I get to Skydance about 9:00 or so and tell the desk I am here
for Category D1. They call for the next available instructor and
guess who shows up? Greg!
Well, its here that I learn what a great teacher Greg is. Greg
takes me out to the door and we practice the exit. Then we spend a
long time talking about canopy under various wind conditions. He
sees that I understand pretty well and I'm asking good questions
about cross winds and comparing this to sailing. So, he gives me a
challenge. "The weather is changing and pretty soon, that student
field gets muddy. The mud tends to start in the middle and go
east. So, if you get up there and you are feeling good about your
pattern, try landing nearer to the road on the west side of the
field. That way, you are out of the mud and closer to the hanger."
I said, "OK".
So, now he says, "Let's go to the hanger and practice rolling
over." So, we go to the hanger and says, "Show me what to do if
you get on your back." I said, "I have no idea. I did not receive
that training." Greg says, "Whaaaat?? Excuse me, I have to go kick
some butts because you were suppose to learn that is Cat C. Well,
I'll do that latter. Let me show you what to do."
So Greg gets on the mat and teaches me the "rolling out of bed"
maneuver to use in case I ever find myself on my back somehow.
There are two methods:
Now he takes me out to the free fall trainer. When he sees me
pulling, he is not real happy. "Don't look down! If you do that,
you will pitch down. Arch! Chin up! And when you pull, sweep your
hand out to the side, not down. Gentle slow move to the side, but
then jerk that pilot chute out fast!" So he demonstrated and man,
that pilot chute went sailing across the yard! So, I tried that
and he was happy! He had me practice a LOT on that trainer.
Arching hard is HARD!
At that moment, Greg got called away.
A little while latter, Greg brings Karl over and Greg explains
that he is needed to do Tandem work. So, I get to know Karl a
little bit better. I never got his last name, but I think it
starts with an S. Apparently, he is one of the people that operate
the drop zone at Burning Man. He gave me a poker chip with
"Burning Sky" in it. So cool! Karl also works for Apple in
Campbell as a build automation engineer. Karl is also a great fan
of Yoga as a way to enhance the skydiving experience. Part of Yogo
is relaxation and that is one of the essential skills you need for
skydiving. If you can train yourself to relax when you need to,
that helps you conserve your energy for the jump instead of
wasting it on nervousness.
Karl takes over where Greg left off and tells me all about
steering the canopy from the rear risers. Things to remember are:
Under canopy, I have rear riser objectives:
I have two jumps to get all this done and the day is young!
I told Karl that Calli suggested I do pull tests on this jump
because I am still having trouble finding that thing at pull time!
He said, "We can do that, if you want to. Might slow us down,
though. But that is OK. We will take as long as you need." And
that is how D1 became two jumps. :-/
Karl explained just a little about spotting. Before one exits a
plane, one normally spots to check that they are over the drop
zone before they commit to jumping. In this case, we are not the
first ones out, so spotting is less important. That skill will be
covered in more detail in subsequent jumps. But on this one, it's
mostly to just look and say, "Oh yea, there's the airport."
To tell you the truth, I had never paid attention to this. I did
not even know if the plane was flying north or south. I never
looked down. I was just trusting the instructors when they
motioned me to get out in the door.
This is the First Jump with only one instructor. He is on my main
side. This means I am going to take the full brunt of the wind
when I go outside. The plan is:
Karl helped me refine my equipment check. He has a method where
he faces the rig with the chest strap towards you. He goes from
top to bottom, then turns the rig around to face the flaps, then
top to bottom again.
Three rings first. Make sure the cutaway closing loops are not
warn out. Then chest strap. Check for no sharp edges on the metal
parts of the chest strap. Check both handles. On the cutaway, flex
the two cables to see that they are continuous from handle to
three ring. Just moving both cables a little bit to make sure it
can move and is not gummed up or stuck in the cable housing. If
you see the move up by the closing loops, then that's good. You
are just making sure they are not broken in the housing somewhere.
Also, check the RSL is attached. Check that the ball on the end of
the reserve cable is firmly attached. Make sure the handles are
seated in the Velcro real good. Then leg straps. Make sure the
stitching on the edges is not coming apart and that the straps are
routed correctly. When checking the straps, do not pull on both
sides of the strap. Just pull on one! If you pull on both, you are
not really checking that the routing through the jam nut is
correct.
Then Flip over to face the flaps. Open the reserve flap and make
sure the AAD is on. If its not, turn it on by "chasing the red
LED" (see manual). Inspect the reserve pin and the reserve closing
loop. Make sure the seal is intact. Inspect the routing of the
RSL. Close that flap and open the main flap. Check that there is
about 2 inch of bridle free past the pin on the end that attaches
to the bag inside. Make sure the pin is able to move on the
closing loop. Make sure that there is no more than 10% wear on the
closing loop. Check the bridle is routed under its flap (not
exposed to the wind) and good pilot chute handle exposure. Pound
the pilot chute inside it's pouch. Try sliding it a half inch out
and back in just to make sure its not stuck there.
If that all looks good, it's time to manifest!
I used the 260 this time. Even though Calli said I did not need a
radio, Karl put one in my pocket. He said that he would not use it
unless it looked like I needed it. Once we are geared up, we
practice at the door mock up. We do a final check of the winds.
They are light and variable again, so land to the North. This
time, we were to the taxi way early. Karl did my equipment check.
I zeroed my altimeter. The plane came up. We boarded. I always get
nervous on the way to altitude. Karl kept me talking and tried to
help me relax. This will be Jump #7 for me (5th AFF jump).
Everybody is happy in this plane, except for me. So, they all try
to help me smile and cheer up! "This is Fun!" Well, maybe someday
it will be fun for me. I'm looking forward to that.
Our turn comes. We do a quick spot. Real quick. Seriously, I did
not know what the heck I was looking at and I did not see the
airport at all. But Karl motioned for me to take my place in the
door. He was not kidding about the wind being more forceful
without a reserve side instructor. It was forceful. Man.
Check right, Prop. Out. In. Arch! And I really did Arch! It
worked! We came very smoothly off the "Hill". As usual, I stuck my
legs out pretty stiff, but on the first C.O.A, Karl gave me the
"legs in" signal. Pull tests went well. Toe Taps, then release. I
got in two 90° turns, but then my feet started going wacky and I
was potato chipping. Once I got stable from that, we were at 6500.
I probably had time to do another turn, but I felt like just
staying stable and waiting until pull time. Wave off and for some
reason when I wave off, I look down. I continue to look down and
reach to pull. I start to turn a little and then deceleration.
Perfect beautiful canopy again. I love it that moment when
everything stops and you are in a peaceful floating place.
It is there, it is square, and ... wait. I am suppose to do that
rear riser thing first. So, I use the rear risers to turn right,
then left. then flare. That works. One more flare. Good! That is
done. Now, release breaks, right, left, flare. It all works! Well,
of course it does. :-)
Checking altitude, I'm about 3500 feet. Such a beautiful view. I
have some time so I try so hard turns. Man, its scary for me doing
those hard turns. It just seems like so many Gs would pull me off
the parachute, but that is nonsense. I think I have to do more of
that and get used to that.
I was feeling good and decided to try that thing Greg wanted me
to try: landing parallel to and near the road. I hit all my check
points perfectly and did a good PLF. That was fun. Matthew and
Karl were there to meet me.
So Karl says, "Reed! Nice pattern and landing, but here you are
20 feet from the road and 200 feet from the other side!". I said,
"Oh... Right. Greg was telling me I should try to land near the
road if I could." And Karl says, "Really, OK! If you have that
kind of skill, then you do not need a radio." And he pulled the
radio out of my pocket.
In the Debrief, we talked about the head down during pull. He
said I need to ARCH when I pull and keep the head up! I told him I
did the 90° turns with the rear risers and flared. He asked, "Did
you do the rear riser turns with the breaks released?" "No." I
said. I forgot about that part. So, we can do that next time.
So I got some lunch and checked in for another D1 jump. I had to
pay for this one since my D1 was already punched. Karl was my
instructor again. The preparation for this was very quick because
we already trained for it. All we did is visit the free fall
trainer again. I leaned, he turned me. Good practice.
We grabbed the 280 this time since the 260 was in use by another
student. Early to the taxiway again. He asked me what kind of
jokes I liked. I said, "I like Puns". So all the way up in the
plane, he was telling me puns. Also, he explained to me how other
names for the handles: "The main is called "Jesus" because he
saves you. The cutaway is the "cross" and the reserve handle is
the "resurrection"! And that is as much religion as you will ever
get out of me. Ha ha..."
This time when we spotted, I did see the airport! But I was not
really paying attention to the plane's direction. The exit was
exactly the same. This time I did my 2 pull tests after release. I
did turn a bit. But when the time came to do the 90° turns, they
went real well. That is all I could do in the time. It was time to
pull. I did much better arching at pull time.
I did complete the rear riser exercises of two 90° turns with
breaks released and the 180° and 360°. This time for the landing,
I came down in the middle of the student field. I flared just a
tiny bit low. I was in my PLF form. I pulled my legs up under me.
Then, when I came to a stop, I just stuck my legs down. My first
stand up landing! Yea me! Karl cleared me to D2.
I found out after the jump that Karl was wearing weights. He is a
lighter guy than I am, so to help him fall at the same rate, he
had to actually put weights in his jump suit! Also, we were
discussing some of the flying skills that instructors need in
order to teach. For example, he said that for him to give hand
singles, he has to stick out a leg to keep from going backwards.
Sheesh!
While I was doing my Cat D1, Matthew continued his coaching
class. He did two mock coach jump. One with Nic Debonis as his
"student" and another with Keith Wyatt! Oh man. Good stories from
those two jumps. Hilarious!
Matthew said that Nic did not give a count so he had to catch up
with him. The coach jump was about controlling relative elevation.
When Nic slowed down, he went shooting up relative to Matthew and
it took a while for Matthew to climb back up to him. Then when it
was time to track away, Nic just sat there and made no move to
track or pull. Finally, Matthew gave up, waved good bye and
tracked away to pull. Nic eventually pulled, but much lower than
planned.
I did not hear as much from Keith but Matthew caught him
mis-routing his straps.
I left about 4:30 so as to get to Grass Valley to have dinner with Jenny for her Birthday! She got a Floppy blue hat from her siblings.