First...

... AFF's of the year. A guy who went to level 5 last year and than he took a winter-break. Last jump was October. So, let's start with a level 3 for him. Clouds are low (2000 to 2500 ft) but there are enough see-through holes. So it is very beautiful under canopy above the clouds, you can see what you are doing and where you are going, and you get that incredible feel of speed when you are flying your canopy passed a cloud, or through some haze. Yiihaaa!

The jump is difficult. The student is nervous, burns a whole through the sky at over 140 mph, has a backslide, and can't stop turning. It takes us all of the jump to sort this out.

Because I saw him readjusting and improving during this jump, I don't expact problems for the next one, but nevertheless, rather than going straight to level 6, we agree to do a level 5 first, to be absolutely sure that hoover-control and starting/stopping turns are in the bag. And he makes a beautiful level 5 indeed.



Also his canopy work is good. Approach, wind-check, clean circuit, and a good landing in the area he aimed for.

After this one, level 6 is great fun. We both had a good day!

2 quick jumps

Strange things are hapening... The hardcore jumpers who turn up early, who turn up even if the weather isn't too great, are today a bunch flockers, VRW team jumpers and freeflyers. That used to be the FS teams.

2 sitflys and a few beers today.

hmmm...

Another typical winter jumping day. Sunny and cold, not many people around, and those nice, relaxed jumps that only seem to happen off-season. 3 FS jumps today, a 5, a 6 and a 7-way.

Karel had his new camera-and-lens today. He made some jumps with us to test it. Looks OK to me :-) Thx Karel!

It is nice to see an FS jump from a tandem camera position, rather than a top view. It also shows very clearly the fall rate problems we had, all the wobbling going on. The oldest guy in this jump is in his seventies(!), the "youngest" in his thirties.


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I am the one in the white jumpsuit. Can you spot my 3 brain locks? One of them is obvious (I go for zipper instead of cat), but the other two are harder to spot. But I knew it when I was doing (or rather not doing) it. Maybe a little too relaxed? Anyway, I like jumps like this. And I'm not alone. We all had a good time.

And I like a beer afterwards :-)

another rig

My rigger was so good as to lend me another rig (big thx to Harry!), until this reserve problem is dealt with. The best solution would be to withdraw the safety bulletin, so that the cutter can be placed on the bottom of the rig, where it was meant to be. But I don't know if that's a realistic option. There's too much politics in skydiving...

25 jan & 31 jan I made 6 jumps