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

Aerodyne Demos and Freeflying

If you live in my neck of the woods and you looked skyward this weekend, it may have seemed like a bust for us skydivers, but for me, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Saturday morning I got up bright and early to make the trip up to Skydive Tecumseh to take advantage of the Aerodyne demo tour that was in town. With the consistent cloud cover throughout the day, the Cessna was only running hop & pops, but that was sufficient for canopy demos.

Though don’t get me wrong, I would have loved a couple trips up to 14,000 in the Otter, but for the purpose of testing out the Pilot, I was completely content with what we got.

When I arrived, I headed straight over to the reps to get myself a rig and canopy to demo. Naturally, we ran into the issue that I’m a small girl with a low number of jumps. So they had rigs that would fit with canopies that were way too small to even consider jumping, or canopies that would fit into a smaller rig, but then the reserve is entirely too small.

But, with some quick thinking and innovation, the Aerodyne team put together a rig for me to test out. I was happily able to jump an Icon with a Pilot 188. It was a great ride. Still a bit too big for real excitement under canopy, but it got me to the ground safely and smoothly, which is all I can hope for at this point.

Now, I’ve always been a huge fan of the Pilot. It packs easy – well, at least the one’s I’ve packed before – and opens comfortably. It flies flatter than some of the other canopies I’ve tried out in the past (you know, those 10+ different rigs you jump as a student) giving me time to get back from a long spot or just to play around a little longer and still know I’ll get back to my target.

I also learned that the Pilots tend to react better to turbulence than some of the other canopies on the market, too. A huge plus for me!

It definitely looks like I’ll be purchasing a Pilot in the near future. After this hop & pop and the great customer service of the Aerodyne folks, I’m sold!

Once it appeared that the clouds were just not going to cooperate, the rest of Saturday was spent back on the road to Cleveland so I could get home and rest up for a big Sunday.

Sunday morning I was back on the road to Canton Air Sports for my friend Rick’s 200th jump. The weather wasn’t looking so great for us this day, either. 

I sat around the drop zone for a few hours, watching BASE jumping videos with the other regulars, while trying to will the clouds away. Just as I was about to leave we got word that the weather was clearing from the North. So I stuck around. After all, I didn’t drive all that way to miss Rick’s 200th.

Around 5:30 we were able to get into the air. Rick decided on a shirtless, shoeless hybrid (him, not me), with our buddy Tod doing outside video for us. So we piled out of the Cessna-182, with me and Nick as the linked base, and Rick hanging from our chest straps.

*Photo courtesy of Bill Ramey. Thanks Bill.                

This is what our hybrid looked like!

The exit was flawless – except that Tod couldn’t see Rick’s count and ended up shooting video a little higher above us than expected. Nick and I kept a steady base from which Rick hung straight down. He even kicked his leg out for a bit and put us into a fun little spin. We broke off at 4,000 and met up back on the ground to celebrate Rick’s accomplishment. 

So glad I got to be a part of your 200th, bud!

Thinking that was going to be the last of the day, I finished logging the jump and packed up my stuff. Naturally, I was convinced to get on the sunset load – really, who can pass that up – and headed back up for a three-way with Rick and Tod. 

We were going to do the hybrid again, with me in the hanging position, but changed our plans on the ride to altitude. Instead, Rick and I did a train with a rolling exit. This was my first true freefly attempt – yes, I know, beer – and was a little bummed when it didn’t go exactly as planned. But we did manage to exit smoothly and stay linked for about 4,000 feet until we spun apart.

With a little post-jump coaching on the ground I completely understand how it should have worked to get us vertical. Next time we’ll get it!

And yes, I did mention that video was taken on both of these. As soon as they are in my possession I’ll be sure to post them. With three jumps, I definitely made the best of what otherwise would be seen as a cloudy, gloomy weekend.

Blue skies!

Ashley