:-)

First is level 2 again with yesrterday's bloke. His fourth try at this level. And at last, he makes it. He'll never be a natural, but it's a good enough dive. I'm happy for him, and also a little bit proud that I helped him achieve this.

For his level 3, he is still very tense in the air, but look at this: I've seen worse, much worse. Maybe yesterday was just a bad day after all.



There is also a tracking jump, in plain trousers this time. I can keep the level, but it is ooh so difficult to make speed without booties. Second part of the jump, the rabbit accelerates, and away he goes. I'll have to practice some more on this.

To end the day, Koen organises a 16 way. He briefs us on an interesting jump, but the dive itself is a bit disappointing. Divers with ill adjusted breaks, going under and having to float back up. On transition a 4-way piece going low, etcetera. Well, it was a nice enough try. Let's have some beers!

Level 2

Belgium is the warmest place in europe this weekend (at least, that's what belgian television was telling us yesterday evening). Whatever, it's a beautiful day. I have no plans, no appointments, and I'm not on duty. I can do whatever I want. First thing I arrive, Gert asks me if I want to do some AFF. And of course I say yes :-)

A guy doing his second jump. A level 2 but he didn't pull at his first jump (beats me how you can pass a level without pulling). Exit is good. Next there are a few movements that could be understood as a COA. Practice pulls, three times he panicks, three times I have to grab his hand and guide it to the pull. And that's it. We are at 9500 ft, and there's nobody home anymore. I pull for him.

2 no-pulls in a row. No good. For his next try, I simplify the dive. Altitude awareness and pull is what I want. And it is what we get. His body position is awful, we have to work hard, but he stays with us the whole dive, checks altitude at regular intervals, and makes the pull himself. Waahoo, that's progress!

Next I brief him on a level 2. Awareness, body position and a little turning. And this is a very strange jump. Good exit. COA, I signal legs out, he does that. We are at 11000ft. Then there is a gap. 15 blank seconds. At 8500 he wakes up, makes his practice pulls, 6500, lock on, and an OK pull. That would have been a good enough level 2, but a 15 sec blackout halfway through the dive??? On debrief, he recalls the legs-out signal, and he thinks the practice pulls came immediately after that...

Tomorrow morning we'll start with another level 2. That's a first for me (as an instructor): that will make (at least) four tries on level 2. Maybe skydiving is not the right sport for him, or he may also just have a bad day. Whatever, I have the feeling it's gonna be a long road towards AFF graduation.

In between all this, I can squeeze in 2 jumps. A FF jump: sitfly (good exit!), turning on my legs, just having fun in the air. And a tracking jump. An easy one for me: I still wear my AFF suit, with booties. Most of the others wear freefly suits or pants. But there are too much kamikazes in this dive. I back off some 10 or 20 yards and watch a collision and two funnels in the remainder of the dive. Maybe I'm getting old :-)

Today is the first day for our new bar. Beer(s)!

4 more jumps

Not much time to blog. 4 jumps today: 1 FS, a 6 or 7 way, I can't remember, 2 tries at sitting and a tracking jump with two former students of mine.

Playtime

A lazy day. It's almost noon when I arrive at the DZ. The weather is still unbelievably beautiful, sunny and warm. Yesterday was the hottest Feb 9 since they (whoever they are) started measuring those things.

I join a group of bellyfliers for a 6-way. I am front float and i totally f**k up my exit. The rest of the jump is also not good (in Luk's words: "this was definitely a sub-optimal performance"), but that's no more because of me: we all seem to have an off day (or an off jump at least). There's absolutely no wind, so landing is fun!

Next I make a complete-fun-jump: I exit tracking on my back, wobble a bit, make speed, salto-ing to normal track, going steeper and steeper to an almost vertical dive, even steeper, falling over and coming out of this in a back-track once again, and so on. Drop was much too far: I exited last, 1.6 mile past the DZ centre point, and I did my tracking perpendicular on the jumprun. I open a bit higher, I am under canopy at 4kft. I love floating around up there.

Third jump today is a sit. I can't help feeling a bit ridiculous. Everytime I check altitude, I turn at least 180° :-))

There's time for one more jump. Two guys who are training to become AFF instructors, ask me to film their practice jump. So that's my first "real" camera jump: I mean where I am filming other people, rather than just filming the jump I am doing. My exit works out fine: my timing and position are OK (well of course it could be better, but I have seen far worse than this my first attempt). And for the jump, well, what can I say... They handle the exit very well. The guy in black who comes from inside, I have more than a few jumps with. I know he's good, much better at FS4 than I am, and still... The fake student is not doing very much, but a bit of stress, an unusual situation, and in a few seconds the jump goes from OK to complete mess. That's what training jumps are for, and they sure learned a lot from this. They both gave permission to show the video, so here it is:



We all deserve beer after this :-)

Yiihaaa

Once again after a whole week of rain, on saturday it gets better and on sunday, the weather is glorious. Preview for monday and tuesday is stormy. God loves skydivers!



First jump is a two-way with Klara, an ex-student of mine with a little over a 100 jumps by now. We decide on a jump about making turns. We dive a cat out of the door (I exit a bit hard, so I am more like sitting on her back, rather then flying behind her). First while I make my series of turns, Klara stays in place. But she is falling very slow. I have to fly in full Charlie-Chaplin-mode (heels together, feet lined up, O-legs) to stay level, and I can just sort of wobble my knees to turn. Even lying still and staying on level while she makes her turns is a challenge.

Next I throw in a quick sitfly-jump. Although I am a solo freeflyer, I exit first. All the others in the load are newbies opening at 5000 ft, people testing a new canopy and opening higher, etcetera. The last guy to exit is a wingsuiter, who makes a solo-flight. He exits about a mile further then the "normal" jumpers, and although the sky is completely clear, he lands out. On the other side of the DZ! This means he didn't fly a circuit, and he didn't keep his eyes open. He just flew straight through the zone where we were falling or flying. And he didn't look around him while doing so, or he wouldn't have landed out...

Third jump of the day is a tracking jump. We are 6, the rabbit isn't very experienced, but he does a good job: fast but not too fast, rather flat, and just a few changes of direction. Nice jump!

Last jump of the day is another sitfly. I exit on my back, and manage to sit up. I even make a few controlled turns (well, not completely out of control anyway). I am still amazed by the feeling of speed you get with this kind of jump, compared to the "slow" feeling of bellyflying. Apparently, I have a serious backslide when I sit. I can see myself sliding over the group before me. I have to do a bit of tracking halfway through the jump to stay clear .

There were 5 loads today, and I was on 4 of them... Not bad, I deserve a beer:-)

Birdstrike

The weather was supposed to be awful this WE, but come Saturday morning, and guess what: it just looks jumpable. So, a quick reschedule of some planned activities, and I'm of to the DZ. We have to wait a bit, before there are enough people to fill the plane, but after a few coffees, we are 10 and we can go.

During take-off, I sit next to the pilot, so I have a front row seat on what follows. Immediately after we are committed to take-off, out of nowhere appear a couple of hundred birds. We go through the middle of the flock. A loud BANG, so there's at least one dead bird. And then we're through. This took not even 5 seconds, but hey, no thanks, not for me any more please! Jump is a lousy try at sitflying. Not more then 10 or 15 seconds of controlled, stable flight. And for the remainder, well I can go headdown in what I thought was a sit-position, and I can definitely start a turn. So, next time, I can concentrate on stopping one :-)

There's just the time for a second jump. Clouds and bad weather are closing in fast. I go tracking on my back, trying to make big curves and barrelrolls without loosing speed. Around 8k, I enter a haze, can't use the sun any more to keep track of where I'm going, so I do a stand-up for the next couple thousand feet. I exited last, so I open a little high, around 4 k. I immediately notice that the wind has picked up a great deal. I turn against it before doing my slider and all the other stuff, and I am blown backwards. It takes a good deal of (frontriser) work, but I manage to land exactly where I want to: a dry patch (our DZ tends to be rather wet and muddy this time of the year), not too far away from the hangar, but well clear of it's turbulence. From the 12 jumpers in the plane, we are only six to land on the DZ. The other six land out. Among those who land in are the first group to exit, and me (the last one to exit). All those who landed out have less than 500 jumps, all those who landed in have over 2000. There's no such thing as a coincidence.

But there is beer, although it is not even three o'clock. It's gonna be a long afternoon :-)

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!

My favourite playground

After another week of rain and mist, it is again a glorious weekend! Sun, blue skies, hmmm... Gert, another instructor, has talked some people from his work into doing a skydive. We start with his boss. Lots of joking ("if you need a pay rise, this is the moment to ask for it", etc.), they obviously get along very well. His exit and body position are OK, but his practice pulls are way off. Each time, I have to work to bring his hand to the right place, and while doing so, each time the formation turns about 90°. I can see the cameraman having trouble cause he has to film into the sun, so I turn the formation back in the right direction as soon as I can, but hey, first things first. At pull time, he is a little slow in starting the works, and again he can't find the pull. Time's up, so I have to pull for him. Pity, his mind was on the task, but he couldn't get the mechanics right. Under canopy, he completely disregards my steering him, flies a good circuit, and lands beautifully.

Because there is a shortage of cameramen, we have to wait before we can go up with the next guy. I can just sneak in a funjump. I exit first, all the rest of the load are students and tandems. Backtracking, some very slow barrelrolls, head down, it's my favourite playground up there :-) All the others on the load open higher, and are under big canopies, so there is no one around when I come in for landing, and I make it a nice downwinder.

Gert's second colleague is a younger man. He doesn't arch, his legs are completely tucked in, but he enjoys it, and makes a clean pull. Like the first one, under canopy, he disregards my steering instructions, flies a good circuit, and lands beautifully. Maybe I have to check how they were briefed :-)

Next is level 4 again with last weeks' skinny guy. This is his 5th attempt (and we are in the plane with another level 4, who is on his 6th attempt already). He exits OK, As soon as I release him, he starts to slowly turn, he makes a strange move with his hips to try and stop it, almost falls over, and then at once, click, he's got it. He arches and is in full control, gives me a big smile. I give him thumbs up, and the rest of the jump is a piece of cake.

An hour later, we go up again for his level 5. First part of the jump is good, but then he starts pushing out his legs too much. Instead of turning, he is flying forward in big circles. He doesn't see my legs-in signal, so when I move to his side at pull time, I really have to side-slip hard to stay in position. But it is great to watch how he is aware of the air around him, and how he tries to work with it.

Apparently, lots of people had their birthday this week, so I phone home to tell that maybe, just maybe, I might be just a tiny little bit late in coming home this evening.

Lazy sunday

Already afternoon when I arrive at the DZ. I sneak in and manifest myself on the first available load for a funjump. I am already geared up before the DZO notices me and books me for an AFF. I do a solo jump, tracking on my back, transitioning to headdown, falling over to belly track, etcetera. Simply enjoying the sky.

I am just too lazy to be a good instructor today. I do a level 2, secondary, and i wouldn't recognise the student if i bumped into him today. Shame on me.

Next there is a thunderstorm some 30 km away from the DZ, but traffic control in Brussels has to steer all those big passenger jets around the storm, so they have to close us down for the rest of the afternoon. We now have a weather hold, and a beer in the sun on the terras at the same time. I like it.

2909: tracking

Our little group broke up, so I decide to do a solo tracking jump. My friend Luc is going for his tandem rating, and he is on the same load as me, with his first human passenger (maybe "human" is overdoing it a but: the guy's nickname is rambo...). They both look nervous, but Luc has over 3000 jumps, so he should be able to pull this one off.
It 's one of my favourit exits, just stepping out of the plane, into a track alongside it. Then 90° left, towards te village, that's my axis. I go on my back, yeah, nice and flat, love the speed, barrelroll, shit, lost way too much speed in that move, happens quite often, and I don't know what I 'm doing wrong: if I concentrate, I 'm ok, if I just barrelroll without thinking, I loose all the speed. Bellytrack again, so I can check my neptune. 7.5, and I am already past the village, so time to turn around, or I will be landing out.
So back towards jumprun, picking up speed again, I see canopies, I see people falling, that will be the tandem, I see someone pull, opening, it 's not the tandem, but he is higher then I am, fuck, what 's my altitude, 6000 ft, I' m OK, oh I remember now, there was a photographer on the load, who was going to open higher, so he could fly by the tandem, and make some shots. Wave off, pull, opening is smooth, on heading, I love my canopy.