I made 3 jumps out of the Skyvan today. We get packed into that thing like sardines, but there's about a 6 1/2 foot ceiling when we're getting out. It was a little surprising when the first big group got out - the whole plane tipped!
Jump 1 - Exited by basically diving out. It took a little longer to get stable, but I didn't tumble. Worked on some turns and did some tracking. Turns, deep brakes, back and forth turns under canopy. Landed past the end of the runway, but flared perfectly and stood up.
Jump 2 - Exited by turning around, holding the bar, and stepping off. Watched the plane go. Turns, deeper arch and plank to change descent rate. More of the same practice under canopy. Landed in front of other hangar and went to my knees. Flared too high.
Jump 3 - Exited by turning around, holding the bar, bending down, and lunging back into the Nestea Plunge. Did almost 2 complete revolutions. As I was about coming up to vertical the second time around, the wind really caught my chest and I went over the hill. Practiced the same things in free fall and under canopy. Landed in front of the other hangar. Flared way too high. Bill Hanrahan came out to talk to me about my landing. He gave me some good advice on when to flare, backing it up with the reason why I want to flare. He told me to wait until I was much lower (look at the top of the fuel truck of the flag poles) and flare in one nice smooth motion.
The Skyvan was definitely cool to jump out of. I'd love to try it again.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
2 jumps, too tired to do more
It was a beautiful day for skydiving. Well, it was pretty warm, but the skies were clear, there were some fluffy clouds, and the winds stayed under my limit.
I made two solo jumps. They were pretty much the same jump, so I'll talk about them together. First of all, last week Casey said that I was not relaxing enough when I exited the plane, and during freefall. He suggested that I watch the plane fly away after I leave, rather than focus on getting into position. He also told me that the student arm position is not really the optimum body position, and that I should bring my arms in a little. Both of these helped a ton.
On both jumps, I climbed out of the door, held on to the bar, and stepped off the plane into the wind. I watched the plane as long as I could. My arch really did seem to come naturally, and I was totally stable into the relative all the way over the hill.
In freefall, I did some turns and some tracking, mostly to practice relaxing back into a neutral position. Almost no "chipping," and when I did, I found that the answer was not to shove my pelvis out forcefully, but to ease back into position. On the second jump, I worked on the position where my arms are straight out, my legs are straight out, and my arch flattens. That should slow freefall and allow somebody above me to fall down to me. I completely expected to roll over and end up on my back. Nope. Stayed stable, but I have no real way to measure if my freefall rate slowed.
On my first opening, I had line twist. As the canopy opened, I looked up. As always. This time, I saw that the lines were twisted, probably once around, maybe one and a half times. I was completely calm, and let all the emergency procedure training kick in. I reached up for the risers, grabbed them, and started to spread them out. Honestly, I think the twist was untwisted by the time I started to spread the risers, but I'm glad I did the right thing!
On both canopy rides, I played around. Steep turns with aggressive toggle input, rear riser turns, reverse turns.
Both landings were sub-par. The first was in front of the FBO and the second was closer to the other hangar. I'm pretty sure I flared at the right time. I certainly flared all the way. PLFed both of them. Maybe I just need to be better prepared to run it out on low-wind days. Maybe I need to ask somebody to watch my landings to give me some criticism and advice.
During the 2nd ride on the plane, we took a tour of the fire near the quarry. I was amazed that Matt would bank as steeply as he did with that much weight in the plane. Also, I found myself yawning constantly during the plane ride. When I got down, I waited until the next bunch landed, while I thought about whether I should do another one. I decided I was just too tired, and that I'd be more likely to screw up. Discretion is the better part of valor, right?
I made two solo jumps. They were pretty much the same jump, so I'll talk about them together. First of all, last week Casey said that I was not relaxing enough when I exited the plane, and during freefall. He suggested that I watch the plane fly away after I leave, rather than focus on getting into position. He also told me that the student arm position is not really the optimum body position, and that I should bring my arms in a little. Both of these helped a ton.
On both jumps, I climbed out of the door, held on to the bar, and stepped off the plane into the wind. I watched the plane as long as I could. My arch really did seem to come naturally, and I was totally stable into the relative all the way over the hill.
In freefall, I did some turns and some tracking, mostly to practice relaxing back into a neutral position. Almost no "chipping," and when I did, I found that the answer was not to shove my pelvis out forcefully, but to ease back into position. On the second jump, I worked on the position where my arms are straight out, my legs are straight out, and my arch flattens. That should slow freefall and allow somebody above me to fall down to me. I completely expected to roll over and end up on my back. Nope. Stayed stable, but I have no real way to measure if my freefall rate slowed.
On my first opening, I had line twist. As the canopy opened, I looked up. As always. This time, I saw that the lines were twisted, probably once around, maybe one and a half times. I was completely calm, and let all the emergency procedure training kick in. I reached up for the risers, grabbed them, and started to spread them out. Honestly, I think the twist was untwisted by the time I started to spread the risers, but I'm glad I did the right thing!
On both canopy rides, I played around. Steep turns with aggressive toggle input, rear riser turns, reverse turns.
Both landings were sub-par. The first was in front of the FBO and the second was closer to the other hangar. I'm pretty sure I flared at the right time. I certainly flared all the way. PLFed both of them. Maybe I just need to be better prepared to run it out on low-wind days. Maybe I need to ask somebody to watch my landings to give me some criticism and advice.
During the 2nd ride on the plane, we took a tour of the fire near the quarry. I was amazed that Matt would bank as steeply as he did with that much weight in the plane. Also, I found myself yawning constantly during the plane ride. When I got down, I waited until the next bunch landed, while I thought about whether I should do another one. I decided I was just too tired, and that I'd be more likely to screw up. Discretion is the better part of valor, right?
Sunday, July 10, 2011
2 jumps (#26 & #27)
I planned on making as many jumps as I could today. The wind limited me to 2. There was almost no wind at all for the two jumps I made.
First was a solo fun jump to warm up. Dove out, flipped on my back, flipped right back over and got stable. I've got to figure that out. Worked on turns & tracking. On my second 10-second track, I started to turn. Easily noticed, easily fixed.
Under canopy, I did 5 high-speed reverse turns. Started with an aggressive turn 90 degrees right, then swapped which toggle was where for 180 degrees. Did that 4 times, then did one 90 degrees right, 180 left, 180 right. Landed exactly where I planned, flared OK, but slid some partly because there was no wind at all in my face.
Second was a coach jump with Casey to do docking. I did most of the spotting. He was a little surprised at how willingly I stuck my head way out of the door to look in all directions. I need to make my exit count more obvious, for one thing. I tumbled a little off the plane. Casey said I went to rigid and wasn't relaxed enough. Work on this! When I was stable, Casey was way above me. I tried to dearch and come up to him. Didn't get far. He finally dropped down to get level with me. I moved to him to dock, released, and he backed away. Did it again. Then we were at about 6,000 feet, and we stopped maneuvers. I turned, tracked away for 3 seconds, pulled at about 3,600 feet. A lot lower than I should have. Casey said (and I felt it) that I was "chippy" on my turns, and in my transition from neutral to delta. I should do that faster, and relax more.
I spent most of my time under canopy getting over near the 6. At about 1,200 feet, another jumper was in front of me (a long, safe distance away) at the same altitude. Since he was coming across, I hung out and fell in behind him. I didn't want to cause him trouble, so I ended up going a little long on my landing pattern and landed in the cornfield up the hill from the picnic area. PLFed.
First was a solo fun jump to warm up. Dove out, flipped on my back, flipped right back over and got stable. I've got to figure that out. Worked on turns & tracking. On my second 10-second track, I started to turn. Easily noticed, easily fixed.
Under canopy, I did 5 high-speed reverse turns. Started with an aggressive turn 90 degrees right, then swapped which toggle was where for 180 degrees. Did that 4 times, then did one 90 degrees right, 180 left, 180 right. Landed exactly where I planned, flared OK, but slid some partly because there was no wind at all in my face.
Second was a coach jump with Casey to do docking. I did most of the spotting. He was a little surprised at how willingly I stuck my head way out of the door to look in all directions. I need to make my exit count more obvious, for one thing. I tumbled a little off the plane. Casey said I went to rigid and wasn't relaxed enough. Work on this! When I was stable, Casey was way above me. I tried to dearch and come up to him. Didn't get far. He finally dropped down to get level with me. I moved to him to dock, released, and he backed away. Did it again. Then we were at about 6,000 feet, and we stopped maneuvers. I turned, tracked away for 3 seconds, pulled at about 3,600 feet. A lot lower than I should have. Casey said (and I felt it) that I was "chippy" on my turns, and in my transition from neutral to delta. I should do that faster, and relax more.
I spent most of my time under canopy getting over near the 6. At about 1,200 feet, another jumper was in front of me (a long, safe distance away) at the same altitude. Since he was coming across, I hung out and fell in behind him. I didn't want to cause him trouble, so I ended up going a little long on my landing pattern and landed in the cornfield up the hill from the picnic area. PLFed.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
4 jumps, including 2 hop-and-pops
Jump 1
Freefall: Solo, dove out, worked on body position, turns, tracking. I think I'm tracking pretty straight, based on watching a heading.
Canopy: Casey suggested doing front riser turns to get that checked off my yellow card. He went over it with me a couple of times, told me what to expect, and told me that it would be hard under the 280. It was. I barely got the 90 degree turns all the way around before my arms and hands needed a break. I couldn't even pull down hard enough to try the 180 degree turns after that. My hands were shaky when I was writing in the log book.
Landing: Stood up in front of the FBO building.
Jump 2 - 5,000 foot clear and pull
Freefall: Not much! Dove out, went a little steep, got stable and pulled. The canopy opens a bit slower when you're not falling as fast.
Canopy: The 280 I jumped on the first load was being packed. The other 280 I picked up was out-of-date. The third 280 had been scraped along a runway yesterday and was out for repairs. I jumped a 260. Much more responsive to turns. Front riser turns were much easier. Did the 180 degree turns and then did the 90s again.
Landing: Possibly a combination of wind and a smaller canopy. I flew a little long. Stood up the landing on the second field in front of the house.
Jump 3
Freefall: I planned on doing the 3,500 foot clear and pull, but there was no instructor on the plane without a tandem. Instead, I rode it all the way up to 12,500 (cloud layer above that). Floating exit. Arched way back and watched the plane continue on. More turns & tracking.
Canopy: Played with the 260.
Landing: Short. I overcompensated for the long landing last time. I cleared the weeds and landed in the shallow gully. At the last minute, I started steering and moving my feet, which put me into a little turn. PLF in the gully, nothing hurts.
Jump 4 - 3,500 foot clear and pull
Freefall: Dove out, got stable in about 4 seconds, waved and pulled. While I was watching the canopy open slowly at a low altitude, I believe I said, "Open, you son of a bitch, open!" Nobody on the ground commented.
Canopy: Played with the 260 again. A little less time, but I still had from about 2,800 to 1,000 feet.
Landing: Planned landing with buildings on the right. The sock was clearly showing that the winds had shifted to be coming straight from the direction of the hangar. Since I was alone, I could safely have altered my landing pattern. It's pretty firmly embedded in my brain to stick with the plan for the safety of everybody, so I stuck with the plan. Crabbed to my left for most of the final. Landed in front of the FBO. Flared a little high, and ended up drifting backwards before landing. PLFed in the grass.
Freefall: Solo, dove out, worked on body position, turns, tracking. I think I'm tracking pretty straight, based on watching a heading.
Canopy: Casey suggested doing front riser turns to get that checked off my yellow card. He went over it with me a couple of times, told me what to expect, and told me that it would be hard under the 280. It was. I barely got the 90 degree turns all the way around before my arms and hands needed a break. I couldn't even pull down hard enough to try the 180 degree turns after that. My hands were shaky when I was writing in the log book.
Landing: Stood up in front of the FBO building.
Jump 2 - 5,000 foot clear and pull
Freefall: Not much! Dove out, went a little steep, got stable and pulled. The canopy opens a bit slower when you're not falling as fast.
Canopy: The 280 I jumped on the first load was being packed. The other 280 I picked up was out-of-date. The third 280 had been scraped along a runway yesterday and was out for repairs. I jumped a 260. Much more responsive to turns. Front riser turns were much easier. Did the 180 degree turns and then did the 90s again.
Landing: Possibly a combination of wind and a smaller canopy. I flew a little long. Stood up the landing on the second field in front of the house.
Jump 3
Freefall: I planned on doing the 3,500 foot clear and pull, but there was no instructor on the plane without a tandem. Instead, I rode it all the way up to 12,500 (cloud layer above that). Floating exit. Arched way back and watched the plane continue on. More turns & tracking.
Canopy: Played with the 260.
Landing: Short. I overcompensated for the long landing last time. I cleared the weeds and landed in the shallow gully. At the last minute, I started steering and moving my feet, which put me into a little turn. PLF in the gully, nothing hurts.
Jump 4 - 3,500 foot clear and pull
Freefall: Dove out, got stable in about 4 seconds, waved and pulled. While I was watching the canopy open slowly at a low altitude, I believe I said, "Open, you son of a bitch, open!" Nobody on the ground commented.
Canopy: Played with the 260 again. A little less time, but I still had from about 2,800 to 1,000 feet.
Landing: Planned landing with buildings on the right. The sock was clearly showing that the winds had shifted to be coming straight from the direction of the hangar. Since I was alone, I could safely have altered my landing pattern. It's pretty firmly embedded in my brain to stick with the plan for the safety of everybody, so I stuck with the plan. Crabbed to my left for most of the final. Landed in front of the FBO. Flared a little high, and ended up drifting backwards before landing. PLFed in the grass.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Fun jump, frustrating day.
First, the annoying part. I arrived at the DZ about 2 minutes before load 1 took off. Very cool that Grant got to jump with his son! The down side is that JR swung some deal to fly a demo jump in Johnstown, so the plane didn't come back until almost noon. At that point, the tandems scheduled for noon were here, so we waited for them to get trained. I got on that load and did my jump. I didn't go right back up on the next load (although I could have) because I wanted to talk to Doc Larry or Grant about how to do the 5000' clear & pull. Load 3 turned out to be the last load of the day.
Doc Larry told me to do a blind exit. I got positioned in the door so that I could dive out chest into the wind, closed my eyes, exited, and kept my eyes closed for 10 seconds. Maybe a little more, because I was at about 12,500' when I checked. Completely different feeling. I felt myself go steep, felt myself level out, felt a turn that I was easily able to correct. When I opened my eyes, I was stable, belly-down, and in great position. Worked on turns & tracking until 5500. Waved off at 5000', opened at 4500'.
Under canopy, I did some more braked turns, some steep turns, some spirals. Quite a bit of turbulence at 1700' that messed with my control of the canopy somewhat.
Pretty good landing pattern. Landed right in front of the hangar. Flared at the right time, but I think the almost 0 mph winds contributed to my skid on the landing.
Doc Larry told me to do a blind exit. I got positioned in the door so that I could dive out chest into the wind, closed my eyes, exited, and kept my eyes closed for 10 seconds. Maybe a little more, because I was at about 12,500' when I checked. Completely different feeling. I felt myself go steep, felt myself level out, felt a turn that I was easily able to correct. When I opened my eyes, I was stable, belly-down, and in great position. Worked on turns & tracking until 5500. Waved off at 5000', opened at 4500'.
Under canopy, I did some more braked turns, some steep turns, some spirals. Quite a bit of turbulence at 1700' that messed with my control of the canopy somewhat.
Pretty good landing pattern. Landed right in front of the hangar. Flared at the right time, but I think the almost 0 mph winds contributed to my skid on the landing.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Started working Cat F jumps
Two jumps today before the wind picked up.
The first was a solo jump. I was 2nd to last out. I tried the delta position for tracking and was amazed that I didn't start tumbling.
Nice, on-heading opening just across Airport Rd. aiming at the 6. Turns, sharper turns, spirals. Got in the landing pattern at the right time, followed the pattern, and landed right in front of the hangar. Flared all the way through, but I still slid and skidded a little. Took a divot of grass with me in my right sneaker.
The second was a coach jump with Casey to do tracking. We were both outside the plane, I did the count, pushed off into the wind, ended up diving and flipped. The plan was to come together first before doing the tracking, so I wasted some time trying to get back to him. Finally gave up, turned 90 degrees, and tracked for about 3 seconds. Got stable, turned around, did it again. Now at about 6200, so I did it again. At the end of that one, I got stable and saw that I was at 4,500 or so. Waved off and pulled. Casey told me that I should start waving off in front of my face to get that last look at altitude.
Easy opening, on-heading. Did a bunch of deep brake turns. Braked until stalled, backed off, then eased up on one side to turn the other direction 180 degrees. I did that about 8 times before it was time to get into my landing pattern.
On landing, I thought I maybe flared too low, because I hit kind of hard. PLFed, so no injury. Afterwards, a guy I never met before said that he was getting caught in rolling thermals from the heat off the runway getting blown by the breeze, and that he had gotten slammed into the ground. Maybe the hard landing wasn't all my fault.
The first was a solo jump. I was 2nd to last out. I tried the delta position for tracking and was amazed that I didn't start tumbling.
Nice, on-heading opening just across Airport Rd. aiming at the 6. Turns, sharper turns, spirals. Got in the landing pattern at the right time, followed the pattern, and landed right in front of the hangar. Flared all the way through, but I still slid and skidded a little. Took a divot of grass with me in my right sneaker.
The second was a coach jump with Casey to do tracking. We were both outside the plane, I did the count, pushed off into the wind, ended up diving and flipped. The plan was to come together first before doing the tracking, so I wasted some time trying to get back to him. Finally gave up, turned 90 degrees, and tracked for about 3 seconds. Got stable, turned around, did it again. Now at about 6200, so I did it again. At the end of that one, I got stable and saw that I was at 4,500 or so. Waved off and pulled. Casey told me that I should start waving off in front of my face to get that last look at altitude.
Easy opening, on-heading. Did a bunch of deep brake turns. Braked until stalled, backed off, then eased up on one side to turn the other direction 180 degrees. I did that about 8 times before it was time to get into my landing pattern.
On landing, I thought I maybe flared too low, because I hit kind of hard. PLFed, so no injury. Afterwards, a guy I never met before said that he was getting caught in rolling thermals from the heat off the runway getting blown by the breeze, and that he had gotten slammed into the ground. Maybe the hard landing wasn't all my fault.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Back in the air for 2011
I only managed one jump today. I got on load 2, then the clouds came in. Hung out, went to get some lunch, and finally the clouds cleared out. Then the winds were too high. Hung out, watched the wind, saw two readings of 15 & 16, then got a 21, which set my clock back to an hour. Done.
I had a brief refresher with Grant. Talked about a couple of things, then talked about what I wanted to do today. I had been thinking about that, and my preference would have been to do a couple of solo jumps just to get back in the swing. That sounded good to Grant, so I geared up for load 2.
I was going to be first out. Spotted with Mike M, who was video for a tandem. Jumped out, got stable quick, and tried some turns. I was much better at stopping them when I wanted to than last fall. Felt the head-to-toe rocking once, arched better and fixed that.
Hard opening with a fast turn. Enough to make me lose my sense of where the airport was, which sucked because it was now hidden under some clouds. I had a decent idea, so I flew toward a hole and saw the airport. I was between the 6 and the road. The clouds came my way, and I tried to stay out of them. After one of my turns, I found myself completely inside a cloud. Weird. Cooler, and damper. I got out quickly to see where I was, and I was still in good shape for my landing pattern.
I turned off the downwind leg a little early. I ended up in the other field toward the big hangar. Flared too high, flared unevenly, didn't complete my flare, so I PLFed.
I had a brief refresher with Grant. Talked about a couple of things, then talked about what I wanted to do today. I had been thinking about that, and my preference would have been to do a couple of solo jumps just to get back in the swing. That sounded good to Grant, so I geared up for load 2.
I was going to be first out. Spotted with Mike M, who was video for a tandem. Jumped out, got stable quick, and tried some turns. I was much better at stopping them when I wanted to than last fall. Felt the head-to-toe rocking once, arched better and fixed that.
Hard opening with a fast turn. Enough to make me lose my sense of where the airport was, which sucked because it was now hidden under some clouds. I had a decent idea, so I flew toward a hole and saw the airport. I was between the 6 and the road. The clouds came my way, and I tried to stay out of them. After one of my turns, I found myself completely inside a cloud. Weird. Cooler, and damper. I got out quickly to see where I was, and I was still in good shape for my landing pattern.
I turned off the downwind leg a little early. I ended up in the other field toward the big hangar. Flared too high, flared unevenly, didn't complete my flare, so I PLFed.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Refresher training
Refresher training today. Picked this over yesterday's safety day, because I really couldn't do both. Smart move. Mostly JR, a bunch of Grant, and a little Vic for about 6 hours, minus a lunch break. Essentially, the first jump course, but some of the basic stuff and the first jump specific stuff cut out, with some more things added in now that we've all jumped at least a few times.
A day well spent.
A day well spent.
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