Pull-offs (paraglider style)

[guest]

I've heard before that BASE got it's start with some skydivers doing pull-offs from towers. Letting the canopy out, let the wind catch it and mostly inflate it, and then launch. I'm wondering how well this works. Ups and downs, that type of thing. I can see you would be starting real close, and might have a chance to rock back into the tower or wires. Anyone have experience with this, and/or thoughts/suggestions/look-out-fors.
After seeing the dude with the paraglider launch the bridge (low wind?) I would like more info on this subject. A 9 cell PD F-111 canopy, about a 1:1 wing loading, good landing areas, no bags, things like that. one reason I ask is I have no BASE rig. Have my sweethog, but unless my arss is climbing 2,000 ft, I wouldn't use it. So, can I get down from sightseeing at my favorite 300 footer this way.
YES, I know, get a BASE rig, problem solved. With lack of cash, it's easier said than done.
and yes, I know---HOW MUCH IS YOUR LIFE WORTH COMPARED TO A BASE CONTAINER????????? just wondering about some considerations of pull-offs.
2,000 feet is a long climb, and the landing area sucks!
Thanks......
Thomas

"You have to let go to accelerate."

[guest]

I'm thinking of some kind of attachment to the tower until I'm sure the canopy is open to my satisfaction. A half open canopy can prolly still drag me off the tower. So, some kind of realeaseable webbing or something until I have good inflation. Like a PCA, maybe a good friend tied off holding me on? other ideas???????????
Thomas

[Joel]

A couple of concerns with "pull offs". I have been Paragliding since 1993 and done a few cliff launches, but not an antenae. I also am very new to the world of BASE and would think that these are a few of the concerns; 1st to partially inflate a canopy cells need to catch wind, this would leave your leading edge facing the tower when you launch. Another concern is that you can't always control when the wind will take you off when you are so close to the exit point. I would think that the "pull off" is not a good idea. If you could have enough space to kite the canopy overhead then I would go for it. I think that this is not the way to go though. I think it is a bad idea and you should buy the proper equiptment.

[guest]

Yea, well, ummm, what about doing it exactly like the guy in the pictures did off a bridge except with a base rig?

[imported_mknutson]

First of all, BASE Jumping started prior to 1980. Accounts of BASE-Jumping have been seen in the early 1970's, 1910's and drawn out in the 14th Century. Paragliders were not created until the mid 1980's I thought.

Think of it this way...
I won't tell you "What is your life worth" and all the hundreds of other valid comments like that even though they apply here to "YOU".


What I will say is this, myself, or many other people here could give you advice on how to do this, but what you are really talking about is an advanced aspect of our sport. You are talking about a D_Bag or no D-Bag to deploy a chute. This requires special/different packing and stowing techniques for anyone to get it right.

You need "FAR" more experience than what you have. You do not have a concept of what trouble/Black death you are into. To try to jump a PD 9-Cell on any BASE-Jump is not a good idea at all as the opening characteristics on the 9-cells is terriblly slow. No if you couple that with the fact you have ZERO understanding of BASE as well as ZERO understanding of the gear, how to fly it in a BASE scenario, then couple that with the BLACK-Death factor you seem to be trying to approach by "NOT" getting the proper gear/training.....

Well, I fear that I will be forced to read another shitty ##### posting about some person that was dieing to get into base, and died trying his first!

Use your head and:
* get a 7-cell F111 canopy set up for BASE.
* Get a real BASE Container
* Go to one of the many first jump courses offer by "BASE" MFG's.
* Learn what your limits are now, before you jump from an object and realize, when its too late, that you have oversteped those limits.

[guest]

well said

[guest]

My father was an iron worker on the NRGB and said that "someone jumped of that damed thing before we even finished gettin built." That would put the first base jump somewhere before 1979.

[BASE359]

>First of all, BASE Jumping started in 1979 by
>Carl Beonish.

I beg your pardon?

BASE359

[Skypuppy]

OH OH, Mick!

here we go again!

Skypuppy BASE 92:+

[460]

I thought Carl was inspired by a guy (I forget his name. it's in BASE magazine) who jumped El Cap several years before Carl did it in 1979.

For the original post, there were a few pull offs done in the '70s using round canopies. Anything else would be not so bright.

[Skypuppy]

Didn't Gary Busey do that in 'Drop Zone'? He could tell you how.

Seriously tho many of the early jumps were done without bags or pc's - Fred Law just laid his round out behind him over the rail when he jumped Lady Liberty in 1912. Bobby Leach in 1908 jumped the upper Steel Arch Bridge in Niagara Falls by attaching his round homemade parachute to a pole sticking 20 ft. up above the bridge, before descending 200 ft. into the rapids. In 1917 2 jumpers used the same idea when demonstrating rounds to the British Admiralty by jumping of the deck of Tower Bridge in London. These bridge jumps were the equivalent of static line jumps.These early jumpers tho', did not have available the technology and experience we have today. Only fools repeat history.

Skypuppy BASE 92:+

[guest]

BACKGROUND & HISTORY By Nick Di Giovanni
We have been building parachute equipment specifically used in the sport of building jumping since 1992. This sport, also called BASE jumping,began in this country in 1978. Sincethat time much has been learned and nowadays a parachute jump from a building is a very repeatable event.

Modern historical text incorrectly ties the invention of the parachute to the advent of aviation and historians credit a Frenchman with the first parachute jump from a hot air balloon in the midddle to late 1800s. This jump, however, was not the first parachute jump ever made. Not by a long shot.

In the16th century Italian architects began building stone towers as high as 500 feet. These early skyscrapers are filled with furniture and bedding made from straw, while light is provided from burning torches, and heat comes from burning wood. The inevitable fires that raced through these structures turned them into towering infernos. It's the first time a parachute is considered as a means of escape,and the reason they were invented in the first place.

Between then and the advent of modern aviation in the early 19th century many parachute jumps from objects are already made. For example, in 1912, a New York steeple jack named Rodman Law parachuted from the torch of the Statue of Liberty to gain publicity for his ailing business. The jumps were exciting to people and the newsreel companies of the day actually paid Mr. Law to repeat the jumps for their cameras. He later also successfully jumped from the Brooklyn Bridge and The Banker's Trust Building on Wall Street.

Parachutes are now once again a means of escape and parachuting history has now come full circle.

[guest]

x

[web]

the paraglider bridge-launch was an incredible sequence. relating it to towers well within the realm of modern BASE freefall techniques leads me to think of the mythical denizens of grottoes beneath picturesque bridges......TROLL!!!!!!!