Re: [Butters] Jeb's and Luigi's wingsuit flight under the Christ Statue in Rio
>>than from NickDG about the BASE jumpers and the jump.<<
Okay, watch me climb out on this limb . . .
I haven't said anything in this thread, because it's not BASE jumping, but since you dragged me in.
I believe we are going to see this type of "proximity skydiving" explode in popularity. I think this for a couple of reasons. One is I'd bet every skydiver who flies a wing suit is looking at this and thinking, "Gee, that's pretty cool and something I could do." Maybe not to the extent Jeb's doing it, but in a more general way. And any DZ close to the right geographical features could offer proximity flights.
If you go along with that idea it brings up some real interesting coming attractions. Proximity flying is the missing link, the last piece of the puzzle, for skydiving with a wing suit. It's why flying a wing suit passed clouds or in flocks is more fun than just zipping along by yourself.
Proximity flying, it can be said, started on the BASE side of the house. What did all early BASE jumpers say when asked what the main difference was between BASE and skydiving? They said it was "flying close to the object," and in those days they meant having a building or tower whipping by close behind them. The next step, and probably the first actual proximity flying was done under canopy at places like Half Dome in Yosemite. In the late 1980s jumpers were doing canopy "touch and goes" on rock outcroppings there on the way to the LZ. Patrick de Gayardon was doing proximity flying in the mountains with a wing suit in the early 90s but he was too far ahead of his time.
Now here's where it's going to get interesting. How long can it be before some skydiver puts two and two together. BASE jumping, in its almost 30 year history, has blown major holes in a forever held skydiving tenant. You must initiate deployment at 2000-feet. Sooner or later some wing suit skydiver is going to show up on a U.S. DZ with a TSO'd German BASE rig and ask why not? A hapless USPA will only be able to fall back on saying, "because we said so that's why." And it would be the beginning of a major revolt and the first big sea change on the DZ since playing hacky sack went away.
In the broader sense wing suit terminal at 500-feet (and lower) is proximity flying too. There's even a silver lining to it. Its possible bringing back low-aspect ratio canopies to the DZ would put a dent in the low turn death machines in use now. Yeah, okay I hear you. Sure, there would be a steep learning curve for skydivers and lives would be lost. But skydivers would get the hang of it sooner or later just like BASE jumpers did. And when you figure in big open DZs and no hard object right behind them, it's probably safer to open low at the DZ than it is on most BASE jumps.
The next step in the revolt is skydivers finally realizing they need a reserve because they have a reserve. I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but we learned long ago simple is more reliable and it's a well proven concept. Is it possible we could actually make the case that because the FAA mandates "two parachutes" the resulting Rube Goldberg rig is a reason so many people are killed?
It's a funny thing about the course of our lives, the serendipity of winding up somewhere entirely different from where you thought you were heading. There was plenty of fixed object jumping before Carl Boenish came along and popularized the sport of BASE. It's why we call him the father of BASE and not the inventor of fixed object jumping. In the same way, I can see Jeb becoming the "father" of "proxy-flight."
But, hey Jeb, you just need to come up with a better name for it . . .
NickD
BASE 194
