Hey troops! Have never really posted on here before, but I thought my adventures yesterday would be a good talking point! I’m on stage 8 of static line training and managed to get two jumps in yesterday! Perfect weather and blue skies all around! My first jump for the day I had to do a figure 8. After a somewhat unusual exit ( as described by my instructor), I got stable and performed the figure 8. Checked the alti and pulled at 3000ft. As usual I did my canopy checks and everything was okay. The wind was about 5-8kts, and I located the landing area. In hindsight I was probably not as close as I would have liked to have been – but was slightly downwind of the target. I could have easily made it back but (stupidly) choose to cut to the other end of the landing area. At about 1000 ft I turned into wind and thought that I would make my target. I was wrong! Realizing that I would not make it to the desired landing paddock, I now had to choose a different one. At about 400ft I noticed a fence in my line of flight. Thinking that I would not make it over this fence – I turned (very slowly, I was aware of my low altitude) slightly crosswind and run along the fence line. At about 150ft I then noticed that I was going to make it to the corner of this paddock and hit the fence that’s 90deg from the way im traveling! I guess I hoped that I wasn’t going to hit the fence, but I did! And do they hurt!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nothing broken, just a nice big bruise, scratches (it was barbed wire) and a dinted ego! Oh and a fair bit of swelling today! I hope that Im not the only person you know that’s hit a fence – especially with so much paddock around! Lessons learned: 1. Don’t be afraid of not landing at your initial landing area 2. Make decisions at higher altitude rather than lower. 3. Fences are bad! 4. but Low turns could be worse! 5. Landing patterns help! POST your stories of not so skillful landings here…….. (oh, I did get up for another jump after this and had a sweet jump and landing!) blue skies
