Consol - Jump 13 - 12,500ft

Last jump of the day.  It doesn’t dawn on me till I’m on my way to altitude that this is lucky number 13.  I decide on this one to try the forward flip.  It’s funny as it is now that I’m jumping by myself and doing flips and barrel rolls that my wife is starting to get scared.  I jump out second to last on what seems like an eternal 2nd jump run.  It was a full plane, but we had initially two hop-n-pops.  Then on the initial jump run at altitude there is an instructor with two students.  The first is doing his first solo.  He is the first one out the door and takes at least 15 seconds before jumping.  Next out is the instructor and the student doing is AFF level 4.  They take about 20 seconds to get into position and jump.  Next we get two more groups out before the light turns red.  I look at we still have half the plane full and are already doing a go around to start another jump run.  To make things worse most of the remaining jumpers our going solo.  We extend the next jump run a bit and the pilot is literally yelling for us to get out.  I get out the door second to last.

My exit is OK, but I get stable and go for the front flip.  I pull out to early and end up on my back.  I get back stable and check altitude.  Still high enough so I go for a second attempt.  This one goes great and is quite enjoyable.  I spend the rest of the jump tracking towards the holding area as we are way out there.  I have a clear vision of the jumper that went out ahead of me so I keep a close eye on him trying to not get too close.  I pull at 4000ft with no issues. Stand-up landing on target (4 for 4*).

*one includes a nice bounce off the ground.

I’m spent and done for the day.

Blue skies!

Consol - Jump 12 - 12,500ft

Jump # 3 of the day and I’m feeling more confident in my jumping ability and more at ease now.  I decide I’m going to work on the rotating on all axes section of the proficiency card.  This means I need to do a back-flip, a forward flip and a barrel roll.  Even though I got credit for the back-flip on stage 6, it didn’t go as good as it could have.  So I decide on this jump I will try the back-flip.  I figure I should have time for at lease 2 attempts.

I’m out the door and stable fairly quick (diving exit getting better).  Go for the back-flip and this time pull it off a bit better.  I get a little sideways though.  I’m happy with that for now and still have a lot of altitude so I begin driving forward and initiate the barrel roll.  Though it is a little wobbly I felt good about it and also quite enjoyed it.  I spend the rest of the jump practicing my tracking.  I pull at 4000ft.  No issue with the chute deployment this time and I’m on the ground in no time with an on target (3 for 3 for the day) stand-up landing.  It looks like I should have just enough time for a 4 jump.  Although I’m getting quite tired by now.

Blue skies!

Consol/RW - Jump 11 - 12,500ft

So I’m heading up with Gail to do a coaching jump.  This will be jump #2 for the day.  We decide that I will follow her out the plane and then I’ll move towards her and dock.  Next we release and I do a 360 to the left.  When I come around she is about 10 feet away, I move forward and dock with her.  We release again and I do a 360 to the right.  This time when I come around she is about 30ft away.  I drive forward and dock with her.  I’ve gotten much better control of my forward movements now by using my legs more that my arms.  Gail also says that I did a good job of flattening out my track to keep the same fall speed and altitude as her on the last dock.

It’s 6000ft I turn 90 degrees to the east and track forward.  This is my best track yet, not a bit of instability and I get up to about 156MPH.  I pull stable at about 5000ft, at 4000ft I look around, signal and pull.  the chute comes out and as I’m checking everything I can see some line twists starting.  I was stable at pull time, so it was just one of those times for this to happen.  This is by far the worst case of line twist I had yet encountered, but I felt I could get out of it fairly quickly, which I was able to. 

Now I’m looking for the holding area and holy crap it is far away.  I see the north field is a bit closer though.  I’m at about 3000ft and the wind is at my back so I decide I can make it to the south field, which I’m able to do.  While under canopy and over the holding area I start to experience a ton of turbulence.  I takes me pulling the left toggle half way just to keep myself heading straight.  I check my chute again to see if there are any problems, but no it is just turbulence.  I’m heading in on my final approach and directly on target, but having to keep my left toggle and half brakes to keep it straight.  As I get close I’m reminded that I should not be in a braked position prior to flaring as I won’t have anything to flare.  As I do this I immediate turn to the right, I quickly flare, but hold on this is going to be rough.  I bounce a little, but all in all am ok.  I know now I should have kept that brake on.  There is saying I will come to learn as a result of this.  “Good judgement comes from experience, experience comes from poor judgement.”

 Even though I bounced I was still on target so Gail gives me credit for an on target jump on my proficiency card.  Let’s head on up for jump #3 of the day.

Blue skies!

Consol - Jump 10 - 12,500ft

So it’s been just a week since I got off student status and I’ve decide to try and make 4 jumps today.  Unfortunately we get to the dropzone a little late and it looks like there may not be any available rentals (230) from the DZ shop.  Luckily the manager gives a call over to the school and Gail says that I’m good to go on a 210.  So I’m all kitted up and manifested for a solo jump.  It’s the first of the day so I’m a bit nervous.  Thankfully there are 4 tandems going up with me and the instructors are from the Jim Wallace school.  One is my instructor from levels 3 and 4, Bret Townley.  We chat for a bit on the ground.  He is a great instructor, skydiver and nice guy.

On this, my second solo and first of the day I decide to keep it simple again, but mainly I will work on slowing my fall speed.  I do a diving exit, still need to make it a bit prettier, I concentrate on slowing myself down and doing some tracking and 360.  All goes pretty good and my efforts pay off as my altimeter later indicates an Avg fall speed of 123, compared to 133.  Still need to slow it down a bit more though.  I have a stand-up landing right on target.  I love the 210.  It opens a bit slower responds much better.  Next jump is a coaching RW jump with Gail.

 Blue skies!!

Congratulations to Bryce Yates on passing his AFF… Just the A license now!

Co-founder, friend and sky diving buddy Bryce passed his AFF and did his first solo jump on this momentous day, Saturday the 22nd of March 2008… I wait for him to get to jump 24 so I can witness the A license jump!!!

Congratulations Bryce, I’ll be there myself soon!

Consol - Jump 9 - 12,500ft

So it’s now time for my first solo jump.  Yes solo jump, meaning other than a few jumpers a 1000 below and above me, I’m on my own.  On this jump I’m mostly nervous about the exit.  To date I’ve only exited out of the plane 3 times with no one holding onto me.  The first one (which I’ve only done once by myself) is the floating exit where you hang onto the outside of the plane (AFF Level 6).  The second one is the diving exit (which I’ve done twice) which both times were less than stellar.  I decide to get Jim Wallace’s advice on which exit I should use.  He tells to do whatever I feel most comfortable with and if that is just grabbing my ankles and rolling out of that sucker then go for it.  Ultimately I decided I would do the diving exiting seeing this is the most common and the one I need to work on most at this point.

So leading up to the jump everyone is asking me what am I going to do on my jump, a 360, track, back-flip, etc.  I decide on this jump that I will keep it simple and just do some simple 360s.  Truth be told, as we are on our way to altitude I’m asked this same question again by James (one of the instructors at the school) what am I going to do on this jump.  This time it hits me.  I tell him I’m going to be checking my altimeter like a Mother F’er.

 So I’m now at the door and I decide I’m going to give the guys before me a ton of space (I’m the last solo follow by an AFF - Seri, and some tandems).  It’s time to go and ugh ugh oh crap I hesitate for just a second and then see ya.  I get stable pretty quick, still need to get out the door a little cleaner, I check altitude and turn towards a eastern heading.  Next I decide to do a 360, then another in the other direction.  I check altitude and we’re at 9000ft.  So I decide to start looking around and check out the scenery.  This is the first time I’ve really had a chance to do this and it makes the jump that much more enjoyable.  As I’m looking around I decide to look down for about 3-5 seconds.  And wow the ground comes up quick.  I check altitude 7000ft, still  a lot of time.  It seems like an eternity before I hit 4500ft and decide to pull.

The canopy ride is uneventful and I have stand-up landing, only unfortunately it is about 50ft off the landing area. but hey I walk away with solo jump # 1 done.  Just 15 more jumps till my A license.

 Blue Skies!!

AFF Program - Stage 8/Jump 8 - 12,500ft

So it is finally here.  One of the most anticipated jumps of my short skydiving career.  AFF Level 8.  Level 8 is a lot like level 7 in the fact that we will be working on adjusting fall rate.  In addition to this I will be required to track to my instructor and dock with him.  Also on #8 we will have the same exit as on #7 only this time instead of the instructor following me I will be following the instructor out the door.

For this jump I have a new instructor, his name is Darryl.  We talk about the challenges I had with the diving exit on level 7 and he suggested that when diving out that I should get my right elbow up and present my chest to the wind and to also, for just a moment, bend my knees so that my feet hit my butt.

So were at the door and Darryl initiates the count (I need to be leaving the aircraft at the same time he does and ensure I don’t hesitate, which up to this point I have not yet done) and then we are out the door.  I’m able to get my elbow up an chest to the wind, but seeing this is the first time I’m trying to bend my knees so much I accidentally tuck my knees into my gut, producing a horrible arch and a wild ride.  After about 5-6 seconds I’m able to get stable.  I find Darryl and track towards him and dock.  He then releases and increases his fall speed.  I increase my fall speed a moment later an move in and dock again.  He slows his fall speed and motions for me to dock.  I slowly decrease my fall speed and move into dock.  On this last one I’m having an issue getting that last 1/2 foot to dock so Darryl just reaches out and grabs me.

 It’s now 6000ft, so as planned I do a 180 and track.  At about 4500ft I pull stable and then at 3800ft I pull my chute.  I was suppose to pull at 4000ft but I was given an extra task on this jump prior to pulling, which was to look around for other jumps.  This was the reason for the slight delay in pulling.

The canopy ride was uneventful and I have a stand-up landing about 25ft off the landing area.  Except for the slightly low pull everything went fairly well.  And I’m clear off student status.  Mission #1 - Complete AFF is now done.  Now on to the A License and my first solo jump.

AFF Program - Stage 7/Jump 7 - 12,500ft

It’s a big day today.  With any luck I will complete stages 7 and 8 of the AFF program today and take my first solo plunge.  Compared to # 6 numbers 7 and 8 appear pretty straightforward. To quickly summarize the goal of 7 is to learn a new exit (diving) and adjust your fall rate. 

For #7 I will be jumping with Gail Wallace (Jim’s wife) for the first time.  I get my safety check and am all kitted up so let’s go jump.  On this jump I’m only nervous about two things #1. the new exit and #2. it’s been almost a month since my last jump, so I’m asking myself, have I forgotten what to do. 

We’re at the door now so let’s go.  With this exit I get a little inverted (looking straight down), which is normal and have a bit of a spin, not normal, but I’m able to get stable in about 5 seconds so all is good.  I see Gail swing around in front of me and she gives me the signal to make a 360 to the left.  When I come back around she is a bit lower than me so I just arch a bit more and just like that we are level again.  I then get the signal to make a 360 to the right.  This time when I come back around she is a bit higher than me.  I less my arch and bit and slowly but surely make my way up to her.  A point of reference here; I fall fast.  My Altitrack altimeter says my avg. fall speed is around 130MPH.  I’ll need to start working on slowing this down.  So we’re about about 7000 ft now so as required i make a 90 degree turn away and track for about 100ft.  I get back stable and basically wait till 4500Ft, wave and pull.  No issues with my chute deployment an I have a stand up landing right on target.

Everything went really well on this jump so I’m cleared for level 8 and one step closer to 8 stages / 8 jumps.

Blue skys…

Missing - Have you seen this Skydiver

So I’m axiously awaiting my upcoming jumps, which are scheduled for the 15th of March.  With any luck after the 15th I’ll be off student status, having completed all 8 stages of the AFF program, and will have done my first solo skydive.  There is one big problem though.  I seem to have lost my skydiving buddy Seri.  If you’ve seen him please be sure to send him my way.  For those of you that don’t know what he looks like here is a description

Seri - Male, 5′ something, one hundred and something pounds (not sure what the equivalent would be in stones), brown hair.  I have no idea what is eye color is as I don’t usually pay attention to details like this on guys.  He is kind of curious looking and can usually found in front of a computer when not skydiving.  Also like most brits he makes use of the word whilst instead of while (they speak the queens english you know).

Mind Boggling Skydiving Records

Skydiving is, by all accounts, a pretty insane sport, we gladly pay for the privilege of letting a dubious looking pilot take us nearly 3 miles high into the sky and then we walk up to the open door of the airplane and throw ourselves out for fun. It should be no surprise, that for some people, after they have a few (thousand) jumps under their belt, the thrill wears off and they start looking to inject a little extra excitement into their jumps. It’s due to these fearless, courageous, competitive or just bat shit crazy individuals that I’m able to present some of the most mind boggling skydiving records.

1: Consecutive accurate landings

This might not seem like much, to get a few landings, one after another, all within a small distance of one another, but, consider what it takes to hold this world record. The record is: G-1-b : Landing accuracy with 0.02 meter disc : 4 cons. landings + 0.01 m, set on the 17th of August 2007, by a Liudmyla Zem’ska in the Ukraine.
Now, think on that, for those who aren’t used to having to think in meters, then I’ll make it simple, after jumping out of a plane at a height of nearly 2.5 miles, this parachutist successfully hit a disk that was about 1 inch wide on four separate occasions, with a level of accuracy within half an inch. That’s like dropping a pea from 3500 feet up and hitting the same spot four times in a row within a quarter of an inch, admittedly the pea doesn’t have a steerable canopy, but you get the idea.

2: Most Jumps in a 24 hour period

Unimpressed huh? Well, how about this, the most jumps within 24 hours, commonly referred to as a day, but if you think about it, it also includes a night… (sorry I’m being obtuse again). Anyway, how about Jay Stokes, who from the 8th to the 9th of September 2006, at Greensburg, Indiana managed to complete not 100, or 200, or 300 but 640 jumps. That’s one jump every 2 minutes and 15 seconds, and that’s without taking into account the need to use the toilet, drink some water or hell, maybe eat a sandwich. I can only guess that they must have had a sealed bottle on the plane for him to use (don’t think of Dumb and Dumber) and maybe some amphetamine.

3: The worlds largest freefall formation (of totally blind skydivers)

Just to make sure we’re all on the same page, I’m not talking about the largest group of people to jump out of an airplane at the same time and make some pretty little shape in the sky, I mean the most BLIND people to jump out of a plane and make a pretty formation, well, how pretty can it be with only two people, but it’s the thought that counts. On September 13th 2003 at Garrettsville Ohio, the world record was set when John Fleming and Dan Rossi, two blind skydivers, jumped out of a plane and completed a formation skydive. It’s not so bad you might think, as after all, they would have had altimeters that audibly alerted them when to pull and the landing would have been assisted on radio. It’s when you realise that one of the blind skydivers had the other one tell him when to pull the cord and deploy the canopy.
To copy from parachutehistory.com “At 6,500 feet Rossi gave Fleming the pull sign, a hard shake of his upper arm. Fleming deployed in position and then Rossi, assisted by a safety diver who was lurking near by, tracked to 4,000 feet and deployed”. So you not only somehow dock with your companion who is also blind and you locate them how?, but you then allow them “who cannot see their damn altimeter”, tell you when to pull and deploy. This took something bigger than brass cajones my friends.

4: Worlds longest freefall (in distance)

On November 1st 1962, at Volsk in Rusia, Eugene Andreev jumped from an altitude of 83,524 feet and free-falled until a height of 3,134 feet. That’s a massive 80,380 feet of total free fall, or to put it another way, just over 15 miles of falling through the sky, without your canopy deployed, at a speed of around 130mph assuming a regular neutral body position and a pretty big canopy on your back. Unfortunately I’ve been unable to find out exact details of this jump, but I can only assume it was done from a balloon with the jumper sitting there and crapping themselves the whole way up. Knowing how I feel in the plane when it’s only going up to just below 15,000 feet, I would empathise with this possibly psychotic individual, that is until we come to our last insane hero…

5: The highest parachute jump in history

In 1960, on Tuesday August 16th, Captain Joseph W. Kittinger with the United States Air Force, boarded the gondola Excelsior III and climbed to a height of 102,800 feet, nearly 20 miles, before jumping from it with nothing other than a canopy strapped to his back.
For those that can’t be bothered to click the image on the right for the bigger picture, the inscription on the ledge outside the gondola reads “This is the highest step in the world”. You know, there’s nothing like a little bit of reminding that you’re about to carry out something that is in nearly every psychiatrists book, certifiably bat shit crazy. Unfortunately Captain Kittinger doesn’t also qualify for the worlds longest or furthest free fall as he had to deploy a drogue chute behind him to stabilise the fall.

So, the next time you’re in the doorway of a plane at 14,500 feet wondering just what the hell you’re doing, have a think of some of the people who have gone before you, and remember, if the view doesn’t look like this, then you’re probably going to be okay.