Weekend Antics

Wow - What a good weekend!

This weekend, strangely - went roughly to plan :-)

I arrived at the drop zone at about 07:50, ready for my first set of Free Fly training!

When my coach arrived, he handed me my new Alti-2 Galaxy 2 audible altimeter that I had ordered from him the previous weekend. Once I had gone through the different points that make gear "Free Fly friendly", we went on to discuss barrel rolls while you track away, why they are so important during your track away, especially when Free Flying. For those of you who are not aware of the reasoning behind this, it is basically a safety precaution - When there are a number of people in a formation it is important to make sure that you have good separation at pull-time, obviously you DO NOT want to open your chute if there is anyone above you, or too close to you as this can cause serious accidents and fatalities.

With Free flying, this is all the more important because of the much faster falling speeds. The idea is that when the formation breaks and each person tracks away for each other, you would barrel role onto your back for a second or two and ensure that there is no one above you or around you that you may collide with.

So, the barrel role was my first objective - sequence of the jump was to go as follows:

Exit from 12 000ft and go straight into a track (Basically a dive at what I would guess to be a 45 degree angle). After 8 seconds (To ensure that you have enough speed), initiate the barrel role by positioning your hands in a way that would deflect the air in such a way, that it would turn you over onto your back.

Sounds easy hey!? Unfortunately not - I had enough time to try 6 barrel roles on my jump, none of which were successful. Instead of barrel rolling, I found myself doing 360 degree turns, as if I were belly down in a flat fly position. I was not at all happy with the way I executed those barrel roles :-(

After landing, I spoke to a few other people and asked their opinion as to why I went into a flat spin instead of a barrel role - They all very kindly offered their recommendations and gave me examples on how they each do their barrel roles. I got some good tips, but it is going to take a lot of practising.

Although I wasn't happy with the barrel roles, my instructor said "Well, you have plenty of time to work on those" and told me move on to the "Base Position". This is basically the position that you would revert back to if you got unstable during a Free Fly jump, allowing you to transition to any of the other free fly positions, IE: Sit fly, head down etc. The reason we have to revert back to this position, is because of the speeds of free flying, it is very dangerous to just go into a flat and stable, belly down position as there is a huge decrease in speed and if there are any free flyer's above you, they'll crash into you with SERIOUS consequences!

I found the base position to be ALRIGHT, I was basically in a sit-fly, but more on my ass, like I was sitting with my feet up and the back down in a lazy-boy chair!

I still wasn't entirely happy with this, but by jump 3, I was happy! Exited the plane at around 11 000ft and went straight into the base position, back more upright and arms out straight to either side, in-line with my chest and knees right up to my chest.

My objective with this base position was to be able to stay in it for the entire jump and keep a heading (stay stable enough to keep going in the same direction). At 5000ft, my new audible beeps in my ear, letting me know it's time to break away from my fictitious formation, and begin my track, then at 3 500ft, it lets me know it's pull time :-) I love that little toy!

Jump 4 was not quite as good as jump 3, but I was able to keep a heading and at no point went to a flat and stable, belly down position!


All-in-all, a great day of jumping! It feels awesome being back in the sky after a long week of work!

Unfortunately the weather would not permit us to jump on Sunday, so my Free Fly coach invited me to go with him and a few other people from the DZ to fly model gliders, I also wanted to see my prospective new rig that I want to buy from him.

After half the day of watching the gliders and throwing rocks at one that got stuck in a tree, one of the other jumpers arrived with some home made rockets! Now THIS was fun! Right up my alley as making rockets and blowing stuff up is something that I've always enjoyed! After sending a few rockets up to around 700ft, we decided to strap one to an old glider and send it on it's way :-) This, as you can imagin, didn't quite go to plan, but we had a huge laugh as it spun around in a big puff of smoke!

We then went to my coaches place to check out my new rig - it's a nice black Vortex 2 container, with a Hurricane 150 and a reserve - and it looks PERFECT! It fits perfectly and I'm very happy with it! Now I just need to come up with the money to pay for it!

By the time I arrived home, I was BUGGERED! Nick (one of my house mates) greeted me at the door with an ice cold beer...EXCELENT way to end off a great weekend!

What a good weekend! I enjoyed every bit of it - I think I need to get myself a glider for when the weather is no good for jumping!

Blue skies everyone and happy days!