Cat D-1 & D-2 jumps

This should be two different posts. Whatever.

King Air, almost no wind, early heavy cloud cover that broke up by about 9:15 or so. Both jumps were with Grant.

On my first jump, the D-1, Grant let me spot. He briefed me on spotting on the ground. I've read about it in the SIM, read some stuff on the USPA web site, and still had no solid idea what I was supposed to look for. Grant explained that spotting allows the jumper to see straight down, which the pilot can't do. We're looking for the place on the ground that is the agreed upon place to start exiting the plane. Based on the jump run, which is based on the winds, there is an imaginary line on the ground that we should be past before getting out. OK, cool, makes sense now!

I had a good exit. I forgot to do the practice touch until about 3 seconds later, and decided that I should just go on with the skydive. I have 100% confidence that I can find the hacky and pull it - I've never had any problem with that. Grant must have agreed, because he didn't give me the practice touch sign.

I turned a little too far on most of my turns. I had a little trouble stopping them, and I broke my arch trying to stop. As soon as I got back into my arch, the problems resolved themselves. Grant had to approve every turn with a head nod after I checked altitude and asked for permission for another turn. The rule is that as long as we're over 6,000 ft., I can make another turn. I was surprised when Grant shook his head when we were at about 6,800 ft. Well, he's the boss, so I just stayed in a stable position until 5,500 ft., waved off, and pulled.

Under canopy, I did some rear riser turns with the brakes set. Then I started playing around and heading back toward where I wanted to enter my landing pattern. Grant asked if I wanted landing assistance, and I said that I didn't. Again, I was surprised that he was telling me that I needed to stop playing and get into my landing pattern when I was at about 1,500 ft. Again, he's the boss. I started the downwind leg, turned into base leg way too high because Grant told me to. I turned into the final leg at around 1,100 feet! Where the heck is he putting me? One more surprise - the ground was coming up pretty quickly, so I got ready to land, flared at about the right time, slid a little on my knees, and ended up standing up. The altimeter read 700 feet, which explained all of the other altitude related surprises! All I can think is that I must have slid the adjustment knob around while spotting.

The 2nd jump was a Cat D-2. Solo exit! I spotted, climbed out and held on to the bar along the top of the plane. My exit count was just a 1-2-3 swinging of my left leg out (1), back in (2), and out again (3) as I stepped away into an arch. I was unstable, ended up on my back, kept a good arch, and rolled over into a good stable freefall position. 180 degree turn away and back. 360 degree turn. Again. On the ground, Grant said that he wanted me to move toward him after that and grab his arms. I didn't get my forward motion going, and we ran out of altitude.

I had a hard opening. I leaned way back to watch the canopy open, and for a second thought that I was either going to have to start pulling risers to get it open or maybe even cut it away. The slider was down, and the canopy was only about 1/3 to 1/2 as wide as it should be, and it was staying that way. Until, wham! It opened all the way!

More rear riser work. 180 degree turns in both directions with brakes set. 360 degree turn with brakes set. Then the same again with the brakes released. Played around, got into my pattern. I didn't account for the almost zero wind this time, which made my downwind and final legs be about the same length. Grant got on the radio to tell me to go over the taxiway and land in the other field. OK, no problem. I flared a little early, reached a little for the ground, so I didn't stand this one up.

Except for the Cat-D quiz, I'm cleared for Cat-E! Yeah, do I really want to do front flips, back flips, and barrel rolls?