Sunday: a few relaxing jumps

Start of the day with a level 3 again, with the same guy from yesterday afternoon. I team up with Gert, a brand new instructor, graduated last week. Heard good things about him from the examiner. We take our time briefing the guy, and it pays off. His jump is much better then the previous attempt. I have to signal Gert a few times to let go, not to retake grips, to give the guy some space to correct his own mistakes and learn. Not a great jump, still some body position problems, but he 's altitude aware, and he flew solo and stable for almost 20 seconds, so I 'll take him to level 4 next.

Next I am secondary with a one jump girl. We chat a bit on the ride to altitude, she goes ooh I'm so nervous, you should feel my heart beating, she takes my hand and pushes it to her chest: well, she has 120 beats per minute and an A-cup. On our way to the door, she stops, a very tiny voice goes "I don't wanna do this", she continues, exits, makes a great jump.

Level 4 with the bloke from this morning. On the ground, he arches OK, but he doesn't do it in the air, when it matters. Two releases, two spins, nothing too violent, but completely out of control.

We go up to do it again almost immediately. I ask Sam, great camera flyer, to come along, so he can see for himself the difference between what he thinks he does, and his actual body position.
The jump is better than the previous one (still one spin, but also 20 seconds of relax & more or less stable flying) but I still haven't seen him start and stop a turn on his own. The video is an eye opener. We take rendez vous for next weekend, and I am confident he'll pass his level 4 on the next jump.



Only 4 jumps, easygoing today. Beer.