The plan today was to just do as many jumps as I could squeeze in. Probably all solo fun jumps, but maybe a coach jump, too.
Winds were out of the WNW at about 10-15 when I got on the plane. Turns out they were a little stronger when I landed, and if there had been another wind speed reading before I got on the plane, I probably would have been grounded.
The upper winds were strong, too. Roughly the same direction, but 45 & 50 mph.
Todd (never met him before) got out first. I went out a few seconds after him. Stable almost instantly. No tumbling or flailing. I did a couple of 180 degree turns in either direction. At about 9,000 feet, I looked down to see the ground moving under me. That surprised me, until I thought for a second and realized that's exactly what should be happening with 50 mph winds. I did a barrel roll, a couple more turns, then waved off and pulled.
I opened up across the street from the airport near the trailer park area. I tried to get to the other end of the airport for a while, then took Grant's advice to point into the wind and not get blown to the other side of the runway. I never really got into a good landing pattern, but I got pretty close.
I landed in the main area a little toward the picnic tables. Didn't stand it up, mostly because of the wind. Fought with the canopy until Jamie yelled that I should swing around to the other side. Once I was downwind of the canopy, pulling on the lines didn't make it reinflate.
In the hangar, the chart showed the winds were too high. I waited for a while, and finally got a reading low enough for me to jump. The next reading was back up to 17, so the clock reset. I headed for home.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
2 jumps today, not working on any Category skills
I jumped twice today. The first was a solo jump, which was the first time I ever jumped with nobody else around. The second was a coach jump with Tammy's dad, John Fitzgerald.
Clear blue skies. Winds from the west / southwest at a fairly steady 10-15 mph. Warmed up to about 75.
A group of 3 (Aaron's friend, Casey, and a woman I don't know) went first on my first jump. I watched them for about 5-6 seconds and went out from kneeling. I was stable very quickly, then I must have done something with my feet because I ended up flipping over. Flipped back and started working on turns. I still have a tendency to flatten out my arch on turns. Keep working on that.
Under canopy, I found myself a lot further downwind than I wanted to be. I tried to fly into the wind to get to a good spot to enter a landing pattern. I just wasn't making any headway over the ground. Gave up trying, and flew around over the field at the long end of the runway, just east of the hangar. I kept looking for other traffic, and saw none in my area. Basically landed straight in and ended up directly in front of the hangar door about 30 feet into the grass.
A solo jumper went first on my second jump. Then John got into position facing into the door. I put my right hand on his belly to help with the count. He went, and I went right with him. I angled my body into the wind, rotated my left arm to point toward him, and ended up face-to-face about 5 feet away. Then I tumbled. I must have screwed up my legs. Got stable, turned around, and flew to John. We grabbed hands for a second and backed off. He dropped lower, and I caught him. He let me sink lower, and when I stuck my butt up to slow down, I turned 180 degrees left. Turned around, came back to him. We dropped, I caught him again. He let me sink, and I did another 180 degree left turn. Turned around, came back, we docked until about 6,000. Released, I turned and tracked away about 50 feet, waved and pulled at about 4,500.
I watched John keep falling and watched him pull. That was something I'd never really watched before.
I played around under canopy, and got into a good landing pattern. Until the very end, where it became obvious that I was not landing before the taxiway. About halfway across the taxiway, I started a gentle flare, pulled my feet up just a little, then finished my flare and landed on the grass on the other side of the taxiway.
Clear blue skies. Winds from the west / southwest at a fairly steady 10-15 mph. Warmed up to about 75.
A group of 3 (Aaron's friend, Casey, and a woman I don't know) went first on my first jump. I watched them for about 5-6 seconds and went out from kneeling. I was stable very quickly, then I must have done something with my feet because I ended up flipping over. Flipped back and started working on turns. I still have a tendency to flatten out my arch on turns. Keep working on that.
Under canopy, I found myself a lot further downwind than I wanted to be. I tried to fly into the wind to get to a good spot to enter a landing pattern. I just wasn't making any headway over the ground. Gave up trying, and flew around over the field at the long end of the runway, just east of the hangar. I kept looking for other traffic, and saw none in my area. Basically landed straight in and ended up directly in front of the hangar door about 30 feet into the grass.
A solo jumper went first on my second jump. Then John got into position facing into the door. I put my right hand on his belly to help with the count. He went, and I went right with him. I angled my body into the wind, rotated my left arm to point toward him, and ended up face-to-face about 5 feet away. Then I tumbled. I must have screwed up my legs. Got stable, turned around, and flew to John. We grabbed hands for a second and backed off. He dropped lower, and I caught him. He let me sink lower, and when I stuck my butt up to slow down, I turned 180 degrees left. Turned around, came back to him. We dropped, I caught him again. He let me sink, and I did another 180 degree left turn. Turned around, came back, we docked until about 6,000. Released, I turned and tracked away about 50 feet, waved and pulled at about 4,500.
I watched John keep falling and watched him pull. That was something I'd never really watched before.
I played around under canopy, and got into a good landing pattern. Until the very end, where it became obvious that I was not landing before the taxiway. About halfway across the taxiway, I started a gentle flare, pulled my feet up just a little, then finished my flare and landed on the grass on the other side of the taxiway.
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