August and September 2018
Emergency Procedures
The reserve parachute needs to be repacked every 180 days, if it gets wet, or after a cut away. I bought my gear back in March, so my reserve was due for a repack. I had Raven's Nest Rigging repack my reserve while I was at the dropzone over the weekend.
It is always suggested that every time you get your reserve repacked you should execute your emergency procedures. At the dropzone we have practice equipment used to go through emergency procedures with students or anyone who wants to practice, but those handles are not actually attached to anything and they could be in a slightly different position (a little higher or lower) than the handles on your specific harness.
The emergency procedures we teach use both hands on each handle so that the emergency procedures are always done in the proper order. Some people teach one hand on each handle but if you are not careful you can actually pull the handles out of sequence. This video displays the procedures I follow.
Overall I had a lot of fun getting to pull my handles. I feel more prepared now Incase of a malfunction and I need to pull my handles.
Fun Jumps
Skydive Arizona and Skydive Phoenix
Our little group of 3 amigos met up at Skydive Arizona for a few fun jumps early Saturday morning August 4th to get jumps in before it got too hot. We started out on our bellies working on carving and then we did some free fly jumps! I love jumping with Tim and Jonathon, it's always a good time and I always feel safe when trying new things with them. check out the video of our jumps ! Sunday, I did a first jump course at Skydive Phoenix with two students! One student used to jump but stopped in the 90's but now he is getting back into with his son! I think its amazing that a father/son duo is doing their first jump course and ASP together!
The next weekend Tim and I went to Skydive Arizona to do some more fun jumps. The first jump I did a practice camera exit focusing on Tim's diving exit which worked out really well! We docked and then practiced carving (which I am still terrible at but slowly getting better). The next jump we help hands, exiting into a front flip, broke off and then met up with each other and practiced carving again!
This coming weekend I am teaching a first jump course Friday evening, and I plan to jump Saturday!
Liquid Sky Freefall boogie
We have been planning a road trip to Cali to jump at Skydive Taft for a few months now to attend the LiquidSky FreeFall Fest. Luis proposed the idea to Jonathon and I to attend the boogie at Skydive Taft because its his home DZ. Chauncy also just moved to Arizona and his home DZ is also Taft. The four of us left after work on Thursday. We got to the DZ around 1 am Friday morning and slept in the bunk house. Eager to jump Friday, we woke up early, settled in, went to get food, checked in and waited for jumping to start.
Skydive Taft has a plane that was new to some of us, called a Beech 99 which is a twin engine turbo prop aircraft. It was nice and roomy inside the plane making it a comfortable ride to altitude and it has a nice big side door so we could do some fun group exits. We jumped this plane all day Friday and then Saturday and Sunday we jumped the Beech and the Skyvan!
Throughout the weekend I did 15 jumps total. We did a lot of freefly jumps and tracking jumps, which are both things I need to get better at, so it was nice to get a lot of practice in. Our last jump of the weekend was Jonathon's 300th jump! So of course, we had to do an undie hundie!!!
What would a boogie be without a party? The theme was feathers and fur! Everyone had a good time drinking, dancing, and hanging out at the DZ with lots of funny pictures from the photo booth to show off the fun we had!
Everyone at the DZ was super welcoming and friendly from manifest, to the drop zone owner to the fun jumpers! I love the atmosphere at this DZ! Taft is big on angle flying, so they had a lot of big angle jumps throughout the weekend and I really want to go back to Taft when they have an angle flying camp so one day I can participate in jumps like that!
Performance Designs was there with demo canopies to try! The PD rep was not only super friendly but very informative about the different canopies and also gave out some packing tips that really helped me out! I tried a storm which I liked and then I tried the pulse which I fell in love with. I am looking forward to downsizing from my Spectre 190 down to a Pulse 170 hopefully soon!
LiquidSky was also at the boogie to show off their awesome suits! I spoke to Julio, the owner, and I bought an original LiquidSky suit with the orbit cut. The orbit cut was designed for coaches/AFF instructors because it has zippers and arms and legs that expand the suit to make it into a baggie suit. I tend to fall fast so I went with this option for when I jump with smaller lighter students. Julio custom designed my suit and made it way faster than expected! I am in love with my suit!