2009/April/04 - Jumps 28-32

I rolled into SDSD at around 11:20; much later than I had ever intended. On the other hand, I had a handfull of errands that have needed to be dealt with for several weeks, so it was worthwhile to get those out of the way.

As I walked into the DZ, I saw Donald H's smiling face, which instantly lit me up. The first thing he asked was "what happened to 9am?" Yeah, yeah, at least I got those damn errands done! He pulled me off to the side and we discussed the next jump--a coach jump with him. The plan was for me to do a diving exit, dock with him, do some 360s and fall rate drills.

Jump #28
The ride to altitude seemed to take quite a while. I was sitting on the jump seat at the back of the plane, next to the door, which allowed me to see the ground as it slowly became more and more distant. When it was time to open the door, and the cold air rushed in, I was instantly brought back to the present. After a few groups of divers left the plane, Donald went out to the camera step. I got myself into the doorway and Donald gave the count. On "go" I was out the door, following him down, but I didn't kick my but enough and ended up flipping. I very quickly regained stability and Donald was right there with me. I came to him and we docked as planned. After a few seconds, he let go of me, I backed up a bit, did a 360 to the right and then docked again. Then, I backed up again, did a 360 to the left and then we went into some fall rate drills. He instantly slowed his fall rate, and I was pretty good, but I needed to slow myself down significantly more to achieve horizontal parity with him. After a few seconds, he dropped down to where I was and we docked again. At that point, he very visually adjusted his body position in such a way that it caused us to start turning. Noticing what he had done, I did the same thing, resulting in the speed of our "propeller" increasing very rapidly. After about 4-5 revolutions the centrifugal force of our spin was very strong. When he let go of me, I was flung though the air, but I quickly recovered stability. What FUN!!!

At that point, my audible altimeter was reminding me that we had reached 6000 feet, so I waved off, and tracked away, finally waiving off again and pulling at just under 4000 feet.

The canopy ride was fun with me corkscrewing almost all the way to 1000 feet. I got into the landing pattern, and as I came into land, my speed was pretty quick. I realized I was going to be a bit short of my intended target, so I went into a braked approach, and just as I did the final flare, a gust of wind did something weird with the canopy and I was jerked off to the left. I landed a bit hard but went into a PLF.

Jump #29
After dropping my canopy off at the packing barn and reviewing the video Donald had shot, I got myself another rig and manifested for the next load. I only have 5 minutes to gear check and get myself ready, so I moved quickly. Another solo jump, but I was excited to just be getting air time. I did a floating exit and pulled it off cleanly and was instantly solid and stable.

I did some 360s, flips and barrel rolls, staying on heading, finally pulling at 4000 feet.

Again, I corkscrewed downward under canopy, enjoying the ride. The landing on this canopy was smooth and soft, and I looked forward rather than down at the ground.

Jump #30
On the next jump I again did a diving exit and was stable quickly. No flip this time as I kicked myself in the butt and threw my arms out, doing a slight paddling to make certain I didn't flip.

I did some fall rate drills on the way down, but nothing much else. The canopy ride was nice and fun and the landing was smooth, soft and withing 10 feet from my target, although I had to use the brakes to get closer to the target.

Jump #31
The next jump was my Hop & Pop coached jump with Katie H. Around 5000 feet, we opened the door and after Katie spotted, I got into the doorway and got ready to jump. By the time we were out the door, we'd reached almost 6000 feet. Unfortunately, I had been holding the internal floater bar, so when I jumped, the contortion in my body made me turn and flip. But, I was very quickly stable and threw the pilot chute by 4 seconds. The canopy was open by 5400 feet, and I added a whopping 8 seconds of freefall to my time.

I had a decent landing, about 20 feet from my target.

Jump #32
I wanted to do a sunset jump, but the number of jumpers at the dropzone was getting sparce, so I switched my jump to the next load, about 30 minutes before the sun would have been in the spot where I wanted it. I was jumping the old crappy rig that I had used on the first jump. I look forward to having my own rig so that I don't have to deal with the rental crap any more.

On the way to the plane and on the trip to Altitude, I got to chat with Vanessa. It was interesting because she was telling me her story of independence in such a way that it seemed to me like she was trying to impress me.

The load was filled with instructors; I was the only non-staff jumper. As such, I was the last one out of the plane. I watched Vanessa and Chad and a few others in their fall and spotted to make certain that we were still over the DZ. I then did a diving exit, kicked my butt, swam a little and remained stable. Even though I saw the bottom of the plane, I managed to prevent myself from flipping.

On this jump, I just did some fall rate drills, and according to my computer, I managed to get my descent rate down to a solid 90mph.

I pulled at 4000 feet. Once the canopy was open and I did a control check, I tried to stall the canopy. I couldn't get it to stall no matter what I did. I just figured it was because of the size of the canopy. I went into some corkscrew turns, first to the left and then to the right. I entered into the landing pattern as expected, and upon final approach I went to half brakes to glide a bit further toward the target I set. I didn't notice much of a change in the projected landing spot though. When I was just above the ground, I flared, but got a very minimal amount of lift, and that made the last landing of the day another PLF! Damn!

In all, I had a great day of jumping, and enjoyed my interactions with Donald, Jake, Rocco, Vanessa and a few others.