Great to be back

After nearly 5 months on the ground I was finally able to get back into the sky this weekend, and can I just say that it’s so great to be back!

As you can imagine, there were some pretty intense butterflies going on, but given that it was sunset load and I did a simple 2-way freefly I was confident it’d be a good jump.

Sure enough, once that door opened my adrenaline took over and we had an incredible freefly (sorry kids, no video this time, what with my new BoneHead REvolve and I don’t have a Contour to mount…yet).

I have to admit though, my muscles are a bit out of practice. Sure, the sitfly came fairly natural and my brain was firing on all cylinders (until the landing, but we’ll get to that) but I couldn’t help but think to myself that the wind seemed stronger than usual. The triceps are definitely feeling it, though I’m guessing it’s a combination of the freefly and packing a virtually brand new parachute, which is always a slippery struggle.

After separating from an awesome 2-way I tracked and dumped around 4 grand, just to give myself plenty of time to get adjusted. My opening was beyond perfection so the extra time wasn’t exactly needed, but better to be safe than sorry.

The winds were a bit breezy up top so I turned in around 700 ft to start my downwind, performed a beautiful flat turn to get myself lined up perfectly where I wanted to land.

I was coming in all excited when, at about 15 feet, my brain stopped. Completely froze right then and there. Which means that my toggles made it to half brakes and stopped. Needless to say, what could have been a nearly flawless skydive ended in not-so-graceful fashion and a leg strap that needs a thorough scrubbing.

So I walked away pumped about the freefall and a bit red faced from the tumble. But, it solidifies my need to get in a canopy course stat. My confidence under this new 120 isn’t what it was with my previous Sabre 150 and Triathlon 135. I went through this once before in my skydiving career, being a bit of a headcase on landing, but this time I refuse to let it get the best of me. I know what I’m doing, or what I should be doing, so seriously, what’s my deal?!

(Note: Sometimes, giving yourself regular pep talks is all it takes to get your head out of your a$$ and get with the program.)

Regardless of the minor stumbles in the road, I couldn’t be more excited to get back into the sport that I’ve become so passionate about. I walked away that evening not only with a huge smile on my face, but feeling the weight of 5 months of stress on the ground slipping away. It was as if it I left it all in the airplane just prior to exit.

Sometimes, there’s just nothing better than a good skydive to make you appreciate your life. Can’t wait till the next one!

Love and Blue Skies!

Ashley

A little on downsizing

This weekend Rick and I headed to Start Skydiving in Middleton, Ohio with our friend Joe for a weekend of “all you can eat” skydiving as we were calling it. They were running a special, $210 for all the jumps you can make in a weekend. We had to take advantage of that!

The first day we made 10 skydives, so Sunday we jumped for free! That’s good stuff right there.

We also were able to make night jumps for our D-license requirements. This is a great dropzone to do night jumps, the LZ is huge and the hangar lights shine into part of the designated landing area so if you’re accurate you can see your feet as you land, making it pretty cakey if you ask me.

Lots of great freefly jumps were made this weekend, too! More docks than I’ve ever made in a single weekend, and my partner and I realized just how much we’re getting it together. Fall rate is less of an issue than it’s ever been and we spend most of our jumps face to face, docking on each other. I LOVE skydiving with him!!

I also was able to demo a “new” canopy this weekend. On the first jump of the weekend we were teamed up with one of the local freeflyers who mentioned that he had a Sabre2 for sale. This got my attention as that’s what I’ve had my eyes open for lately – but when he mentioned it was a 120, I was hesitant.

After a few conversations with trusted friends and fellow jumpers, I felt confident that I could fly it. So I took it for a spin on a hop ‘n pop. I went without a weight belt, or even a jumpsuit, just to get a flavor of how it flew. It opened like a dream…definitely a different story than my Sabre 1. The responsiveness is incredible, pull a toggle and it goes! Landing was a breeze too – the flare is nice and strong, so even coming in a little hot I’m able to get it to slow up enough to tiptoe out.

So, I decided to take it for a full-altitude skydive on the next jump, weight belt, jumpsuit and all. Sure enough, I loved it just as much on this jump too!

I continued to use this canopy throughout the weekend – even through night jumps. It finally feels like I’m in charge of the canopy and I can make it do what I want…and I’m not staying in the sky for 10 minutes! So I brought it home for my rigger to inspect…fingers crossed.

Now, here’s my disclaimer. For anyone who is counting, I skipped a step in the canopy downsize process. I started on a Triathlon 160, downsized to a Sabre 1 150 and now I’m on to a 120. As I mentioned earlier, I was hesitant when he said 120, I even mentioned that “it’d be great if it was a 135,” but given that I’m about 130 pounds out the door, those with much more experience than me advised that I’d be alright.

Normally, I wouldn’t recommend people skip steps in downsizing like this, but every person is different and it all depends on your flying ability and what you want to do with the canopy. After almost 10 jumps on it, I definitely feel confident. This canopy gives me room to grow. There’s so much I can do with it over time. And for right now, as a pretty conservative canopy pilot, it gets me to the ground quickly and safely.

So when it comes time to downsize, demoing is a good idea. You never know what you might be getting yourself into, so try before you buy and see what’s right for you.

Blue skies!

Ashley

Off landings

Today I want to visit one aspect of the sport of skydiving that I’m no stranger to: off landings.

Upon making Canton Air Sports my home when I was still on student status, I quickly gained a reputation for landing off. At the time, we attributed most of it to the fact that I was flying student gear and huge canopies (read: 292 square feet – and for someone who tops out at 135 lbs exit weight, that’s a whole lot of canopy over my head to take me where it wants to).

Since then I’ve managed to land off at almost every DZ I’ve visited: in a soy bean field at Start skydiving (when they were in Lebanon), earning me my current nickname; frequent landings at the end of the runway and in surrounding fields at CAS; finding a pumpkin patch and cow-filled fields with bad spots at Skydive Pennsylvania…I’ll save my ego and stop here.

This weekend of winter jumping was no exception. The winds aloft were tamer than they have been, so when I landed on target during jump #1 at Skydive PA I anticipated a smooth day of canopy piloting.

The spot was a little long, so on the next jump we asked the pilot to adjust and drop us right above the runway. Well, for any of you who are familiar with this DZ, we were dropped PAST the runway over the outlet malls. On top of that my foot got caught on the step as I was exiting, so I was 2-3 seconds late in coming off the plane. My jump was basically a solo sitfly.

Before dumping, I did my best to track back toward the DZ, subsequently losing more altitude and pulling lower than I would have liked. It was those first moments under canopy, as I’m collapsing my slider, where I realized there was no way in hell I was going to make it back.

Luckily, the long runway is lined on both sides with narrow strips of grass, perfect for landing. The only problem was, if I wanted to land in an ideal patch, I was going to have to do so downwind. Yikes!

These are not my favorite types of landings, but I came in slower and softer than anticipated and slid out the landing safely.

The walk back SUCKED…but I guess that’s what I get for pulling low, knowing where I was positioned.

The video below will give you a glimpse at just how far we were away. The DZ is at the opposite end of the runway….I landed in the green patch on the left, just past the hangars…You’ll also get to see part of the train the my freefly partner did with our buddy Tom who’s a newbie freeflyer. Hi first 2-man train. You owe BEER for this one, bud!

(Video by Richard Simenc)

Lesson learned: if you’re off target, pull a little higher to either scout out a new landing area or try to make it back with the wind. This is what my fellow jumpers did, and they all made it back.

But, it’s not a complete day of winter skydiving at Grove without an off landing, right?

Let’s just hope this trend doesn’t continue while on my Florida trip… I can deal with a field full of cows, alligators not so much!

On that note, I should mention that this will be my last post for a while – about 2 weeks to be exact. I’ll do my best to keep everyone posted on what is going on in Florida at the Everglades boogie, at Deland and more on my Twitter feed: @theskydivechick. Follow me for updates!

Until next time…

Blue skies!

Ashley