Griff69

My reserve ride was jump #6. Very hard opening ended up with two out. They were ok briefly and then started to split, so I chopped. I didn't pay for anything more than the jump. Chris "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is two wolves attempting to have a sheep for dinner and finding a well-informed, well-armed sheep."

Congrats on getting back up! I'm still waiting for a break in the weather here, but I can certainly relate... For me, the ride up and the walk to the door got progressively more frightening. In fact, I discovered last week that even watching people's videos there's a difference. Freefall and canopy stuff is great, but seeing the inside of the plane and the exit, my stomach does loops. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one with butterflies on the ride. I'll work on not psyching myself out and I'll look for you in the air. Chris "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is two wolves attempting to have a sheep for dinner and finding a well-informed, well-armed sheep."

We are currently under a winter weather warning, which means I'm going to work all week instead of jumping... I've been ready for winter to end since about a month before it started... Chris "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is two wolves attempting to have a sheep for dinner and finding a well-informed, well-armed sheep."

OK, newbie question. What is this? Chris "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is two wolves attempting to have a sheep for dinner and finding a well-informed, well-armed sheep."

As I'm reading through posts here, I see people with many more jumps than I who are, shall we say, extremely averse to landing off. As I thought about it, I caught myself doing something I think is very unhealthy: thinking to myself, "landing off isn't so bad." I've had two off-field landings, one just barely off and one way out there. A lot of us on that load landed off, which makes me think I wasn't the only one who screwed up by not checking the spot. So, while I fix my mindset, I thought I'd open up the discussion here. Chris "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is two wolves attempting to have a sheep for dinner and finding a well-informed, well-armed sheep."

While I'll second the blessing, we do have plenty of our own silliness to go around... Chris "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is two wolves attempting to have a sheep for dinner and finding a well-informed, well-armed sheep."

It must be near DC. Most of us have trouble finding that too... Chris "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is two wolves attempting to have a sheep for dinner and finding a well-informed, well-armed sheep."

#3 was my first and last so far... Chris "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is two wolves attempting to have a sheep for dinner and finding a well-informed, well-armed sheep."

Yes, several times. I'm confident everything was good to go when I left the plane. Chris "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is two wolves attempting to have a sheep for dinner and finding a well-informed, well-armed sheep."

AFF level 6 was yesterday. Floating exit was new and odd. Something didn't go exactly right, but I don't know just what. Maybe I wasn't squared with the wind or maybe it was just the new (to me) exit. Anyway, it threw me off for a second, but arching stabilized things. Next new bit: backflips. Much harder to get the momentum than I expected. The first attempt yielded nothing but a new and intriguing position. Trying again, I got part way there before rolling to the side and back to the arch. Second one was pretty much the same, except I was on my back for a couple seconds. Both times I was able to get back to stable without problem, but that's the best that can be said for them. Next, some tracking. Not great forward motion as my legs apparently weren't fully extended, but it worked. Here's where things got wonky (yes, that's the technical term). Wave off at 4.5 and pull. After pulling, though, for reasons still unknown to me, I reached back for the risers, rather than flying through the deployment. I saw that on the tape, but once the main started out, the recording stopped, so beyond that is guess work. I don't remember seeing the main deploy, but the next thing I do remember is seeing the main, nice and square, in front of me. Now, a logical, earthbound brain at this point would figure out that I was hanging vertically, but looking at the main, so there must be something else above me. Instead, my brain in the sky thought, 'well, there's one I didn't see on the tape. I should put that back above my head where it belongs.' Altitude is good, and I proceeded to unstow the brakes and apply them very gently. It floated up over my head, and as I watched it approach where I thought it should be, I noticed the nice bright reserve already there. Shit, two out. That isn't good. OK, gentle inputs on the rear risers. I reach back for the risers, and the main starts to descend again. Seeing the two moving apart said downplane to me, and altitude was still good, so I followed emergency procedures and chopped the main. I had some line twists in the reserve, but they cleared very easily, and I had a very fast ride down on the reserve. It seems much faster both horizontally and vertically than the beefy 290 I've been flying. Now, the not so clear parts... First, I suppose, is how I got two out in the first place. My instructor pointed out that the brain fart during deploying (reaching back for risers that aren't there yet) would have made for a harder opening. It didn't seem any harder than past ones, but with only five other reference points, I'm not certain of that. With the strange body position and harder opening, could that have jolted the RSL into deploying? On an unrelated point, I was also told by one of the other jumpers in the air that at one point one canopy or the other was wrapped around my foot. I didn't notice anything, and I couldn't find him again after debriefing to clarify which canopy it was. Overall, it surprises me how foggy some things are, but I landed safe and sound under a good canopy, so I'm happy. I look forward to the guesswork on here as to how I ended up with two out. Level seven this Saturday! Chris "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is two wolves attempting to have a sheep for dinner and finding a well-informed, well-armed sheep."

I thought it was 87.3% Chris "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is two wolves attempting to have a sheep for dinner and finding a well-informed, well-armed sheep."

There may be a little more to this trend, too. I am ALMOST 100% certain I did not check photography when I filled out my profile. However, when I came back in to update it two weeks ago, there it was, telling the world that I thought I could jump a camera... Now, I don't know if I did it unconsciously, or if there is a tech issue of some sort, but if I can have that in my profile without my knowledge, maybe there are others... Chris "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is two wolves attempting to have a sheep for dinner and finding a well-informed, well-armed sheep."

And snow! Chris "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is two wolves attempting to have a sheep for dinner and finding a well-informed, well-armed sheep."

"And when it has gone I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where fear has gone, only I will remain" Chris "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is two wolves attempting to have a sheep for dinner and finding a well-informed, well-armed sheep."

I have so far maintained fairly good altitude awareness, but legs are my challenge. I keep folding my legs up as well, not always evenly either. I talked to my instructors (and watched the video logs a lot) and they all feel that there are no huge looming issues. Certainly something to work on, but nothing I can't beat. Just curious what your instructors had to say about your awareness? (Edited to clarify) Chris "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is two wolves attempting to have a sheep for dinner and finding a well-informed, well-armed sheep."