To be fair, I haven't tried that hard to jump - it's been cold and frequently wet and windy and I haven't felt inclined to drive for hours to one of the few dropzones that are open in the winter, just on the off-chance I might be able to squeeze in one or two jumps.
But it's now just over a week until I fly back out to Seville for a few days and hopefully that will make a massive difference. I'm trying not to set myself any expectations on how many jumps I might manage to jam into 5 days, though a sneaky little voice keeps telling me that 20 would be nice to bring me up to my first 50, lol. A tall order perhaps, I'll be grateful for some sun and some warmth to start off with :-)
Before I head off, I have the tunnel scrambles at Bedford on 01st Feb which should be fun and hopefully will help me remember what an arch feels like, lol. It seems like a very long time since I last jumped (8th December!) so I am a little nervous of heading back out to Seville which wasn't the most forgiving of landing areas, to put it mildly. But at least there won't be mud swamps!
And I have more tunnel time with a bit of 4-way coaching booked for mid Feb so I may slowly get coaxed towards my FS1. But my main focus is still on my canopy handling so really looking forward to my Canopy Course with Brian Vacher in June. That seems so far away right now, but I guess that means more time to practice my CH2 and there's also Conrad's demo course in March. Now that's going to be challenging, lol. At least it's all hop and pops so even if it's cold, hopefully I won't suffer too much, but I can't really see the weather cooperating too well that early in the season! I like hop and pops so not too bothered about the exits though I'm not certain about the actual exit I'm supposed to be using. I've only ever dived or jumped, I've not held onto the plane so that will be new. Maybe I can get someone to show me some options in Seville. My main concern is the accuracy of the landings - I'm doing this to learn new stuff, not to have any hope of qualifying, rofl. And I'll be way low on jump numbers anyway since the minimum is 100. But at least I may be able to help out on the ground - assuming I go back to Sibson. Not sure if it's a generic qualification and if so, where it might get recorded. A separate certificate like a packing certificate? Might have to have a quick Google of that :-)
Sunday, 26 January 2014
Tuesday, 14 January 2014
12 Jan - Packing practice and my tangle test !
Had planned to try and jump at Langar today if the weather had been kind but it is bitterly cold - got down to -2 degrees C on my drive up last night and it was no better this morning! Lots of frost on the cars and rooftops - I like my fingers attached to my body, there's no way I'm even doing hop and pops in these temperatures, lol.
So pro-packing practice it is then :-) It's been a few weeks since I last did a practice and it shows. Setting the brakes was easy, doing the 4 line checks was also ok, I have one set of lines over each shoulder, the slider at the back of my neck and...... now what?? I can count all the different sets of lines (As, Bs, Cs etc) but then have no clue what comes next. Something to do with counting nose cells ..? After a few minutes of racking my brains and not coming up with any inspiration, I admit defeat and confess to Conrad I can't remember what happens next. So we start again.
The first part was ok - laying out the canopy with the container face down, then checking the steering lines and setting the brakes. The four line check was also ok so I had actually got as far as Check Stage 1 by myself.
The initial part of Check Stage 2 had also started well, with checking the sets of lines (A, B, C, D and brakes / steering lines) but the first thing I had forgotten was to quarter the slider and make sure it was neatly tucked high up amongst the lines. The next step is to gather all the lines together, in one hand, turn the whole canopy onto my hip and flake out the nose cells. Ah yes, this is looking more familiar. Nose cells between the knees to keep them neat, then find the centre of the tail. Flaking alternate sides in to get all the lines together, then wrapping the tail around the grommets to keep it all in place, by twisting the back edges together without disturbing the rest of the canopy, before attempting to squash some air out. Laying the whole thing neatly on the floor was also another challenge!
And now the biggest challenge - getting the canopy neatly into its D-bag. Hmmm, there might be some leeway required on the definition of neatly......
I also forgot to cock the pilot chute as student parachutes don't need this step and I'd only done it once before. Though I still should have checked the D-bag and bungees regardless so not really much of an excuse, lol. So now I have a cocked pilot chute, the D-bag is inside out with all the bungees untwisted, all I have to do now is S-fold the canopy and put it into the bag. Yeah, right! As I wrestle with this step over and over again, with more and more layers of clothing coming off as I get hot and out of breath with the struggle, Conrad shows me various different ways of folding the canopy to get it into the bag. So long as the slider stays high and the lines back to the container stay taut (and hence don't have the chance to tangle or wrap over the canopy), it's really just a case of squashing all the air out of the canopy so it will fit in. Hmmm.... Once it's finally in, the next challenge is to try and keep the tail wrapped tightly round the lines, which need to stay taut, whilst getting the first couple of elastic bungees secured. My fingers are not going to forgive me for a while..... Having finally won that battle, and secured the rest of the lines in the stows, I've reached the end of Check Stage 3. Time for a cup of tea! Then Conrad pulls it all apart and I do it all again from the beginning. Now I'm starting to get the knack of this part, it's time to move on to the last stage.
So the D-bag goes into the container with the lines at the bottom (for freefall. Apparently the lines go at the top for static line!). There is a very simple statement on my check sheet at this point which merely states "close container and stow risers". Ha ha ha! If I hadn't already been hot and sweaty from putting the canopy into the bag, then doing battle with the closing loop and pin would definitely have done it. And I'd forgotten the closing sequence of the flaps too - it can vary but mostly it's Bottom, Top, Right, Left (Aide-memoire: Bengal Tigers Roar Loudly. Or Conrad's preferred option: Big Tits Require Looking). I did remember to put the bridle for the pilot chute out to the top right, though again, that can vary by container.
So having squished enough air out of the canopy to get the flaps closed (see, this is where I reckon heavier people have a major advantage; they can squash the air out more easily when they kneel on the container, lol) and put the locking pin in place, it was time to stow the risers, then stow the bridle and pilot chute.
Having done all that, a quick check of the 3 ring system, cutaway pad and reserve handle and I'm done, ready for Check Stage 4.
So Conrad pulls it all apart slowly to check each step. A few comments and tips (like remembering to tuck up a bit of the bridle before stowing the rest and turn the steering loops to the inside) and we get to the stows on the D-bag. Mostly they are taut but the first one was slightly uneven because I hadn't tied the harness rings tightly together (another tip - use the pull up to tie the largest of the harness rings to each other; not only does it mean the lines will be more even, hence helping to avoid line twists on deployment, it also means you'll know exactly where the pull up is (and that you have one handy!!) when it comes to closing the container).
Overall he's fairly happy with it, so once it's back in a heap on the floor, I start again from the very beginning.
By this time it's taking me around 35 minutes from start to finish - not as bad as I'd feared, lol. We take a break for lunch then Conrad pulls it all apart again. It's looking ok, so I put it all back again and this time, instead of pulling the canopy out, he pulls the cutaway out and gets me to put it back together again. Once that is done, another review of pulling the whole thing apart, then Conrad sends me off for a cup of tea whilst he sets up a tangle test. Uh oh! Wasn't expecting this! Hopefully he's not going to be too mean, lol.
Back again and Conrad has the container over one shoulder, with the canopy and lines bundled in his arms. He drops the whole lot on the floor and leaves me to it! Arrrghh!
First thing was a twisted steering line, wrapped around other lines and tangled so I sorted that out and stowed both (without setting the brakes) whilst I had a look at the rest. The lines looked pretty twisted so I started by following the steering lines down from the canopy and untwisting those, before setting the brakes. Then I attempted the four line check to see if I could work out what was wrong.
Definitely a twist of the canopy passing through its own lines so I cautiously started spreading the line sets out to see if I could determine which way the canopy needed to go. After trying a couple of different ways of laying out the lines, I made enough space to put the canopy between them, picked them up and flipped it whilst keeping tight hold in case I'd got it wrong, ha ha. It looked a lot better once I'd done that but I still had a twist in one set of lines near the canopy. That was confusing - how did I get a twist only on one side?? And how on earth do I get it out?? It doesn't make sense. I decide to do the four line check again just to make sure I'm not missing something, and this time I end up with a twist on each side. Ok, that makes much more sense. Except now I have to flip the entire canopy between its own lines without dropping anything. Or do I? The twists are at the top of the lines above the slider, but if I coax the twists below the slider, maybe I could just flip the container over instead. Aha! Much simpler option and it works.
Right, back to the beginning again. I check the steering lines again for twists and have to undo the brakes and reset them. After that, it's all pretty straightforward. Conrad pops in and out, checking on my progress, and he's probably eavesdropping on my mutterings too, lol. It's going well up until the point where I have to get the canopy into the bag. This time it starts slithering away from me. I retrieve it a couple of times and eventually it's in the bag, but looking at it, I'm not overly happy that I would jump it. I'm not sure the slider has stayed high (actually it had) and the tail has definitely unwrapped from the lines. Would I be comfortable jumping this canopy if it was mine? No. Right, back to Check Stage 1 then <sigh> It goes a lot better the next time around and I complete the entire sequence to Check Stage 4. I would happily jump it this time so I hand it over to Conrad for his checks. And out it all comes again ....
And I passed! Conrad was happy with it and I'd got all the steps right. It took me a little over an hour, which I was more than happy with considering I'd redone Check Stage 2, and Conrad took pity on me and repacked it for the final time, showing me more tips and techniques as he did so. Right, where can I get hold of a rig to practice on..???
So pro-packing practice it is then :-) It's been a few weeks since I last did a practice and it shows. Setting the brakes was easy, doing the 4 line checks was also ok, I have one set of lines over each shoulder, the slider at the back of my neck and...... now what?? I can count all the different sets of lines (As, Bs, Cs etc) but then have no clue what comes next. Something to do with counting nose cells ..? After a few minutes of racking my brains and not coming up with any inspiration, I admit defeat and confess to Conrad I can't remember what happens next. So we start again.
The first part was ok - laying out the canopy with the container face down, then checking the steering lines and setting the brakes. The four line check was also ok so I had actually got as far as Check Stage 1 by myself.
The initial part of Check Stage 2 had also started well, with checking the sets of lines (A, B, C, D and brakes / steering lines) but the first thing I had forgotten was to quarter the slider and make sure it was neatly tucked high up amongst the lines. The next step is to gather all the lines together, in one hand, turn the whole canopy onto my hip and flake out the nose cells. Ah yes, this is looking more familiar. Nose cells between the knees to keep them neat, then find the centre of the tail. Flaking alternate sides in to get all the lines together, then wrapping the tail around the grommets to keep it all in place, by twisting the back edges together without disturbing the rest of the canopy, before attempting to squash some air out. Laying the whole thing neatly on the floor was also another challenge!
And now the biggest challenge - getting the canopy neatly into its D-bag. Hmmm, there might be some leeway required on the definition of neatly......
I also forgot to cock the pilot chute as student parachutes don't need this step and I'd only done it once before. Though I still should have checked the D-bag and bungees regardless so not really much of an excuse, lol. So now I have a cocked pilot chute, the D-bag is inside out with all the bungees untwisted, all I have to do now is S-fold the canopy and put it into the bag. Yeah, right! As I wrestle with this step over and over again, with more and more layers of clothing coming off as I get hot and out of breath with the struggle, Conrad shows me various different ways of folding the canopy to get it into the bag. So long as the slider stays high and the lines back to the container stay taut (and hence don't have the chance to tangle or wrap over the canopy), it's really just a case of squashing all the air out of the canopy so it will fit in. Hmmm.... Once it's finally in, the next challenge is to try and keep the tail wrapped tightly round the lines, which need to stay taut, whilst getting the first couple of elastic bungees secured. My fingers are not going to forgive me for a while..... Having finally won that battle, and secured the rest of the lines in the stows, I've reached the end of Check Stage 3. Time for a cup of tea! Then Conrad pulls it all apart and I do it all again from the beginning. Now I'm starting to get the knack of this part, it's time to move on to the last stage.
So the D-bag goes into the container with the lines at the bottom (for freefall. Apparently the lines go at the top for static line!). There is a very simple statement on my check sheet at this point which merely states "close container and stow risers". Ha ha ha! If I hadn't already been hot and sweaty from putting the canopy into the bag, then doing battle with the closing loop and pin would definitely have done it. And I'd forgotten the closing sequence of the flaps too - it can vary but mostly it's Bottom, Top, Right, Left (Aide-memoire: Bengal Tigers Roar Loudly. Or Conrad's preferred option: Big Tits Require Looking). I did remember to put the bridle for the pilot chute out to the top right, though again, that can vary by container.
So having squished enough air out of the canopy to get the flaps closed (see, this is where I reckon heavier people have a major advantage; they can squash the air out more easily when they kneel on the container, lol) and put the locking pin in place, it was time to stow the risers, then stow the bridle and pilot chute.
Having done all that, a quick check of the 3 ring system, cutaway pad and reserve handle and I'm done, ready for Check Stage 4.
So Conrad pulls it all apart slowly to check each step. A few comments and tips (like remembering to tuck up a bit of the bridle before stowing the rest and turn the steering loops to the inside) and we get to the stows on the D-bag. Mostly they are taut but the first one was slightly uneven because I hadn't tied the harness rings tightly together (another tip - use the pull up to tie the largest of the harness rings to each other; not only does it mean the lines will be more even, hence helping to avoid line twists on deployment, it also means you'll know exactly where the pull up is (and that you have one handy!!) when it comes to closing the container).
Overall he's fairly happy with it, so once it's back in a heap on the floor, I start again from the very beginning.
By this time it's taking me around 35 minutes from start to finish - not as bad as I'd feared, lol. We take a break for lunch then Conrad pulls it all apart again. It's looking ok, so I put it all back again and this time, instead of pulling the canopy out, he pulls the cutaway out and gets me to put it back together again. Once that is done, another review of pulling the whole thing apart, then Conrad sends me off for a cup of tea whilst he sets up a tangle test. Uh oh! Wasn't expecting this! Hopefully he's not going to be too mean, lol.
Back again and Conrad has the container over one shoulder, with the canopy and lines bundled in his arms. He drops the whole lot on the floor and leaves me to it! Arrrghh!
First thing was a twisted steering line, wrapped around other lines and tangled so I sorted that out and stowed both (without setting the brakes) whilst I had a look at the rest. The lines looked pretty twisted so I started by following the steering lines down from the canopy and untwisting those, before setting the brakes. Then I attempted the four line check to see if I could work out what was wrong.
Definitely a twist of the canopy passing through its own lines so I cautiously started spreading the line sets out to see if I could determine which way the canopy needed to go. After trying a couple of different ways of laying out the lines, I made enough space to put the canopy between them, picked them up and flipped it whilst keeping tight hold in case I'd got it wrong, ha ha. It looked a lot better once I'd done that but I still had a twist in one set of lines near the canopy. That was confusing - how did I get a twist only on one side?? And how on earth do I get it out?? It doesn't make sense. I decide to do the four line check again just to make sure I'm not missing something, and this time I end up with a twist on each side. Ok, that makes much more sense. Except now I have to flip the entire canopy between its own lines without dropping anything. Or do I? The twists are at the top of the lines above the slider, but if I coax the twists below the slider, maybe I could just flip the container over instead. Aha! Much simpler option and it works.
Right, back to the beginning again. I check the steering lines again for twists and have to undo the brakes and reset them. After that, it's all pretty straightforward. Conrad pops in and out, checking on my progress, and he's probably eavesdropping on my mutterings too, lol. It's going well up until the point where I have to get the canopy into the bag. This time it starts slithering away from me. I retrieve it a couple of times and eventually it's in the bag, but looking at it, I'm not overly happy that I would jump it. I'm not sure the slider has stayed high (actually it had) and the tail has definitely unwrapped from the lines. Would I be comfortable jumping this canopy if it was mine? No. Right, back to Check Stage 1 then <sigh> It goes a lot better the next time around and I complete the entire sequence to Check Stage 4. I would happily jump it this time so I hand it over to Conrad for his checks. And out it all comes again ....
And I passed! Conrad was happy with it and I'd got all the steps right. It took me a little over an hour, which I was more than happy with considering I'd redone Check Stage 2, and Conrad took pity on me and repacked it for the final time, showing me more tips and techniques as he did so. Right, where can I get hold of a rig to practice on..???
Thursday, 12 December 2013
Seville - Dec 6-9 2013
Very nervous about heading to a new drop zone for the first time, especially as I haven't managed to jump for few weeks. The planned day of jumping on 23 Nov didn't happen because I wasn't feeling well and my head really wasn't in the right place. It was very cold and I decided not to risk it, despite hanging around the drop zone all day.
So it's been 4 weeks since I last jumped and now I'm heading to a new country, with an unknown landing area, unknown instructors, unknown kit, unknown plane, never mind all the stress of actually getting there in the first place!
But I was not alone :-) Tegan and Merline were also intrepid explorers, with Tegan being an absolute star and doing nearly all the driving, both in the UK and Spain. Robyn was also supposed to be coming with us, but unfortunately she went down with 'flu a couple of days before we left and was too ill to even contemplate flying, never mind jumping.
After several mini-adventures (like getting lost on the way to the airport and nearly missing our flight!) and getting lost again in Seville trying to follow the directions to the dropzone (it would help if the road planners in Seville actually put up the occasional road sign!), we finally turned up at Skydive Spain. Steve Saunders gave us a very thorough dz briefing and refresh, after which my brain was fried so I decided I was too tired to jump. Tegan also declined, but Merline decided she wanted to get the first one out of the way, so she got kitted up whilst I tried to stay awake....
Seville is a pretty challenging dz to land at for inexperienced jumpers - the pattern is only West-East or East-West regardless of the wind due to hazards North and South (olive groves North and power lines plus olive groves South), and the ground is as hard as concrete. The eastern end of the landing area also slopes quite a lot and is surrounded by a ditch.....
Merline's jump went pretty well, though she said it was difficult to find the landmarks from 15,000 feet. That freaked me out a bit, so in the morning, I decided to do a hop and pop so I could spot the landing area more easily, and would also be in the air on my own so wouldn't have to worry too much about a landing pattern.
I jumped a Nav 240 and landed quite nicely on my feet, though I bailed from the landing area and went for the field the other side of the ditch. I found the landmarks quite easily because I had been watching them from the moment the plane took off - a hop and pop from 7,000' was obviously an easier option than going straight to the top!
Over the course of the day I did 5 more jumps, though my landings were somewhat variable. I met the ditch up close and personal on one occasion and also managed my first uneven flare which caused me to crash out sideways. Sooo much to think about whilst trying to do my CH2 exercises, though I have loads more to practice and some new techniques to try out, particularly for using the front risers. Each time I came down, Steve would be watching my exercises and landings, and each time, it was a case of "go on back up, do it again!". By the end of the day I was wiped out - I think the most jumps I've done in a day is 4 up until now, so 6 was definitely enough :-) But not quite enough to pass my CH2 since I only had 4 of the required 5 declared landings. Merline had managed to qualify for her A licence so we still had something to celebrate. And it was lovely to be warm and basking ourselves in glorious sunshine, especially compared with the freezing temperatures back home.
So back I went on Sunday morning to have another go. This time, I opted for another hop and pop so I could focus on the canopy exercises and that proved to be a good decision. I landed in the grass area with good canopy control, on my feet. Happy bunny :-) And Steve signed me off ! Merline and Tegan had both decided not to jump on Sunday and the winds were picking up a bit, so we watched a couple of loads land, then headed off to the spa for the afternoon. I also had a much needed massage :-)
A chilled evening was followed by a good night's sleep, then back to the dz for breakfast and to say goodbye to everyone before heading back to the airport. What a fabulous weekend!
So it's been 4 weeks since I last jumped and now I'm heading to a new country, with an unknown landing area, unknown instructors, unknown kit, unknown plane, never mind all the stress of actually getting there in the first place!
But I was not alone :-) Tegan and Merline were also intrepid explorers, with Tegan being an absolute star and doing nearly all the driving, both in the UK and Spain. Robyn was also supposed to be coming with us, but unfortunately she went down with 'flu a couple of days before we left and was too ill to even contemplate flying, never mind jumping.
 |
| Exit at 15,000 feet :-) |
After several mini-adventures (like getting lost on the way to the airport and nearly missing our flight!) and getting lost again in Seville trying to follow the directions to the dropzone (it would help if the road planners in Seville actually put up the occasional road sign!), we finally turned up at Skydive Spain. Steve Saunders gave us a very thorough dz briefing and refresh, after which my brain was fried so I decided I was too tired to jump. Tegan also declined, but Merline decided she wanted to get the first one out of the way, so she got kitted up whilst I tried to stay awake....
Seville is a pretty challenging dz to land at for inexperienced jumpers - the pattern is only West-East or East-West regardless of the wind due to hazards North and South (olive groves North and power lines plus olive groves South), and the ground is as hard as concrete. The eastern end of the landing area also slopes quite a lot and is surrounded by a ditch.....
Merline's jump went pretty well, though she said it was difficult to find the landmarks from 15,000 feet. That freaked me out a bit, so in the morning, I decided to do a hop and pop so I could spot the landing area more easily, and would also be in the air on my own so wouldn't have to worry too much about a landing pattern.
I jumped a Nav 240 and landed quite nicely on my feet, though I bailed from the landing area and went for the field the other side of the ditch. I found the landmarks quite easily because I had been watching them from the moment the plane took off - a hop and pop from 7,000' was obviously an easier option than going straight to the top!
Over the course of the day I did 5 more jumps, though my landings were somewhat variable. I met the ditch up close and personal on one occasion and also managed my first uneven flare which caused me to crash out sideways. Sooo much to think about whilst trying to do my CH2 exercises, though I have loads more to practice and some new techniques to try out, particularly for using the front risers. Each time I came down, Steve would be watching my exercises and landings, and each time, it was a case of "go on back up, do it again!". By the end of the day I was wiped out - I think the most jumps I've done in a day is 4 up until now, so 6 was definitely enough :-) But not quite enough to pass my CH2 since I only had 4 of the required 5 declared landings. Merline had managed to qualify for her A licence so we still had something to celebrate. And it was lovely to be warm and basking ourselves in glorious sunshine, especially compared with the freezing temperatures back home.
So back I went on Sunday morning to have another go. This time, I opted for another hop and pop so I could focus on the canopy exercises and that proved to be a good decision. I landed in the grass area with good canopy control, on my feet. Happy bunny :-) And Steve signed me off ! Merline and Tegan had both decided not to jump on Sunday and the winds were picking up a bit, so we watched a couple of loads land, then headed off to the spa for the afternoon. I also had a much needed massage :-)
A chilled evening was followed by a good night's sleep, then back to the dz for breakfast and to say goodbye to everyone before heading back to the airport. What a fabulous weekend!
Sibson Scrambles - Bodyflight Bedford 22 Nov
Really wasn't sure about signing up for this, lol. I've only done 23 jumps, have very little freefall time, definitely nowhere near FS1 standard and now I'm going to be in a tunnel with 3 other people who actually do know what they're doing, attempting to turn points. This could be hilarious or a complete disaster, ha ha!
And it turned out to be the former :-) The practice session was crazy - the wind speed was too high for me so whilst the others all hovered neatly near the net, I shot up in the air and had to be caught by the tunnel rat. And my flying skills were very suspect....flipping over, spinning, bouncing off the walls, oops!! In the end, the tunnel rat caught me and held me down, then steered me round in each direction so I could get hold of the grips. Oh dear.... so much for keeping eye contact with Hari then, I was all over the place.
At our debrief, it was quickly decided that I needed to wear a significant amount of lead in order to stay down with everyone else, whilst they needed the wind speed turning up. The first proper session went a little better, and I occasionally remembered to keep eye contact which meant I didn't go zooming off in the wrong direction quite so frequently, lol. With the help of the tunnel rat, we did actually turn some points which felt amazing :-)
As the sessions went on, I got a bit better at making my moves and finally managed to turn some points without the tunnel rat or by cheating (by not releasing one grip until I had hold of another one, rofl) and was starting to feel as though I could see the point of four-ways. It was great fun, mostly because everyone was very relaxed about me making mistakes and not really having a clue what I was doing. So a big thank you to Hari for his patience, and for Sam and Pam for making my moves easier by basically putting their grips wherever my hands were, lol.
From Left to Right - Hari, Sam, me (wearing a lot of lead!) and Pam.
And it turned out to be the former :-) The practice session was crazy - the wind speed was too high for me so whilst the others all hovered neatly near the net, I shot up in the air and had to be caught by the tunnel rat. And my flying skills were very suspect....flipping over, spinning, bouncing off the walls, oops!! In the end, the tunnel rat caught me and held me down, then steered me round in each direction so I could get hold of the grips. Oh dear.... so much for keeping eye contact with Hari then, I was all over the place.
At our debrief, it was quickly decided that I needed to wear a significant amount of lead in order to stay down with everyone else, whilst they needed the wind speed turning up. The first proper session went a little better, and I occasionally remembered to keep eye contact which meant I didn't go zooming off in the wrong direction quite so frequently, lol. With the help of the tunnel rat, we did actually turn some points which felt amazing :-)
As the sessions went on, I got a bit better at making my moves and finally managed to turn some points without the tunnel rat or by cheating (by not releasing one grip until I had hold of another one, rofl) and was starting to feel as though I could see the point of four-ways. It was great fun, mostly because everyone was very relaxed about me making mistakes and not really having a clue what I was doing. So a big thank you to Hari for his patience, and for Sam and Pam for making my moves easier by basically putting their grips wherever my hands were, lol.
From Left to Right - Hari, Sam, me (wearing a lot of lead!) and Pam.
Wednesday, 13 November 2013
More firsts and another good day :-) 10 Nov 2013
So after a few beer fines and a relatively early night, I still struggled to get up this morning. Awake since the early hours, then falling asleep again at 7:30am to be woken by the alarm wasn't the best of starts.
Will I jump today? Not sure, the forecast is good but I am very tired and had a very challenging day yesterday. So I pootle out to the manifest office and am not impressed by the apparent wind speeds. After checking out the flight run-in board, I am even less impressed! The winds are not going to stop experienced jumpers but the direction is not great and they are higher than I would like. So time for a cup of tea then :-)
Paul has recovered the main that I chopped yesterday (wading in water up to his chest in the process - yikes!) and it was definitely a locked toggle so I made the right decision to cutaway. Cecilia wants to practice for her packing assessment so she tackles the sodden tangled mess!! Thankfully it appears to be free from damage though it will need drying out and a careful inspection from the rigger before it is fit to jump again.
I potter about for a couple of hours, watching landings (all over the place!) and chatting with other people who have decided that the winds are a tad beyond their comfort zone, then decide to go and get some packing practice by helping Conrad convert a couple of rigs back to normal pilot chute throws after his course last week. He gives me the ripcord rig and tells me to put it on. Properly or just over my shoulders? *Properly. Ok, not sure what he has in mind, but happy enough to comply since I'm going to be practising packing anyway, I scramble into the rig.
*Ok, find the handle, it's similar to a pilot chute pull but may be a bit harder. Watch the whippy end of the cord in your face. Keep hold of your handle.
Umm, ok. I pull the ripcord and have a toggle and length of plastic line in my hand as my spring-loaded pilot chute fires off my bag, pulling the D-bag out of the container onto the floor.
I look back at Conrad who is now laughing. * See if you had been a RAPS student, you wouldn't have dropped your handles after your mal.
Ooo, mean, lol! I call him a few names as I'm laughing. Point taken, guess if I ever have another mal, I'll remember to keep hold of my handles unless things are going very wrong....
So I now have a canopy on the floor that needs repacking, Conrad has the other rig that needs sorting out, so I begin. Except I get confused pretty quickly. I lay out the canopy ok, and do the 4 line check, then get myself in a muddle over whether I am flat packing or pro packing. Conrad comes to the rescue. Either flat pack and he'll check each stage off, or pro pack alongside him so he can watch every step as I do it. Ok, I'll pro pack alongside. I manage fine until trying to fold in the loose fabric so I pause while Conrad gets his canopy into the bag and comes to help. We get to the point where I have to wrestle the canopy into the D-bag and Conrad shows me another way of doing it. I get to the bag lock and am feeling pretty pleased with myself, thinking I'll have another go in a minute, when the tannoy announces a call for more fun jumpers to fill the load. Conrad asks if I'm prepared to jump my canopy. I pause for a moment and can't think of any reason why not - he's supervised my packing and I've kept my lines taut and the slider is nicely placed. So I say yes and we keep going - I finish the lines, then he helps me put the D-bag into the container. I sort the risers and then close the container, before doing the pilot chute. We head out to manifest to see what types of jump are on the load. We collect Robyn on the way and decide to do a hop and pop from 7000 to practice CH2 skills. The plane will be on a refuel shut-down so we have a bit of time to work out the plan.
Conrad talks us through the drills - rear riser avoidance manoeuvres, full toggle checks, rear riser braking. Full flare, front risers, note the differences. Depending on height and wind, maybe another flare and front riser practice. Then he talks us through the landing pattern to attempt a declared landing. Ho hum. So far I've had several lectures on my landing patterns, so I am paying very close attention. After discussing the theory, we actually walk through a mini-landing pattern, using a cone to mark the landing target. And with doing the arm movements for flat turns, suddenly something clicks and I am a bit more confident that I can attempt this. To be honest, I'll be happy if I land on the grass again but maybe I can learn how to get closer to where I want to be.
Then Conrad drops the next bombshell. Not only am I jumping my own pack job for the first time, but we are also going to do a linked exit. Err, what? Which bit of "I don't like the idea of people touching me in freefall" did you not understand??? * So you've got a phobia, this is how you'll get over it.
Umm, not sure about this, but hey, I've had plenty of firsts already this weekend and I trust him, so let's have a look at how we do this. Over to the mock up and we practice a very simple exit. Conrad outside, me holding onto his sleeves (no sausages!!), shake, out-in-out, then he will jump, I will push out with my legs tucked up and we will fall with him grabbing my grips as we leave the aircraft. As we start to level out, I need to straighten my legs and we will just float like that until break off. Okaaaay. Sounds fairly straightforward.
You're not going to do anything fancy, right? * Nope, keep eye contact with me, just stay level until we break, that's it. If it goes wrong at any point, let go, arch and just stay like that until it's time to pull. I'll track away, you don't have to do anything.
Hmm, sounds reasonable, can it really be that easy?
So up we go - we're due out first, then Robyn will dive out after us after a few seconds so Conrad can watch her landing pattern too. And it seems to work fine. The door monster is long since forgotten, I'm too busy concentrating on how much new stuff I still have to learn and we get into the doorway. *Ready?
Yes. Shake, out-in-out, and we're off. I'm looking at Conrad and he's grinning back at me and it's cool. He's holding onto my grips, I've still got his sleeves, I only break eye contact to check my altimeter, and we are floating down together. Ok, this isn't so bad. He isn't attempting to move me around, I don't have to let go and try and dock, he's falling at the same speed as me so I'm not getting dragged down, I can cope with this.
Break off time so we both let go and I shoot backwards. Oops, what happened there then? Oh well, no time to worry about it, I wave off and pull. My canopy opens beautifully, very soft and I suddenly remember that I packed it :-) I've had some hideously hard openings and this one was lovely. Cool! It may be a while before I get signed off, but I'm very happy with my packing so far.
Time for some exercises then. Conrad and Robyn are already way below me and everyone else is still in the plane so I have the sky to myself to play. Rear risers are easy, I've done those several times before, front risers are definitely more of a challenge. Even with a full flare immediately beforehand, pulling those beasties down is almost impossible. My right arm is obviously stronger than my left because I can't pull them down evenly and end up with a slight right turn each time. And I literally only get a couple of seconds before they are pulled out of my hands. No chance of ever actually using them in anger on a student parachute then, lol.
I'm struggling to stay in the holding area so keep facing into wind which means I have to keep craning over my shoulder to watch Conrad set up his pattern. So much for "follow me in", rofl. I am still at 2000' and he's on the ground, ha ha. I watch Robyn start her pattern, then I'm low enough to sort out my own approach. Except I'm coming in too fast, so I turn away again to drop some more height. We've talked (and walked) through the whole approach, so that works perfectly. I'm set up nicely on the downwind leg, and the base works too. I turn into wind, and find the wind has dropped more than I expected. I try to 'S' off the distance but only do tiny turns and don't lose enough height. I land maybe 50m beyond the pit but am delighted! It all worked! I should have turned a bit later off my downwind leg, or maybe done bigger S turns, but I am on the grass, on my feet, within a few metres (relatively!) of my target!! This is such a massive achievement compared with some of my other landings, I am bouncing all over the place. 3 landings in a row on the grass, on my feet, on two consecutive days. Ok, now maybe I can say I'm starting to get it :-)
And as Conrad reaches his hand to his helmet, I suddenly remember that he was videoing the whole thing - exit, freefall, deployment, landing. Wow. So for the first time I will be able to see what I am doing, what it looks like and maybe get some more corrections and things to practice. I am one happy bunny :-) We head back to the packing shed and I'm prepared to pack my rig again but it's needed by someone who is already manifested so I have to give it to the packers instead. In the process, I forget to take my knife off the chest strap and have to retrieve it later, once they come back down.
We try to manifest for the last load but there are no rigs available so we have to wait for everyone to come back. Conrad packs for me but it is the sunset load and the pilot tells me they are only going to the top. Since it was so cold yesterday, I decide not to go; I've had a fantastic weekend and don't want to wreck it by rushing for a final jump that may not go too well if I get cold hands and can't feel my toggles properly.
So I go back to the bunk house to get changed and pack up the car, with a very warm fuzzy feeling. This is the first time in a long time that I have been so enthusiastic about skydiving and it feels good!
Will I jump today? Not sure, the forecast is good but I am very tired and had a very challenging day yesterday. So I pootle out to the manifest office and am not impressed by the apparent wind speeds. After checking out the flight run-in board, I am even less impressed! The winds are not going to stop experienced jumpers but the direction is not great and they are higher than I would like. So time for a cup of tea then :-)
Paul has recovered the main that I chopped yesterday (wading in water up to his chest in the process - yikes!) and it was definitely a locked toggle so I made the right decision to cutaway. Cecilia wants to practice for her packing assessment so she tackles the sodden tangled mess!! Thankfully it appears to be free from damage though it will need drying out and a careful inspection from the rigger before it is fit to jump again.
I potter about for a couple of hours, watching landings (all over the place!) and chatting with other people who have decided that the winds are a tad beyond their comfort zone, then decide to go and get some packing practice by helping Conrad convert a couple of rigs back to normal pilot chute throws after his course last week. He gives me the ripcord rig and tells me to put it on. Properly or just over my shoulders? *Properly. Ok, not sure what he has in mind, but happy enough to comply since I'm going to be practising packing anyway, I scramble into the rig.
*Ok, find the handle, it's similar to a pilot chute pull but may be a bit harder. Watch the whippy end of the cord in your face. Keep hold of your handle.
Umm, ok. I pull the ripcord and have a toggle and length of plastic line in my hand as my spring-loaded pilot chute fires off my bag, pulling the D-bag out of the container onto the floor.
I look back at Conrad who is now laughing. * See if you had been a RAPS student, you wouldn't have dropped your handles after your mal.
Ooo, mean, lol! I call him a few names as I'm laughing. Point taken, guess if I ever have another mal, I'll remember to keep hold of my handles unless things are going very wrong....
So I now have a canopy on the floor that needs repacking, Conrad has the other rig that needs sorting out, so I begin. Except I get confused pretty quickly. I lay out the canopy ok, and do the 4 line check, then get myself in a muddle over whether I am flat packing or pro packing. Conrad comes to the rescue. Either flat pack and he'll check each stage off, or pro pack alongside him so he can watch every step as I do it. Ok, I'll pro pack alongside. I manage fine until trying to fold in the loose fabric so I pause while Conrad gets his canopy into the bag and comes to help. We get to the point where I have to wrestle the canopy into the D-bag and Conrad shows me another way of doing it. I get to the bag lock and am feeling pretty pleased with myself, thinking I'll have another go in a minute, when the tannoy announces a call for more fun jumpers to fill the load. Conrad asks if I'm prepared to jump my canopy. I pause for a moment and can't think of any reason why not - he's supervised my packing and I've kept my lines taut and the slider is nicely placed. So I say yes and we keep going - I finish the lines, then he helps me put the D-bag into the container. I sort the risers and then close the container, before doing the pilot chute. We head out to manifest to see what types of jump are on the load. We collect Robyn on the way and decide to do a hop and pop from 7000 to practice CH2 skills. The plane will be on a refuel shut-down so we have a bit of time to work out the plan.
Conrad talks us through the drills - rear riser avoidance manoeuvres, full toggle checks, rear riser braking. Full flare, front risers, note the differences. Depending on height and wind, maybe another flare and front riser practice. Then he talks us through the landing pattern to attempt a declared landing. Ho hum. So far I've had several lectures on my landing patterns, so I am paying very close attention. After discussing the theory, we actually walk through a mini-landing pattern, using a cone to mark the landing target. And with doing the arm movements for flat turns, suddenly something clicks and I am a bit more confident that I can attempt this. To be honest, I'll be happy if I land on the grass again but maybe I can learn how to get closer to where I want to be.
Then Conrad drops the next bombshell. Not only am I jumping my own pack job for the first time, but we are also going to do a linked exit. Err, what? Which bit of "I don't like the idea of people touching me in freefall" did you not understand??? * So you've got a phobia, this is how you'll get over it.
Umm, not sure about this, but hey, I've had plenty of firsts already this weekend and I trust him, so let's have a look at how we do this. Over to the mock up and we practice a very simple exit. Conrad outside, me holding onto his sleeves (no sausages!!), shake, out-in-out, then he will jump, I will push out with my legs tucked up and we will fall with him grabbing my grips as we leave the aircraft. As we start to level out, I need to straighten my legs and we will just float like that until break off. Okaaaay. Sounds fairly straightforward.
You're not going to do anything fancy, right? * Nope, keep eye contact with me, just stay level until we break, that's it. If it goes wrong at any point, let go, arch and just stay like that until it's time to pull. I'll track away, you don't have to do anything.
Hmm, sounds reasonable, can it really be that easy?
So up we go - we're due out first, then Robyn will dive out after us after a few seconds so Conrad can watch her landing pattern too. And it seems to work fine. The door monster is long since forgotten, I'm too busy concentrating on how much new stuff I still have to learn and we get into the doorway. *Ready?
Yes. Shake, out-in-out, and we're off. I'm looking at Conrad and he's grinning back at me and it's cool. He's holding onto my grips, I've still got his sleeves, I only break eye contact to check my altimeter, and we are floating down together. Ok, this isn't so bad. He isn't attempting to move me around, I don't have to let go and try and dock, he's falling at the same speed as me so I'm not getting dragged down, I can cope with this.
Break off time so we both let go and I shoot backwards. Oops, what happened there then? Oh well, no time to worry about it, I wave off and pull. My canopy opens beautifully, very soft and I suddenly remember that I packed it :-) I've had some hideously hard openings and this one was lovely. Cool! It may be a while before I get signed off, but I'm very happy with my packing so far.
Time for some exercises then. Conrad and Robyn are already way below me and everyone else is still in the plane so I have the sky to myself to play. Rear risers are easy, I've done those several times before, front risers are definitely more of a challenge. Even with a full flare immediately beforehand, pulling those beasties down is almost impossible. My right arm is obviously stronger than my left because I can't pull them down evenly and end up with a slight right turn each time. And I literally only get a couple of seconds before they are pulled out of my hands. No chance of ever actually using them in anger on a student parachute then, lol.
I'm struggling to stay in the holding area so keep facing into wind which means I have to keep craning over my shoulder to watch Conrad set up his pattern. So much for "follow me in", rofl. I am still at 2000' and he's on the ground, ha ha. I watch Robyn start her pattern, then I'm low enough to sort out my own approach. Except I'm coming in too fast, so I turn away again to drop some more height. We've talked (and walked) through the whole approach, so that works perfectly. I'm set up nicely on the downwind leg, and the base works too. I turn into wind, and find the wind has dropped more than I expected. I try to 'S' off the distance but only do tiny turns and don't lose enough height. I land maybe 50m beyond the pit but am delighted! It all worked! I should have turned a bit later off my downwind leg, or maybe done bigger S turns, but I am on the grass, on my feet, within a few metres (relatively!) of my target!! This is such a massive achievement compared with some of my other landings, I am bouncing all over the place. 3 landings in a row on the grass, on my feet, on two consecutive days. Ok, now maybe I can say I'm starting to get it :-)
And as Conrad reaches his hand to his helmet, I suddenly remember that he was videoing the whole thing - exit, freefall, deployment, landing. Wow. So for the first time I will be able to see what I am doing, what it looks like and maybe get some more corrections and things to practice. I am one happy bunny :-) We head back to the packing shed and I'm prepared to pack my rig again but it's needed by someone who is already manifested so I have to give it to the packers instead. In the process, I forget to take my knife off the chest strap and have to retrieve it later, once they come back down.
We try to manifest for the last load but there are no rigs available so we have to wait for everyone to come back. Conrad packs for me but it is the sunset load and the pilot tells me they are only going to the top. Since it was so cold yesterday, I decide not to go; I've had a fantastic weekend and don't want to wreck it by rushing for a final jump that may not go too well if I get cold hands and can't feel my toggles properly.
So I go back to the bunk house to get changed and pack up the car, with a very warm fuzzy feeling. This is the first time in a long time that I have been so enthusiastic about skydiving and it feels good!
Back in the sky – and first malfunction! 09 Nov 2013
After a horrendous journey in extremely heavy traffic, I
eventually arrived at the dz well after 9pm on Friday night. Having planned to leave work early to try and
get up there for about 6:30, I was pretty zonked and planned to have a
relatively early night, then a lie-in (if possible, difficult for an
insomniac!) and pootle about practising packing and drinking lots of tea on
Saturday. Except the weather forecast
changed from horrible, to actually quite pleasant. Cold, but not too much wind, with clear sunny
spells. Might be jumping after all….
And so it turned out.
Got up at 8:30am and tandems were already arriving for their
briefings. Several AFF students were
also being briefed and the first load was manifesting. So I put my name down and found a rig, though
at 280 sq ft, it was bigger than I really wanted. Cecilia and I headed to the packing shed to
see if there were any other rigs available and found another 4. I grabbed a 260 and she got the 240 and we
headed back to kit up. It was to prove
to be an eventful decision!
All was fine going up and I wasn’t nervous in the plane,
even though I’d expected to be after a break of 6 weeks. This was my first jump after qualifying so I
had absolutely nothing to prove, just try and concentrate on a good landing and
get these patterns sorted so I can land on the grass. The temp at altitude was -13 deg C so I was
bundled up in as many layers as I could get on, including a thermal hoodie
(with the hood on under my helmet!) and a neck warmer that was pulled up over
my mouth and nose. I decided on a tuck
exit so jumped and went straight into a couple of back flips and then
arched. Nice and easy, nothing
challenging, all very familiar. Then I
checked for the landing area. And
couldn’t see it! The familiar landmarks didn’t seem to be there. Eventually I realised that the caravans that
usually mark a line directly towards the landing area had been removed so there
was only a series of brown patches in the grass marking where the bright white
caravans had been lined up. I was fairly
comfortable with my exercises, so decided to pull at 4,000’ as planned. That was all fine, soft opening, clear airspace
– until I went for my toggle checks. And
discovered that my left brake toggle was stuck.
The right one came down cleanly so I was a bit confused for a moment,
then tried to inspect the toggle to see what was wrong. I couldn’t work it out so gave it a few more
firm tugs and nothing was happening. I
was still in clear air and at good height so I gave it a hard yank – and all
that happened was the rear riser pulled down.
Ok, I can’t steer left and I definitely can’t flare. It briefly crossed my mind that I could
attempt to land on rear risers but instantly dismissed that as being a) too
tiring and b) probably way beyond my capabilities at this stage. So time for a cutaway.
Oh *&%^! The air was a bit blue for a
couple of seconds, but my hands were already going for my handles. I didn’t
even need to look, I’d checked them several times on the ground and in the plane and
since I was on a slow malfunction (flying under a good canopy, just not able to
control it fully) and was upright, the handles were exactly where I expected.
So Cut – Away – Reserve and suddenly I’m back in freefall. Although we’d drilled for this, the reality
is a bit of a shock. One moment I’m
floating under a nice big canopy, then next minute my risers are flying up away
from me and I’m accelerating fast. It
seemed to take a long time for the reserve to deploy and ‘catch’ me but that
was probably because of the contrast between being under canopy and freefalling
again. In reality, I doubt it was longer
than 3 seconds. Unfortunately my brain had gone into overdrive mode by then so
I dropped my handles as I was so focused on getting hold of my new
toggles. It can’t have been very long
because I had a very soft opening and was nowhere near terminal velocity. I was also still quite close to my wildly
flapping main canopy and could see it twisting as it flew.
Next step – now I’m back under a fully functional canopy
(bright canary yellow) and have done all my checks (not bothering with the
system checks for obvious reasons, lol), I’m trying to work out where to
land. Luckily the winds were relatively
light so I hadn’t gone too far off course.
I was at about 2,000’ and quite close to the landing area on the correct
side of the runway, so I was able to crab sideways across the fields and get in
line with the landing area. I was too
far downwind to have any hope of making it back to the grass but I was happy to
be in the right general area. I landed
neatly on my feet, gathered everything up and headed for the bus.
Lots of teasing and a beer fine to follow for my first
malfunction and chop (with another beer fine for losing my handles!) but
everyone was very pleased to see I was ok. I was a little shaken but not
excessively so – I kept expecting to go into shock once I’d had time to process
what had happened, but throughout the day, I never did. My main canopy didn’t function fully, I’d
been trained to perform EPs without thinking about it, and it all just
worked. I filled out my malfunction
form, had a cup of tea and manifested for load 3. I didn’t have any qualms at all about getting
back in the plane or jumping again, which I think surprised a couple of people.
But my adventures for the day were not yet over. Up we went, threw out Conrad and Brian for a
hop and pop at 5,000’ and continued up to altitude. By 6000’, the cloud had started. And I kept looking out of the window as we
climbed and couldn’t see anything. By
8000, I spoke to Papa G and asked if he could see anything. He wasn’t concerned and said we would look
for a gap in the cloud when we were on jump run. Ok, fair enough. Except this looked a bit thick to be broken
cloud cover….
9000, 10000 and I’m still not able to see anything at all
out of the window. Charlotte was JM and
she asked the pilot Wayne what the wind speed was at the top. 30 knots.
Ok, so now we have several thousand feet of thick cloud, high winds and
no sight of the landing zone. Charlotte
looked for the spot and called it. She
told the pilot and the rest of us that she wasn’t prepared to jump with her FS1
student as they wanted to pull at 6000 and couldn’t guarantee they would be out
of the clouds, plus wouldn’t be able to see each other for the coached jump
anyway. I had already decided there was
no way I was getting out. Tim was happy
to take his tandem out, and Papa G and Thomas also decided to jump, though
Thomas left his skysurf board in the plane.
4 of us stayed put and came back down.
I was more than happy to lose my jump ticket in order to avoid any
further risks – I would be flying blind for way too long, had no GPS or other
indicator of direction and wasn’t convinced that the cloud would stay clear
below 6000’. I hate clouds at the best
of times – icy clouds in high winds were definitely a no-brainer!
A nice surprise when we landed was that we were refunded
our jump tickets. Because the JM
declared she wasn’t happy with the spot and couldn’t see it, and because the
clouds turned out to be 6000’ deep (12000’ down to 6000’ on our descent!), the
dz credited us for the jumps even though some people had chosen to jump
anyway. They all landed safely, though
they all flew through ice and rain – definitely the right decision to stay in
the plane, lol.
And onto the next adventure. Tracking down a missing main…..
As I was landing under reserve, Kye was already off
looking for the freebag and main. As the
plane went up for loads 2 and 3, Wayne was looking out over the fields for the
main too. But so far, it hadn’t been spotted. How can 260 sq ft of dayglo orange parachute
just disappear?? It was cloudy up high
but the sky lower down was clear and bright, where on earth had it gone? I joined in the search and spent over 2 hours
walking around fields inspecting trees, hedgerows and ditches along the
approximate flight path but no joy. I
even had the locals helping me at some points – I must have looked a strange
sight, striding about in a blue jumpsuit with bright yellow FS grips on the
legs, periodically consulting a map, ha ha.
As I drove back to try and catch up with everyone to see
where to search next, Conrad stopped me to let me know that the canopy had been
spotted from the air, stuck in some trees and someone had headed off to
retrieve it. 3 hours later, and it had
been seen (and photographed) from the air again but still not tracked down on
foot. Eventually, the guys worked out
which treeline it must be in, and planned to go back first thing in the morning when
it was light to see about recovering it.
So back to manifest then for round 3. I was manifested onto load 5 (very slow
day!), found another rig and off we went again.
So far today I’ve had a reserve ride, lost my handles, come back down in
the plane for the first time (another beer fine) and lost a main canopy that
hasn’t yet been recovered. My bar bill
is going to be impressive, surely my adventures are done for the day…??? Err no.
Another first. This time a
nuisance factor. I have never
experienced line twists ever. Until
today. 7 full twists after I pulled at
4000’. Is somebody trying to tell me
something, rofl? Kicked them all out
eventually, canopy was functioning fine and I landed, according to the correct
pattern, on my feet on the grass. Yay! Go me!
Back to the minibus and I’ve pretty much had enough for
the day. Way too much excitement and I
really could do without anything else going wrong. Except everyone on the bus has a different
plan – sunset load! Really? Yes, ok fine guys, you go ahead without me. Nope, not good enough. What??!! Haven’t I had enough excitement for one
day? And anyway I haven’t got a rig.
* There’s loads of rigs, not a good enough excuse. Get on the manifest.
And as I go into the packing shed, sure enough, there is
a 280 packed and ready to go. Lol, you
talked me into it. So the guys race to
pack their kit and I head back over to manifest to warm up for a couple of
minutes. No need to even take my gloves
or altimeter off, we are already on a 15 minute call to get back up before it
gets too dark.
And so we head up for the final lift of the day. And it’s bitterly cold up there. For the first time, I really feel it in
freefall – not just the icy wind on my face, but my feet and hands are feeling
it too. I had a great jump, with another
good landing (on my feet on the grass again) but my hands are like blocks of
ice and the Reynauds has kicked in. I won’t be doing another sunset load in
these temperatures, I have found my limit.
And it’s been an awesome day. Considering the forecast was so dire, I would
have been really pleased to get 3 jumps in regardless, and tomorrow looks like
being even better weather-wise. I coped pretty well with my first malfunction,
the bar tab wasn’t too outrageous as not many people stayed since they had a
party to go to, and now Conrad has promised to do a two-way with me tomorrow if
the weather proves to be as good as it’s forecast to be. Life is good :-)
Progression weekend 02-03 Nov 2013
Decided to try my hand at packing and get some of the briefings needed
to progress towards my B licence to see if I got excited about skydiving and
sticking with it. Had a lot of
information thrown at us and we had a lot of great discussions about the whys
and wherefores of various recommendations and regulations. The JM stuff prompted the most debate, mainly
around the exit order of various groups of jumpers. We came up with about 11 different categories
of jump and about the only thing we all agreed on was that hop and pops go out
first, lol. Unless of course you’ve got static line jumpers on the same load in
which case you boot them out first, ha ha, but that’s pretty rare at our dz
these days. I’m now kind of intrigued about static line – I still can’t really
envisage how it works in practice and it might be fun to try it. Funny how the thought of not being under
canopy until 3,500’ still feels a bit unnerving when static line jumpers all
start at that height, most experienced jumpers pull somewhere between 2,000 and
3,000 and my AAD wouldn’t actually fire until about 1,000!! And on my canopy, it still takes a long time
to get down from 3,000+ :-)
In the end, Mark H explained why we use the exit order that we do at our dz, how it varies at other dz’s and some of the reasons for the variations. So we have static line and hop & pops first, then followed usually by CReW jumpers if there any about (not often here). And we only get the accuracy jumpers just before a competition and they’re usually out at 3,500 so no real arguments there either. So the real debate was about who gets out in which order at the top.
Here we throw out the FS jumpers first (large groups – small – solo), then the FFs. But then our resident skysurfers complicate the mix, lol. So if they’re on board, they go out first. And we were all fairly comfortable with AFFs, then tandems, then wingsuiters going last. Which left tracking groups and hybrids (a mixture of disciplines within the same group). So usually we despatch the trackers before AFF and then the hybrids depends on which disciplines and how high they are going to pull. In practice, they often count as FS/FF combinations.
And we only have one plane in the air at a time here so that makes things a lot simpler. At dz’s where they have multiple loads in the air at the same time, it can get much more complicated, trying to keep everyone horizontally and vertically separated, especially given the different fall rates and pull heights. So I shall be trying to determine the order of each load I am on from now on and ask questions about any decisions I am not sure of.
First few goes were taken in ‘check’ stages, where a qualified packer can inspect someone’s pack job at predefined intervals and then sign the stage off to say that the stage had been done correctly. So we got the hang of handling several hundred square feet of slippery fabric with numerous lines and fiddly bits, lol. My first couple of pack jobs were a real battle but by the third one, Conrad reckoned he would jump it, so my next challenge will be to do a supervised pack job and jump it myself. Quite looking forward to that although I won’t get many jumps in that day, rofl. I’m guessing with the weather turning, I’ll be getting a lot of packing practice in on days when there is no jumping.
In the end, Mark H explained why we use the exit order that we do at our dz, how it varies at other dz’s and some of the reasons for the variations. So we have static line and hop & pops first, then followed usually by CReW jumpers if there any about (not often here). And we only get the accuracy jumpers just before a competition and they’re usually out at 3,500 so no real arguments there either. So the real debate was about who gets out in which order at the top.
Here we throw out the FS jumpers first (large groups – small – solo), then the FFs. But then our resident skysurfers complicate the mix, lol. So if they’re on board, they go out first. And we were all fairly comfortable with AFFs, then tandems, then wingsuiters going last. Which left tracking groups and hybrids (a mixture of disciplines within the same group). So usually we despatch the trackers before AFF and then the hybrids depends on which disciplines and how high they are going to pull. In practice, they often count as FS/FF combinations.
And we only have one plane in the air at a time here so that makes things a lot simpler. At dz’s where they have multiple loads in the air at the same time, it can get much more complicated, trying to keep everyone horizontally and vertically separated, especially given the different fall rates and pull heights. So I shall be trying to determine the order of each load I am on from now on and ask questions about any decisions I am not sure of.
The responsibilities of a jump master were somewhat
sobering. It’s all very well determining
who goes out in which order and then spotting, and getting everyone out. It’s somewhat more difficult for an emergency
situation where the options vary greatly depending on the experience of the
jumpers and height and type of emergency.
Generally it was agreed that anything over 2’000 feet and everyone was
getting out, even students, though they would be told to have their hand on the
reserve hand and pull as soon as they were clear. 1000’ was more difficult – maybe experienced
people would be out if the pilot could hold the plane steady. Any less than that and it would be a case of
going down in the plane. If a parachute
comes out of the container (either main or reserve), everyone is coming back
down in the plane. And if there’s a
problem higher up, then there probably would be no reason not to go for the
main, even for students.
There were loads more things that a JM is responsible
for, like the manifest checking and communicating with the pilot about the spot
and whether to let people jump, or to go around again but it was all a bit much
to take in so I’ll start practising and do another refresher when they run it
again in Feb :-)
The kit overview was fascinating – so many different
variations of container, with differing deployment methods (packing a ripcord
spring-loaded pilot chute is definitely a challenge!), each with their pros and
cons. Definitely waiting longer before purchasing any kit!
And packing itself is something of an art too. Flat-packing was a challenge because of the
amount of room it took up and the amount of crawling around on the floor that
was necessary, but it did make it much clearer how the pack-job needs to be in
order for the lines to stay clear and taut and to make sure everything is in
the right order. So then we moved on to
pro-packing, which is essentially flat-packing done over the shoulder, partly
for space reasons and partly to keep the canopy off the floor as much as
possible. And it’s quicker! First few goes were taken in ‘check’ stages, where a qualified packer can inspect someone’s pack job at predefined intervals and then sign the stage off to say that the stage had been done correctly. So we got the hang of handling several hundred square feet of slippery fabric with numerous lines and fiddly bits, lol. My first couple of pack jobs were a real battle but by the third one, Conrad reckoned he would jump it, so my next challenge will be to do a supervised pack job and jump it myself. Quite looking forward to that although I won’t get many jumps in that day, rofl. I’m guessing with the weather turning, I’ll be getting a lot of packing practice in on days when there is no jumping.
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