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a journey through space and time

Unlucky for Some, a Friday 13th Tale
Posted 14th June 2008 at 1:03pm by M1ke, tagged as Skydiving | Commenting Closed

Well well, what a day yesterday was! A more superstitious person may have decided that it wasn't the best day to go jumping out of planes, and initially it didn't look like I would. Then at half two I rung the DZ and was told they were jumping and al hesitation went out the window. I got there as quickly as I could and had the shortest retrain of RAPS so far (about three minutes) and supervised Tom who was packing my rig. I kept practicing all the moves I'd need for my Cat 8 qualifying jump and was fairly confident of getting it, but I was really feeling the nerves. We watched as some static line students were dispatched, then waited for the plane to taxi back. It was great to see the camera strapped to Lee's helmet as he got out of the plane - though it would mean that if I cocked up the jump everyone would be able to see.

Unlike the very warm Monday (when the plane ascended as if through treacle) we made good progress, dropping a static line student before heading up to 6,000 feet for Ben to do his fifteen second freefall. Deserving of mention is Ben's comical attempts to get into position before his jump - he was sat behind me and had to turn round onto his knees in the same small space, which was difficult because he's quite tall. Lee had to restrain himself from laughing and I didn't really know what was going on behind me. The tomfoolery ended and Ben did his jump with Dave the pilot banking the plane incredibly steeply (I swear the wings almost went vertical) to allow Lee to watch the whole delay and set us up for the climb to the top.

As this was my Cat 8 dive I needed all the time in freefall I could, so we were aiming to go higher than the usual 10,000 feet. I was sat next to the door (well the hole in the side, as the Cesna is once again without a proper door) and at points really felt the need to hold on as we were climbing as steeply as we could without stalling. By the time we circled to run in we were over 10,000, and as we went over the village we passed 11,000. When Lee eventually started spotting and called the cut we were at 11,200 feet, so that's a new record for me. I got my feet onto the step, let go of the strut and dived towards the rear of the plane, arching hard to bring myself belly-to-earth. The first move once I was stable was the backloop, bringing my legs in and waving my arms like a crazy man to send me tumbling over. The point is to prove that I can go unstable and regain stability, so after one spin and stable I counted that as done. Next were two 360 degree turns in either direction - these also served as a good time to find where Lee was in relation to me. Having done them, and seen Lee, I tracked towards him, turning off to the left slightly but holding it. At this point my altimeter read 7,000 so I decided to do the turns and track again. This time I held the track for longer and straighter, and knew I must have it by now. I looked around for a bit to find Lee (I had planned to give him the thumbs up once I'd finished) and eventually spotted him hovering above and behind me. With the geeking done I waved and pulled, watching Lee plummet below me as my canopy opened.

The ride down would have been pleasant, but for the fact that my mum was correct when she warned against jumping with a cold, as it felt like my sinuses had exploded. Admittedly they had just been cleared at 120mph and I felt better for it after the pain subsided and my hearing returned fully a few hours later, but it was somewhat distracting during my canopy flight. There was no wind and I ended up landing near the runway again, but it was a good landing even if I didn't stand it up. Roy had driven the quad bike up to collect the plane, so when it landed I hopped back in and rode it back to the hangar. I waited around for a bit before Lee finished packing and came over to congratulate me - Cat 8 at last! We did the usual paperwork and I completed the ridiculously easy CH1 written test and that's it - I'm now an A certificate skydiver, able to jump anywhere in the country with BPA membership, and able to jump at any drop zone in the world with temporary membership to their organisations. Aside from that I no longer have to be retrained every time I go down, don't need an instructor to dispatch me any more and can jump in higher winds (a relief considering the weather at Peterlee). RAPS has been a long adventure but I've enjoyed every jump, got to know lots about the sport and made a lot of friends too. Here's to wherever skydiving takes me next!

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