2009-03-28 Jumps 23-27

I started the day off slowly, lounging in bed until almost 7; for me that's late. A slow breakfast and the this' and the that's which conspire to pass the largest possible amount of time while accomplishing very little, made the process of leaving the house extended until well after 9am. I got the car packed with all the things I was going to want for the day--food, clothes, skydiving gear, beer, ice, dark chocolate... When I finally got my ass into gear and moved out, I still needed to stop and buy some coffee.

After a semi-quick stop at the Pannikin, with the Saturday morning line starting to form, I headed to Skydive San Diego with a combination of coffee to drink and a Theobroma cacao confection to eat. When I arrived, the parking lot was already full. I headed right to the office to pay for my rental, then, went to see if they had a 230 square foot canopy. I was in luck, and got the last one.

I got myself onto the next load, which didn't give me much time, but I didn't need much time. While I was going through the check on the rig, I couldn't get the Cypres to turn on. I tried and tried, but nothing was happening. So, I took it back to the gear room, and the gear bitch pressed the thing once and it started working. Damn, I felt really silly, but better to be silly than stupid.

Jump 23

It was a bit chilly, but I decided that I would jump without gloves, a move I would regret when I got to the door of the aircraft at altitude. We were only at 10,000 feet, and I was third in line to get out the door. I did a diving exit, and even though I was certain I was doing everything correctly, I was quickly flipping heals over head. I went with it, did a few more flips, then got stable and did a few more flips. I just had fun with the freefall. The canopy ride down was fun because I did some nice corkscrew turns that really threw me out with a lot of force. The landing was bumpy, with a bunch of turbulence. I don't know why, but I was looking at a pretty hard landing, right in front of a gaggle of instructors, but somehow, I pulled it off, sliding on my feet before coming to a stop. It was one of those freak things where the I somehow pulled it off, and even got a comment from one of the instructors about it being a good landing. If only he knew...

Jump 24

By this time, my ground buddy Jake had shown up, and I started to pack my chute. I was glad Jake was there because I still haven't gotten the flaking thing down yet. Right in the middle of the pack job Blake comes over and tells me that I can't pack my own chute unless I'm faster, because there aren't enough rental chutes available. I was miffed that he would say something like that, since I had rented the chute for the day. He didn't say anything about getting a refund when I rented it for a day two weeks back, but only got to do 2 jumps due to the weather. Oh well... I got the chute packed and manifested on a load 35 minutes away. In the interim, I grabbed some water and chatted with Jake and some other folks.

On this jump, I brought my gloves. When we got to altitude, 13K this time, I was again 3rd in line to exit. I did a diving exit again, but still flipped like a loopy kid. I was getting rather annoyed at my inability to get stable right out of the plane. I played around with some turns and tracking and flips again, and pulled at 4.3k. The canopy ride was fun again, with more turns. This time the landing was picture perfect and within 15 feet of the target.

Jump 25

It took quite a while for jump 25 because I agreed to go with Rocco to pick up some fuel for the helicopter. His GPS took us the long way around, so a 5 minute drive turned into an hour and a half. It was ok though, since the friendship and interaction was enjoyable.

I had turned my chute into the packing barn, because I wanted to jump quickly. Ghouli apparently got right on it which was nice. But, since I wasn't there, it didn't make any difference. Fortunately, I was able to get the same rig when I got back. I got manifested on a load with little more than time to zip my jumpsuit, do a gear check and put the rig on.

The jump was fairly routine. I did a diving exit and as hard as I tried to will it not to happen, I still got flipped over onto my back. I recovered quickly, but it was really frustrating. The rest of the freefall included flips, 360's, a good opening, and a really fun canopy ride followed by a great landing. It didn't get any better than that.

Jump 26
My own pack job again, with some help from Jake again. Rocco conspired to jump with me, so he got us onto a fun-load with the intent that we would exit last. He floated while I dived. Again, I flipped over, and in the rapid back-to-the-earth freefall, I quickly lost sight of him. I just kind of hung out, slowing my fall rate, and he zoomed down in front of me. I then went to do the dock. I docked without any trouble. We flew the dock for a bit and then I undocked, did a 360 to the left and then a 360 to the left. By this time, my computer was telling me we were at 6000 feet, so I broke off, turned and tracked and pulled at 4300 feet.

The canopy ride was nice, but I was to the north of the dropzone, so I headed over the lake and around to the other side of the lake.

On the debrief, Rocco pointed out that I kept my legs straight when I jumped out which was the cause of my flipping.

Jump 27
I sent the rig in for packing and I enjoyed myself with conversations. After the rig was packed, I got manifested, again with only a few minutes to spare. This time I did a diving exit and was instantly stable. I kicked my feet back and put my arms out and no flip! I did some 360s, barrel rolls. I pulled at 4300 again.

Lots of corkscrew toggle turns on the way down and a good landing.

2009-03-21 Jump 22

The morning started early even though the night ended late, and a bit of a fiasco ensued. I was scheduled to attend a trail building seminar and trail-work session sponsored by the San Diego Mountain Biking Association and the International Mountain Bicycling Association. The seminar started at 8am, so with my eyes still bleary from too little sleep, I arrived at the Elfin Forest fire station just before the speakers got things into gear. The presentation was interesting, but I was amazed at the poor presentation skills of the two trail-building experts from IMBA. After all, they do this presentation over and over again, but they were very unpolished, reading from the slides and doing so very undynamically.

In any event, after their talk, at around 11, a lunch was served, and given the lack of a vegan option, I decided to just sit in my car and read my mail and rest. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, a good chunk of time had passed, and so had all of the vehicles taking trail workers. Since the work site was some distance away from anywhere I could get my car, I decided that it was better to just head home.

When I got there, I asked my friend Adrienne, who had been visiting from San Francisco, whether she wanted to go jumping if the weather was good at Skydive San Diego. It was cloudy on the coast, but a quick call to SDSD revealed that they were jumping under a clear sky. So, Adrienne and I loaded ourselves into the car and headed down the freeway.

The journey took the normal hour, and we arrived around 1:45pm. I got Adrienne set up with her paper work to do a tandem and pointed out which instructor she wanted--she expressed the desire to have a hunky-navy-seal, and that's exactly what she got. The unfortunate thing was that we had four loads to wait, during which time I could have gotten a few jumps, but instead I sat around, chatting with Adrienne and Jake.

Finally, after the long wait, it was our time to get into the sky. Adrienne had her Navy Seal, Larry, and I was all geared up, so I asked Blake to watch my landing for accuracy and then we made the journey to the plane. I was the only fun jumper on board, so I was the last person on the plane. Fortunately, the plane wasn't completely full, and I didn't have to sit on the floor or the edge of the seat. The climb to altitude took longer than I remember from past flights, but the view was wonderful. When the pilot cut the engines, and the red "standby" light came on, I opened up the door. I stuck my head out the door and spotted the end of the runway far below but some distance off. I kept checking the location and the green "go" light. Finally, the go light was lit and we were in an ideal location, so I prepared myself to jump.

Jump 22
I did a diving exit from the plane, wanting to be stable right off the bat, but my feet and lets ended up going over my head, putting me into a backflip. I tried to continue the flip, and ended up belly down, but a bit unstable. I arched, and once stable, I did a front flip, back flip and barrel roll. Then I did a 360 and then a track. Then, I continued falling until I hit 4000' and pulled.

The canopy ride on the 230 square foot parachute was fun. I tried doing front riser dips, but didn't really notice any action. I was hanging out over the hills to the south east of the holding area until I got to about 1500', at which point I headed in to do my landing pattern. I did my downwind leg, but was moving too fast in the wind so I crabbed a bit to the south to burn some altitude before the base leg. A quick s-turn and I was on the base leg at just the right altitude. I was watching the cone in the middle of the landing area, and when I noticed it was starting to raise upward in my field of vision, I immediately turned into the wind and headed for the cone. I ended up landing about 10 feet away from it, which was probably the most accurate landing I've had.

Once I was back I started to pack my chute, but it was instantly confusing. I got everything right, but then realized I had forgotten to set the brakes. Then I was having trouble flaking. In the end, Jake helped me make sure I was doing things right. Just after I finally got the chute packed, I manifested myself on the next flight, but it looked like things were winding down thanks to a thick cloud bank that rolled in from the west. While waiting, I asked Blake if he'd seen my landing. Damn, he hadn't but he trusted my account. Since the requirement is to land within 20m/65' of a target, it is pretty hard to goof. He signed off on the past three jumps and also signed off on some other items. There's not much left to go now on my A-License application, and I'm going to try very hard to get it finished on the 28th.

2009-03-14 Jumps 20 & 21, packing class

I left the house early today because I wanted to get to Skydive San Diego as early as possible. I planned on doing at least four or five jumps. On the drive south, I remembered that it was the last day to take advantage of a airline mileage promotion for dining, so I stopped in at the Clair De Lune coffee shop in North Park and purchased a bunch of coffee to share with the instructors at SDSD.

I felt really good when I walked into Skydive San Diego with the coffee, and a few people were excited by the prospects of caffeine. I spoke with Vanessa about how to get the various items on my A License card signed off, as well as improving my landing accuracy. After our brief conversation, with several items signed off, I paid for some jumps and a day rental on the rig. I grabbed a 230 square foot rig and went to manifest and got myself on the next load. I had all of 5 minutes!

I ran over a gear check, got a jumpsuit, grabbed my helmet and gloves and put my altimiter on while running to the plane. Of course, there were several tandems that were late getting out to the runway, so, once I got out there, I had to wait. While waiting to get on the plane, I had the opportunity to talk with several other guys, one of whom is working on his A License too. We got ourselves organized into jump order. I positioned myself to be the third out the door, after two groups of two jumpers.

Jump 20
I watched as the previous two jumpers moved out of the way and then I dived into the flow of air just like I planned, except it didn't go exactly as I had planned. It seemed that as soon as I was out of the plane, I couldn't feel the air flow, and I didn't push into it with my hands, so I ended up flopping over onto my back. I quickly righted myself, and continued my jump. Once I was stable I did a 720 degree turn using the technique I had learned at the tunnel. It worked incredibly well, but I forgot to do the counter move to stop myself and overshot my target. More practice will be needed on that one.

My real purpose on this jump was to play with my fall rate, so after the 720, I slowed myself down considerably. The graph shows a solid, stable fall rate, so I know I was doing something. Of course, without any reference, like another jumper, it's hard to know how well I actually did.

The canopy was a 230 square foot deal, which puts the wingloading at somewhere over 1.1. I'm finding it to be a lot of fun, and while I'm not in a hurry to drop down to a smaller canopy, I wouldn't mind a bit more responsiveness. I figure I'll stick with the 230 until I feel really comfortable and can land it exactly where I want it and with finesse. My landing on jump 20 was really smooth and almost on target. I had aimed for the more westerly of the small blue tiles laying on the landing field, but I came down just past the first one.

Because of the funky winds, and my lack of experience, I was a bit affraid to go into 1/4 or 1/3 breaks to increase my glide to get me closer to my intended target. Anyway, the landing was smooth and soft. I took the chute to the packing barn and went about socializing and waiting for a repack. Ghoulie was kind enough to get the 230 packed and handed back to me, so I wouldn't have to jump a 260.

Clouds
After I got the chute back, I got myself manifested for load 6. Load 5 was on a 10 minute call, but then the clouds rolled in from the west and the wait was on. Things didn't look good. I sent a text message to my friend Audrienne to tell her to forget about coming for a jump. People were leaving left and right. I was chatting with Rocco and Jake, when Rocco recommended that we take off and do a BBQ. I had a chute packing class starting at 2pm, so I went looking for Tatoo Ron to find out if we could start the class early since no one was jumping. It was just about 1pm, so after a quick survey of class participants, it was decided to start at 1:30.

Packing Class
The packing class started with a quick demonstration of how a chute deploys and was then followed by a demonstration of how to pack the chute. After the packing demo, we were instructed to start packing our own parachute. I opened up my 230 and pulled everything out. Most of the tasks involved in packing are quite easy, so I got busy. But then it came to flaking, and that was a bit confusing because when we watched Ron, we saw it from one perspective, but with my own packing, I was looking from the opposite perspective, and things were a lot more confusing. The worse part was that I was apparently doing everything correctly but wasn't confident in what I was doing.

I ended up packing and unpacking the chute four times before I was absolutely certain I had done everything right. By this point, the sun was shining, and Ron said, "go jump it", so I got myself manifested on the next flight.

Jump 21
On the way out to the plane, one of the other packing class students was walking with me, commenting on how much anxiety he was feeling over jumping his first pack job. I was a bit suprised by how calm I felt inside me about jumping my pack job. I wasn't worried that it wouldn't work, none the less, I did go through the cut-away and reserve deployment procedure in my head several times as well as physically going through the motions.

We organized ourselves into jump order and then borded the plane. On the ride to altitude, I felt a little anxiety, but it was amorphous and not directed at any specific cause. It was just that "I'm going to jump out of an airplane" anxiety that is diminishing with each jump, but is still noticable. I was positioned to be second out the door after a group of four jumpers. I watched them in their fall until they were at the right location and I dove through the door. I ended up with some instability, but decided to just go with the roll and come out of it on the other side. It would have been nicer if I hadn't flipped, but going with the roll worked fine and I got stable really quickly.

I did some more flips and some 360 degree turns and some fall rate drills before finally getting to pull altitude. I pulled and the opening was so smooth that I thought something must be wrong. But it wasn't. The slider came down the lines and the chute was wide open, and the canopy was responsive.

On the canopy ride I went into some rear-riser turns, really whipping myself around. I had a really nice time, and the landing was right on target.

Party Time
Once I got down, I wanted to jump again, so I went about packing my chute. I just about got it into the bag when the last flight took off. Oh well...it was party time. I broke out some Chimay and shared it with Rocco and Jake. On my way out to the car to pick up another bottle of Chimay, I was pleasantly surprised to have Blake smile and wish me a good evening. Rocco invited Jake and I to his house for a BBQ. Another fellow, Brian, was invited and it turns out he's also vegetarian, so the two of us stopped in at Henry's to pick up some stuff for dinner and then headed to San Marcos. After chit-chats, more drinks, a show-and-tell involving very LARGE firearms, and a bag full of green cookie crumbs put on my plate, we settled in for dinner in front of the video screen. Rocco put on "True Romance" and the killing began. After the movie I wondered why I had such a dry mouth.

Looking Forward
While I didn't get as many jumps as I wanted, the day was absolutely perfect. I'm looking forward to the 28th of March when I'll go back to jump, and hopefully pound out my coach jumps and my A License exam and jump before the increase in license cost goes into effect.

2009-03-08 Jumps 16-19 at Skydive San Diego

Jump 16.
On Jump 16, I started the day by doing a diving exit. I got stable really quickly and then went into a good front flip and then a back flip. I then added a barrel roll. At that point I really had nothing to do but look around and fall. I wish I had loaded myself with some additional stuff to do. I still had a nice freefall. I was using the 230 square foot canopy which was faster and had better control plus a much smaller pack. The landing was a bit harder than I am capable of, but I at least ran it out. Divya from work joined in on this jump as a tandem.

Jump 17
I was the only fun jumper on the flight. I spotted the location, but wasn't clear that it was time to jump. Got prompted with "get out of the plane" which I promptly obeyed. I did a floating exit which went good. I was stable really quickly and then oriented myself relative to the runway below me. I then did a front flip, a back flip and a barrel roll and stayed on heading. I was feeling pretty good after that. I need to remember to arch a bit more because I started waffling a little bit.  The landing was very good.

Jump 18
After a mountain bike ride at Hollenbeck Canyon, I came back to do a few more jumps. On this jump I did a diving exit, but I was really unstable. I went with it and corrected. It was very cold and windy. The clouds had moved in, and I wasn't able to see make out the dropzone for some time. Once I figured out where I was, I tried a barrel roll, and a 360. I was just too cold, so mostly I just fell. The canopy ride was uneventful; I was back at the 260 because there were no 230's available.The landing was soft and smooth.

Jump 19
Another diving exit. I shouldn't have done this jump because I was so cold and tired. I tried to do some skills, but had neither the energy or ability, so I just fell. Once I pulled, I played with rear riser turns since I was back on the 230. I did a 720 degree carving turn and the G forces on me were quite strong. It was great fun. The landing was picture perfect, but short of where I had wanted to land.