AFF #2 2008-Nov-16

The day was sunny, warm and windy. When I left Leucadia for the trip to Jamul, I didn't realize exactly how windy it was, but as soon as I got off the freeway in Chula Vista, I noticed the small palm tree fronds whipping in the wind.

When I arrived at Skydive San Diego, just before 9am, I checked in for my class. The young woman behind the counter told me that there was a strong possibility that I wouldn't be jumping that day because of the wind. There were gusts of over 20 miles per hour and they said it would need to be less than 5 miles per hour. Everything was screwy because of the Santa Ana winds.driving in from the East instead of the normal off-shore winds from the West. I was a bit annoyed that they hadn't called me to let me know, given that it's a 50 minute drive from my house, and I had the class/jump scheduled for a month. They said it was my responsibility to call them. Humph!

I hoped that if I just stuck it out, that the winds would die down for long enough to let me get my jump in. So, I waited. And I waited. And I read, and listened to music and read and went to lunch and read and watched someone in an ultralite play around and I read some more and I waited. It reached about 33°C (91°F), and with all the wind it was very dry. I went through about a 4 liters of water and a liter of diet coke and I was still thirsty.

And still I waited. There was one other guy who was waiting around too. After a while I started a conversation with him. He was from New York City, and was out in San Diego to get his AFF done during his vacation. He had taken the ground school yesterday, but couldn't jump because of the wind. He was hoping to get in at least two jumps today.

After some time, several other people associated with Skydive San Diego were hanging around, talking, but they didn't seem to have any interest in either myself or the guy from NYC. I was hanging in the wings, listening to their conversations, but was never acknowledged, so I just continued waiting.

Around 3:30PM, the owner of the drop zone (DZ) came out and said he noticed I and the guy from NYC had been hanging around all day and asked what we were waiting for. We both explained that we were hoping to jump. He said it might be possible because the winds were slowing and the gusts were decreasing, but we'd have to see. Then, around 4pm, everything too form. The wind came to almost a complete stand still, a group loaded into the plane and up they went.

Communication is something that they don't seem to do very well at Skydive San Diego, so, at 4:10, I was approached by a guy who was to be my instructor. He gave me all of 5 minutes of instruction on how to do turns and forward tracking, got me suited and kitted and at 4:30, I was on the plane headed to 4000m (13,000ft).

I was a little bit less nervous this time than on the first jump, but it was still scary. When my turn came, I went to the door, got into position, did my checks with the instructors, and jumped out the door. The instructor shook me to remind me to relax, and I did so, and everything smoothed out.

I did my circle of awareness, my two practice handle touches, another circle of awareness, and I started my turn. I looked at my left elbow and proceeded to turn my body so that my left elbow was raised. I waited, but didn't seem to be turning at all. So, after a bit, I stopped and went the other way, looking at the line through my right elbow and turning my torso so my right elbow was raised. I though I felt like I was turning, but still didn't really notice any turn. I did another Circle of Awareness and then went into a forward track. That I felt! I was zooming forward with the two instructors in tow.

At 1700m (5500ft) I waved off and pulled my cord. The canopy flight was beautiful with the sun setting over the ocean. I could see all of San Diego and parts of Tijuana, plus the ocean and everything was orange from the last rays of the low slung sun.

As I approached the ground, I was heading in the opposite direction for the landing pattern because of the Santa Ana winds. When I finally got close to the ground, I flared, but I quickly realized that I was way too high off the ground and now it felt like I was falling directly toward the earth below me. It was a hard landing, and I questioned myself why the instructors hadn't been on the radio coaching me. Of course, I probably jinxed myself when I asked the instructor who was kitting me out to make certain the radio worked!

Of course, because I did the turns completely wrong, I 'failed' the jump, so I'll have to do it again. I still had a great time, and it was well worth the long wait to be able to fly through the air.