October-December 2018
Chicks Rock Boogie
Skydive Elsinore 10/3/18-10/7/18
Road trip again?!? It's boogie season!!! Jonathon and I left on Wednesday after work getting to the DZ a little after it was dark. I set up my tent in the back camping area. Jonathon set up his bed in the back of his truck. We woke up early Thursday eager to jump but the weather had other plans ....so we hung out for a few hours hoping the clouds would clear but they didn't so we went to the tunnel instead.
Ifly Ontario was awesome! The staff was very friendly and we got a lot of flying time in! We had 5 people in the tunnel playing around on our bellies and back flying. I also got to work on sit flying in the tunnel. it was awesome watching our friends who are more advanced with their free flying abilities! They were doing all kinds of cool head down to head up transitions and 3 way points. Friday night was the beer pong tourney. Our Skydive Phoenix friends won the trophy!
Friday was the best weather day for jumping. We woke up early to clouds again so we took our time, went out to breakfast and by time we came back the first load was going up. We got 5 jumps in Friday mainly working on free flying. I also got to do my first hybrid with me as the "stinger"!!! It was super fun!
The weather was suppose to be nice all day Saturday but it ended up being cloudy again ... we got a few jumps in Saturday morning and ended up hanging around all day waiting for the weather the clear and then some people got some more jumps in right before sunset. Saturday night was filled with all kinds of fun activities from night swoops to the "Party like a rock star" theme party at the DZ. We had a great time hanging out with new and old friends.
Sunday was our last day to jump and the weather was perfect! We got on load one for my 200th jump! The jump was so much fun! We did a 7 way jump with a tube. We exiting in a 3 way belly round, Joel came in to make it a 4 way round. Then we went into a sit with the tube! It was amazing! Thanks to everyone who jumped with me! Link to video
After jumping we drove back to Arizona which was a very hard drive after jumping since we were both exhausted but we made it home safely! Always a good time traveling and jumping with good friends!
Downsizing
December 8th 2018
The first canopy I bought was my Spectre 190 from Performance Designs. I put about 150 jumps on this canopy and loved it. I liked the on heading pretty quick openings the canopy has and the flight characteristics, but its finally time to move on to a smaller canopy. I spent months looking for a new canopy that I wanted to buy. Finally when I jumped the Pulse 170 at a PD demo event I fell in love.
I was pretty close to a 1:1 wing loading on my 190 which is ideal for a newer jumper. Before downsizing, I made sure that I could:
*consistently land close to my target
*Perform stand up landings in no wind, down wind and cross wind.
*braked approached landings
I also did about 20 jumps on the Pulse 170 since I was lucky enough to jump it at more than one demo event. This really helped because during these jumps I was able to practice and get used to how the canopy flies and successfully had a stand up landings with cross wind and downwind.
I love the Pulse for many reasons including: the flight path is flatter so its good to get back from long spots, the flare on it is good and its made with low pack volume material. The low pack volume makes it easier to carry the canopy back to the packing area after landing, easier to control the material while packing and it fits in my D-bag and container much better than my larger canopy.
My wing loading on the 170 is 1.2. Below is the downsizing chart. For my weight and number of jumps I should be on in the canopy range of a 190 (suggested) down to a 150 square foot canopy.
I jumped it twice on Saturday, it felt so good to finally jump the canopy I have been waiting to buy for a few months!