How do you know if you have a good canopy?
To test the canopy, see if it flares. Pull both toggles down to
below your waste as far as you can. You should stop moving forward
and not turn. Then go back to full flight (toggles up). Look
right. Turn right. Look Left. Turn left. If that all works, then
you can land that canopy.
Nic walked me out to the hanger. This is where the equipment is
stored and they have a nice big room where the rigs are packed.
Nic brought out one of the rental rigs and took it all apart to
show me how it worked.
Nic showed me pictures of various problems that can happen on
opening and procedures to take care of them.
Common ones are:
We drilled and drilled on the emergency procedures for cut away
and reserve deployment. Nic had me wear a harness that had the two
handles on it. He would show me a picture of a canopy and ask me,
"What do you do". Some are fixable. Some you need to cut away.
When one of those showed up, he would say, "Show me", and I would:
Nic showed me a picture of the aerial view of the landing areas.
The students have a landing area south of the normal landing area
reserved for licensed skydivers. The normal landing area has a
hazard to the north (the gun club). The student area has a hazard
to the south (the power lines). Because these areas are rectangle
and narrow, skydivers always land heading either north or south
depending on wind, but never east or west. In no wind conditions,
both student and licensed skydivers land away from the hazard. If
the wind is from the north (which it normally is) , then you land
to the north. If it is to the south, then you land to the
south.
The landing pattern always starts at one end or the other of the
east edge of the student field. If the wind is from the north, you
start in the north corner. That is called check point 1. You
should hit that at about 1000 feet. You fly south down the left
edge and turn at the south east corner. That is check point 2. You
should hit that at about 500 feet. Then you fly to the middle of
the south border and turn north into the wind. That is check point
3. You should be at about 300 feet at that point. The pattern is
reversed for a south wind. The starting leg is always on the east
side of the field.
If you are high at check point 3, then you can burn off altitude
with S turns. Once you are at 100 feet, perform no more turns.
Keep the canopy level and fly straight. Start to flare at about 12
feet. Get in PLF position (knees and ankles together). Finish with
a full flare. Prepare for a PLF.
Out near the loading area, there is a plane door mockup where we
practiced our exit from the plane:
Nic gave me some hand signals to be used in free fall when we can
not hear each other.
Outside the hanger, there is a frame shaped like an H supported 2
feet off the ground that you lay down on. It can rotate around the
Z axis. You practice body position on that with the instructor.
For this jump, its pretty easy. Just 3 practice pulls then C.O.A
all the way to pull time at 5,500 ft. They also have a fake
altimeter that has a clock mech in it that goes backwards. That
gives you a very realistic idea how long the jump takes.
Nic showed me how to fall in a way that does not hurt. At first,
it hurt, but he continued to give me direction until I could fall
and not be in pain afterwords. You put your knees and feet
together. Hands low and in the center. When you hit, you let your
knees bend and Roll on your side. When your side hits the ground,
kick you legs straight. Works great!
We went back to the AFF classroom. Nic drilled me on the pictures
of canopy failures again. He would show me a picture and ask,
"What would you do with this one?". When that review was done, he
gave me a written 3 page test and left the room. With all the
information fresh in my mind, I finished in about 10 minutes. It
was all multiple choice. Some of the questions and answers were
hilarious.
Nic checked my answers and found nothing that we needed to talk about. He asked me if I had any questions, and I said, "Yea, how did you get into Skydiving?" He said he was into scuba diving and some of his friends were skydiving so he tried that and just loved it.27. The most important thing to remember in skydiving is:
A) Pull!
B) Enjoy the view.
C) If you do not answer A, then you should try a different sport, like golfing.
About then the winds reached 20 MPH. 17 is the limit for
students. So, I was told to just practice at the Door Mockup, PLF,
and practice my emergency procedures. The winds did not stop B
license holders or Tandem rides, so those went on without me.
Finally, the wind calmed down.
At that point, Nic put us on the manifest. We borrowed an
altimeter from the front desk. He introduced me to Daniel. We put
on a jump suit, and the 280 student rig. goggles, picked out a
helmet. Matthew showed up having just landed after his trip with
Jenny to Disneyland. He tried to get me to use my new b-day
present: his old altimeter, but Greg stepped in and discouraged
this last minute change. We had one last go at the Door Mockup to
practice with Dan. The plane was waiting for us. Inside, patiently
waiting was Katie
Hansen and a friend both in wing suits. I had no idea who
she was until I landed and came back to the hanger.
Once on board the plane, Nic told me to put on my seat belt. I
looked for it. It was not what I expected. It was like half a seat
belt. It was made to go around your leg strap, not your waist. We
wear this until 1000 ft and then take it off. Give the thumbs up
signal because they open the door at 1000 feet. The thinking is
that if they open the door and your pilot chute accidentally comes
loose and goes out the door, you need to follow that pilot chute
out the door. The seat belt would be a problem if it were still
attached.
The jump itself was acted out as if in a dream. It went exactly
as planed like clock work. It was like someone pushed play on a
DVD and it all just happened because it was prerecorded in my
brain. They gave me one hand signal and that was to extend my
legs. Kurt Vert followed us for a video (or as he
likes to call it, a Vertio ;-)
That was the nicest part! I opened up right over the holding
area. The view was amazing. I just stared for a while before I
remembered about the toggles and the canopy check. I flared, I
looked right and turned right. I looked left and turned left. It
all worked! Then I remembered, check altitude. I looked and it
said 3500 ft. "Oh NO!", I thought. "I was suppose to pull at
5500!!! Oh wait." And I just smiled in spite of myself.
I was at 3300 feet. I needed to wait there and just burn off some
altitude until 1000 feet. I did not know this, but the wind had
picked up a little bit after we took off. So as I was burning off
altitude, I was being pushed south. Once I did get to the proper
altitude, I was so far south of check point 1 that there was no
way I was going to get back there. So, I transferred the pattern
to the south south field and had no problems landing there. I was
landing into the wind. It seemed I had very little ground speed,
but I was dropping at a pretty good speed until I flared. I had a
nice PLF. They had to drive the Element out to fetch me. Matthew
was there to greet me. Nic gave me full marks.
I did get some help from Nic on the radio. The first thing I
heard him say was, "Reed, if you can hear me (unintelligible)", so
I did nothing. Then he repeated, "Reed, if you can hear me,
turn left", so I turned left. After that, I think he said, "Good.
Now just stay in the holding area until you get to 1000 ft." So,
that was a long time. I think he was trying to talk to me
during the time I was drifting south, but honestly, most of the
time, I could not understand it and I was having a great time and
felt really good about the landing part, so I just kept checking
the altimeter and thought I was holding ground. I think
eventually, they realized when I started my pattern, that I was
set up on the south south field. They did give me directions about
where to turn on the pattern, but it was where I was planning to
anyway. What did help a lot was when they told me to flare. I owe
the mostly soft landing to that.
After the debrief, some nice lady offered me some Sake and
congratulated me. I attempted to keep the conversation going and
said "I see you are wearing an altimeter. Do you jump too?" She
said, "Yea, a little bit you might say, here and there." I said,
"That's cool". Latter on, Matthew told me who she was. LOL!
For my birthday dinner, we went to the Mexican Food Truck. This
time, we were served quickly and those burritos were awesome! That
and a couple of beers? Great end to a great day!
