Accepted wisdom is to jump antennas with a wind blowing down the guidewires, at your back, at exit. Clearly people are jumping antennas in no wind conditions or light variable winds. Fog cover antenna jumps are an example as are low antenna 250' jumps. What do people think of no wind jumps and what kind of success/failure/problems have been experienced? I prefer these, but obviously tracking wont get you tremendously far from the object on average size antennas .
Accepted wisdom is also the fact that they are called guywires not guidewires. I wonder what percentage of base jumpers even know this? Everybody seems to call them guidewires. Actually I don't even know how to spell guywire. I just know that they are definitely not guidewires. Whatever!
>Accepted wisdom is to jump antennas
>with a wind blowing down the
>guidewires, at your back, at exit.
Um...I'm not sure what you mean about "down the guidewires [sic]", but my wisdom tells me to jump when the wind is blowing BETWEEN the wires--that is, on a typical triangular antenna, the wind should be blowing AWAY from the Flat part of the antenna, not away from the point. I have many no-wind jumps from antennas, and see no problem with them...in fact I rather enjoy them...With that correction, all you need is to figure out the difference b/t guidewires and GUYwires, as the nit picking Huckin Idiot has pointed out.
CYA
Down the guywires meaning what you mean; wind at your back, you jumping away from antenna with a guywire on the left and the right, and you right in the middle between them, such that in the event of an off heading the wind carries you away from the antenna and down/away from the wires; an excellent safety precaution; i have an antenna that is near a lighted business complex that can be jumped at night with impunity because the complexes lights overflow the compound and illuminate the landing area. Because of the weird lighting angles and because its only a 4 light antenna i prefer the straight out final without having to work the 180 landing at the base and accuracy. I believe this works great but in the event of a 180 off heading the small size of the antenna, and no wind i believe would be bad. A 1500+ antenna affords some degree of tracking to buy you some time, affords enough remaining altitude to affect sharp maneuvering, and because the antenna itself is thicker/wider with guywires further apart it allows more sideroom. It also allows you to (in a wind) coast away from the antenna longer sufficient that there is no chance of error in not getting down before striking the base of the antenna, fence, or power equipment. Ive stayed away from the little guy wire antennas until now. Thats why i ask; is anyone else jumping no wind small antennas (4 light) with guywires or is this russian roulette-a coin toss (on heading or BOOOM). (I know its a coin toss, i wonder if anyone else is doing it, regularly). Anyway, cya. thanks.
Hi Scooby -
I'm jumping antennas on a regular basis, although I encounter no-wind situations only 10% of the time.
Yes, with no wind, it is a challenging jump.
In my opinion (as with any jump from a solid object) it is *very* important to be comfortable with your deep brake settings and know the exact flight characteristics of your canopy when performing evasive rear riser turns in deep brakes.
Testing out different deep brake settings at a suitable span is an impostant part of dialing a canopy in. I've seen alot of jumpers out there that have no idea how their canopy will react in their current DB setting. Discovering this when an object strike is imminent is not a good time.
(not that your doing this - just an important point when jumping tight objects like you've described)
To better answer your original question: Yes, I jump smaller antennas in no-wind conditions. But the decision to jump is a careful evaluation of the object, my abilities, my options should and when I have a serious off-heading, and my current state-of-mind/condition. At least one of these variables is different each time, so for me, it's important to assess the risks each and every jump.
I hope this helps. Best of luck!
C-ya,
Bryan
I routinely take a 3 second delay off a 480' guyed antenna. Leaves plenty of altitude to turn into the wind for landing. I jump it in any winds up to ~12 mph at ground level. Even when winds are calm at the ground, I find there is sufficient wind up top to mitigate the consequences of an off-heading. Also, the delay gives plently of initial separation. In my experience, heading performance is excellent when the wind is directly at my back but degrades when the wind is at an angle because the pack job comes off your back at an angle and at line stretch the risers are unevenly tensioned, inducing a turn into the wind.
Yo !
There is a big difference between our perception of danger (fear) and real risks. Antenna in no wind is the most dangerous situation - far worse than a strong wind down the wire. However it feels very peaceful and pleasant on top of a tower on a beautiful, warm and absolutely calm morning... ;-) Most people would jump it, but same people are likely to climb down on a windy night, when conditions are actually safer.
On 700+ ft tower the wind is irrelevant. If you do it right (launch and TRACK, pull low!) you will be so far away from the wires you'll have hard time trying to hit them on purpose ;-)
Slider-down is a different story: 20mph wind between the wires on 400-footer makes it safer than a bridge. Same 400' on a calm day is worse than many cliffs... but those cliffs are still jumped a lot ;-)
bsbd!
Yuri.
Excellent, intelligent, thought out answers one and all. Thank you. I agree; my interest in the no wind is the peace and calm and feeling of control; however artificial. And of course it is as peaceful just relaxing and coasting down straight out without the immediate canopy control and accuracy skills involved in hooking the 180, s-turns and deep brakes. Plus, in the higher winds the canopy behaves much different, and as i have aged i have wearied of being blown backwards, or having a strong wind drop suddenly on me when near the ground on the kind of descent which is straight down. Challenges are good but sometimes its nice to have a "no-brainer" object nearby to just purely enjoy. And its nice not climbing at 0400 in the morning. Im not a morning person. THANKS and cya!
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