I drop off my rig at the packing shed, pick up the one I'd jumped previously and meander back to manifest. *You're on again, hurry up!*. Woah, what? I've just done 2 back-to-back, I'm not ready. *Well, get ready, you've got a rig in your hand, what more do you need? Get on up there!* Umm, ok, might as well rattle through these consols, each one is a step closer to my A licence and it's all going well so far :-)
On the plane, I work out what I might practice this time. I haven't done much except turns so far so maybe a bit more tracking. And I still haven't really tried out my side slides either. Or my de-arching to slow my descent. Or moving forwards and backwards. Ok, lots to think about, maybe I'll try side slides this time.
Out I go, stable, nice heading, for the first time I actually see the plane above me. Ok, let's turn around and see where we are. Umm, where's the ground? All I can see is cloud! Not a very happy bunny :-( I know I've turned around downwind as the plane would have been heading into wind so I'm facing the landing area. I tentatively try a couple of side slides in each direction but it's difficult to tell if anything is happening. And every time I look down, I still can't see the ground. I decide to turn back 180 degrees so at least I'm facing into wind and won't lose too much ground if the winds have picked up. Uh oh, here comes the cloud. Yuk. And ouch! What are these needles in my face? It must be raining! Great, 120mph and I'm catching rain drops on my skin and it feels like I'm getting sand-blasted. I try to shield my face with my hands, keeping my elbows out for some stability. Not liking this one bit! I'm still quite high when I drop below the clouds so I can see where I am when I deploy. Although I am a little confused when I get to my holding area and try to work out which way the wind is going. Either I misunderstood the directions on the ground, or it has changed direction. Ok, find the wind sock and check - somewhat difficult as the wind sock is bouncing around all over the place. Ok, take an average, you can trim as you come in. I turn onto my downwind leg and find I am going much too fast and will overshoot by some distance so I start trying to 'S' off the extra. I arrive at the far side of the landing area and turn in - so far so good, I'm in line with the grass! I'm dropping lower and trimming the canopy and staying on target. Cool, I'll land on the grass twice in a row. Except I'm a bit low for turns now so need to keep my hands up. Ok, I can do that. Wait! What's happening?? I'm being pushed sideways! I'm going to land in the field after all! How did that happen?? And now I'm going faster and swinging under the canopy and this is looking like another splat landing..... Sure enough, I flare a little too high and am travelling a little fast as my feet touch the ground and yet another PLF for the log book....
I am confused and a bit disappointed. It all seemed to be going so well, what happened?? I trudge back to the bus and am met by Mark and Chris M who don't seem too impressed. *What on earth was going on there then?* I don't know, I think it must have been a gust. *Really? A gust? Did anyone else feel a gust?* Other heads on the bus are shaking and there are a couple of laughs. Now I'm even more confused. And Chris tells me Mark will debrief me about my landing when I've dropped my kit off. Uh oh, this is getting worse by the minute. I've obviously done something wrong but have no clue what it is. I thought everything was going quite well until the last bit but the implication is that I've royally screwed up :-(
I drop off my kit and bump into Rich in the packing shed. *What were you doing? You were all over the place*. I was doing my S turns so I didn't go too far downwind. *That might have been what you thought you were doing but it's not what it looked like from the ground* Oh heck, I guess I'm really in trouble now. I've obviously messed up the approach as well as the landing. Best go and get the debrief aka dressing-down over with :-(
Mark is looking somewhat concerned as we head to the debrief and my heart sinks even further. This is really not looking good. He gets out the big map and asks me what I thought my landing looked like. I explained what I was trying to do and why, and how it all seemed to go wrong at the last minute. At which point he explained it had been going wrong significantly longer than that! I had actually approached on the downwind leg over the landing area instead of to one side of it. That might not have been quite so bad, but then I had started adding in S turns, and hence constantly changing direction, which was very confusing for people approaching the landing area correctly heading into wind.
And then I had been lined up correctly for my final approach but had stopped trimming into the wind, so the edge of my parachute had been pushed around by the wind and started turning me downwind. As I failed to counter that turn, I was being pushed further and further around into a downwind landing, which was also accelerating my pace. Hence why I had suddenly ended up quite a long way down the field after looking like I was going to land neatly in the grass!
We discussed the difference between a low level turn and a trim turn and established that whilst low aggressive turns are definitely very dangerous, gentle trim turns to stay heading into wind or to avoid hazards are perfectly ok, almost right up to the flare. So long as the canopy stays level and flat, rather than tilted or curved, gentle steering is not only acceptable, but often necessary in stronger winds. Ok, so that dealt with veering off course into the field.
Then we looked at acceptable approach patterns. And as he drew in my approach over the landing area on the board, it became very obvious just how much I had messed up :-( How could I have been so stupid?! Luckily it takes me a long time to get down so most people had already landed, but to fly against the pattern right over the landing area is a pretty cardinal sin. He was very gentle about it but I was left in no doubt whatsoever that what I had done was totally unacceptable.
I headed back to the tent feeling utterly miserable. What on earth did I think I was doing trying to be a skydiver, when I can't even remember basic rules of landing patterns? I'd already established I didn't like clouds, now I also don't like rain and I didn't even have the common sense to keep my canopy trimmed into wind when things were actually going ok, so messed that up too.
Needless to say, I didn't feel like celebrating with the Speed 8 teams so I grabbed a snack and went to bed for a nap. In the event, I didn't wake up again until the following morning. It was hammering down with rain and it didn't seem like there would be much point in getting up for an 8:15 briefing so I stayed snuggled up in my nest. Eventually, the rain eased and I heard the tannoy calling for AFF and consol students to come and get their briefing. Oops, that'll be me then. How fast can I get up and dressed and over to the briefing shed....???
No comments:
Post a Comment