Near miss

5 jumps today. 2 jumps with Thomas. He asked me to jump with him and to film his body position and his excercices. First jump I briefed him a linked exit, but apparently he didn't get the part about relative wind. Second jump I tried to explain it a little more, but the result ... Well, look:



Maybe next time I'll just throw him out of the plane and see what happens :-) You don't have to be a skygod to have fun!!

On one of those flights, we had two people exiting at 5000 ft. Just under 5000, the pilot made his 90° turn into jump run, the swoopers exit, and suddenly appears a Boeing. A big Boeing. Close. Very close. Heading straight towards us. It was in approach to land at Brussels airport. It had to abort this landing: TCAS said "climb - climb". That was, apart from (planned) formation flights, the closest I have ever been to another plane in the air. Officially a near miss. Traffic control took over 5 minutes to clear us for the next flight level.

I also did level 6 with Lesley. 6 is my favourite level, and yes: fun for the both of us! The jump itself was not great, but more then good enough. Solo exit OK, back loop not OK, but nicely recovered, in tracking he forgot to de-arch, slight turn to the right in hovercontrol.. But at ease and in control all the time.

In between all this was a 2-way FF. I suck :-(

And to end the day, we quickly briefed a 4-way (with Harry, Sus and Karel). To make absolutely sure there would be brainlock-beers afterwards, we made it something special. Instead of going round, doing points 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and then the same again, we briefed it up-and-down. So that makes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, etcetera. We made a good jump, we had fun, and we achieved our beer-goal :-)

4-way

It's 4-way time again today. This is good, because I love it, and this is bad because as a belly flyer team, you have to sit in the back of the plane, and it is cold today. -15° at 13.000 ft. Minus windchill, brrrr. There are few skydivers. It is almost eleven o'clock before we have enough people to fill the plane.

First jump we go for a Unipod exit, followed by stairstep diamond, murphy flake, yuan and meeker. Anybody seeing a pattern here? Yeah, right, that's just A, B, C, D and E. Not the most imaginative briefing, but it makes for a nice jump. We start off by funnelling the exit. Sus (centerfloat) and I (backfloat) are on our backs immediately, and we are all tumbling happily through the sky for a few seconds. Once we recover, it is indeed a nice jump. For the yuan - meeker transition Door is the only one who moves, but he turns too much on his chest, rather than around his knee, so while I should just have to flash and retake the same grip, it always opens up.

We decide to do the same jump again. We ask a proper 4-way team how to do this unipod exit, we do a quick re-brief of the transitions, and up we go. This time the jump is really good. The exit works, the jump is clean and quick. As soon as we are back on the ground, we discuss the possibility of ending on a high and starting on the beer, but since it is only 12 o'clock, that would be an even more high-risk activity than skydiving itself, so we just manifest for the next load.

Next is Open accordion, cataccord, bow, donut, hook. You guessed it: that's F, G, H, J, K! Nice jump for Jean, our front diver: his biggest move of the dive (actually his only move) is the few inches he has to come forwards from the open accordion to the compressed accordion. Apparently we are having difficulties with our exits today. Even the (very easy) open acc almost goes wrong. It takes two or three seconds before we can start working, but from there on it is OK. Somewhere in the third round, Jean looses track of the jump. He stops moving at all, and just takes up grips when they are thrown at him :-). Good enough!

We decide not to do this one again, since apart from the exit there were no big issues to correct (well, there is Jean's over-20-seconds-brainlock, but he's beyond hope anyway). Next, we don't go for L, M, N, O, P. We want a nice little block in our jump, so we decide on a sidebody exit, phalanx, cat+accordion - cat+accordion, star. On exit we are in the door for way too long, and when we finally jump, I still don't have any grips at all. You gotta ask Door (inside centre) how he manages to find a way to position himself so that I can not reach either his arm or his leg grip. But the exit is good: I just pick up two grips instead of one :-) The jump is not so good. Randoms are OK, but instead of just turning to do the block, we fly circles around each other. Shame on us!

I have too leave earlier than normal, so this is all we have time for. We decide to start of our next session with a repeat of this last jump and we assign Door to remember this, which means chances are slim...

4 way

At long last, another jumping day. Door, Jean, Sus and I made an appointment for a day of 4-way, so without further ado, let's jump!

First jump is an easy one, with a nice rhythm, just to get going. Meeker, satellite, sidebody, bow, star. Our exit sucks. A meeker is generally considered an easy exit, but the thing we launch is turning quiet a bit, so we need at least 5 sec before we have a satellite. From there on, it goes nicely. There is some winter rust on Door and Jean, I am OK, and Sus is flying (he did the christmas boogie in Empuria, so he is really sharp).

We can go up again almost immediately, so we decide to do the same jump again. Only things to specifically correct are the exit, and the bow, where the two centre fliers were too far apart, so that I (I am rear float) couldn't take both leg grips at once, and had to fly with my arms stretched out. Exit is still not good, but better than the previous one, so that's something at least. The bow also builds correctly now. The overall rhythm is much better than the previous jump. It's really flowing, what a lovely feeling. At one point, Door forgets the sidebody, and goes straight from the satellite to the bow. Jean tries to shake free his leg, Sus knocks him on the helmet, and I have him in a sidebody, so I give him a good shake all over. When we are down, he starts bragging about nobody noticing his tiny little brainlock...

Since this is the off season, we share our plane with another dropzone nearby. This is very cost efficient, but also really lousy if you don't like long waits in between jumps. So with 2 loads and a refuel at the other DZ, it is already past 2 o'clock before we can make our third jump. We decide on something a little more difficult. Exit is a crank. Next is hammer - hammer, and then open acc and diamond.

We are a bit unsure about launching the crank straight, but we try it anyway, and it works great. I am relaxed enough to, in the exit, give a thumbs up to Jean (who is front diving) before we build the first hammer. My first 270° turn in the block is too short. I fly into Sus, rather then present grips to him. Second time round, there's a zap on the centre cat (a loose grip). Third time round and it's better. Fourth time, I hit Sus' helmet with my knee, so that was definitely too close :-).

Fourth jump, we do the same one a second time. Exit is a bit shaky this time, and now my hammer-turns are too wide. Third time we are going around, there is confusion. Jean starts his 270° from the crank. It takes the other three of us a second before we realise what's happening, and then, on the spot we invent a new block move: crank - hammer. The rest of the jump is a bit sloppy...

With all the waiting while the plane is at the other DZ, that's all we have time for today. The jumps weren't spectacularly good, but hey, they weren't too bad either. Anyway, lots of fun, great laughs, and we all enjoyed it. At the bar, we first drink away the brainlocks, and then we just have a few more beers :-)

4-way and some

4-way with Door, Jean and Sus today. I am tail. We start with a smooth one: open accordion, bow, tee, zipper, phalanx. Exit is great, and although we didn't jump together for quiet a long time, the jump is smooth, with a nice rhythm.

Next jump we do a few randoms and block 12, bundy-bundy (but with 360° for the front piece, we don't feel like working). Not my favourite block. At one page, we have a funny mess-up : Door and me, the tail piece, we go low, and the front piece was counting on being stopped by us, so they fly by and make a 720° before they manage to stop :-).

OK, now it is time for the fun stuff: just four points, 14 (bipole-bipole) and 6 (stardian-stardian). I love a straight bipole exit, it goes remarkably well, first 540° is completely up the hill. I need to work to stay in position, but I manage. One of the bipoles, I see Jean not starting his 540°, but waiting for Door to turn passed him: he knocks him on his helmet, makes a 180°, and arrives just in time. And swinging your piece around in the stardian, well, that's my idea of fun... Back on the ground Jean denies that he only did 180°, nobody believes him.

We all liked the previous one very much, so we go for something similar: 16 (compressed-box) followed by the obsolete zipper-star. I know about the problems with this block, but I still think it's a pity that it's no longer in the divepool. It has always been one of my favourites. Exit is great, turning towards that box, really steep on the hill, yes! Again we manage a very nice rhythm. Hmmm, this is what I missed during the AFF season. A guy on our load has a line over, and has to do a cutaway. He is still on student gear, so his briefing is not to bother with the stuff, just take care of himself. I see it all happen. Sus also saw it, he follows the canopy, so I start following the freebag. Shit, it comes down in a piece of land with horses in it. I'm not going to land between them! So I land a bit further on, but by the time I am there, two horses are already happily chewing on the freebag. I shoo them away, and recuperate it.

Sus has to leave early, but I still feel like jumping, so I do a quick one with two low timers. It's nice to see them being pushed and liking it.

Sunset load is a tracking jump with 9 or 10 people. A very nice close of the day (although I go low in the end). In the meantime, we have received the news that Hayabusa has won the military world championship. They beat the Golden Knights with a one point difference, and they set a new world record while doing it (41!). Well done, guys, congrats!

Even more AFF (but with a little funjumping in between)

When I arrive on Sunday morning, weather is overcast, so it is funjump time. We start of with a 4-way that I first did more than 10 years ago, and have done many times since. It goes like star - transition - zipper - transition - opal - transition - bipole - transition - donut - full break - star, and so on. There is always one piece moving and one piece staying in place, and you switch piece partners at every move. All moves are short, so you can really go fast! One of those no-jumping-because-of-the-weather weekends during autumn, I'll post a drawing of it. I guess that will make more sense than this explanation. But for now, believe me that it really is a very fun dive!

By then, sun comes peeping through, so student activities can start. Gert and I take on a girl for her level 2. She is very focused, too focused, but not on the right things: she completely forgets altitude, doesn't react to the signs, and at 5500 ft, instead of pulling, she starts another exercise (flying forwards). Gert pulls for her. When she's under canopy, I use an arrow to steer her, she follows instructions, but when I put her in final, somewhere between 200 and 300 feet, she veers of to her left a bit, and instead of a little flat correction, she throws in a 360°, I already start cursing, but she has enough time to finish the turn and lands cleanly in the right direction. During debrief, she doesn't mention this manoeuvre, and she looks very surprised when I bring it up: she says she doesn't know that she did this. ??? Next couple of jumps are back on the radio for her.

Next is my favourite old man for another attempt on level 4. He exits OK, I have to signal him for legs out and loosen up shoulders, and then I can move in front of him, he flies solo for about 20 seconds, there is that incredible grin again, but when he checks his alti, he turns a little bit, overreacts, and there he goes. I grab him almost immediately, but we still turn 720° together, before I manage to completely stop him.

We talked about the number of jumps it would take him to go through AFF beforehand, so he knows that he has to concentrate on overall progression, rather then on levels and the number of jumps it takes him. And after all, he flew solo and stable for half the jump :-))

I had to leave early, so that's it for Sunday. And since I had family business to attend to for the rest of the day, I couldn't even have a beer before I leave the DZ, life is unfair.

Sunday, no 4 way for us today.

We were going to do 4-way today, but Jean phoned last night that he had to work today. Pity, we are probably not the best 4-way team in the country, but it is always great fun. We (= the other three of us) manifest, and just ask the others on the load who wants to join. We end up doing a nice seven way. On opening I have a rather nasty twist, Luckily I fly a conservative canopy and I manage to get out of it, so I keep my count at two reserve rides in about 3000 jumps (not a bad average, huh).

The girl from yesterday comes up to me and asks if, since apparently I am not doing 4-way, I want to jump with her, and how could I say no to that. So up we go for her level 5. Some clouds are forming, and the wind has picked up a bit, but nothing too bad I think. On exit, there are no clouds underneath us, we have a clear view, but just before us, upwind of our exit point is a gigantic tumulus, it goes up to at least 15k I think. The freefall goes great, but as soon as I am under canopy, i feel that the wind is much stronger now, too strong for a very light student under a big canopy anyway. But all the briefing and the explanations about patterns and windchecks do prove useful. She heads her canopy into the wind at 4000 feet, and just comes straight down, staying in place or, for the bottom few 100 feet, even going backwards a little bit. The timing of her flare is perfect, and she even remembers not to flare too deep in a situation like this. I congratulate her on a job very well done, and apologise for putting her in that situation: I know the winds can get heavy just before such a big cloud, I saw the cloud, and yet the penny didn't drop and I gave the go for the exit...

The next plane still goes up, although the weather is now quickly worsening.
This is what it looked like when they were landing. That's it for today. Beer-time

Photos by John Beton

2910: Door, Sus, Jean & me

We had to wait for the fog to clear, so we all had too much coffee and gossip, but at last, sun 's coming out, so lets go. We are exiting a ritz, but we are diving it out, instead of our usual version of this exit.
Shake, OK, off we go, not a good idea, trying it this way, we lost jean. While we wait for him to take back his position, Sus relaeses grips, what's he doing now, oh yeah, it's his first jump in this new jumpsuit, so he is using this pauze to try it out. Jean 's back and off we go. Move towards icepick is good. We (the sidebody piece) are done early, we can meet them earlier next time around. Some randoms, OK, here 's that move again, good, timing was much better now, but the front piece didn't expect us this early in there move, so they just quack into us. Then some confusion over a sidebody-donut. Sus continuing, me waiting for the sidebody, third ritz-icepick move, beatiful, I love it when a plan comes together.
We start our fourth block move at 4.1 kft, no way we will finish this, so I just start the turn, and throw away my piece partner halfway through it, and track off. He goes almost 360 before he can stop himself. But where the fuck am I?
My first jump here, was 18 years ago, I saw the DZ at exit, but I can't find it now ??? I check the other canpies, waaw, that **** of a pilot must have taken a reverse axis with rather high upper winds to leave us here. I check my mental picture of climbing out, we were third group, and indeed he was flying north instead of south, should have realised it then instead of now. The car ride back to the DZ is exactely 7.4 km! All 17 jumpers landed out.