360 Playground
Got up early today to the dropzone, reached at about 915am and started talking to people to address my fears and concerns. Did managed to get myself prepped for AFF4 jump but decided to wait a while before going up to let my nerves settle. Was up in the 3 load with Scott and on this jump I had to do some 90 deg and 180 turns. Had some morbid thoughts on the ride up to altitude but tried to concentrate on the dive instead. Anyways, the moment the jump door opened I went like 'shit, why am I jumping out of airplanes again?'.... On the dive, Scott would be holding on to my harness at the side but would fly to my front once I'm stable and LET go and I'd do the turns on my own. Well, the moment his hands went off, I started a slow spin to the left, had a bit of brain fart up in the air and I worsened the spin by trying to turn leftwards further! Dumb... Scott managed to grab me on my right to stabalise me but the moment he let go I started spinning again, damn this sux big time. Anyways, managed to stay altitude aware during the spins (thank god) and pulled on time. Had a lot of fun doing 360 deg turns and fooling around with the canopy.... As expected, had to redo the jump and was told I'm too stiff that's why the spin started. Ok, point taken, must relac.... dammit as a student the only darn thing to do is relac.
On my 2nd jump, the JM was now Anthony (which I did a jump with on my 4th jump). As usual, I was too stiff and on first attempt to turn I flipped on my back! Shit, that's no good I thought, I think I struggled for 2 seconds before doing a hard arch to regain stability. Then Anthony came over to my left and said 'relax'... at that instant in seemed like a lightbulb was switched on and somehow I did relax and managed to complete and stop a 90deg turn. After that it was pull time and had an uneventful ride down. Although I fucked the jump up the 2nd time, I thought my confidence grew a little knowing that I could now at least flip myself over if I arched hard enough.
Third jump of the day, now was with Jim an old bird with 33 years experience and an instructor examiner. At my climbout of the plane, he shouted relax, I smiled and let go of the plane. Had a slight dearch but managed to get myself stable but fuck Jim was not with me on exit. I panicked a little, did my altitude checks and decided to look more to my left and right to see if I could find him. Should I wave off and pull now as what I was taught when no jumpmasters are in sight? A few seconds later, he appeared like 15 feet in front of me and was grinning. I'm like damn this wasn't part of the plan, should I push my legs out and try to fly towards him? Before I knew it, he was beside me and I did my turns. Unfortunately on my third turn, I started a slow spin again and though I consciously tried to relax, the spin couldn't stop and later I realised it was because I didn't conteract it enough. Pulled a little high this time at 5k feet instead of 4k, guess it was because I was afraid the spin would get worse... At the debrief with Jim, I was like where were you?? That's not part of the plan, thought he was supposed to stay beside me and I told him I nearly pulled. He was like, hey you're a skydiver now, don't need me to stick to you all the time. It was then I realised indeed I was flying on my OWN and now I have a 360 deg playground.....
On my 2nd jump, the JM was now Anthony (which I did a jump with on my 4th jump). As usual, I was too stiff and on first attempt to turn I flipped on my back! Shit, that's no good I thought, I think I struggled for 2 seconds before doing a hard arch to regain stability. Then Anthony came over to my left and said 'relax'... at that instant in seemed like a lightbulb was switched on and somehow I did relax and managed to complete and stop a 90deg turn. After that it was pull time and had an uneventful ride down. Although I fucked the jump up the 2nd time, I thought my confidence grew a little knowing that I could now at least flip myself over if I arched hard enough.
Third jump of the day, now was with Jim an old bird with 33 years experience and an instructor examiner. At my climbout of the plane, he shouted relax, I smiled and let go of the plane. Had a slight dearch but managed to get myself stable but fuck Jim was not with me on exit. I panicked a little, did my altitude checks and decided to look more to my left and right to see if I could find him. Should I wave off and pull now as what I was taught when no jumpmasters are in sight? A few seconds later, he appeared like 15 feet in front of me and was grinning. I'm like damn this wasn't part of the plan, should I push my legs out and try to fly towards him? Before I knew it, he was beside me and I did my turns. Unfortunately on my third turn, I started a slow spin again and though I consciously tried to relax, the spin couldn't stop and later I realised it was because I didn't conteract it enough. Pulled a little high this time at 5k feet instead of 4k, guess it was because I was afraid the spin would get worse... At the debrief with Jim, I was like where were you?? That's not part of the plan, thought he was supposed to stay beside me and I told him I nearly pulled. He was like, hey you're a skydiver now, don't need me to stick to you all the time. It was then I realised indeed I was flying on my OWN and now I have a 360 deg playground.....
posted by zanious at 12:39 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home