Had my first Canopy Flying Training jump, which followed a five hour class. Ironically, 80 percent of the instruction covered arching and pulling, which both happen in free fall, and very little about parachute handling which is actually 3/4 of the ride, at least in terms of length. One more CFT jump and then it’s AFF–Aggressive Free Fall training. Perhaps the Free Fall class will focus on parachute handling, particularly emergencies and unplanned contingencies. Well, one can hope anyway. 😉
Anyway, I learned three important things on this afternoon’s jump:
1) Never trust an altimeter blindly. The one I used was not zeroed out properly, and had me at 500 feet lower. Granted, this is much better than the reverse problem, thinking I was 500 feet higher than reality. Filed the glitch as what it was, a lesson. Trust what you bring to the zone. My frap cap worked perfectly, and resulted in much less disorientation, and noise.
2) My arch needs some work. I was pretty stable, all things considered, but could do better. That I can practice on the ground.
3) Work with gravity. At 10 feet I had a good flare going–both steering toggles all the way down near my waist, but I got anxious and unbent my knees. Whoops. Since we had substantial forward motion still, at around 3 feet my legs touched earth and my legs rolled backwards and my upper body kept going. At least the bending happened in the right direction. Fortunately the jump master rolled right, and took us down hard. Otherwise he might have flipped over my head. That would be…not good. In case I forget this lesson any time soon, my left knee, which absorbed the impact, will remind me for a few days. Next time, I let go of the landing.
All in all, I learned a lot. And I flew through a cloud at 5,500 feet. I might have seen my shadow–the rarest of sky diving treats–except my eyes were locked on the altimeter. Maybe next time.
