Alien equipment

[Woody]

Hiya,

Ive been involved in skydiving for just over a year now, and ive even worked at a dropzone. However its quite hard to find out about BASE equipment.

Could someone briefly explain what the more alien parts on a BASE are, e.g. a 'Tail Gate'.

I own a Vector 3 Micron, and have a good knowledge of rigging, etc. So you don't have to be too patronising.

Cheers

[imported_Tom Aiello]

I'm not sure what counts as "Alien".

Can you ask more specific questions?

A tailgate is a short piece of line, stiffened by doubling back into itself. It is fingertrapped to a center 'C' line, then rubber banded around the center C's, center D's and all the control lines. It promotes nose first inflation by constraining the tail of the canopy until the nose has inflated and blown the tailgate open.

For more info, see the web site of the inventors of the tail gate, Basic Research, at http://www.basicresearch.com/ . Click on "Tail Gate-Multi-Vtec" in the "Reference" links.

--Tom Aiello
tbaiello@mac.com

[guest]

I think 'Alien Equipment' is in regards to anything not used in airplane jumping. Shrivel flap, tail gate, etc.. would probably all fall under this catagory. Just a guess. A year in skydiving and jumping a micron, kids these days.

slow cow:-)

[FLsurfer]

Tom,
I take it from your post that you stow 12 lines total when using a tailgate. I own a Mojo 240 and the tailgate instructions stated that either 12 lines or 16 were acceptable. I've mostly done the 16 line method. On 2 jumps I've even stowed all C, D and control lines, 24 total. I was wondering if you or anyone else has any feedback on the preferred amount of lines. In 50 jumps, I've only jumped with 9 other jumpers so my experience in tailgates is very limited. Thanks in advance for any feedack and I hope everyone is enjoying the full moon.
FLsurfer

[imported_Tom Aiello]

I've used all of the above (12, 16 and 24). BR recommends either 12 or 16 (I don't think any manufacturers recommend the 24 method.

Basically, I use 12 because (a) those are the color coded lines on my canopies, (b) it's easier than using 16, and (c) I'm lazy.

I haven't seen, or heard, of any performance difference between the 12 and 16 line methods. I haven't really researched the 24 line method, because I don't know anyone who uses it regularly.

--Tom Aiello
tbaiello@mac.com

[imported_Tom Aiello]

>...anything not used in airplane jumping.

Wow. That's huge. "not used from a plane" encompasses pretty much all of our gear. Secondary inlets, valves, multiple bridle attachments, single parachute containers, two pin rigs, velcro rigs, shrivel flaps, alpine harnesses, vented PC's, large PC's, the list goes on.

That's probably too big a question to answer in one sitting. If you post one question at a time, I'll give them a shot. But I can't (and am not qualified to) just sit here and write a treatise on BASE gear.

--Tom Aiello
tbaiello@mac.com