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.
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.
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 :-)
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!!
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 :-)
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 :-)
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!!
