I don't have a link to an article, but some of you have probably heard about the incident at Yosemite. Parachuting has been banned at the site, and some Darwin Awards nominees protested by parachuting off El Capitan. A 60 year old stuntwoman jumped, fell, and died. Now granted, she was a retired stuntperson, but in that case, I have to wonder, did both chutes fail? You'd think a former stunt would know enough to pull the reserve cord. None of the reports I've seen or read said anything about the malfunction; they were just focusing on the protest. One of the other jumpers was filmed yelling "I AM NOT A CRIMINAL!" after he landed. Well, there are laws against suicide in CA...
Remember, I'm pulling for you; we're all in this together. ---Red Green
Yeah, I saw the story on the news yesterday.......it would almost be funny if it weren't so tragic. I mean, a bunch of basejumpers get together to protest the ban on jumping off El Capitan, and call in the media to demonstrate how safe it is.......then, with all the cameras rolling, this happens. Whups.......waddaya know, maybe it ISN'T so safe after all...........they really shot themselves in the foot!
Do basejumpers even have time to open a secondary chute? The person who was taping her jump on the segment I saw ( or someone standing nearby ) was counting off the seconds, and, IIRC, he only got up to eleven or so before she hit the ground. Eleven seconds from the top to the bottom!!! That's not much time to have to react to an emergency.......seems like a second chute would be pretty useless, at least off of El Capitan.................
The park authorities now say basejumping off EC will _never_ be allowed, and I think they've got a point.
Actually Base Jumping is a Highly Illegal sport... (anyone Base Jumping off of THe Golden Gate Bridge.. is usually arrested Charged with a Count of Reckless endangerment to self and others, as well as a count of Tresspsssing for the cause of a reckless act.. Total Fine 10,000 big ones and at least 30 days in jail...)
So KIds Don't even think about jumping off the roo with an unbrella! Cotton Hill: stoopid Kids!
Well, ya know, any kind of skydiving that only involves ONE chute is just stupid...........here's a rhetorical query: how is risking your life for a thrill any different than shooting up drugs for the rush?
On Sat, 23 Oct 1999 17:33:27 GMT, [email] (Ray Ricks) wrote:
I believe that only one chute is used in jumping from buildings/bridges/promontories/etc. IIRC, due to the low altitude, if the first one fails, there is not enough time to open the second one.
What everyone in this group is refering to In terms of the Parachuting off of El Capitan is none other than the Exreme (and I do Mean Extreme!) sport of "Base" Jumping
Base is an Appropriate acronym refering to the four most common items that people jump off of... Namely:
Bridge Antenna Skyscraper Earth (most Notably Cliffside faces with long drops Like El Capitan!)
In short a Base Jumper ususally where One (and Only One parachute!) in Base Jumping The reason why the person does NOT have a second or Reserve chute is that according to the laws of Gravity even if One chute were to fail there is really little or no time for a second chute to be deployed.. (or to be fully Deployed!)
In Short the Incident at Yosemite is not Like Skydiving in that In skydiving You have at least 8 to 10 thousand feel to free fall from.. A place Like El Capitan Or Angel Falls In Venezula have only 3000 feet for Base Jumpers...
So where a person freefalling from 8 to 10 thousand feet can pull a cord after a couple of minutes and If it should fail should still have at least 2000 feet or so to grab and yank on the reserve.... Base Jumpers do not have that Luxury... (remember the highest Earth or Cliff Objects have only about 3000 feet of vertical drop.. so even if one were to have a chute on as a reserve.. THe laws of closed ended gravity physics say it takes at least 900 feet for a chute to become fully deployed.. Most Base Jumpers Usually let go of the drogue they are holding onto when they are usually less than 1500 feet from the bottom so in theory it would be highly improbable that a person could grab that second cord and yank if the main failed... So anyway you look at it.. Well SPLAT!
But In the Case of Peggy (god has no mercy on me!) Hill, she jumped out of an aircraft at 8000+ feet and pulled her cord at around 3000 feet.. most likely the chute failed so she still had time to make a grab for the reserve.. (which just be coincidence just failed as well.. The chances of getting struck by lightning are better than a double "catastrophic" Chute failure..unless the person Jumping packed the chute in a way which caused it to fail..
So in the end.. What saved Peggy was that Fall Into a Mud Bog.. (oh sure the Impact speed was the equivalent of having a car going 60+ impacing with her..) but the bog cushioned the impact and hence all she got out of it was a broken back, and a body cast...)