-:(

Second no-jump-weekend in a row. Grrrrrrrrr...

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:-)

Happy new year !

Membership and insurance are paid, the sky is blue and it is not too cold today. Let year 19 of my skydiving career begin!

First jump of the year is to prove we all still love each other: let there be physical contact! It is an 8-way, full of level problems. There is a lot of unintentional hugging and mid-air pinchecks going on. Everybody keeps falling on top of everybody else, I have three collisions with the same guy: lousy jump, big fun.

Second jump is memorable for the exit. From our Cessna Caravan, we try a 7-way open accordion. We launch it straight, 5 floaters, 2 divers. The masterpiece is the super-front-floater. He climbs out and when he is in position, he turns around, with his back against the plane, and from this position he takes a left hand grip on the second floater, and he dives the exit. Guess what: it works!

Next I make two more attempts at sitfly. Slowly (very slowly) I start getting the hang of it. I can stay seated for the better part of a jump now, even manage to stop a slow turning by pushing down a leg. I flip backwards once, it is so quick that I make a complete back flip, rather than just fall over on my back and sit back up again. As soon as I am under canopy, I realise that my ass is freezing off. I have thermic underwear, but it's clearly no wind stopping fabric.

First beer of the year at the DZ... Mmmhhh, tastes even better than last years' :-)

Last jumps of 2007

1FS, a 5-way, and 2 attempts at sitfly today.

Sometimes I wonder if I really want to start freeflying, or if it is just a mid-life crisis thing... The average freeflyer at our DZ must be some 15 or 20 years younger than most belly-flyers. Some of them could be my kids!

No, seriously, it is fun being a novice again, it is fun learning a few new tricks. In FS, there are moves I could do better, quicker, more precise, and all that, but there is very little I can't do at all. The stuff I worry about are mainly details. While in FF, it's the very basics I'm trying to learn, and there's at least 99% I can't do at all. It's the difference between cursing myself because a move was a few inches short, and worrying that I'll backslide so much that I'll come too close to the previous group. And I guess that's what makes it so much fun, but also a tiny little bit frustrating.

Almost 250 jumps this year. 93 AFF's. 0 reserve rides. Lots of fun, not too much shit. I didn't count the beers. All in all, it has been a good year for me :-))

Happy 2008: blue skies, safe jumps!

Brrrrrrrrr...... (very cold weather)

... but a clear blue sky. Too good to resist (I didn't even try :-). Temperature is around 0°, not counting the cold, northern wind. Temperature at 13.000 ft is something like -20°. In conditions like this, I always prefer diving, rather than floating.

Four jumps today, all belly-to-earth, jumping with everybody who wants to join. Only rule is as soon as we are 8 or more, we split the group. So two jumps are 5-ways, the other two 7-ways. At the end of the day, I have earned 8 free beers: 1 per brainlock (and that's only counting the very obvious ones, not the glitches). Over the years, I learned to cover up my own locks :-)

This is one of the 7-ways we did, a real nice one. No need to think, just swing it around! (this jump made us three beers). For exit, we launched the center spider as a linked 5-way, plus a front floater and a back diver.


Split off the 3-ways and turn them 180°, the outfacing jumper has the nice job! The center also does a 180°.


Next is a very short move to an open accordeon, center does a 180° again.

Direction of the turn is to give the jumpers who must pick up the grip the best visual. And for the center, how about another 180°?


The two switchers cancel each other out, so we can go back to 1.
The faster you can go, the nicer the jump!

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 :-)

5 jumps (3 FS, 2FF)