Solo dive exit - Fletch; backloop to go unstable, tracking,
turns.
Scared of this one, a huge amount to remember and to get through. Never been unstable before as always had a
stable exit and maintained it so not looking forward to a backloop. Got the sneaky gen from Lesley and Caroline –
pretend you’re in a swimming pool doing a backloop. Arms up, head back, knees
up – and hard arch once you think you’ve started to flip!
Managed a clear stable exit (no hesitation this time)
but started thinking about the backloop too soon so went unstable and had to
recover it. Got level and did the
backloop and got stable again – do NOT like that, lol.
Checked altitude and started the tracking but felt
somewhat unstable so went back to hard arch.
Tried again but only managed a couple of seconds before running out of height, so no time for turns.
Landed mostly by myself, though had a bit of help on the
radio to get me on the right approach and landed in the green. Flared a bit too early and tumbled. Couldn’t gather canopy properly, so bundled
it up, all a bit of a mess. Disappointed I’d failed to get everything done, but
it’s quite early in the day so should have a chance to redo this one.
Are we detecting a theme here? Fletch was happy with what I’d managed,
especially demonstrating the recovery from instability. And a very good solo dive exit! Arching still
an issue, plus need to keep my knees together more but generally a good effort,
keeping on heading. Need to be a bit
more positive with the tracking in order to pass level 7. OMG! Level 7! I’m nearly there….!!
Felt I had to apologise to the packers for the state of
my canopy, though I’m sure they’ve seen worse.
It was definitely by far the worst state I’d brought a canopy back,
though I hadn’t fallen through the lines or anything. It was probably a relatively simple job for
them, though I felt very guilty at the heaped mess!
It also didn’t help that as we were leaving the minibus
and walking to the packing shed, one of the nutter canopy fliers (we spend all
our time learning to check if the canopy is big and rectangular and free from
damage – why on earth would you then want someone to walk on it???) commented
that I really needed to collect my canopy more quickly or land closer to the
bus, as they were waiting ages for me and they were on a training
programme. I apologised, then he asked
how many jumps I’d done. When I said 6,
he looked a bit startled, then mumbled something about good luck with the rest
and went away.
Later, when I asked Rich about dz etiquette, he told me
he thought the guy was an idiot (or words to that effect) and told me I should
take as much time as I needed and land where I was safe. He also recommended I ask Fletch what he
thought. I checked with Fletch about the
etiquette and his opinion was that I should have told the person concerned to
&*%^ off. Landing safely is my only
priority at this stage – if they really wanted to race back, they could
organise their own transport or have multiple rigs and pay packers, to allow
them to manifest more quickly. So I felt a bit better after that.
So now all I have to worry about is how to fit in all
the bits I didn’t manage on level 6 so I can pass level 7!!
And I had plenty of time to think about it as AFF students were put on weather hold for several hours as the winds had picked up!
No comments:
Post a Comment