Back to skydiving

When I arrive at the DZ, I am immediately introduced to a rather long and skinny student for a level 2. "He's a slow faller." I could have guessed that one :-). I team up with Philip for the day.

Exit is OK, but following that, there's nobody home. Knees lower than pelvis, heels on his bottom, no reaction to signs or anything. After about 20 sec, we manage to wake him up. He starts his practice pulls, better body position now, he checks altitude and pulls. At 7000 feet. ??? Under canopy, he doesn't react to the radio. We go to plan B, but he doesn't react to the T either. He lands cross-wind, flares late, doesn't hurt himself. On debrief, I mention the word 'awareness'.

Let's try again. Again a good exit. We agreed that it is up to him to take the dive into his own hands. So we wait. It takes him about 15 sec, but there he comes. We can almost see him wake up. Arch, pressure on his legs, GASP, practice pulls. He's there now. Philip releases, but he stiffens up, starts turning. I don't think he notices, he doesn't try to correct. He pulls at the correct altitude this time :-). Again under canopy, he doesn't listen to any instructions, but he flies and lands OK.

A quick level 1 in between. English speaking guy with an Eastern-European accent. Very heads up, nice jump! But than... My canopy just doesn't want to open. I have to work for almost 1500 ft to bring it from a streamer to an open canopy. Pffff.... Lucky this was an AFF jump and I pulled at 4000. Otherwise that would have been a reserve ride. And it isn't over yet. On landing, I fuck up. I don't know what happened, what I did wrong, but a fraction before I am down, I realize that it is not going to work. I make quite a bit of dust and a really very good PLF. I don't hurt myself one little bit (I am not talking about ego here:-)). Reflexes and technique are still OK. But WTF happened?

Third jump of the day with our student. A real level 3 this time. And it's a good one. He starts of by forgetting a practice pull, but after that, he's fine. He is working, trying, his legs are flapping, he can't stop turning, but hey, that's what student jumps are for, no? Under canopy, he comes downwind too early and too far. But he realizes just in time what's going on, turns into the wind, and stays like that for the rest of his descent. He clears the buildings by almost 100 meters. To reassert myself, I go for a precision landing. I miss the target by less than 50 cm :-)

Finally another level 1 to end the day. On exit, I am floating. Check-in, check-out, out, in, OUT, ooh shit, what's this???? Halfway through our salto, he starts arching, and what a difference that makes!!! We finish our flip and we're in business again. First thing we do, Philip and I both look at each other over his back: his smile is at least as big as mine. Very good and uneventful jump from there on.

The airfield closes at 8 pm, and sunset is only at 10 pm. So next are 2 hours of beer and sunshine. Hmmmm...

AFF

Mayhem today. A beautiful, sunny day. Very busy, and only 2 AFF instructors on site. And I have to do some other stuff first, so it is almost noon before I arrive. A bit of organising is needed first. Well, this is an understatement: it is actually plain chaos when I arrive, lots of students waiting to jump, wanting to know when they will jump and what's going to happen. Their mother getting angry at us, etc. Not nice. We manifest for loads 7, 9, 11 and 13. Then a pause for briefings and gear organising, and again on load 16 and 18. We expect 19 loads before sunset. We line up the waiting students in order of arrival. The first 6 are happy-lucky, we have to disappoint the others.

First one is OK in freefall, all over the place under canopy, lands OK. Second one is a struggle in freefall. We both hold his harness grip with our elbows tucked under his legs, to push them up. He struggles with his practice pulls, and at pull time, he can't find the hackey, so I have to pull for him. OK under canopy, flairs too high, good PLF. Third we split: my colleague doing a level 5, and me a level 4. Although I had less time to brief him then I would have liked (sorry for that, man), he makes a great jump, flies a clean circuit, and lands nicely!

This was the first time in almost a year that I did one of the higher AFF levels, without my camera. And it made me realise once more what a great tool for de-briefs video is. On the one side, the video always contains more details then my memory. On the other side, images beat words every time. He exited towards the ground, so he wasn't arching towards the relative wind: it takes a second to show something like that on video, but it is much more abstract to just explain, without images. And so on...

Fourth is a a rather uncertain, nervous girl. It takes some reassuring and talking, but she makes a good jump. If there was a prize for best-first-jump-of-the-day, she would be the winner. And afterwards she is elated about it. Next we have our little break, there's almost half an hour between our student landing, and our next call.

Fifth is a young guy, who has been waiting all day, just sitting there, between his mum and dad. But he manages to stay positive, and as soon as he's on, he is enthusiastic, engages, and works with us. He makes a good jump, lands OK, he enjoys it all. And after the jump, he reassures us (!) that it was more than worth the wait.

When we board for our sixth jump, the pilot gets notice from traffic control in Brussels, that it's too busy, and we are on a 5000 ft max height for the next hour. So that's it. No more AFF for today. And this guy has been waiting for what, 9 hours or something, and then, no jump...

I love making lots of jumps, I don't need more than a few minutes to pack, I don't mind eating and drinking on the way up, but I don't like it when the overall organisation (or better: the lack thereof) obliges me to disappoint people. But I do like beer...

I like days like this.

2-way sit with Mario to begin the day. Hmmm, nice, OK :-))) !!! I exit facing the prop, no funnelling, oops, where did that 180° turn come from? steady, control, push on my legs, nice, fly towards each other, slow down a bit, hey no backsliding please, cool, I could just touch his foot, beep beep, end of jump, Yahoo!!!

A level 2 jump next. The other instructor doesn't wear his jumpsuit. He wears a jersey and one of those old leather hats. I have a flash back. This is how we were flying last century :-). The jump is OK.

And another 2-way sit, another good one. I really enjoy this stuff. My sit-to -track transition sucks. Have to pay attention there.

Next is the older man from a few weeks ago. He's back for his level 5. On the ride up, we fly over the factory where he works. He points it out to me, it is one of those real heavy industry factories. I say "Glad I'm up here, rather then working down there" and I give that factory the finger. He grins, says "yeah", and also waves his middle finger to his work place. I have a good feeling about the jump. And indeed, it is a good one.

The new load of students from this week's FJC is ready by now, so it's two more level 1's and that will be it for today. First one is a middle aged man (right, that's about my age, maybe even a tiny bit younger), nervous, quite a bit of work in the air, but in the end he does OK, and like all of them, he really loves it. His 9 year old son is waiting for his dad when he comes back, and with his eyes full of admiration, he says "I want to be here on my 12th birthday". 12 is the minimum age for a tandem here in Belgium.

Second student is a girl. A bit of confusion on exit: she doesn't position herself correctly in the door, she grabs the bar above her head with both hands and holds on to it, I am outside, and my inside colleague doesn't react, so I have to let go of her harness grip to take her arm, and position her correctly for the exit. No problem there, but if she chooses this exact moment to exit, we have a (likely) funnel, with me having only an arm grip on her. But she doesn't do it and we make an uneventful jump. After this initial confusion, she 's really good, very aware, doing all the stuff she has to do, and really enjoying it while she does it. Under canopy, she even listens to my instructions (and lands fine)!

I am thinking about something, it starts with the letter "J", it rhymes with "upiler"... Any ideas?

AFF

At last, a beautiful blue-sky day. The summer we are having, our climate is really getting confused. I guess we are the last generation that will be allowed to burn fossil fuels just for fun, so we might as well enjoy it, no?

It's busy. The bad weather made for a lot of funjumpers that still have some money left, there are lots of tandem bookings that we had to cancel, and of course lots of AFF students, eager to continue and complete their training.

First there is Mieke, she took her FJC end of june, and only now we can do levels 5, 6 and 7. 5 is a good jump. 6, at one point she funnels, gives me a sad look, I can see her mouthing "sorry", than she turns belly to earth again and continues with the dive. I like it when my students are polite ;-)). On her final level, nothing works: she funnels the exit, funnels her frontloop, funnels her tracking, but apart from looking frustrated, she handles it all and she pulls, at the exact altitude, stable. She repeats the dive for her first solo, and this time, it all comes together. I know it went great before she tells me, just by looking at her smile.

Then there is an older man with whom I already made a few jumps. He is stuck at level 3, it is (if I remember correctly) his fourth attempt now. He has resigned himself to wasting his remaining jump tickets on level 3 jumps, and quitting after that. When he tells me this, I refuse to jump with him, and tell him to come back only if he really wants to give it a try. It takes a bit of time and a bit of peptalk, but we do two jumps today: he passes his levels 3 and 4. I am rather proud of myself. Look at it:



Maybe he's not a natural, and maybe he'll never be a skygod, but he will be able to stay safe and have great fun.

A quick level 1 after this, and then finally, beer!

First Jump Course

8 candidates, 7 showed up. The groundschool bit was done a little after 4 o'clock. I jumped with two of them later in the afternoon.

The first one was one of the most exuberant-enthousiast guys I ever saw in the air: screaming and shouting with adrenaline-joy from exit till opening. The second one, a long time friend of one of our tandem instructors, made a few jumps 20 years ago, and now finally circumstances were right for him to continue with it. He appraoched it with the exact right mindset, and we all had a great time.

One of my students, who jumped with other instructors, completely freaked out. The primary instructor finally pulled for him at around 8000 ft. I was on the same load, and I noticed that a student canopy was missing in the air. When I came down, his instructors were anxiously looking up, searching. For a few more minutes, you can kid yourself that he is hiding between one of those small scattered clouds, or in the sun. For a few more minutes, you can not-answer his wife, asking which canopy is her husband. And then, the incredible sense of relief when somebody yells "there!" and you see a canopy. Almost 5 km downwind, an out landing, but nevertheless: a canopy. He hurt himself rather badly on landing.

A fine day :-)

When I arrive, the DZ is already busy. There is a 16-way training today, and a lot of people who just, after a week of rain, are happy that today, finally, the sun came out again.

Luk gave a FJC yesterday, and asks me if Sus and I can make a jump with a girl from that course. So first load, and there we go. When it is our turn, she hesitates, looks at me, thinking about refusing, but when I give her an encouraging nod, she positions herself in the door. Check in, ckeck out, out, in, out, she doesn't jump but lets herself fall out of the plane, and she goes for the foetus position, wrigling, stamping her feet. We have a full time job keeping it stable. And, amazingly, with her knees almost to her chest and her elbows tucked in, she does as briefed: GASP, practice pulls, GASP... Believe me, not a nice sight: her trying to make a practice pull, not finding it, panicking. And I can't help her, because if I let go of her arm, we will funnel. First time Sus and I can make eye contact is at 7000 ft. A quick nod, and at 6500 I pull for her. Back on the ground, Sus and I do a high-5. Glad we had eachother up there. Under canopy, she follows instructions, and she makes a good landing. She enjoyed it very much, thank you.

Next is a level 7. The guy is not the greatest natural talent I 've ever seen, but he is safe, and he anjoys it tremendously! Congratulations!

Level 6 with big boy is next. This guy is friendly and likable on the ground, and good in the air. A pleasure to teach people like him.

Next is a level 2 with another of those mini-girls I specialise in. She made a good level 1 last week (or was it 2 weeks ago, I don't remember such things, but I do remember that on that jump I had more trouble with the other instructor than with her). She, like most people, is more nervous now than the first time, but she controls it, and makes another good jump. Plus a clean canopy flight and landing.

Ok, graduation jump for big boy next. For his exit, I position him behind the red line, so he runs out and dives. First time in his course that he 's unstable :-). Another very good jump from him. And for the second time today, congratulations!

So, that's it for today. Brussels airport traffic control gives us a one hour holding , and by now I am too thirsty to sit it out. And a graduate, that means beer, 2 graduates means more beer, and it is the first time I complete two students on the same day. Ouch, even more beer...

load 1, 3, 5 & 7

So that's 4 jumps before the weather turned bad around 1.30 pm. Not bad :-)

First is a level 4. This guy at first is very nervous, and then he calms down. He becomes very quiet. Seems like he has a full time job containing his fear. But he succeeds in overcoming it and makes the jump



There is always fear in skydiving, but after well over 3000 jumps it has changed a lot for me. It becomes a whole lot less acute, and of course I fear other things than an open door now. It's hard for me to relate to this kind of fear/tension/stress.

Then a level 2. Before the jump, we were joking a bit, but in the end I reassured the guy, that I wouldn't release him. Bit of a pitty really, 'cause he was very good. If we would have released him, he would have stayed right where he was.

Another level 4 with the scared one. He is a little more relaxed (but not that much), and the jump, well euh... A performance like this would probably pass him on level 3, but since this was a level 4, I need to see a bit more control, plus starting/stopping a turn... But, he is altitude aware, doesn't freeze up, tries hard, and lands safely. So even if it won't pass him on his level, it's a good jump, no?

And a quick level 1 next. The man is very focused and really enjoying himself. An almost perfect jump. Under canopy, he doesn't follow the directions we give him, but he does well on his own. He flies something that is recognisable as a pattern, at about 300 ft he is in final. And he makes a good landing. But he has to walk back a few 100 meters more than if he had listened. Well done.

We still board the plane with his friend for his first jump, but John radios the pilot to cancel our jump. The clouds are starting to close in and, more importantly, the wind picks up and becomes very unstable. So it's a plane ride down (long time since I had to do that). But a perfectly good decision from the ground crew. Thx!

And guess what: I feel it's too early yet for beer... Or maybe not... Ok, just a quick one :-)

F***ing close

Started the day with 3 FF jumps. I am starting to make those jumps with other people now: 2-ways and 3-ways. And well, is it just me being complacent after so many years of belly flying, or is FF really lots more difficult?

Next was a refresh-level-4 jump. The guy started skydiving in 2005. He totals some 20 jumps now. Only 2 of those were in 2007. Plus he had some blabla about making more jumps and not filling in his logbook. I stopped believing stories like that some time ago.

But (dangerous as this attitude may be) that's not why I want to talk about this jump. There were a lot of newbies and solo jumpers on this load. For the exit, there was a solo jumper (the big guy in a black suit, right at the start of the video), than 3 other solo jumpers, and than it was our turn. You don't see the actual exit of the guy in black, but it is at least 25 seconds before we exit. And yet. After my student pulled, I made a backloop to video his opening, and next thing I see is this guy, under his canopy, straight underneath me. I ducked, tracked, and fell past him at (I think) between 10 end 20 meters distance. I was under canopy at 2000 ft.



He funneled his exit, then tried to sitfly but kept falling over on his back. About 9000 ft, he had enough of it, and went for a good 4000 ft of tracking. All of this straight up jumprun ...

Next a jump with a recently graduated student. I gave his FJC but didn't do the jumps with him. He weighs some 35 kilos more than me and Werner, his instructor, told me he really burns a hole in the sky. A linked exit (his first, beer!). 360° left, 360° right, backslide 2 meter, stop and redock on me. And than a little fallrate exercise. When I started to accelerate, first there was surprise on his face, and then he started to arch some more, and some more, and then finally he started catching me. When I slowed down, he was lost... We averaged 129 mph, and had a fun jump!

To end the day, two level 1 jumps. The first one, a friendly girl, I wanted to turn her into the sun, but the other instructor was determined to keep her on heading. He won (the video lost). Jump went fine. Second one was a guy, talking too much, but hey, nerves can do things to a person, you know. He went through all the mechanics of the dive, but without really knowing what he was doing. I stopped him from pulling at 7500 ft, he made the movement at 5500, but I had to make the actual pull.

7 jumps, lots of fun, one big scare: that calls for a couple of beers!

:-)

Glorious weather, a bunch of visitors camping on the DZ for the long weekend, a first jump course with 12 students: it promises to be a fun day! First take-off at 10.02 (we open at 10.00) and of course I am on it. A bit of backflying, sit and standup to start the day :-)

There's this guy who wants to do a level 6, but his level 5 was over 6 months ago. "The weather has been bad" Yeeaah, sure :-) So we go up for a level three (with Yves as partner-instructor). He is very uncomfortable all the way through, and doesn't pull for himself. We immediately go up for rejump and this time he is OK. It is clear even in the plane that he reconnected with skydiving. The difference is amazing, this is a good jump.

Next are a bunch of first-jump students. First one, all I remember is me and Erik (the other instructor) smiling at each other during the exit, when he is wriggling through his sensory overload. Second one was a girl. She insisted on jumping with what looked like class D hiking shoes ("ankle support"). In the air, she looked a bit like a pancake: completely, strictly 2-D, with arms and legs stretched wide. At pull time she went through the motions, only she didn't really pull. She left the PC in the BOC. But she immediately continued with a real pull, so that's OK. I didn't forget to duck for those monster shoes. Third one really enjoyed himself. Plus he made a good jump, was good under canopy and made a beautiful tiptoe landing.

I was also on the last load of the day. I was back on the ground at 19.51. We have to close at 20.00. By the time I was done packing, two beers were gone :-)