Night Jumps

Note: the post below includes facts about night jumps along with a significant amount of personal opinion from someone who didn’t enjoy the experience so much. Though I do still recommend people do them, especially if you want to get your D license, but more for the experience of it. You never know, you might be at the opposite end of the spectrum in that group of people who can’t get enough of them.

Something I will never fully understand is the love that people have for night jumps. Sure, they’re kinda cool in their own right – getting to see everything from a different perspective – but they’re also a bit scary.

I’m not a huge fan on not being able to clearly see where everyone is in the sky around me. That canopy collision last year really opened my eyes to what can happen if you don’t have a view of everyone under canopy. Even with the required lights and strobes you can’t always tell where your fellow jumpers are on these nightime adventures.

When talking about night jumps, let’s clarify a few things first.

Any jump between sunset and sunrise is considered a night jump…however, if you’re doing these to meet license requirements (two night jumps are required in order to get your D license) or to establish any type of world record, these jumps have to take place at least one hour past sunset and one hour before sunrise. In other words, it has to be dark dark, not just after official sunset.

Given that these jumps are special, they require special equipment that isn’t necessary during the day. Aside from the obvious – clear goggles, lighted altimeter – the UPSA BRSs require a light visible for at least three statute miles displayed from opening until the jumper is on the ground and sufficient on-the-ground lighting so jumpers can see where they’re going as they get close to the ground.

Side note here, that was the scariest part of it all for me. Though I was able to land in a lighted area, shadows and darkness still very much affect your ability to judge distance to the ground and speed at which you’re coming in. I was thankful to walk away with both my ankles in tact.

Every dropzone has a different method for illuminating the landing area. We had hangar lights that provided a nice little target to hit…if you landed in it, you could see your feet and the ground clearly. Other dropzones have cars parked out on the runway with their lights on, or there are flares on the ground or they have flood lights in the LZ. I’m sure any combination of those would work nicely.

Anyway, though it’s not noted in the SIM, most dropzones also require that you wear a red light and a yellow light (red on the front, yellow on the back) so that people can know if you’re coming toward them under canopy. This is pretty smart, and it works…so long as everyone sticks to the rule of turning right if you’re coming toward each other.

For your D license requirements, you’re expected to do two night jumps – the first solo, the second in a group. Rick and I did our night jumps together at Start Skydiving earlier this summer. For us, the solo jumps were hop ‘n pops..from 6 grand. We had a group of 3 jumpers, each taking a shorter delay out the door than the next…5 second, 3 second, 1 second. Given that I was the lightest jumper in our group, I went last, with the shortest delay out the door. So essentially I pulled at 6,000 ft. The worst part about it was that you’re not allowed to play around under canopy, so needless to say I was bored. Sure, I got to watch the lightening storm that was taking place to the north of the DZ, but other than that it was total snoozefest for me. That first night jump sorta put a bad taste in my mouth.

Though the next jump was better. Our group jump was supposed to be a 4-way RW skydive, turning points and all that nonsense. But, after bugging our instructor, he let us do a two way instead. So Rick and I jumped out linked, did a little kissy kissy in the sky and spent the rest of the time doing 360s and checking out the scenery. In hindsight it was actually pretty awesome. Though I still can’t say I crave night jumps. In fact, I’d be completely okay if I never did another one.

To me, they’re boring and dangerous. That doesn’t seem possible to be both at the same time, I know, but that’s my opinion of them. As I noted earlier, there’s a good chance that if you haven’t tried them already, you’ll like them when you do. As for me, I’ll be happily watching you on the ground, with beer in hand.

Blue skies!

Ashley

Breaking out of the comfort zone

As skydivers, one thing we learn early on is that, in order to improve, you’ve gotta step out of your comfort zone. I mean, hello, skydiving in itself is stepping out of that zone…that’s part of the whole point, is it not?

Though I do have to admit, there have been times while freeflying where I get into this comfort zone and tend to stay there. This happened the first time when I really got my sit down and didn’t want to mess it up by trying to move. So I didn’t. I stayed. Forward penetration and sideways movement to get to the group just wasn’t a priority. I had this sit, and I knew how to make it work, and I wasn’t going to do anything that could potentially mess that up.

Then, one day I went up with Sporto and he flew circles around me (literally) as I hung out in this rigid sit. Back on the ground he was like, “breathe, relax, smile and do something.”

He went on to tell me that I’ve got the fundamentals, I just need to put them in motion, start moving, start docking, and if you cork in the process, you cork, but just hanging out doing only what works will never help you improve.

Good point, Sporto! So I took it to heart. I did a lot of zoo dives with 4-5 other freeflyers and it taught me how to move! It was no longer a knee lock exit into relative sit where Rick and I just stare at each other – it was time to stand to get down to the group, push my hips forward and get moving!

I’ve noticed this same thing with docking. There are times where, my concern of “ruining” the jump overtakes my knowledge that, if I reach forward, I should move my other arm up or back to keep balanced. These are things I know, but they’re out of that precious little comfort zone, and it can be difficult to move past it.

After jumps like this, Rick and I can’t help but laugh at each other – we should have just gone for it. And if we cork, at least my video camera can show us visual evidence of what went wrong.

I’m sure other skydivers out there have experienced this… right? I mean, in the end, we’re all working to get out of our comfort zone, whether it’s taking that first step out the door, learning another discipline, playing with front riser turns under canopy…whatever it is, aren’t we all struggling to get comfortable with the unfamiliar?

One of the things I’ve heard a lot lately is from students/recent A licensers who are having issues with landing. Whether it’s finding your flare, setting up a landing pattern, standing up landings, or even just not landing off, these issues too can stem from being outside your comfort zone, and all of these things can be perfected with practice.

I’ve come to learn that having the attitude that,”I’m going to do this for myself,” really helps you get to that point. Trying to prove something to others only puts additional pressure on the situation, but if it’s something you really want, then make it happen for you. Besides, you can’t let little slip ups be the death of you, especially in front of others. From time to time we all cork, we all have a messy landing, we all have off days – even the best skydivers out there! So if you take out a formation and it gets caught on video, or you slide in a landing and catch a dry spot only to land it on your hands and knees in front of the entire DZ (like I did this weekend…oops), not to worry, because someone else is likely to do something else stupid in the near future. Then it can be your turn to rib them for it!

My two cents – take it or leave it.

Anyway – that all leads me back to this: step out of your comfort zone. Do something that scares you (and if that means making that first skydive, then what are you waiting for?), test out those front riser turns the next time you’re under canopy with time to kill – above 2,000 feet, give those freefly skills another try. Whatever it is that makes you nervous, do it…safely.

You might just surprise yourself with what you’re capable of – and you may even learn a thing or two along the way.

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