Tunnel time with Mayhem lived up to the team name again - still no larger than 4-way groups though most people are looking a lot more stable now. Had great fun practising swooping on Chris, though I was a bit hesitant to really put the speed on at first. He insisted that Jeff and I wound it up so we actually got some pretty fast dives in. Despite wearing 8lbs of lead, I still found the wind speed quite floaty so a quick flare was enough to put the brakes on very rapidly for me :-)
The drills were useful in improving individual skills and I'm getting much better at flying my slot strongly. I can actually counter some of the combat docking now, though I'm hoping that won't actually be so necessary in the air next season, lol.
Next session for Mayhem will be towards the end of January - with a bit of luck, I'll have my camper by then so it won't be such a slog to get to Bedford as I can go up earlier and chill out in comfort, then stay overnight instead of fighting roadworks and road closures all the way home again!
Aeronauts coached session with Tarn was hard work and we definitely made some massive improvements as a team. We gradually built up the wind speed and I am tunnel-fit enough to have been able to keep my arch on right to the end of the hour (4 x 15 min sessions spread over a few hours). That did mean I had to keep popping back up to stay on level with the guys though, which is something I have to work on. I'm still experimenting with the amount of lead that I need to wear - since I'm pretty flexible, it looks like I can get away with less than I thought, which is great news for my back! The last session did end up with me cradling the weight belt like a pregnancy bump to ease my back when we weren't actually flying...!!
I'm currently flying Point but now that Niels has declared he definitely won't make it to the POPS meet in Cahors, I think I'd like to go back to IC for that competition and have whoever substitutes take Point. Have suggested it to Jeff as the two of us could practice IC/OC together at 4-way Friday sessions to see if it works for us.
Thursday 17 December 2015
Saturday 5 December 2015
Free-flying definitely not my strong point ;-)
So after a total of 2 hours coached tunnel time, my position in sit-fly has improved dramatically, but I'm still not stable by myself for more than a few seconds. I really need to get into the air to practice properly but the UK weather really isn't playing ball with that - currently gale force winds howling around on the first weekend I've had free in a while. And it's cold...... I have a baggy winter FS suit for fitting lots of thermals underneath but not sure how I'm going to attempt any kind of FF suit for these conditions. My super-cheap 10th anniversary tunnel time is all used up and Paul is in Dubai until 14th December for the FAI World Air Games so time to get back to FS for a bit.
Had a couple of 4-way sessions with the new line-up for Aeronauts (Niels has now replaced Rod) which proved somewhat challenging in terms of sorting wind speeds and fall rates. We had forgotten to note down our wind speed after the previous session so went with the recommendation of the tunnel rat at 68%. I was first in and despite wearing lead, instantly popped up high enough to get my feet stuck in the top of the doorway, lol. The others didn't fare much better so we had the speed dropped down a bit but it was still rather hit and miss as to who was popping up and who was sinking down to the net, partly due to differences in body positions and flying techniques. By the end of the first session, at the break we decided that I would swap weight belts with Niels so he had more lead and I would arch more. That improved things quite a bit though Jonathan still struggled to get off the net several times. On watching the videos, we decided that we could really do with some formal coaching. We had improved over the sessions but there are probably lots of things we can do to fly better together as a team. Since Tarn was coaching another team, I asked her if she had availability for our next session - luckily she does, so on Saturday we have 4 sessions with a break between each to attempt to make some decent progress. And somewhat optimistically, we have agreed to check the weather forecast to see if we can get in the air on the Sunday!!
In the meantime, having watched the aptly named Mayhem-ites creating havoc in the tunnel at Bedford last month, I am now fully healed so it's time to join in the carnage :-) They didn't actually manage to get any further than 4-way groups last time, so there will be more focus on individual skills this time, then hopefully build up to 6- and 8- way sessions. The idea is to improve everyone's flying skills so that when we build the Speed 8, each person joining is under control and is not "combat docking" and threatening to take the whole team out :-D
Had a couple of 4-way sessions with the new line-up for Aeronauts (Niels has now replaced Rod) which proved somewhat challenging in terms of sorting wind speeds and fall rates. We had forgotten to note down our wind speed after the previous session so went with the recommendation of the tunnel rat at 68%. I was first in and despite wearing lead, instantly popped up high enough to get my feet stuck in the top of the doorway, lol. The others didn't fare much better so we had the speed dropped down a bit but it was still rather hit and miss as to who was popping up and who was sinking down to the net, partly due to differences in body positions and flying techniques. By the end of the first session, at the break we decided that I would swap weight belts with Niels so he had more lead and I would arch more. That improved things quite a bit though Jonathan still struggled to get off the net several times. On watching the videos, we decided that we could really do with some formal coaching. We had improved over the sessions but there are probably lots of things we can do to fly better together as a team. Since Tarn was coaching another team, I asked her if she had availability for our next session - luckily she does, so on Saturday we have 4 sessions with a break between each to attempt to make some decent progress. And somewhat optimistically, we have agreed to check the weather forecast to see if we can get in the air on the Sunday!!
In the meantime, having watched the aptly named Mayhem-ites creating havoc in the tunnel at Bedford last month, I am now fully healed so it's time to join in the carnage :-) They didn't actually manage to get any further than 4-way groups last time, so there will be more focus on individual skills this time, then hopefully build up to 6- and 8- way sessions. The idea is to improve everyone's flying skills so that when we build the Speed 8, each person joining is under control and is not "combat docking" and threatening to take the whole team out :-D
Wednesday 4 November 2015
Attempting to Sit fly!
A car accident (ironically on the way to a skydiving training session) has kept me out of the sky for the time being and it will probably be another couple of weeks before I am fit enough to be confident that I can flare properly and can do all my EPs if needed. Nothing major, the x-rays showed I have strong bones with no hairline fractures, but the bruising means my elbow occasionally screams "Ow!" at me if I overdo it, which is not really something that I want to experience in the air or on final!!
I've also skipped FS training for the time being as I don't want anyone to be hanging off my right arm just yet. Not really an issue as Point in the randoms so I'll be back training with Aeronauts at the end of the month, but am staying out of the 8-way shenanigans this week :-)
Instead, I am focusing on the free-flying, or in my case, otherwise known as 'stranded beetle' flying :-p After a further 30 mins at Basingstoke tunnel on Monday and 20 mins today, we have got the wind speed up to around 80% and I'm learning how to self-correct my back-fly. I'm finding it more difficult to be stable in back-fly than in sit, though Paul says that is normal. I've had a few attempts at turning by myself on the net - it was fine at 75% and then suddenly got a lot more dramatic when the wind speed was turned up a few notches, ha ha. I did a bit of flying around the tunnel though I struggle with keeping my left knee out (partly due to an inherent twist in my spine) which then means I either side slide or turn, depending on what else is going on with my arms and torso. I also managed to fly backwards (legs out, arms in) but struggled with forwards (legs in, arms out) as I got stuck on the net. The video shows that I'm not actually stretching my arms back nearly as much as I think I am either, as I'm allowing the wind to push them upwards off the net.
Discovered that my default of a stable belly-to-earth position when things go wrong really really doesn't work at free-fly windspeeds, lol. Feels weird to deliberately flip onto my back but pulling my arms and legs in is very effective at dropping me back to the net if it's all going pear-shaped.
Paul hasn't yet let go of me in sit-fly but we did a lot of practice of the position and did exercises where we matched hands and brought the arms in and out, whilst maintaining a good posture (all with Paul standing on my feet on the net!). He did turn the wind speed up and steer me around the tunnel a bit during our last couple of rotations and I was mostly able to keep my balance - the corrections feel easier than in back-fly but that's probably because he has hold of my knees so I'm only really having to be concerned with my arms and torso.
I've got a lot better at walking in the tunnel - it's going to be relatively easy to walk at FS wind speeds now I can do it at free-fly speeds, lol.
Got a week's break now before my next session, so will be using a wall for support and attempting to hold the sit position to get my quads stronger in the meantime.
And I will be 'supervising' Mayhem's 8-way efforts at Bedford tunnel from the comfort of the viewing area tomorrow :-)
I've also skipped FS training for the time being as I don't want anyone to be hanging off my right arm just yet. Not really an issue as Point in the randoms so I'll be back training with Aeronauts at the end of the month, but am staying out of the 8-way shenanigans this week :-)
Instead, I am focusing on the free-flying, or in my case, otherwise known as 'stranded beetle' flying :-p After a further 30 mins at Basingstoke tunnel on Monday and 20 mins today, we have got the wind speed up to around 80% and I'm learning how to self-correct my back-fly. I'm finding it more difficult to be stable in back-fly than in sit, though Paul says that is normal. I've had a few attempts at turning by myself on the net - it was fine at 75% and then suddenly got a lot more dramatic when the wind speed was turned up a few notches, ha ha. I did a bit of flying around the tunnel though I struggle with keeping my left knee out (partly due to an inherent twist in my spine) which then means I either side slide or turn, depending on what else is going on with my arms and torso. I also managed to fly backwards (legs out, arms in) but struggled with forwards (legs in, arms out) as I got stuck on the net. The video shows that I'm not actually stretching my arms back nearly as much as I think I am either, as I'm allowing the wind to push them upwards off the net.
Discovered that my default of a stable belly-to-earth position when things go wrong really really doesn't work at free-fly windspeeds, lol. Feels weird to deliberately flip onto my back but pulling my arms and legs in is very effective at dropping me back to the net if it's all going pear-shaped.
Paul hasn't yet let go of me in sit-fly but we did a lot of practice of the position and did exercises where we matched hands and brought the arms in and out, whilst maintaining a good posture (all with Paul standing on my feet on the net!). He did turn the wind speed up and steer me around the tunnel a bit during our last couple of rotations and I was mostly able to keep my balance - the corrections feel easier than in back-fly but that's probably because he has hold of my knees so I'm only really having to be concerned with my arms and torso.
I've got a lot better at walking in the tunnel - it's going to be relatively easy to walk at FS wind speeds now I can do it at free-fly speeds, lol.
Got a week's break now before my next session, so will be using a wall for support and attempting to hold the sit position to get my quads stronger in the meantime.
And I will be 'supervising' Mayhem's 8-way efforts at Bedford tunnel from the comfort of the viewing area tomorrow :-)
Monday 26 October 2015
Aeronauts
So the new Aeronauts team of Jeff Chandler, Rod Stone, Jonathan Smith and me finally got together for the first time and had a tunnel session.
We had half agreed on who would fly which slot beforehand but that got changed around on the day, and it may change again, lol. But for now, I am flying Point which means I have to try and remember to stay out of the middle of the tunnel !! (too used to being IC or OC, lol).
We were pretty rubbish to start with, but improved a little over the first session and were starting to get it sorted in the second round, then it all went a bit pear-shaped again by the end. I may end up nabbing some of those solo flights back from free-flying and use them on some one-to-one FS coaching instead! I am not bad at flying my slot, but I am not slick either and I do have a tendency to move about rather than staying in one place. Will see how the next session in November goes. The current plan is to buy an hour of tunnel time each at the AGM in January so we will have 4 hours of tunnel for training, then probably around 100 jumps together, plus competitions every month from May to August, including the French POPS meet in Cahors, a couple of the UKSLs, the World POPS meet in Germany and the UK Nationals.
Along with the training for Speed 8 and the Dynamic 6 sessions, and being an FS coach for LPS, it's going to be a busy year!!
We had half agreed on who would fly which slot beforehand but that got changed around on the day, and it may change again, lol. But for now, I am flying Point which means I have to try and remember to stay out of the middle of the tunnel !! (too used to being IC or OC, lol).
We were pretty rubbish to start with, but improved a little over the first session and were starting to get it sorted in the second round, then it all went a bit pear-shaped again by the end. I may end up nabbing some of those solo flights back from free-flying and use them on some one-to-one FS coaching instead! I am not bad at flying my slot, but I am not slick either and I do have a tendency to move about rather than staying in one place. Will see how the next session in November goes. The current plan is to buy an hour of tunnel time each at the AGM in January so we will have 4 hours of tunnel for training, then probably around 100 jumps together, plus competitions every month from May to August, including the French POPS meet in Cahors, a couple of the UKSLs, the World POPS meet in Germany and the UK Nationals.
Along with the training for Speed 8 and the Dynamic 6 sessions, and being an FS coach for LPS, it's going to be a busy year!!
Over to the dark side....
So Airkix had a birthday sale of tunnel time - about 1/3 of the usual cost - so I bought 2 hours of solo time for just under £400. And have decided to use it to try free-flying so I can get my FF1 !
Had my first session with Paul Capsey, just 10 minutes to start with, and to my surprise and delight, actually managed to fly around the tunnel a bit on my back before the end of the session! It's quite tricky keeping my legs positioned correctly, I found it easier to get my arms in position and then just forget about them, with my focus purely on keeping my legs strong. That made it easier to correct turns and to stay more stable. We had a little play at the end with walking backwards and forwards in the tunnel at high wind speed - harder than it sounds but great fun :-)
So I have the rest of my intervals booked throughout November and I'm hoping that I should easily be able to progress through to sit-fly and moving myself around the tunnel well enough to have some practice in the air on my own and then aim to have my FF1 signed off. Which will resolve a lot of niggles at various dropzones and will mean more fun when I end up on solo jumps :-)
Had my first session with Paul Capsey, just 10 minutes to start with, and to my surprise and delight, actually managed to fly around the tunnel a bit on my back before the end of the session! It's quite tricky keeping my legs positioned correctly, I found it easier to get my arms in position and then just forget about them, with my focus purely on keeping my legs strong. That made it easier to correct turns and to stay more stable. We had a little play at the end with walking backwards and forwards in the tunnel at high wind speed - harder than it sounds but great fun :-)
So I have the rest of my intervals booked throughout November and I'm hoping that I should easily be able to progress through to sit-fly and moving myself around the tunnel well enough to have some practice in the air on my own and then aim to have my FF1 signed off. Which will resolve a lot of niggles at various dropzones and will mean more fun when I end up on solo jumps :-)
Sunday 11 October 2015
Next steps
Another weekend at a dropzone, this time at LPS. Only managed 2 jumps in the end, partly due to weather, partly due to ATC holds and partly due to not being very bothered, lol.
Gary has made me a very pretty new purple weight belt for the tunnel - it holds about 12.5lbs of lead so should be enough for the training I'll be doing with Jeff and the others. It's very comfortable as he has put skinny pockets with little pouches (1.25lbs of lead each) rather than the big 2lb bags in my other belt which tend to be a bit lumpy. I actually ended up wearing it today as I lent my other belt to an AFF student who is very light and doesn't arch well (nightmare for Marie-Anne, lol) - it will be fine for the tunnel but it's a bit big for my waist with some of the lead taken out and tends to slip around a bit. Gary will make me some extension clips for the other one so I can fit it on when I'm wearing lots of layers over the winter (and to take account of the fact I'm already at winter weight at the end of the summer - oops!)
And I'm starting my FS Coach rating training with Marie-Anne. I've re-read the manual and I'll be briefing her on a dive next week and hopefully taking her as my 'student' on a jump. Gary will give me my "Methods of Instruction" brief and we should be good to go :-)
My next downsize is imminent as Gary has my rig and will be putting a Pilot 168 into it for me next week. Finally a 1:1 wingloading (well, when I'm wearing a weightbelt anyway, ha ha). I absolutely love the Silhouette so it's going to be a bit strange to jump something else. Funny how I got used to grabbing any old student rig, from a Manta 288 down to a Nav 240 and everything in between, but now that I've put over 100 jumps on the Silhouette, I'm a bit nervous of jumping anything else :-p
Gary has made me a very pretty new purple weight belt for the tunnel - it holds about 12.5lbs of lead so should be enough for the training I'll be doing with Jeff and the others. It's very comfortable as he has put skinny pockets with little pouches (1.25lbs of lead each) rather than the big 2lb bags in my other belt which tend to be a bit lumpy. I actually ended up wearing it today as I lent my other belt to an AFF student who is very light and doesn't arch well (nightmare for Marie-Anne, lol) - it will be fine for the tunnel but it's a bit big for my waist with some of the lead taken out and tends to slip around a bit. Gary will make me some extension clips for the other one so I can fit it on when I'm wearing lots of layers over the winter (and to take account of the fact I'm already at winter weight at the end of the summer - oops!)
And I'm starting my FS Coach rating training with Marie-Anne. I've re-read the manual and I'll be briefing her on a dive next week and hopefully taking her as my 'student' on a jump. Gary will give me my "Methods of Instruction" brief and we should be good to go :-)
My next downsize is imminent as Gary has my rig and will be putting a Pilot 168 into it for me next week. Finally a 1:1 wingloading (well, when I'm wearing a weightbelt anyway, ha ha). I absolutely love the Silhouette so it's going to be a bit strange to jump something else. Funny how I got used to grabbing any old student rig, from a Manta 288 down to a Nav 240 and everything in between, but now that I've put over 100 jumps on the Silhouette, I'm a bit nervous of jumping anything else :-p
Friday 9 October 2015
Winning 3 way scrambles, 200th and C licence :-)
Wow, definitely got the mojo back :-)
Ended up on a 3-way team with Graham and Andrew and we all had similar fall rates. Graham was the 'expert', I was the 'intermediate' and Andrew was the 'relative newbie', lol. And we flew incredibly well together. We funnelled one exit through having the wrong grips (oops!) and I had a funky exit when we were unlinked but all in the door together, but we still managed 49 points over the 4 rounds and topped the table :-)
I finished the scrambles on 199 jumps, so most people were more than happy to stay on for another lift to do my 200th with me. With a couple of substitutions for people who had to leave, we ended up with a 15 way attempt. Blan suggested a proper formation instead of a speed star, so we ended up with a 5-way base and attempted 2-way loops. Was difficult to tell without external camera but I think we ended up with 12 or 13 people in the formation and Graham and Justin got some great inside footage. A couple of the guys did some editing afterward so I have some great video of both the scrambles and my C-licence qualification jump :-)
3-way Scrambles video
200th jump video
We attempted the FS progression day but the spell of decent weather finally gave up on us and after a few hours of dirt-diving and general bored-skydiver shenanigans, we called it and went to the pub for lunch.
In the meantime, I tried on another rig that was for sale but it was still too long in the body for me, plus it had a 150 in it and would only take a Pulse 170 and perhaps one or two other less well-known low-pack volume canopies. I've had enough of trying to cram canopies into D-bags that are too small so I'll investigate what Gary has and hold out for a proper rig that will comfortably take a 170.
Ended up on a 3-way team with Graham and Andrew and we all had similar fall rates. Graham was the 'expert', I was the 'intermediate' and Andrew was the 'relative newbie', lol. And we flew incredibly well together. We funnelled one exit through having the wrong grips (oops!) and I had a funky exit when we were unlinked but all in the door together, but we still managed 49 points over the 4 rounds and topped the table :-)
I finished the scrambles on 199 jumps, so most people were more than happy to stay on for another lift to do my 200th with me. With a couple of substitutions for people who had to leave, we ended up with a 15 way attempt. Blan suggested a proper formation instead of a speed star, so we ended up with a 5-way base and attempted 2-way loops. Was difficult to tell without external camera but I think we ended up with 12 or 13 people in the formation and Graham and Justin got some great inside footage. A couple of the guys did some editing afterward so I have some great video of both the scrambles and my C-licence qualification jump :-)
3-way Scrambles video
200th jump video
We attempted the FS progression day but the spell of decent weather finally gave up on us and after a few hours of dirt-diving and general bored-skydiver shenanigans, we called it and went to the pub for lunch.
In the meantime, I tried on another rig that was for sale but it was still too long in the body for me, plus it had a 150 in it and would only take a Pulse 170 and perhaps one or two other less well-known low-pack volume canopies. I've had enough of trying to cram canopies into D-bags that are too small so I'll investigate what Gary has and hold out for a proper rig that will comfortably take a 170.
Monday 28 September 2015
Improved weather and another competition
Have managed a fair amount of jumping, especially with some decent weather during the week, along with some more training with Mayhem for the Speed 8 Nationals. We competed in 6 rounds over the weekend, and the training paid off. Despite one 'bust' from a combat dock that broke up the entire formation, we came third and hence were Bronze medallists! I could get used to this!
Very steep learning curve again - since we are a large group of flat flyers, we are generally first out of the plane. Since I was the most familiar with the host dz, and was close to the door, that meant I was doing the spotting for each of our jumps. In itself that wasn't an issue, but it did bring up some challenges. Like, the pilot not going up to the altitude we were expecting so our cameraman wasn't ready when the red light went on (he was able to get ready quickly enough that I didn't have to send the plane around again). And dealing with random solo and 2-way flyers who don't have much experience and who we have no control over, as they will be following us out. At least I can now manage the Caravan door by myself :-D
And I'm still on target to complete my C licence before the end of the season. I'm doing a fun FS 3-way scrambles next weekend plus an FS progression day during the week, and have more big way training at the end of the month so that should be enough to get me to my 200th jump :-) :-)
I'm now much more excited about continuing to jump next year, as I have been invited to go with a team to France in May and to Germany in August and we are looking at doing some moderately serious training in order to stand a chance of being on the podium there too. I already have more Dynamic 6 way tunnel time booked, and will now be adding 4-way and 8-way sessions over the winter.
Not really planning to jump over the winter, it was way too cold last year and I haven't got any plans to head to Spain or Portugal for a bit of warmer weather, especially if I'm going to be heading abroad a couple of times next year already. Although I still quite fancy beach jumps, having missed out on the Jersey boogie this year.
Very steep learning curve again - since we are a large group of flat flyers, we are generally first out of the plane. Since I was the most familiar with the host dz, and was close to the door, that meant I was doing the spotting for each of our jumps. In itself that wasn't an issue, but it did bring up some challenges. Like, the pilot not going up to the altitude we were expecting so our cameraman wasn't ready when the red light went on (he was able to get ready quickly enough that I didn't have to send the plane around again). And dealing with random solo and 2-way flyers who don't have much experience and who we have no control over, as they will be following us out. At least I can now manage the Caravan door by myself :-D
And I'm still on target to complete my C licence before the end of the season. I'm doing a fun FS 3-way scrambles next weekend plus an FS progression day during the week, and have more big way training at the end of the month so that should be enough to get me to my 200th jump :-) :-)
I'm now much more excited about continuing to jump next year, as I have been invited to go with a team to France in May and to Germany in August and we are looking at doing some moderately serious training in order to stand a chance of being on the podium there too. I already have more Dynamic 6 way tunnel time booked, and will now be adding 4-way and 8-way sessions over the winter.
Not really planning to jump over the winter, it was way too cold last year and I haven't got any plans to head to Spain or Portugal for a bit of warmer weather, especially if I'm going to be heading abroad a couple of times next year already. Although I still quite fancy beach jumps, having missed out on the Jersey boogie this year.
Saturday 5 September 2015
More crappy weather so back to the tunnel :-)
More Dynamic 6-way with Brian Cumming and some more new moves :-) Great fun as usual, and the time shot by. I'm just about managing to remember what actions go with the names, lol. More Weaves, Do-Si-Do, Washing Machines and Goldfish bowls were joined by Diagonal Swaps, Spinning Plates (which might be renamed Chinook, lol) and some creative ideas that haven't quite made it to actual moves with names :-P
The wind speed in the tunnel was set at average to start with but even once we had six of us in there, I was struggling a bit without lead. We dropped the speed a bit for the next session but that turned out to be a bit low for a couple of the fast fallers. 2 of the guys put lead on though the videos indicated that was more because they can't arch than because they needed extra ballast, ha ha. We compromised and turned the wind speed up a notch and I was happy to continue without a weight belt. It helps being bendy :-)
This was an old session:
Dynamic 6 way July 2015
Do-Si-Do, Washing Machine, Goldfish Bowl and Weave
I'm the one with purple grips, mostly opposite the girl with pink on her jumpsuit :-)
The wind speed in the tunnel was set at average to start with but even once we had six of us in there, I was struggling a bit without lead. We dropped the speed a bit for the next session but that turned out to be a bit low for a couple of the fast fallers. 2 of the guys put lead on though the videos indicated that was more because they can't arch than because they needed extra ballast, ha ha. We compromised and turned the wind speed up a notch and I was happy to continue without a weight belt. It helps being bendy :-)
This was an old session:
Dynamic 6 way July 2015
Do-Si-Do, Washing Machine, Goldfish Bowl and Weave
I'm the one with purple grips, mostly opposite the girl with pink on her jumpsuit :-)
Sunday 23 August 2015
More big way training
Managed to squeeze in a few jumps before the rain arrived - it's definitely all about the exit for me at the moment :-D First attempt I was a bit slow out of the door but dived down to the base pretty quickly, arriving first as the other member of the base had a 'floating' collision as they left the plane. More practice meant I learned what it was like to lean on the floaters and just fall out as they left - not my most elegant of exits but much quicker. And I can really get some power in my dives when I straighten my legs. In fact, when I think they are straight, the videos prove they rarely are, so with more practice, I should be able to whack on some serious speed :-)
The 'slamming the brakes on' technique that Jeff coached me on worked brilliantly - very very clear on the GoPro video from within the formation :-) I'm tearing in at a 45 degree angle, then just suddenly bam! I've stopped, checked my relative fall rate, then come in for the dock. Was still a little far out when stopping, but my coaches are happy that I've got the technique and just need to refine it. In time, I will be more confident in putting the brakes on closer to the formation, but for now, I'm more than happy than I'm not crashing in and am just flying my slot and gently taking grips. Phil actually teased me because I was so gentle, I literally just picked up his fingertips instead of his wrist :-D
Found some more flat flyers who might be able to hook up for some practice jumps at LPS or Hinton so that's great. I checked out the stats on the FS 4-way Nationals when I got in last night and the team I was going to join is struggling (a 2 point average over 7 rounds!) so I guess they didn't get their exits sorted after all. Was definitely the right decision not to link up with the scratch team!!
The 'slamming the brakes on' technique that Jeff coached me on worked brilliantly - very very clear on the GoPro video from within the formation :-) I'm tearing in at a 45 degree angle, then just suddenly bam! I've stopped, checked my relative fall rate, then come in for the dock. Was still a little far out when stopping, but my coaches are happy that I've got the technique and just need to refine it. In time, I will be more confident in putting the brakes on closer to the formation, but for now, I'm more than happy than I'm not crashing in and am just flying my slot and gently taking grips. Phil actually teased me because I was so gentle, I literally just picked up his fingertips instead of his wrist :-D
Found some more flat flyers who might be able to hook up for some practice jumps at LPS or Hinton so that's great. I checked out the stats on the FS 4-way Nationals when I got in last night and the team I was going to join is struggling (a 2 point average over 7 rounds!) so I guess they didn't get their exits sorted after all. Was definitely the right decision not to link up with the scratch team!!
Thursday 20 August 2015
My first medal!
Somewhat unexpected but a delightful surprise! We came second and so I had my first experience of standing on a skydiving podium :-)
Turns out our newest exit works ok, though I don't really think it will be quick enough for the Nationals. I have to float back up a long way to meet the second person out and although that isn't slowing down the build of the overall formation, I think it may be more of an issue if we get everyone else out more quickly than we have been doing.
Jeff Chandler was kind enough to give me and one of the other members of our team some coaching on exits the following day (aided by a couple more members) and we improved our formation build massively, with 4 of us getting together on the hill. If we can manage that in our next competition, that would be awesome :-)
The 4-way isn't happening now, they've found someone more experienced than me which is fair enough. I was offered a place on a scratch team but having never met any of them, let alone jumped with them, I'm not keen on spending several hundred pounds on what could end up as a series of zoo dives! It's a long way to travel, there's an entry fee as well as 8 rounds, plus camera flyer fees. Add in training jumps the day before, food, accommodation and beer and we're getting into figures that would be better spent on a few days jumping in Spain or Portugal, lol.
So it's back to the original plan for this weekend of doing two days of big way training, hopefully with more multi-plane loads, though the weather forecast is not looking great. Saturday might work, Sunday is currently looking like a washout. We shall see - last weekend's "cloudy all day" ended up with me having a sunburnt peeling nose and several jumps under blue skies :-)
Turns out our newest exit works ok, though I don't really think it will be quick enough for the Nationals. I have to float back up a long way to meet the second person out and although that isn't slowing down the build of the overall formation, I think it may be more of an issue if we get everyone else out more quickly than we have been doing.
Jeff Chandler was kind enough to give me and one of the other members of our team some coaching on exits the following day (aided by a couple more members) and we improved our formation build massively, with 4 of us getting together on the hill. If we can manage that in our next competition, that would be awesome :-)
The 4-way isn't happening now, they've found someone more experienced than me which is fair enough. I was offered a place on a scratch team but having never met any of them, let alone jumped with them, I'm not keen on spending several hundred pounds on what could end up as a series of zoo dives! It's a long way to travel, there's an entry fee as well as 8 rounds, plus camera flyer fees. Add in training jumps the day before, food, accommodation and beer and we're getting into figures that would be better spent on a few days jumping in Spain or Portugal, lol.
So it's back to the original plan for this weekend of doing two days of big way training, hopefully with more multi-plane loads, though the weather forecast is not looking great. Saturday might work, Sunday is currently looking like a washout. We shall see - last weekend's "cloudy all day" ended up with me having a sunburnt peeling nose and several jumps under blue skies :-)
Friday 14 August 2015
Speed 8 - Mayhem
After the second big way weekend, I got chatting with some of the guys and some of them are part of a pool of jumpers who form Speed 8 team Mayhem. The team leader invited me to join them for their next training session in August as a couple of the guys were out injured and he wasn't sure how many people he could get together in order to train for their next competition.
In the end, we had 6 people for most of the jumps, then 7 for the final one plus camera. And I had yet another learning curve - this time on how to build a base and a formation when everyone starts inside the plane and exits individually! The rules for the Speed 8 are No Show, No Grips, so the time starts from the moment any part of any member of the team comes past the door frame, whether accidentally or not! So I learned a whole new series of exits as we experimented with the best way to get the entire team out of the door of a Grand Caravan as quickly as possible. Because I am floaty and most of the team are fast fallers, it was decided to put me out early. After the first jump, that moved to putting a load of lead on me, and sending me out first, rofl. The idea being that it's very easy for the second person to catch up with me and for us to form the base for everyone else to dock onto. The points are scored by the number of seconds it takes for everyone to have at least one grip on someone else (so 7 grips), so the lower the score, the better. Bonuses are given for then making formations, though apparently many teams don't get together at all within the time frame allowed to score. Speed 8 is not taken seriously by many people so a lot of the teams are 'scratch teams', put together on the day by people who have never jumped together in that large a formation. And of course, most flat flyers are used to linked exits and being together on a level before trying to turn points. So tomorrow we will see if doing some training jumps, even missing a couple of the regular members, will make enough of a difference for us to be high up in the rankings :-)
It is done over 4 rounds so hopefully will be finished in one day, which will then allow me time to do some fun jumping on Sunday.
And that will go back to yet another learning curve as I am going to be meeting a 4-way team who have just lost their Tail flyer for the Nationals next weekend. I usually fly IC or OC in the tunnel or on fun jumps, so I've now got to relearn all of the Random formations with new grips, plus a different exit. If the weather permits, we'll do some trial jumps on Sunday and decide whether it will work well enough for the team to enter and if we do, I'll be off to Lincolnshire with them on Thursday! Hopefully that will give us Friday for some team training, before the competition starts on Saturday. And if it doesn't work out and they decide not to go, I'll do the next big way training session instead :-)
I also have more Speed 8 training lined up with Mayhem as the Speed 8 Nationals are at Sibson at the end of September. We just need the weather to cooperate a little more than it has done so far - who knows, I may yet make it to my 200th jump by the end of the season in order to collect my C licence :-)
In the end, we had 6 people for most of the jumps, then 7 for the final one plus camera. And I had yet another learning curve - this time on how to build a base and a formation when everyone starts inside the plane and exits individually! The rules for the Speed 8 are No Show, No Grips, so the time starts from the moment any part of any member of the team comes past the door frame, whether accidentally or not! So I learned a whole new series of exits as we experimented with the best way to get the entire team out of the door of a Grand Caravan as quickly as possible. Because I am floaty and most of the team are fast fallers, it was decided to put me out early. After the first jump, that moved to putting a load of lead on me, and sending me out first, rofl. The idea being that it's very easy for the second person to catch up with me and for us to form the base for everyone else to dock onto. The points are scored by the number of seconds it takes for everyone to have at least one grip on someone else (so 7 grips), so the lower the score, the better. Bonuses are given for then making formations, though apparently many teams don't get together at all within the time frame allowed to score. Speed 8 is not taken seriously by many people so a lot of the teams are 'scratch teams', put together on the day by people who have never jumped together in that large a formation. And of course, most flat flyers are used to linked exits and being together on a level before trying to turn points. So tomorrow we will see if doing some training jumps, even missing a couple of the regular members, will make enough of a difference for us to be high up in the rankings :-)
It is done over 4 rounds so hopefully will be finished in one day, which will then allow me time to do some fun jumping on Sunday.
And that will go back to yet another learning curve as I am going to be meeting a 4-way team who have just lost their Tail flyer for the Nationals next weekend. I usually fly IC or OC in the tunnel or on fun jumps, so I've now got to relearn all of the Random formations with new grips, plus a different exit. If the weather permits, we'll do some trial jumps on Sunday and decide whether it will work well enough for the team to enter and if we do, I'll be off to Lincolnshire with them on Thursday! Hopefully that will give us Friday for some team training, before the competition starts on Saturday. And if it doesn't work out and they decide not to go, I'll do the next big way training session instead :-)
I also have more Speed 8 training lined up with Mayhem as the Speed 8 Nationals are at Sibson at the end of September. We just need the weather to cooperate a little more than it has done so far - who knows, I may yet make it to my 200th jump by the end of the season in order to collect my C licence :-)
More FS training and slowly increasing jump numbers
So very slowly and steadily, my jump numbers have been increasing. I was hoping to get to my 100th jump on the multi-plane lifts but weather holds meant I still had 3 jumps to go for the elusive milestone. A series of bad weather fronts one after another meant that mid-week jumping was also not possible, so it came down to an overcast day at a very small dz to try and manage 3 jumps. Initially I had hoped to do a wingsuit rodeo for the actual 100th, but my 'bird' decided the weather didn't look great so decided to have a lie-in instead :-( I was disappointed but other friends stepped in and met me at the dz and for once, the forecast turned out to be wrong. Manifest was brilliant, squeezing me in on 2-way jumps in spare slots on tandem loads. There was no chance of doing anything fancy or a biggish formation but I still had 3 great 2-ways to get me to the magic number :-) And at the end of the day, once all the tandems were completed, we also did a 4 way tracking dive. So I finished the day on 101 :-)
As we got towards the end of July, the weather finally decided we could have a hint of summer. I managed several mid-week jumps in between weather holds and rainy days and keep looking out on the Facebook groups for any flat flyers who can jump outside of weekends. I went up to Hinton to meet one person and was asked to join an FS1 qualification dive for a fairly new jumper. It went very well and he passed, which was fabulous.
Last week was another 4-way FS training day and suddenly I found myself as one of the more experienced members of the teams as several coaches had dropped out. Our group never managed a stable exit (unless you count launching an E and flipping it, so flying a lovely formation upside down :-D ) and there was lots of chasing each other over the sky to reform, but it was all good stuff and everyone had a great day. We ended it with an attempt at a 12 way. I was in the base and finally was part of a stable exit, ha ha. We had 3 divers who got down to us, forming a 6 way, but the 6th person did a classic 'combat dock' coming in hard and fast, and he took out one of the base members which then exploded the formation, lol. But everyone had got pretty close, it was just that we ran out of altitude to reform. Roll on the next one!!
As we got towards the end of July, the weather finally decided we could have a hint of summer. I managed several mid-week jumps in between weather holds and rainy days and keep looking out on the Facebook groups for any flat flyers who can jump outside of weekends. I went up to Hinton to meet one person and was asked to join an FS1 qualification dive for a fairly new jumper. It went very well and he passed, which was fabulous.
Last week was another 4-way FS training day and suddenly I found myself as one of the more experienced members of the teams as several coaches had dropped out. Our group never managed a stable exit (unless you count launching an E and flipping it, so flying a lovely formation upside down :-D ) and there was lots of chasing each other over the sky to reform, but it was all good stuff and everyone had a great day. We ended it with an attempt at a 12 way. I was in the base and finally was part of a stable exit, ha ha. We had 3 divers who got down to us, forming a 6 way, but the 6th person did a classic 'combat dock' coming in hard and fast, and he took out one of the base members which then exploded the formation, lol. But everyone had got pretty close, it was just that we ran out of altitude to reform. Roll on the next one!!
Dynamic 6 way in the tunnel
Having failed miserably to get a 4-way team together and actually jump or train in the tunnel, I was curious to find out more when Brian Cumming created a group dedicated to a different type of tunnel flying. Instead of taking grips and turning points, the idea would be to keep moving, to make dynamic patterns in various sequences and then start linking the sequences together.
I did a lot of tunnel time when training for the World Challenge as the costs came down drastically when split between 4 people, so splitting the costs even further made this seem like a great way of improving my flying skills whilst the weather was still hampering my jumping so badly.
I have never laughed so much during tunnel training, even during scrambles!! It was amazing, so much fun and again, so much more relaxed than 4-way and trying to turn points. We did moves with names like Washing Machine and Weave, and we renamed one move to Goldfish Bowl as we took it in turns flying round the tunnel walls, like goldfish circling :-D It's a lot trickier than 4-way in that we have to fly over and under each other a lot (instead of keeping pretty much on the same level) and sets of people are moving all the time unless we are at the Home position. I had one spectacular crash trying to side slide over 2 people at once (hit the tunnel wall headfirst :-( ) but apart from that, it wasn't too daunting. We all improved a lot over the 30 minutes (15 x 2 minute sessions) and were able to link several moves together by the end.
The second session a month later was with different people but it was just as much fun. Another 30 minutes in the tunnel and I was feeling much more confident with my ability to side slide, scoot forward and back under and over someone's burble and to carve my way around the outside of the tunnel. Brian doesn't have enough time in his calendar for more sessions at the moment but as soon as he does, I'll be back :-)
I did a lot of tunnel time when training for the World Challenge as the costs came down drastically when split between 4 people, so splitting the costs even further made this seem like a great way of improving my flying skills whilst the weather was still hampering my jumping so badly.
I have never laughed so much during tunnel training, even during scrambles!! It was amazing, so much fun and again, so much more relaxed than 4-way and trying to turn points. We did moves with names like Washing Machine and Weave, and we renamed one move to Goldfish Bowl as we took it in turns flying round the tunnel walls, like goldfish circling :-D It's a lot trickier than 4-way in that we have to fly over and under each other a lot (instead of keeping pretty much on the same level) and sets of people are moving all the time unless we are at the Home position. I had one spectacular crash trying to side slide over 2 people at once (hit the tunnel wall headfirst :-( ) but apart from that, it wasn't too daunting. We all improved a lot over the 30 minutes (15 x 2 minute sessions) and were able to link several moves together by the end.
The second session a month later was with different people but it was just as much fun. Another 30 minutes in the tunnel and I was feeling much more confident with my ability to side slide, scoot forward and back under and over someone's burble and to carve my way around the outside of the tunnel. Brian doesn't have enough time in his calendar for more sessions at the moment but as soon as he does, I'll be back :-)
Big way training days June & July
So nothing has really changed with regards to me continuing beyond the end of this season, but have been managing a lot more fun in the meantime :-)
Still had lots of frustrating days with weather holds and have countered that with more mid-week jumping whenever possible. Hinton now looks like it will be a good option, as I've met more people there now and have more people who can jump during the week without having to drag myself all the way up to Sibson.
Didn't manage to get a team together for the UKSL at Nethers in the end, so I joined a novice FS big way coaching day instead. I didn't have nearly enough jump numbers for the entry criteria but Rich vouched for me (and several hours of tunnel helped) and the organiser agreed to let me try, with the caveat that I would be taken out of the group if I wasn't good enough yet. And we had the most amazing time! Such fun and so much more relaxed than 4-way :-) There were 10 of us, so not a massive group but obviously a lot more people in the air than I'm used to. We managed to make several formations with all but one person getting into the formation each time. I learned loads about building larger formations, exit order, how to dive to the base, flat tracking etc and all the experienced guys were really friendly and helpful.
At the end of the weekend, I saw a poster for a more advanced group in July and asked if it would be possible for me to join that one. He needed to check with the other organiser since my jump numbers were even further off the basic requirements and we hadn't managed to build a 10 way so my formation size didn't meet the basics either, lol. However, the other organiser also agreed to let me try, given my performance on the first weekend so things suddenly got a lot more exciting. It's not many people who can say they did their first big way multi-plane dives with less than 100 jumps in total!
If I thought it was a steep learning curve for the novice weekend, the intermediate weekend came close to frying my brain, ha ha. So much to remember, though I wasn't the only newbie to big way so everything was explained very carefully several times. And in the end, the weather slowed our jump rate down as we kept being put on wind and cloud holds. So I Iearned about multi-plane lifts taking off in formation (very freaky seeing another plane so close all the way up to altitude!), how to do the first part of tracking off in groups before splitting away from each other, how to look for the exit from the lead plane to know when to leave the trail plane, and how to find my slot in the formation. I didn't quite make it down for the first jump, so just hovered above my slot until it was time to break off (so other people knew where I was). All the of the rest of the jumps were fine and I made it comfortably, having discovered I'm pretty good at diving down to a rapidly departing base, lol. It helps that I am quite floaty so there was never any time when I was likely to drop low, unlike many of the other guys who then struggled to get back up to the base.
I definitely want to do more and had signed up for the next training weekend but that may now get nudged to one side in favour of competing at the FS 4-way Nationals. More exciting news but need to wait a couple of days to find out whether that is going ahead.
Still had lots of frustrating days with weather holds and have countered that with more mid-week jumping whenever possible. Hinton now looks like it will be a good option, as I've met more people there now and have more people who can jump during the week without having to drag myself all the way up to Sibson.
Didn't manage to get a team together for the UKSL at Nethers in the end, so I joined a novice FS big way coaching day instead. I didn't have nearly enough jump numbers for the entry criteria but Rich vouched for me (and several hours of tunnel helped) and the organiser agreed to let me try, with the caveat that I would be taken out of the group if I wasn't good enough yet. And we had the most amazing time! Such fun and so much more relaxed than 4-way :-) There were 10 of us, so not a massive group but obviously a lot more people in the air than I'm used to. We managed to make several formations with all but one person getting into the formation each time. I learned loads about building larger formations, exit order, how to dive to the base, flat tracking etc and all the experienced guys were really friendly and helpful.
At the end of the weekend, I saw a poster for a more advanced group in July and asked if it would be possible for me to join that one. He needed to check with the other organiser since my jump numbers were even further off the basic requirements and we hadn't managed to build a 10 way so my formation size didn't meet the basics either, lol. However, the other organiser also agreed to let me try, given my performance on the first weekend so things suddenly got a lot more exciting. It's not many people who can say they did their first big way multi-plane dives with less than 100 jumps in total!
If I thought it was a steep learning curve for the novice weekend, the intermediate weekend came close to frying my brain, ha ha. So much to remember, though I wasn't the only newbie to big way so everything was explained very carefully several times. And in the end, the weather slowed our jump rate down as we kept being put on wind and cloud holds. So I Iearned about multi-plane lifts taking off in formation (very freaky seeing another plane so close all the way up to altitude!), how to do the first part of tracking off in groups before splitting away from each other, how to look for the exit from the lead plane to know when to leave the trail plane, and how to find my slot in the formation. I didn't quite make it down for the first jump, so just hovered above my slot until it was time to break off (so other people knew where I was). All the of the rest of the jumps were fine and I made it comfortably, having discovered I'm pretty good at diving down to a rapidly departing base, lol. It helps that I am quite floaty so there was never any time when I was likely to drop low, unlike many of the other guys who then struggled to get back up to the base.
I definitely want to do more and had signed up for the next training weekend but that may now get nudged to one side in favour of competing at the FS 4-way Nationals. More exciting news but need to wait a couple of days to find out whether that is going ahead.
Tuesday 26 May 2015
Scrambles and a possible scratch team :-)
So
the Scrambles on Saturday was great fun - Becs was our team captain and
took the OC slot, Ed was the next most experienced and took Tail. Since
we had a non-FS jumper on the team, he was in Point which left me with
IC. Which worked out pretty well. I was very happy with the way I
flew, considering my lack of experience in the air. Still loads of room
for improvement but generally, I felt pretty comfortable and learned a
lot from doing aircraft exits :-)
We launched an H every time which possibly cost us a couple of points, but more likely, ensured we stayed together instead of funnelling the exit, lol. Overall, we got 4th place and I'm really looking forward to the 6-way scrambles in July. And will be doing some dynamic 6-way in the tunnel in the meantime....
Still not planning to continue beyond the end of the season, just had another Bank Holiday weekend and only managed to jump on Saturday afternoon. Sunday was yet another miserable overcast day with the first lift landing with everyone still on board due to a heavy rain shower. I left just before lunch - they did eventually manage a couple of lifts in the late afternoon but I'm glad I didn't bother hanging around wasting another day. Monday was a little better but I did more clearing out at dad's house, a tip run, went with Rich to fetch his kit car from London and move it to Kent, then collected Mischief and we went for a pub meal and got furball a little more comfortable with other dogs :-)
Another 4-way FS team appears to be falling apart with their trip to the first round of UKSL cancelled along with their replacement team training. Had a chat with a couple of them and they are going to see how their next tunnel session goes, but may well be up for taking a scratch team to Nethers in June so they actually do have some fun!
I'm also signed up for an all-girlie tunnel session for some fun stuff having pretty much given up on the idea of dragging 3 other people kicking and screaming to the tunnel for some vaguely sensible 4-way training :-/
Finally got my landings sorted again and timed my last landing perfectly, landing lightly on my feet in zero wind :-) Very happy with that, as my accuracy is also improving.
We launched an H every time which possibly cost us a couple of points, but more likely, ensured we stayed together instead of funnelling the exit, lol. Overall, we got 4th place and I'm really looking forward to the 6-way scrambles in July. And will be doing some dynamic 6-way in the tunnel in the meantime....
Still not planning to continue beyond the end of the season, just had another Bank Holiday weekend and only managed to jump on Saturday afternoon. Sunday was yet another miserable overcast day with the first lift landing with everyone still on board due to a heavy rain shower. I left just before lunch - they did eventually manage a couple of lifts in the late afternoon but I'm glad I didn't bother hanging around wasting another day. Monday was a little better but I did more clearing out at dad's house, a tip run, went with Rich to fetch his kit car from London and move it to Kent, then collected Mischief and we went for a pub meal and got furball a little more comfortable with other dogs :-)
Another 4-way FS team appears to be falling apart with their trip to the first round of UKSL cancelled along with their replacement team training. Had a chat with a couple of them and they are going to see how their next tunnel session goes, but may well be up for taking a scratch team to Nethers in June so they actually do have some fun!
I'm also signed up for an all-girlie tunnel session for some fun stuff having pretty much given up on the idea of dragging 3 other people kicking and screaming to the tunnel for some vaguely sensible 4-way training :-/
Finally got my landings sorted again and timed my last landing perfectly, landing lightly on my feet in zero wind :-) Very happy with that, as my accuracy is also improving.
Saturday 16 May 2015
Halfway through May and still having crap weather days
For heaven's sake, what on earth is wrong with UK weather these days??? At least 12 days spent hanging around various dropzones and less than 1 jump per day on average to show for it :-/ Weekends are definitely rubbish - if it's not pouring with rain, the winds are gale force. Two best days so far have been mid-week jumping with 3 jumps at Sibson on a random Wednesday and 4 jumps at Hinton on an FS improvers course. The rest has been one's and two's and LOTS of wasted time. So this weekend I made other plans, having got totally fed up of sitting around drinking tea, and Sod's Law decreed that even LPS fun jumpers got 5 jumps in on one day :-( I need another hobby......
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)