15 mins of tunnel time with Sam and Charlotte and I have definitely learned some new techniques to try. I am still very tense when I'm concentrating which means I have a tendency to 'pop up' the tunnel - I had 9 rounds in the tunnel altogether and the last 2 where I played Tunnel Twister with Charlotte were definitely the best. She moved round the tunnel and touched the wall, then I followed and tried to touch the same place. I was so much more relaxed and was able to turn and adjust height without having to think about it so much. Well, going up was easy enough, getting down again took a bit more effort, lol. I am still very floaty!
I need to find some way of piling up cushions or something so I can practice the coordination of dropping a shoulder and the opposite knee for turns, then dropping a shoulder and the same knee for side-sliding. Forward and back isn't too much of an issue, I have to do that a lot anyway when I bump into the tunnel walls, rofl.
Taking grips will be more challenging. I only tried once and couldn't get low enough to Charlotte so made the mistake of reaching down for the grip and flipped onto my back. Was able to flip back again relatively easily but it was obviously a case of trying to do a little too much all at once.
More tunnel time booked with Kye in March so hopefully I'll remember enough to be able to progress a little more. Won't really have much time to practice in free fall as I'm busy for the next 2 weekends, then the following weekend will be concentrating on hop and pops for the demo course so won't have any free fall time.
Wednesday 19 February 2014
Seville Round 2 - Big Success :-)
So I'm back from Skydive Spain with renewed enthusiasm and having had a lot of fun, despite unusually bad weather there too!
I only got one jump in on my first day due to weather, then no jumping at all for 2 days, followed by 5 great jumps on my last day :-) I also downsized from the Nav 240 I was jumping in December to a Nav 220 and stood up all my landings, so my canopy handling hasn't suffered too much from a 2 month break.
I asked about exiting the plane in the most stable position for a low altitude exit and have now learned how to do a float exit - so easy! Can't believe I was ever nervous of trying to climb out of the plane, lol. After having a couple of goes at it, I was then coaxed into doing a coached FS1 jump with Jacobo for my 3rd jump of the day. After some instructions and practice on the creeper, we had a go at fall rates. And it went surprisingly well. I suspect that tunnel time probably helped as I have done a little work on matching fall rates and learning to go higher and lower in the tunnel, though the techniques are slightly different in free fall. Jacobo videoed it for me and we managed to get it onto my phone SD card so at some point I have to figure out how to get it onto YouTube so I can post a link :-)
I did another couple of solo jumps to practice the techniques but was too tired to do another coached jump, plus it was getting late in the day and it was very cold at altitude so my hands were suffering, despite all the precautions with surgical gloves inside my leather gloves to protect from wind chill.
I will come back in March to do some more coached jumps - it will still be way too cold to go to altitude in the UK, and it's rare that we get above 13,000' anyway, whereas in Seville they always go to 15,000 which gives that bit extra time in freefall for practising new manouevres!
The tunnel scrambles were also great fun, though a little frustrating. It's now very apparent that although I have improved a lot since last time, I am definitely the very weakest link to a team through my lack of ability to turn in place and to match fall rates with several people at once. I ended up with 24lbs of lead on me to keep me down with everyone else, since I am so floaty, despite a very close-fitting 'fast' jumpsuit. I also don't have booties on my suit which apparently will make a difference - time to get some more tunnel coaching since I can't jump in this rubbish weather anyway!
I only got one jump in on my first day due to weather, then no jumping at all for 2 days, followed by 5 great jumps on my last day :-) I also downsized from the Nav 240 I was jumping in December to a Nav 220 and stood up all my landings, so my canopy handling hasn't suffered too much from a 2 month break.
I asked about exiting the plane in the most stable position for a low altitude exit and have now learned how to do a float exit - so easy! Can't believe I was ever nervous of trying to climb out of the plane, lol. After having a couple of goes at it, I was then coaxed into doing a coached FS1 jump with Jacobo for my 3rd jump of the day. After some instructions and practice on the creeper, we had a go at fall rates. And it went surprisingly well. I suspect that tunnel time probably helped as I have done a little work on matching fall rates and learning to go higher and lower in the tunnel, though the techniques are slightly different in free fall. Jacobo videoed it for me and we managed to get it onto my phone SD card so at some point I have to figure out how to get it onto YouTube so I can post a link :-)
I did another couple of solo jumps to practice the techniques but was too tired to do another coached jump, plus it was getting late in the day and it was very cold at altitude so my hands were suffering, despite all the precautions with surgical gloves inside my leather gloves to protect from wind chill.
I will come back in March to do some more coached jumps - it will still be way too cold to go to altitude in the UK, and it's rare that we get above 13,000' anyway, whereas in Seville they always go to 15,000 which gives that bit extra time in freefall for practising new manouevres!
The tunnel scrambles were also great fun, though a little frustrating. It's now very apparent that although I have improved a lot since last time, I am definitely the very weakest link to a team through my lack of ability to turn in place and to match fall rates with several people at once. I ended up with 24lbs of lead on me to keep me down with everyone else, since I am so floaty, despite a very close-fitting 'fast' jumpsuit. I also don't have booties on my suit which apparently will make a difference - time to get some more tunnel coaching since I can't jump in this rubbish weather anyway!
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