After last week's freefall debacle, I wanted to do a solo jump just to get myself back into shape. Frank and Rocky went out first, I got in the door, counted to 5, and dove after them. I made sure that they were a good horizontal distance off, then stopped looking at them. I just thought about having a nice, relaxed skydive. I stuck in a couple of 360 degree turns for fun. Nailed those. At 5000 feet, I turned roughly parallel to the runway (to be perpendicular to the flight line), tracked for 5 seconds, got stable, and pulled.
I was amazed at how quiet it was under canopy. Very little wind? No, that shouldn't be it. I figured it out later.
I played around under canopy. Some flat turns, some aggressive (for me) spirals.
The landing pattern was pretty much straight into the buildings on final. I talked to Frank & Rocky before getting on the plane. They gave me some tips about burning off some altitude with S-turns, flying in half-brakes, making a flat turn into the wind when I was fairly low. In the end, I guess I blew it a little by not being far enough upwind when I entered my pattern. I solved my problem by flying next to the runway for a little extra distance and landing on the flat, grassy area on the other side of the picnic tables. Seemed like a good second choice, and the walk back to the hangar was about the same as from the fuel truck. Stood up the landing.
Now, about the peace and quiet... When I was gathering up my canopy, everything sounded a little funny. When I got back to the hangar, I realized that I could barely hear. After a minute of talking (yelling?) at Brian and a couple of other people, I grabbed my nose and blew. Both ears popped, but the right one hurt. I guess I'm not really quite over that cold from earlier in the week. I decided to call it a day rather than screw up my ears. I still hung around for about another hour and a half just soaking up the drop zone energy.
Only 1 jump, but it was a good one, and I learned a couple of things.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Sunday, July 22, 2012
2 jumps, mixed results
After dropping off Matt's foot locker and working the temperature table for the summer camp departure, I got on the road for Chambersburg. Drizzly rain, low dark clouds, thought about going back home. I arrived at about 10:15, and got on the first load at about 12:15. Ugh.
NW winds, 11-13 kts. Jumped the same 260.
Jump 1 - solo
Dove out, keeping my eye on the other solo jumper. In freefall, I used him as a point of reference for some 360 degree turns in both directions. Fast turns, stopped them easily, right back on heading.
From pull to fully open canopy - completely on heading the entire way. I attribute that to a good pack (not me) and a stable pull (me).
Worked on braked turns with different amounts of brakes and different amounts of letting up a toggle to see how it felt. Flew around some clouds. Playing a little by skirting the edges of the clouds and trying to stay out of them but close to them.
Flared a hair high, held it for a second, flared the rest of the way. Half-hearted PLF that I easily could have stood up. Landed in front of the other hangar.
Jump 2 - 3-way (sort of) with Brian (Marine) and Frank (coach)
Frank was front-float, Brian was rear float, I exited right after Frank from inside right in his chest. Plan was that Frank and Brian would be gripped, and I would dock with them, then undock so they could back off and sink, then I would redock. I ended up way lower, and they never stopped a slow spin. I didn't think they'd be able to sink down to me (which was the plan), so I tried to spread out and come up part way to them. Never made it. I got unstable, and ended up on my back. No biggie, I just rolled out of that. Then I started spinning horizontally. In my mind, I said that a spin is just a turn, so all I had to do was stop the turn. I still spun about 4 times very rapidly. I think that I was trying to hard, and stiffened up, which was what led to the whole problem starting with the flip. I stopped worrying about fixing the spin, arched fully, relaxed as best as I could, and the spin stopped. Altitude said under 4500, so I waved and pulled. And forgot to track away from Frank and Brian. Honestly, this was the worst freefall I've had since Cat B or so. Very strange, since I've been having so much fun in freefall this summer. Writing this off as atypical, but using it as a reminder that I need to remember to relax.
I had some fun under canopy. Some slightly more aggressive turns and spins. Stood up a nice landing in front of the other hangar.
NW winds, 11-13 kts. Jumped the same 260.
Jump 1 - solo
Dove out, keeping my eye on the other solo jumper. In freefall, I used him as a point of reference for some 360 degree turns in both directions. Fast turns, stopped them easily, right back on heading.
From pull to fully open canopy - completely on heading the entire way. I attribute that to a good pack (not me) and a stable pull (me).
Worked on braked turns with different amounts of brakes and different amounts of letting up a toggle to see how it felt. Flew around some clouds. Playing a little by skirting the edges of the clouds and trying to stay out of them but close to them.
Flared a hair high, held it for a second, flared the rest of the way. Half-hearted PLF that I easily could have stood up. Landed in front of the other hangar.
Jump 2 - 3-way (sort of) with Brian (Marine) and Frank (coach)
Frank was front-float, Brian was rear float, I exited right after Frank from inside right in his chest. Plan was that Frank and Brian would be gripped, and I would dock with them, then undock so they could back off and sink, then I would redock. I ended up way lower, and they never stopped a slow spin. I didn't think they'd be able to sink down to me (which was the plan), so I tried to spread out and come up part way to them. Never made it. I got unstable, and ended up on my back. No biggie, I just rolled out of that. Then I started spinning horizontally. In my mind, I said that a spin is just a turn, so all I had to do was stop the turn. I still spun about 4 times very rapidly. I think that I was trying to hard, and stiffened up, which was what led to the whole problem starting with the flip. I stopped worrying about fixing the spin, arched fully, relaxed as best as I could, and the spin stopped. Altitude said under 4500, so I waved and pulled. And forgot to track away from Frank and Brian. Honestly, this was the worst freefall I've had since Cat B or so. Very strange, since I've been having so much fun in freefall this summer. Writing this off as atypical, but using it as a reminder that I need to remember to relax.
I had some fun under canopy. Some slightly more aggressive turns and spins. Stood up a nice landing in front of the other hangar.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
2 jumps to get back in the swing of it
I jumped twice today, just to really get back in the swing of jumping, and to work on the stuff Casey talked about last week.
Jump 1:
Floating exit, stable quickly. Worked on snapping my 180 and 360 degree turns around more quickly. I used the runway as a reference point.
I planned to land in front of the hangar. At around 2000 feet, I realized there were about 6 other jumpers in the same spot, so I switched to landing behind the fuel truck. Stood up the landing exactly where I planned.
Jump 2:
Clouds were coming in. Grant went out with Meghan to do a check dive first. I waited for 5 seconds and dove out after them. I used them as a reference point to work on turns more. Before I pulled, I tried to track over to an area where there was a better view of the ground.
When I opened, the clouds surrounded me. The opening turned me and I was not sure what heading I was on until I got below the clouds and saw that I was over the neighborhoods on the far side of the railroad tracks. I flew in some brakes to try to keep altitude. It was pretty clear that I wasn't going to get back to the main landing zone, so I started checking for alternate places. My options were to land into the wind in a clear area on the far side of the tracks from the airport or to land downwind at the bottom of the hill just past the runway. I wasn't sure how I would get back to the airport from the first choice, so I decided on a downwind landing in about 12-13 kt winds. Lined up, brought the toggles down, and did an excellent PLF, in my opinion. I ended up with some little scratches on my right wrist and a bruise on my right ankle.
The guy with Tammy suggested that I could do a flat turn even pretty low to get into the wind. Grant suggested that I could pull the risers apart to flatten out the canopy while trying to get back to the landing zone. I need to try both of those things in the air next time.
Jump 1:
Floating exit, stable quickly. Worked on snapping my 180 and 360 degree turns around more quickly. I used the runway as a reference point.
I planned to land in front of the hangar. At around 2000 feet, I realized there were about 6 other jumpers in the same spot, so I switched to landing behind the fuel truck. Stood up the landing exactly where I planned.
Jump 2:
Clouds were coming in. Grant went out with Meghan to do a check dive first. I waited for 5 seconds and dove out after them. I used them as a reference point to work on turns more. Before I pulled, I tried to track over to an area where there was a better view of the ground.
When I opened, the clouds surrounded me. The opening turned me and I was not sure what heading I was on until I got below the clouds and saw that I was over the neighborhoods on the far side of the railroad tracks. I flew in some brakes to try to keep altitude. It was pretty clear that I wasn't going to get back to the main landing zone, so I started checking for alternate places. My options were to land into the wind in a clear area on the far side of the tracks from the airport or to land downwind at the bottom of the hill just past the runway. I wasn't sure how I would get back to the airport from the first choice, so I decided on a downwind landing in about 12-13 kt winds. Lined up, brought the toggles down, and did an excellent PLF, in my opinion. I ended up with some little scratches on my right wrist and a bruise on my right ankle.
The guy with Tammy suggested that I could do a flat turn even pretty low to get into the wind. Grant suggested that I could pull the risers apart to flatten out the canopy while trying to get back to the landing zone. I need to try both of those things in the air next time.
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