Another Drop Zone, Two More Jumps

Yesterday morning, I arrived with my sister at her drop zone Skydive Skåne. In tow, we had our family dog, who is anxious around new people, and whom we'd need to take turns watching. If I was to jump at all, I would have to find AFF instructors at a drop zone that was not my own and who would therefore be fully within their rights to refuse jumping with me.

Following my first two jumps this past Thursday, I had been longing to get back into the skies. Feeling uncertain regarding the logistics, I tried not to get my hopes up too much, but I'd been told that showing up would likely mean we could work something out, and so there I was.

Upon arrival, the wind was a bit too strong for students, which meant that I was grounded for the time being. My sister signed up for one of the first lifts, while I sat down with our dog to watch the hours tick by and slowly get to know the people of the drop zone. The more time passed, the calmer the winds seemed to get, until they finally were just below the student limit. At this point, I had also managed to talk to two instructors who had kindly said they would jump with me, so I found myself picking out gear with our dog in tow, waiting for my sister to return. To use the time efficiently, I got a drop zone briefing, had a discussion about the preferred landing pattern, did my best to memorize the satellite image of the area, and worked to memorize the tasks for my third jump just in time for my sister to come back.

I was feeling a little nervous about being able to find this new drop zone from the air, but also figured it would probably be fine, knowing I had managed it at Skydive Syd two days before. It was mostly this and the lingering performance anxiety that took up my mind when I was waiting to get aboard the airplane.

AFF 3 - Third Skydive

Once we were going up, I was looking out at the ground and taking mental notes of the landmarks, all the while visualising the sequence of my assigned tasks. In AFF you do seven jumps before going solo, and this jump would be the most chill with lots of time to spare, and so I felt confident I could manage the entire sequence. The third jump is the last one with two instructors, and is the first one where they let go of you, to see if you can keep yourself stable in the air. All you need to do is one practice pull, two "heel clicks" which show that you have your legs at the same level, and then you simply need to relax and arch in the wind while keeping an eye on your altitude.

The jump was pretty smooth-sailing, including a stable exit, and it felt like we were flying through the air for ages, just looking at the horizon and waiting to reach 1800m, the altitude where I would wave and deploy.

The flying of the canopy was a tiny bit different since I had gotten another canopy size here than for my previous two jumps - 240 square feet instead of 260 square feet. It was not a huge difference, but it was enough for me to make a tiny miscalculation of how far I would go in the wind when I was coming in for my landing pattern. This meant that I saw myself getting too close to the turbulent tree line for comfort, and that I then had to choose a different landing spot than I had intended. I did still land in the correct field, but on the wrong side of the taxiway (although correct side of the runway). 

I flared (braked) the parachute at a better time than my first two jumps. and almost managed to stand up during my landing, only just messing up at the last minute when my heels slipped a little in the grass and dirt, and I ended up sinking slowly onto my butt. Landing on the butt is not recommended as it can cause any impact to go straight up the spine, but there was so little speed left both forward and down that I physically could not roll and it was more like a slow motion sit-down than an actual fall. So everything turned out fine.

Lesson learned regarding the afternoon wind on my canopy though - as I was carrying my parachute back to the hangar, I was already planning my next landing pattern to avoid repeating my previous mistake.

AFF 4 - Fourth Skydive

I had paid the packer at the drop zone to pack for me in order for me to be able to jump again before the evening. Two hours after my third jump, I was getting ready for my fourth. 

For the fourth jump, you only have one instructor, and they let you go pretty early. Then all you need to do are three 90-degree turns while staying aware of the altitude, move toward the instructor, and finally get ready to pull the pilot handle to deploy the parachute.

During the plane ride up, my instructor told me to wait for thumbs-up before turning toward him, to make sure he was no longer in my way or holding on. However, once in the air, I had forgotten the exact reason and was simply waiting for the thumbs-up, while he was just waiting for me to do my thing. This lead to me spending a couple of seconds confused before he tried to sign to me that I needed to turn. Confusion dismissed, I did my turns as instructed, then moved carefully toward him, at which point he first showed me the sign to stretch out my legs and thus move quicker, and he then told me to look at my altimeter so he could get back at my side and hold on when I deployed the parachute.

The deployment went well and I quickly located the landing zone while under canopy. Planning ahead went better this time, and I did some braked turns to position myself, while slowly losing altitude and getting ready for the landing. I managed to move in a zig-zag pattern without being moved too far away by the wind, and ended up landing parallel to and nearby the windsock. I flared a little too high and a little too aggressively and had a rolling landing, but this was the first time I had looked straight ahead instead of down, so I decided to count it as a win all the same. Overall I was very happy about the jump and my planning, and I was grateful that I had gotten to go twice when I had been afraid I wouldn't get to skydive at all that day.

As a nice bonus, I got to pack my own parachute under guidance. I can't say that the packing system makes sense to me yet, and I've found that it is even harder to learn due to everyone having their own tricks, but this was only my second time packing and I've been told it just takes time for these things to make sense. 

Late Nights and Early Mornings

We ended the day eating pizza by a campfire, talking, and just hanging out. It was interesting getting to know more about the people I'd spent the day with, and the mood was cheerful and welcoming. I stayed up past midnight and only got a few hours of sleep in the bunkhouse before daylight woke me up. 

In spite of the early mornings and late nights, I arrived home rejuvenated this evening, excited to jump more, and feeling encouraged by the community at the drop zone. I love the way this sport seems to bring people together, and how people are so happy to share their knowledge and experience with newer skydivers. And I'll most definitely be going back to visit Skydive Skåne again.