

Is this for REAL!?! I'd have to say that is the coolest and most impressive WS flight I've ever seen! Granted it wasn't BASE but still...

CRAP!! That much longer!?! Although it is just over 80 degrees F here in Cali.

I had the opportunity to hang out with them up in potato land over Labor Day weekend. They are definitely great people! I look forward to jumping with them in the future.

Mine is 2. Hopefully I'll be able to tie you with 3 though.

Yeah it is. Sad, but true!

Actually I think it is illegal to even bring a parachute into a National Park. Or is it National Monument...or both. Hmm...anyone know?

YES!!! Oh how I'd love to paraglide in the valley!

Did you have to climb above the twists or could you reach above them while still hanging in your leg straps?

I'm curious to see others responses as well. Seeing as how I can't "kick" out of twists it'll take me much longer to get out of them than anyone else. I know what I'd have to do if I ever got twists but I am curious to know how hard it'll actually be. I suppose some of it depends on where the twists are. If they're right above the connector links then maybe I won't have to climb the lines to reach above them. Most things are easier said than done.