Cat C-1 jump - #4

Grant prepped me. Really, not much to prep. I know how this is supposed to go. I did ask to spend a few minutes in the King Air mock-up, which has roughly the same opening as the Caravan. Definitely close enough to get the feel. I thought I had it.

Didn't have it. I'm not completely sure where my mind went wrong, but I had some trouble getting my feet right, I never really got completely outside the plane, and I wasn't up straight. The advice I got was to not worry about rushing it, to take my time to get my feet right, my hands right, and my knees and hips right.

Reserve side - Vic. Main side - Grant.

Kicked on exit. Flipped over. Vic released until we got stable.

Pretty good arch, until my practice touch. I flattened out and brought my feet up toward my butt. The consensus is that I'm just over-thinking everything. I'm concentrating so hard on my arch that I completely lose focus of it when I have to think about my practice touch. That doesn't sound like me at all! (Uh, that's sarcasm folks.)

I had some trouble picking up a heading. Possibly because I'm aiming myself at a certain point, rather than taking in the big picture.

Maintained good altitude awareness. Locked on at 6000, waved & pulled at 5500. Clean opening, good canopy. I had some fun flying around. Did some complete 360s, some hard turns, S-turns, flares. Grant radioed that the landing pattern switched, so I had to readjust my mental picture of my entry point. Got in the pattern OK.

I was focused too much on the ground at flare time. I should have been looking more out toward the horizon. This wasn't my best PLF, but I didn't get hurt, so it must have been a good enough PLF!

Vic helped my understand the flow of gathering up the chute. Velcro toggles, move the lines up toward the canopy while pushing the slider ahead. Get a grip on the bag, pilot chute, and tail (label) of the canopy. Throw it over my shoulder and walk.

Weather? What weather?

Argghhh.

I did some more ground training with Doc Larry. More is better! This would have been my first time in a Caravan, so we used the mock-up down by the picnic tables to work on that. Seems more difficult that the Porter we used in May, but still easier than a Cessna.

If was a mostly beautiful morning. Hot, but mostly clear. The clouds starting rolling in when I was getting geared up. It got worse over the next 15 minutes.

We got on load 5. Grant (Shipley? Shurtleff?) was going to be the outside, reserve side guy. Harold (White? Stone?) was going to be the inside, main side guy. A group of 3 went first to do some formation stuff. 3 tandems went next. That left us. Being an AFF student, I need a bigger hole to jump through. Matt flew us around and around. Seems like 4 or 5 passes. The clouds kept closing everything up. Eventually, we landed with the plane.

I saw my first cut-away today. A guy who apparently doesn't usually pack his own rig packed his own malfunction. One of the control lines wouldn't come down.

Mental note - if I ever have to land with the plane again, turn around and face the front of the plane.

Cat C jump - later that same day

Quick ground briefing with Bob Mehl & Jamie Sides. I definitely felt like the cobwebs had been shaken off by the morning jump, so I expected this one to go better.

Again, 13,500 feet in the Porter PC-6.

Freefall:
- I kicked my feet on exit. Bob says they call it swimming. He told me a lot of students do it early in the jump before they really get into the wind. Something I will keep in my mind.
- Good Hotel Check, Exit Count, COA, PT, COA. Maintained excellent altitude awareness this time.
- My big problem on this dive was that my feet were spread out too far. Way out beyond shoulder width. Bob thinks this could be the main reason why I couldn't get into a good arch, and that I couldn't correct the left turn after Jamie released. This could be the huge insight I need to get through Category C.

Canopy:
- Good control.
- Did some higher speed turns and complete 360s each direction.
- Bob realized that I was probably going to overshoot the target, so he had me do a big right turn to burn off altitude without much ground position change.
- Flared on my own. Just as I was flaring, Bob started to tell me to flare, then cut himself off. Maybe I'm figuring out how high 12-15 feet really is. Hint - it's a hell of a lot lower than I thought.

Cat C jump again

It's been 6 months since my first Cat C jump, which didn't go the best during the freefall part of it. I think this mostly served to get me started back into skydiving again for the season.

Refresher training on the ground with Doc Larry. Jumped with Doc Larry and John Williams. The jump plane was a Porter PC-6. Pretty wide side door - climb out much easier than the C-182! And it's good for 13,500 feet.

Freefall didn't go so well. I was tense, had a lousy arch, my feet were up on my butt, and for the first time since I started skydiving, I lost track of altitude.

Canopy work was pretty good. PLF on landing, almost no wind. I probably could have stood this one up, but I was off on the alternate landing area behind the camping area. It's not as flat as the main landing area.

First Cat C jump

It's been a long time coming. So much time that I really didn't have a good feel for my arch, etc.

We exited the Csssna 182 at 10,000 feet. Fairly low winds (5-8 mph, 230 degrees almost straight along the runway), mostly clear, mid-50s on the ground. Matt (from my Cat A) on reserve side, Doc Larry on main side.

Negatives:
- Again, I didn't get my foot far enough out on the step.
- Average arch, then crappy arch.
- Matt let go, and I never got really stable again.
- Tilted upwards about 45 degrees when I pulled.

Positives:
- Hotel check & exit count.
- Practice touch.
- Altitude awareness.
- Clean pull.
- Good canopy work.
- And let's not lose sight of the fact that I got to skydive today!

Bad weather again

How miserable do the last few titles look, all lined up like that. Ugh.

When I called at about 8:05 this morning, there were instructors available, and AccuWeather said there was a 15,000 foot ceiling. Yeah, 15,000 inches maybe. By the time I left at about 12:30, the plane hadn't come out of the hangar yet. Stupid clouds.

On the positive side, John gave me a pretty long refresher session. This is the first time I've really got my hands right on the outside parts of a rig. I was a little leery about it - I don't want to screw it up, but I need to know this stuff, and the worst that happens is that it needs a repack. I came away much more comfortable with the equipment.

Now, if only I can get good enough weather to jump again someday.

Bad weather again

I guess I should just cut-and-paste, but it was a different sort of bad weather. A front came through and started clearing up the clouds, but the wind picked up, and was blowing across the runway. As sort of a test run, 5 experienced guys jumped from 3500 out of a Cessna. Only one of them managed to hit the landing zone.