Finally (after over a month of miserable, snowy weather) four loads went up today to give us all our fix of sky.
When I got out to the DZ after work (or rather... after I convinced my manager to let me leave work 6 hours early), my car thermometer said it was 31 degrees on the ground. The first load didn't go up until about an hour after that, so I figure we probably gained a few degrees. Because of the cold temperatures, we stuck with hop and pops.
Jump #33
On the way to altitude, I was struck by how pretty the valley looked, still sprinkled with snow. Everything was in shades of gray. I ended up a little far out with my landing pattern. Although my flare was still not quite right, I think I could have stood it up if the ground hadn't been so slippery. My feet touched down and slid out from under me, and I gently plopped down on my butt and slid to a stop in the mud. Kevin had to sweep me off with a broom so I wouldn't track a mess into the building.
Jump #34
Another hop and pop from 5k. I did a poised exit, watched the plane long enough to see the pilot start to dive down for his descent, and was under canopy just below 4k. I ended up landing in almost the same spot as on my first jump of the day. I slipped and slid in on the mud again, but before my canopy had even finished floating to the ground I was back up and trying to wipe the mess off of my backside.
Next weekend I'm headed down to Mesquite, NV for their Blue Skies Boogie. I'm both excited and nervous for the trip. It will be fun to jump out of some new planes, and of course it will be great to meet some more new people. Several people from my DZ are going as well, so there will also be familiar faces around if I start to feel too out of my element.
Showing posts with label hop and pop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hop and pop. Show all posts
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Monday, October 13, 2008
The Boogie
Between Friday at 1:00pm and 11:00 this morning I left the dropzone for a grand total of 30 minutes to get food.
Friday was cloudy and miserable. A few of the people coming in from out of state arrived late in the evening, but most didn't get there until early Saturday morning.
Jump #18
I was on the one load that went up in the evening, and we only made it to 4,000ft because of the cloud cover. I managed to hit the step with either my chest or my arms (I thought I felt my chest hit, but Katie said it looked like I hit my forearms from where she was) as I exited. I didn't end up bruising from it, so I'm no worse for wear. I've never had to think about avoiding the step before, but you can bet it will be on my mind for many climb-outs to come. Hitting the step knocked me vertical, and it took about 10 seconds to get back on my belly and stable. It was pretty windy, and after I landed the wind pulled me over and then dragged me about 5 feet before I got my steering line pulled in far enough to collapse the canopy.
Saturday was even more miserable. The winds were between 20 and 30 miles an hour for the majority of the day. A total of two loads braved the weather. After watching their landings, it seemed pretty obvious to me that they probably shouldn't have jumped at all. A couple of people got dragged all the way across the landing area and only stopped because spectators ran out to help collapse their canopies.
Saturday night was interesting, to say the least. For dinner we had a whole pig, with an apple in its mouth and all. Watching the guy who was carving it pull the skin off like a peel on an orange made me almost sick to my stomach. Seeing the cooked blood that had dripped down from its ears wasn't exactly appetizing either. I got up the guts to go ahead and eat some, and of course it was delicious, but I could definitely go without having such a vivid reminder of where my food comes from ever again. We had a huge bonfire, and the fire department showed up after either a neighbor or a passerby called to report a structural fire. Our only guess is that, from a distance, they saw the frames of the old worn out couches we were burning and mistook them for a house. In all the time I spent standing around the fire and listening to the cover band play inside, I had a chance to talk to a huge number of new people, many of whom had come from Washington and Montana for the weekend. I love listening to the old timers talk about the crazy stuff they did in their younger years, even though some of the stories they shared seemed so outlandish that they couldn't possibly be true.
Late in the evening we had a toast to Michelle who was among the 10 people that died in last October's plane crash over the Cascade Mountains. Even though I never even met her, I got teary eyed several times as I listened to Michelle's friends and family share fond memories and express how much they miss her.
Sunday the weather was decent. There was still some wind, but it was at least jumpable. Midway through the day was the 8-way ash dive for Michelle. It was a very somber moment to see the puff of white as they released her ashes into the sky. Kevin was one of the 8 jumpers. He had pretty severe line twists on opening, and because he had opened so low and the canopy he jumps is highly loaded and descends really quickly, there was no time to try to get out of the twists. He ended up cutting away and going to his reserve around at 1500ft. That was the first time I've seen someone cut away.
After the ash dive, there was going to be a record attempt for a women's 9-way jump, but several of the women who had planned to participate got caught up elsewhere. Thus the record attempt had to be rescheduled.
Jump #19
As the afternoon turned to evening, I finally got back up in the air for a coach jump with Ben. After diving out on his count I was supposed to dock with him, but I couldn't seem to get my body position correct to move forward. Instead I literally flew in circles around him. I was extremely relieved to have a nice soft opening with no malfunctions on this jump. Why? Because after my hop and pop on Friday, I packed it by myself. Granted, Rick watched me pack a lot of it, but I did everything myself.
Jump #20
As soon as I got down from the jump with Ben, I went to manifest to see if there was time for me to make one more. John, one of the very experienced jumpers who usually jumps over at the Caldwell DZ, asked if I would do a two-way jump with him. I kept trying to explain to him that I don't even have my A license yet and that considering the fact that I couldn't even successfully dock on my previous jump there was absolutely no way I would be able to pull off any relative work, but he was insistent that I'd do fine. He got the approval of the DZO to jump with me (since he's not actually a coach or an instructor and I'm not licensed yet we had to get permission), and then proceeded to brief me on what we would be doing on the jump. I continued to remind him that I was very new to skydiving and that the jump would be a mess. He continued to tell me it would all work out. Since the jump would at very least count towards the 25 needed for my A license, I went ahead with it. I quickly packed my parachute, this time unsupervised. Fortunately for me, someone walked by and noticed a stupid mistake I made in my line stows, possibly preventing what could have been my first malfunction. We exited the plane, John docked with me, we turned a couple of quick points, but then fall rate discrepancies between the two of us made the rest of the jump a total mess, just as I had predicted. I spent the final 20 seconds trying to flatten myself out to slow down, while John spent it trying to arch harder and speed up to catch me. At 4500ft we both gave up, turned, and tracked. I pulled just below 4000ft. Once again, I breathed a huge sigh of relief to see a good canopy above my head.
Even though not much jumping went on for most of the weekend, it was still a fun-filled few days. My plan to complete all of my A license requirements is pushed back again, but I'm not too bothered by it. I have to successfully complete two dive and docks somewhere in my next 5 jumps in order to get my A right at the 25 jump mark. Tomorrow there is supposed to be a pilot at the DZ in the evening. I'll plan on going out after class again.
Friday was cloudy and miserable. A few of the people coming in from out of state arrived late in the evening, but most didn't get there until early Saturday morning.
Jump #18
I was on the one load that went up in the evening, and we only made it to 4,000ft because of the cloud cover. I managed to hit the step with either my chest or my arms (I thought I felt my chest hit, but Katie said it looked like I hit my forearms from where she was) as I exited. I didn't end up bruising from it, so I'm no worse for wear. I've never had to think about avoiding the step before, but you can bet it will be on my mind for many climb-outs to come. Hitting the step knocked me vertical, and it took about 10 seconds to get back on my belly and stable. It was pretty windy, and after I landed the wind pulled me over and then dragged me about 5 feet before I got my steering line pulled in far enough to collapse the canopy.
Saturday was even more miserable. The winds were between 20 and 30 miles an hour for the majority of the day. A total of two loads braved the weather. After watching their landings, it seemed pretty obvious to me that they probably shouldn't have jumped at all. A couple of people got dragged all the way across the landing area and only stopped because spectators ran out to help collapse their canopies.
Saturday night was interesting, to say the least. For dinner we had a whole pig, with an apple in its mouth and all. Watching the guy who was carving it pull the skin off like a peel on an orange made me almost sick to my stomach. Seeing the cooked blood that had dripped down from its ears wasn't exactly appetizing either. I got up the guts to go ahead and eat some, and of course it was delicious, but I could definitely go without having such a vivid reminder of where my food comes from ever again. We had a huge bonfire, and the fire department showed up after either a neighbor or a passerby called to report a structural fire. Our only guess is that, from a distance, they saw the frames of the old worn out couches we were burning and mistook them for a house. In all the time I spent standing around the fire and listening to the cover band play inside, I had a chance to talk to a huge number of new people, many of whom had come from Washington and Montana for the weekend. I love listening to the old timers talk about the crazy stuff they did in their younger years, even though some of the stories they shared seemed so outlandish that they couldn't possibly be true.
Late in the evening we had a toast to Michelle who was among the 10 people that died in last October's plane crash over the Cascade Mountains. Even though I never even met her, I got teary eyed several times as I listened to Michelle's friends and family share fond memories and express how much they miss her.
Sunday the weather was decent. There was still some wind, but it was at least jumpable. Midway through the day was the 8-way ash dive for Michelle. It was a very somber moment to see the puff of white as they released her ashes into the sky. Kevin was one of the 8 jumpers. He had pretty severe line twists on opening, and because he had opened so low and the canopy he jumps is highly loaded and descends really quickly, there was no time to try to get out of the twists. He ended up cutting away and going to his reserve around at 1500ft. That was the first time I've seen someone cut away.
After the ash dive, there was going to be a record attempt for a women's 9-way jump, but several of the women who had planned to participate got caught up elsewhere. Thus the record attempt had to be rescheduled.
Jump #19
As the afternoon turned to evening, I finally got back up in the air for a coach jump with Ben. After diving out on his count I was supposed to dock with him, but I couldn't seem to get my body position correct to move forward. Instead I literally flew in circles around him. I was extremely relieved to have a nice soft opening with no malfunctions on this jump. Why? Because after my hop and pop on Friday, I packed it by myself. Granted, Rick watched me pack a lot of it, but I did everything myself.
Jump #20
As soon as I got down from the jump with Ben, I went to manifest to see if there was time for me to make one more. John, one of the very experienced jumpers who usually jumps over at the Caldwell DZ, asked if I would do a two-way jump with him. I kept trying to explain to him that I don't even have my A license yet and that considering the fact that I couldn't even successfully dock on my previous jump there was absolutely no way I would be able to pull off any relative work, but he was insistent that I'd do fine. He got the approval of the DZO to jump with me (since he's not actually a coach or an instructor and I'm not licensed yet we had to get permission), and then proceeded to brief me on what we would be doing on the jump. I continued to remind him that I was very new to skydiving and that the jump would be a mess. He continued to tell me it would all work out. Since the jump would at very least count towards the 25 needed for my A license, I went ahead with it. I quickly packed my parachute, this time unsupervised. Fortunately for me, someone walked by and noticed a stupid mistake I made in my line stows, possibly preventing what could have been my first malfunction. We exited the plane, John docked with me, we turned a couple of quick points, but then fall rate discrepancies between the two of us made the rest of the jump a total mess, just as I had predicted. I spent the final 20 seconds trying to flatten myself out to slow down, while John spent it trying to arch harder and speed up to catch me. At 4500ft we both gave up, turned, and tracked. I pulled just below 4000ft. Once again, I breathed a huge sigh of relief to see a good canopy above my head.
Even though not much jumping went on for most of the weekend, it was still a fun-filled few days. My plan to complete all of my A license requirements is pushed back again, but I'm not too bothered by it. I have to successfully complete two dive and docks somewhere in my next 5 jumps in order to get my A right at the 25 jump mark. Tomorrow there is supposed to be a pilot at the DZ in the evening. I'll plan on going out after class again.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Simulated Emergency Exit
It was pretty cloudy and miserable by the time I got out of class this afternoon, but because Kevin said they were still going to try to make a couple loads if things let up, I decided to head over and try to wait out the weather. After spending my first hour and a half at the DZ behind the building cleaning up part of the mess left over from refinishing the roof, I was able to make it up on one load before sunset.
Note: I've decided to make my jump numbers here match up with those in my logbook... so please pretend that every jump number from previous posts was increased by 1 to compensate for my tandem in July.
Jump #17
Since it was getting very close to sunset, the jump had to be another hop and pop if it was going to happen at all. Randi and I both got out at 3500ft, Brett (yet another student working towards his A license) and Brad (our jumpmaster for the load) exited at 5500ft. After opening the door to spot, I couldn't help but think about how close we were to the ground. I swear if someone on the ground had waved to me I would have been able to wave back. Since the A license application card mandates that I deploy within 5 seconds of exiting, my plan was to slowly count to 4 and pull on 5. It just so happened that by the time I got to 2 I was stable, so not long after 5 I was under canopy and kicking my way out of some more line twists. It was pretty windy tonight. I did nothing but fly straight to the landing area--no turns, no downwind or base leg of the pattern. Also, I discovered that we actually have a pea gravel landing circle. This was news to me, since the spot I understood to be my target is 15 feet away from it. Anyway, I had a nice braked approach and landing right in the peas.
Even though it was just one jump, it was definitely worth my time to make the quick drive out there. I'm glad I didn't opt to spend the evening sitting in my apartment doing homework... although now I'm going to have to get up early in the morning to do my math assignment that's due tomorrow. I think it's pretty obvious where my priorities are at this point.
Note: I've decided to make my jump numbers here match up with those in my logbook... so please pretend that every jump number from previous posts was increased by 1 to compensate for my tandem in July.
Jump #17
Since it was getting very close to sunset, the jump had to be another hop and pop if it was going to happen at all. Randi and I both got out at 3500ft, Brett (yet another student working towards his A license) and Brad (our jumpmaster for the load) exited at 5500ft. After opening the door to spot, I couldn't help but think about how close we were to the ground. I swear if someone on the ground had waved to me I would have been able to wave back. Since the A license application card mandates that I deploy within 5 seconds of exiting, my plan was to slowly count to 4 and pull on 5. It just so happened that by the time I got to 2 I was stable, so not long after 5 I was under canopy and kicking my way out of some more line twists. It was pretty windy tonight. I did nothing but fly straight to the landing area--no turns, no downwind or base leg of the pattern. Also, I discovered that we actually have a pea gravel landing circle. This was news to me, since the spot I understood to be my target is 15 feet away from it. Anyway, I had a nice braked approach and landing right in the peas.
Even though it was just one jump, it was definitely worth my time to make the quick drive out there. I'm glad I didn't opt to spend the evening sitting in my apartment doing homework... although now I'm going to have to get up early in the morning to do my math assignment that's due tomorrow. I think it's pretty obvious where my priorities are at this point.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
My first hop and pop
Jump #11
It's a good thing I'm not expected to buy beer for literally every "first" in skydiving. When I got to the dropzone, a load was about to leave to go to 5000ft, but they had one open spot. After running the idea by Kevin and getting his approval, I decided I'd fill the load. I was on my knees for the whole plane ride so that I could really look around and get a better idea of what the area surrounding the airport looks like from the air. Bill (one of the TI's) pointed out several landmarks and helped me with spotting. My exit went well. I de-arched and looked down at pull-time, which caused me to tilt forward slightly. By 4000ft I had completed my controllability check and was already playing around under canopy. I flared a little late on landing, but I was right on target for accuracy.
Things to work on: look at the plane when I'm falling away from it (I keep forgetting that), maintain arch and look at horizon on pull, PLF if the landing is going to be rough.
A few people from the DZ are heading down to a wind tunnel in Ogden, Utah, this weekend. They invited me to come along, and although I really want to go, I wouldn't feel right skipping out on work on Saturday. They'll have to have fun without me.
It's a good thing I'm not expected to buy beer for literally every "first" in skydiving. When I got to the dropzone, a load was about to leave to go to 5000ft, but they had one open spot. After running the idea by Kevin and getting his approval, I decided I'd fill the load. I was on my knees for the whole plane ride so that I could really look around and get a better idea of what the area surrounding the airport looks like from the air. Bill (one of the TI's) pointed out several landmarks and helped me with spotting. My exit went well. I de-arched and looked down at pull-time, which caused me to tilt forward slightly. By 4000ft I had completed my controllability check and was already playing around under canopy. I flared a little late on landing, but I was right on target for accuracy.
Things to work on: look at the plane when I'm falling away from it (I keep forgetting that), maintain arch and look at horizon on pull, PLF if the landing is going to be rough.
A few people from the DZ are heading down to a wind tunnel in Ogden, Utah, this weekend. They invited me to come along, and although I really want to go, I wouldn't feel right skipping out on work on Saturday. They'll have to have fun without me.
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