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Last Updated: 16th January 1999
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| Date: 2/11/98 | Altitude: 14000 ft | Sebastian/S.Otter | ||||
| Good position in door and Hotel
Check. Very good exit. First Circle of Awareness OK. Forgot PRCPs. Body Position:
excellent. JM moved to front then you started to bring lower left leg in. Good response to
toe-tap signals but returned to same position with leg. First 20 seconds of the skydive
were great. A few more altitude checks please!! Good lock on at 6000 feet. Pull at 5,500
feet. Canopy Control and landing good. Mick Hall, D8154 |
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My first impressions of Sebastian were "Wow!". The whole operation is so slick with good beautiful scenery, a good (and cheap!) café/bar and a very nice "skydiver's superstore" shop. Mick Hall spent the whole morning on re-cap training and was VERY thorough. Body position practice was also a lot more thorough than I'd had before. Friends have said that Sebastian has a much more friendly "laid back" approach than UK drop zones, and I have to say this is true - except when it comes to safety! This environment helps make skydiving a much more relaxing experience. My first sense of nervousness came when watching the first landings - all the pro's were doing hook turns and coming in at incredible speeds. It was very impressive (but intimidating) to watch. This is another benefit of Sebastian: the landing area is just in front of the packing shed so spectators get to see everyone coming in - and it's not so far to walk when you've landed! I was also nervous about the new dropzone (right hand landing approach instead of left hand approach at Headcorn) and the new exit (right foot, not left foot facing forward in the plane and head and chest outside the door). In fact these turned out to be pretty straightforward, although I sweated over the "dirt dive" exits (Mick: "Don't be so hyper" - I think he meant highly strung!). We had agreed to do a "relax" jump with just a circle of awareness and two practice pulls, but I automatically switched into "Headcorn AFF Level 5" mode (you can't blame me - I've done so many of them!) trying to stay stable and forgot the practice pulls. Mick came round the front and I started to turn but wasn't sure why. I checked the alti at 6,000 feet and then for some reason looked at Mick for signals and when I looked back at the alti it seemed to read 4,000 feet. I did a double-take "that can't be right", looked again and sure enough it was only just above 4,000 feet so I did a rather hasty pull. (Mick later said I pulled at 5,500 feet so I'm not sure if my alti needs adjusting or my brain just went AWOL!). The Drop Zone is very easy to find (much easier than Headcorn) because of the tarmac runways round the edge, and I had fun trying out the new canopy (a Sabre 230) but landed with a bad case of "motion sickness".
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| Date: 2/11/98 | Altitude: 14000 ft | Sebastian/S.Otter | ||||
| Good position in door and Hotel
Check. Exit good. First Circle of Awareness OK. On release by Jump Master started slow
turn to left. Stopped by Jump Master. Toe tap signal. Released again and started slow turn
again. JM gave Arch signal. JM released again - this time slow right turn, but you stopped
it yourself. Then maintained heading for approximately 10 seconds. Alti awareness good.
Did 90 degree left turn on pull. Canopy control and landing good. Nice skydive. Let's try
a level 4 next. Mick Hall, D8154 |
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Mick wanted to go up and repeat the previous skydive "relax" jump after doing lots (and I do mean LOTS!) of body position exercises on the ground. We went for it and I wasn't nervous but I WAS still feeling queasy from the first jump's motion sickness (which was even worse by the end of this skydive!). The exit was OK but not quite as polished as the first jump this morning. The usual turns problem started again - and it's that damned dropped left knee again. I felt the jump was typical of my many Level 5 retakes but Mick said it was much better than my previous jump and said he was very pleased with my progress. He was convinced I'd solve my turn problem in the next couple of jumps and then bang through the rest. We'll see! The next jump (tomorrow) is to be a true AFF level 4 with forward movement and turns.
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| Date: 3/11/98 | Altitude: 14000 ft | Sebastian/S.Otter | ||||
| Position in door OK. Hotel Check
OK. Exit OK. 1st Circle of Awareness OK. 1st forward movement good then started to turn to
left. Knees very narrow and barely bent at waist. JM stopped turn and lifted left
elbow. This put you in a good neutral position. Still had a tendancy to go left. Alti
awareness good. Pull at 5,500' good. Too far downwind and landed on runway. Try to get
your knees out a bit more. Try Level 5 next. Mick Hall, D8154 |
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This was very similar to my Headcorn jumps again - slow turns which I kept trying to correct with toe taps and visual checks on arms. However I am feeling a lot more confident. I nearly always have problems with my arms because my right elbow dips low and I now consciously raise it when I feel a turn coming on. A new knee problem is that my knees are not far enough apart, making me very susceptible to buffeting (or "chipping" as some call it). Mick had recommended some motion sickness pills after my nausea the previous day and these worked wonders under canopy - I was able to spiral like crazy to lose height without thinking I was about to throw up. But I panicked over how fast landings can be and stayed downwind a bit too long - I ended up landing on the tarmacced runway (NEARLY thought I was going to make the grass area - alas not!). I ended up with a slightly grazed right hand but no real problems (other than to my pride!)
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| Date: 3/11/98 | Altitude: 14000 ft | Sebastian/S.Otter | ||||
| Position in door good. Exit
good. 1st Circle of Awareness OK. Jump Master pushed right elbow up. 360 degree right turn
good (a bit slow). Did 270 degree left and stopped. Well done. Forward movement good. Free
time: body position much better this time. Still drifting around in sky a bit. Jump Master
did not have to regrip throughout skydive. Good stable pull at 5,500'. Canopy control good
(still a bit far on downwind leg). Landing good. Well done. Nice skydive. OK for level 6. Mick Hall, D8154 |
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There was lots of excellent ground preparation for this. The plan was for Mick to give me a signal to do a 360 degree turn right and then 360 degrees left and then Mick was going to be in front of me - some distance away - and I was to approach him and then stop in front of him and, if still above 7000' repeat the manoevre. In the event I rushed the first Circle of Awareness and did it as I was still getting stable so didn't get a signal from Mick. I started the right turn anyway (in the debrief Mick thought this had been unplanned) but he was still holding on. When he let go I did a slow 360 degree turn. I then did the left turn and took this very slowly because I have a tendency to turn left anyway. I didn't realise I'd only done 270 degrees so clearly need to take more care on noting my heading. Because I hadn't done a full 360 degrees Mick wasn't in front of me as expected, but I decided to just do the forward move anyway. I pulled Ok and spiralled like mad to lose height. I moved downwind as late as I could (I thought) but was amazed that someone who seemed to be MUCH lower than me and more downwind didn't crash into the trees but landed safely. This made me dawdle a bit longer than I should have, thinking I had PLENTY of time to move downwind, and as a result I made it to the Drop Zone and inside the "beer line" area - but only just. In the debrief Mick tried to explain the optical illusion you get when looking at a canopy below you and trying to estimate speed and position. I didn't really understand it, but made a mental note not to trust what I thought my eyes were telling me on this in future. Overall I felt the skydive was a bit average, but generally OK. Mick was very enthusiastic and started writing my log book up. Half way through he stopped. "How would you feel about doing a solo dive exit?" he asked. "Let's do it", I said. And that it seemed was the clearance I needed for Level 6 (at last!). Hoorah! I could have done level 6 the same afternoon but I was unhappy with rushing up to do what seemed so many new things. Level 6 was to be a dive exit, circle of awareness, backloop, delta track for 5 seconds, 180 degree right hand turn and if time a second delta track. The new exit confused me initially. On the dirt dive for the backloop I kept pushing my head downwards instead of upwards (Mick: "That will cause you to do a backloop and a front loop at the same time!"). The tracking was new. And there was a new wave-off signal to be remembered. I could see me getting my usual brain-lock in the air and forgetting what to do, so I asked to delay the jump until tomorrow to give me time to sort the sequence out and rehearse it in my head.
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Ian D Smith, 15 Dean Court, Thorncroft Street, London SW8
2BQ, United Kingdom
Tel: (0171) 7876-123 Fax: (0171) 6420-754
Email: ian@iansmith.co.uk
