Brento Boogie Accident

[space]

Steve Braff (Belgium) was injured as a result of a cliff strike. He is in a stable condition and expected to fully recover.
I did not speak with Steve about the incident, only secondhand info. Line twist, unable to clear because some lines were hanging on the camerahelm.
Being a rigger, I was allowed to inspect the gear at the Carabineri (Police) station and here was my observations
The pc was constructed in a way that would cause it to have less drag than a standard skydiving pc IMHO. Whether this had any influence on the incident is unclear but it seems to me as a high probability due to my observations of similarly built pc´s and offheading/linetwist occurences in Norway. The PC was not built by any BASE Gear Manufacturers, but at a rigging shop. It was a 32" with small mesh (X) and with the reinforcement tapes on the block as opposed to the bias.
Brakes were still stowed. Damage to the left front leading edge and stabilizer from contact with the wall.
THe Government officials, though not pleased about the incident, were thankful of jumpers cooperation/help in the rescue of Steve and inspection of gear. Jumping resumed on Sunday.
Know your gear,
space.

[guest]

Hi Space - please send me an email tombegic@hotmail.com I need to send you a package.

Regarding the incident. Wish Steve good luck with his recovery.

In my experience with camera, body position plays a huge part in deployment stability - especially on longer delays. Quite often the cameraperson will frame the subject as they freefall past them. Whilst turning your head sideways (possibility of getting equipment caught here on traditional top mounted cameras) you can induce a partital rotation in your body = uneven shoulders = off heading. If on top of this you are a little head down (quite possible when in a tracking position on a bigger wall), your body can induce a line twist on the swing through because your swing through is pivoted on one shoulder.

Have you seen Steve's footage?

Another thing I'd like to comment on is side mounted helmets. I personally don't think they are a great idea due to possibility of riser slap or line entanglemant when deploying head high(but that is my opinion). If you have a stills mounted on the front (like I do sometimes), you have to be very careful about turning your head sideways to film at the bottom end of a jump. This is a very common scenario for camera people who want to film deployments and then have to deploy immediately themselves.

Any comments/experiences from other camera people?

Stay Safe :-]
Have Fun :)
Good Luck ;)

Tom B

[guest]

again and again and again....stranger jumper have accident...again problems...because guys doesn't care of equipment...because guys doesn't care... they are the new basejumpers...they are the new extrem athelets...they are simply the new fucking jumpers...

[guest]

Can you please give me more information about the problem with the PC Steve was using. A lot of people are jumping the same build PC's including me. If this is causing off-heading openings and line twists we have to do something about it!
Please send me a drawing of how the mesh should be positioned.

[kleggo]

please email me at


cfenstermaker@cryocor.com

some old friends of yours are heading to lysebotn and would like to contact you before they leave.
i need your email address and / or contact phone # for them

stay safe,
kleggo

[guest]

Having logged many freefly camera jumps - and many Tracking and BackTracking; it takes a while to learn how to move the head without affecting the body. Also, subterminal head movement is very different from terminal.
A short subterminal camera jump requires the jumper to simply break the "body follows head" muscle memory barier.
While a terminal tracking camera jump requires the body to compensate for the altered aerodynamics of the camera being presented to the air stream at different orientations. Regardless of top or side mount - the camera person must learn to subconsciously compensate for the aerodynamic affect of their camera. In my opinion, this ability takes more than a few jumps.
Regardless of your base jump totals, if you're going to fly camera on big/terminal jumps and you're thinking of looking to the side and filming deployments; practice your technique with skydives.

Regarding camera mounts: if you have a flat mount and a round helmet; its a good idea to fill the void between the two (to help prevent snagged lines and make the system more aerodynamic). Go to a hardware store and buy a can of expanding insulation foam. The foam can be sprayed into the void (it will expand substantially so don't get too carried away). After in has dried you can shape it with a knife to form a nice smooth curve up to the mount (the best part - it weighs almost nothing), then put some tape over it to make it look pretty.

cheers
Bob

[space]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON May-07-01 AT 02:19 PM (PST)[/font][p]I uploaded Excel drawings to this site but I can´t view it.
http://www.blincmagazine.com/forum/u.../blockbias.pdf
Please some one let me know how to upload and view an Excel file, I followed the instructions.

Later,
space

[guest]

Here it is in Excel format (to upload in this format, select "MS Excel spreadsheet (.xls)" from the pop-up window after clicking the upload your file link). Hope this helps!

http://www.blincmagazine.com/forum/u.../blockbias.xls

[guest]

Hey Space:

Do you think that putting more tapes on the topskin is even more effective?

I've noticed that one major manufacturer (CR) always uses two tapes (on the bias) at 90 degree angles to each other. Another manufacturer (BR) uses even more tapes (larger sizes get more, until the 48" ends up with something like five tapes).

I know that the fabric stretches most along the bias (anyone with a piece of ZP can take it out and verify this), so the tapes on the bias stop the major component of PC deformation.

Do you think that extra tapes are overkill (and unnecessary)? Or do they help?

Could the extra tapes slow down PC inflation by weighting the topskin?

Anyone else have an opinion?

--Tom Aiello
tbaiello@ucdavis.edu

[guest]

Hello im the sister of steve, he's in the hospital and asked me if u can call him on the following number, because he doesnt have yours: 00323/234.47.33 (directly number in his room)
thanks for your support

[guest]

Hey Steve,
Hope you have a quick recovery.
Gaz

[guest]

Hi Steve
Thanks for the info on jumping in Spain....
Get well soon!

Espen
espen@graffiti.net