Up and about by 8 ready for my briefing – a bit cloudy but
very little wind. Might brighten up a
bit so Merline and I get a refresh briefing from Mark. He decides to give us a little more
instruction so we go through the flight run-in and landing patterns in a little
more detail, including how to judge the landing area and how to pick a spot to
actually land on (my problem seems to be that I get on a line and take potluck
as to how far I will actually travel along that line before reaching the
ground). It’s less confusing for anyone
who may be following me down but doesn’t make for accuracy. Will need to be very vigilant of my airspace
before trying this but the theory sounds reasonable. We also tried out a few exercises of
slightly more complicated malfunctions and how to attempt to resolve them. Slowly building confidence in our ability to
cope with the unexpected!
Unfortunately the cloud cover is still too low for students
so we watch as some of the accuracy teams do some practice hops from 3,500’.
I spend a lot of time in the cafe, chatting to people and asking about the weather conditions up in the air. Multiple layers of cloud so it's obviously I'm not going to be jumping for a while. Maybe the sun will burn some of it off later.
By mid-afternoon, the sun is quite warm when it's actually visible and suddenly, I'm on the manifest. Ok then, let's go! Merline had other things to do and has left so I'm the only consol student on the lift, with an AFF level 2 behind me. I had asked to do my Level 8 hop and pop to get it over with but this is complex lift with multiple drops so it was deemed easier for me to go to the top. We drop out some accuracy jumpers at 3,500', then some CreW at 8,000'. (Canopy Relative Work - i.e. those people who think it's fun to walk on each other's canopies!!)
A bit more confident with my exit (and still no door monster) so I'm out and stable in short order. A bit more practice with turns and this time I try 180 degrees in each direction. Yep, I can stop and start when I want to, so they are progressing nicely. How about a bit of a track? Umm, where am I first? Where do I want to track to? I can't really see where I want to be as there is cloud cover so I turn my back to the sun and do a short track but am not confident and stop as soon as I feel myself wobbling. Ok, forget that for now, what height am I at? Hard arch on a heading and look for the landing area. There it is, I swear it moves just to confuse me, lol.
Having had another hard opening yesterday, I follow Rich's advice and tilt my head back to watch the canopy open immediately after throwing the pilot chute. It works! My legs are still thrown about as the canopy snatches, but my head doesn't feel like it's getting whipped off my shoulders! And now I understand a bit more about how canopies open, it's fascinating to watch the mushroom slam out into a fully opened canopy. These things really do want to fly. For the first time I realise that my occasional line twists aren't actually twists from the canopy deploying out of its bag, but from me getting swung one way as the canopy opens the other way and then me swinging back around. I swear these huge student canopies are pretty much indifferent to me, lol.
I play with some turns in the holding area and test out how fast I'm moving over the ground upwind and downwind. Doesn't seem to be making much difference in any direction so the winds are obviously fairly light. Better stay fairly close to the landing area then.
A bit more confident with my exit (and still no door monster) so I'm out and stable in short order. A bit more practice with turns and this time I try 180 degrees in each direction. Yep, I can stop and start when I want to, so they are progressing nicely. How about a bit of a track? Umm, where am I first? Where do I want to track to? I can't really see where I want to be as there is cloud cover so I turn my back to the sun and do a short track but am not confident and stop as soon as I feel myself wobbling. Ok, forget that for now, what height am I at? Hard arch on a heading and look for the landing area. There it is, I swear it moves just to confuse me, lol.
Having had another hard opening yesterday, I follow Rich's advice and tilt my head back to watch the canopy open immediately after throwing the pilot chute. It works! My legs are still thrown about as the canopy snatches, but my head doesn't feel like it's getting whipped off my shoulders! And now I understand a bit more about how canopies open, it's fascinating to watch the mushroom slam out into a fully opened canopy. These things really do want to fly. For the first time I realise that my occasional line twists aren't actually twists from the canopy deploying out of its bag, but from me getting swung one way as the canopy opens the other way and then me swinging back around. I swear these huge student canopies are pretty much indifferent to me, lol.
I play with some turns in the holding area and test out how fast I'm moving over the ground upwind and downwind. Doesn't seem to be making much difference in any direction so the winds are obviously fairly light. Better stay fairly close to the landing area then.
An interesting version of a landing pattern ensues, along with the familiar PLF. When will I get the hang of not flaring too early??? I'm slightly off, but not too far and I'm pretty happy as I head towards the minibus.
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