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.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Sunday, June 24, 2012
I'm finally back in the sky!
It's been a long time coming, but I finally jumped today. Fall sucked - one mandatory social event of the century after another. February grounded me until after Memorial Day with the finger injury. Well, today I came back.
Jump 1
I spent about an hour with Casey in the classroom covering some of the basics. We discussed emergency procedures, changing landing patterns based on wind, equipment, etc. Casey thought I was good with the classroom stuff, so we got on manifest for a jump.
He wanted me to jump the 240. I've jumped it before, so I pulled it, fired up the AAD, and ran through a gear check. This year's King Air doesn't have the souped-up engines, so it took a little longer to get to altitude. I climbed out and took the front position in the door. Casey took the rear. Good exit count, and I got stable on the hill as soon as I remembered to look back at the plane. I turned to face Casey, closed in on him as he dropped down to my level, and we got started. 90 degrees right, 90 degrees left, 360 degrees (with a little stall at about 270), then closed in on Casey again. Gripped from about 7000 to 6000, then I turned, tracked away, got stable and pulled. Enjoyed my canopy time and landed with a PLF in the field just past the picnic tables.
Casey told me to work on getting my turns snappier. "Lumbering" was how he described my 360. How can anything be "lumbering" at 130 MPH?!?!? He also said I should speed up my transition from neutral to tracking.
Jump 2
I went solo. Doug (first time I've met him) asked if I wanted to do a 2-way with him since he was also solo. I really wanted to work on what Casey suggested, so I declined his offer. He was completely cool with it.
Exited as if I was the front float guy. Good arch, watched the plane, stable almost instantly. In freefall, I worked on speeding up my turns and transitioning to tracking quicker. I ended up getting "chippy" a few times, mostly because I was concentrating too hard and tensing up. I get it, now I just have to relax and do it.
When I pulled, I saw that the front and rear right risers had a twist to them, and that the front and rear left risers had a twist. The brake lines went up to the back of the canopy, and in free flight seemed to be completely loose. The canopy was completely controllable. There might have been a slight tendency to pull a little to the right, so maybe that brake line wasn't quite as loose as I thought. It was definitely not something to cut away, but it also wasn't something that I was 100% confident with, so I flew it pretty gently. Disconcerting seems like the right word.
I landed on Rocky's canopy. Ugh. Whether it was gusty winds or the twist in riser, when I went back to free flight after steering left, I got pulled back to the right. Rocky gave me a couple of tips for situations like that.
So now I current. Time to keep jumping and get that license!
Jump 1
I spent about an hour with Casey in the classroom covering some of the basics. We discussed emergency procedures, changing landing patterns based on wind, equipment, etc. Casey thought I was good with the classroom stuff, so we got on manifest for a jump.
He wanted me to jump the 240. I've jumped it before, so I pulled it, fired up the AAD, and ran through a gear check. This year's King Air doesn't have the souped-up engines, so it took a little longer to get to altitude. I climbed out and took the front position in the door. Casey took the rear. Good exit count, and I got stable on the hill as soon as I remembered to look back at the plane. I turned to face Casey, closed in on him as he dropped down to my level, and we got started. 90 degrees right, 90 degrees left, 360 degrees (with a little stall at about 270), then closed in on Casey again. Gripped from about 7000 to 6000, then I turned, tracked away, got stable and pulled. Enjoyed my canopy time and landed with a PLF in the field just past the picnic tables.
Casey told me to work on getting my turns snappier. "Lumbering" was how he described my 360. How can anything be "lumbering" at 130 MPH?!?!? He also said I should speed up my transition from neutral to tracking.
Jump 2
I went solo. Doug (first time I've met him) asked if I wanted to do a 2-way with him since he was also solo. I really wanted to work on what Casey suggested, so I declined his offer. He was completely cool with it.
Exited as if I was the front float guy. Good arch, watched the plane, stable almost instantly. In freefall, I worked on speeding up my turns and transitioning to tracking quicker. I ended up getting "chippy" a few times, mostly because I was concentrating too hard and tensing up. I get it, now I just have to relax and do it.
When I pulled, I saw that the front and rear right risers had a twist to them, and that the front and rear left risers had a twist. The brake lines went up to the back of the canopy, and in free flight seemed to be completely loose. The canopy was completely controllable. There might have been a slight tendency to pull a little to the right, so maybe that brake line wasn't quite as loose as I thought. It was definitely not something to cut away, but it also wasn't something that I was 100% confident with, so I flew it pretty gently. Disconcerting seems like the right word.
I landed on Rocky's canopy. Ugh. Whether it was gusty winds or the twist in riser, when I went back to free flight after steering left, I got pulled back to the right. Rocky gave me a couple of tips for situations like that.
So now I current. Time to keep jumping and get that license!
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Skyvan! 3 jumps
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.
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.
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.
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