One Day at the Drop Zone
I crouch in the door, deafened by the wind whipping through the cramped cabin. I look down, head
out--careful to look straight down and a coupla miles below I see the pea
pit. We'll be off a little, so I jerk my thumb..."five left!" The result is a
lurch as the Cessna 206 makes the characteristic flat jerk of a plane on jump
run. It looks good, remember to breathe. I touch my handles: main, cutaway,
reserve. I look into Lisa's eyes, my stupid grin a testiment to the effects of
hypoxia, and let her know it's time to go. "Don't fear the reaper, baby take my
hand." I climb out into the icy prop blast and hang onto the handles on the
outside of the fuselage (put there expressly for this purpose.) Hold tight with
my left hand and reach back into the plane and take Lisa's hand...one more
eye-contact and I start the count. READY(out), SET(in), GO(out).... Now this is
always the best part. The face in front of mine is grinning like a fox eating
shinola out of a wire brush. We have a good exit, keep heading and slide down
the hill with no tension. Without really thinking we have transitioned into a
two-way round and it's time to carry out the purpose of this jump: Rodeo. I turn
left, Lisa right so that we are side by side, I slip under, she over and it's
done. I'm the bull this time. Another first on this jump: I hear a human voice
in freefall. Normally all you can hear is the roar of the wind, but now the
voice is in my "burble," that region of turbulence over my back. It's a definite
rebel yell. Although I failed to mention this on the ground, I had decided to do
a front loop at this point. I giggle uncontrollably as I watch my friend tumble
off. Altitude looks to be about six grand, plenty of time, so I drive toward
Lisa motioning with my hands "come on!" Hook up and pull her in for a kiss. Now
I wouldn't have the nerve for this on the ground, but in this freefall-world
anything goes! Then froot-loop: she being no match for my 230 pounds I ball up,
swinging her over my head and let go. Track away and open. In the saddle I laugh
hysterically...there is beer in the peas...
Bottle Under a Round(this occurred prior to sep.11,2001)
8000 feet over Conchas Lake. Five jumpers in a Cessna. Four with old *round* parachutes, one with a square. Four of the jumpers are human. Rudi braces in the door holding a weighted piece of crepe paper, waiting until we are directly over a small boat sitting in the lake. At the right moment he throws the streamer and, like a terrier awaiting the throw of a stick, intently watches. It would be too easy to lose sight of the yellow crepe paper. Immediately the pilot throws us over into a sharp bank to keep the thing visible. Downwind there is a second boat circling, it's job is to catch the streamer (or WDI: wind drift indicator). Finally the second boat is at the location where the streamer came down. The idea is that the streamer falls about as fast as a person under canopy and thus drifts with the wind about the same distance as well. This way you can visually measure the distance between boats and fly upwind of the first boat the same distance, jump out, float down and, if you've figured right, splash down in the vicinity of the first boat.
Rudi gets the spot and instructs the pilot and a little latter three jumpers go out in three passes. They have round canopies so they pull right after exit...i understand those round canopies can open mighty hard if you wait for terminal velocity. Time for jumper number four.
I have jumper number four in a plastic grocery bag. He is really a gallon bottle of vodka. His gear consists of a nine-foot diameter cargo drougue. Keeping his parachute in the grocery bag I grasp jumper number four by the neck, check the spot and throw him out of a perfectly good airplane. This is to be an IAD method jump: I am still holding onto the apex of the canopy all the way to line stretch. I watch and it's beautiful.
I'm last out, but over land. (I'm using MY OWN gear after all) My final approach stirs up some whuffo campers but they get over it and I stub my toe on a planet. (The toenail is still black more than a month later)
Later we sit around a camp fire and enjoy jumper number four!
Catching a Freak12/8/01
I am distracted by the memory of the very beautiful blonde 10th jump student that had jumped when we were at 4000 feet, but when Don opens the door I snap back to reality. Don wants to freak fly. We can both freak fly, but not well enough to really ensure a harmonious sky-dance.....So anyway, we've decided that he will go out, get in a very stable sit-fly and I'll swoop him at my hardest belly-to-earth arch. The problem is he's in a slick jump suit and I'm wearing a big jacket with floppy pockets....oh well.
Don climbs out on the strut grinning like an idiot and is suddenly gone. In a fit of bravado I give him a three second count and execute my best dive. It is a "Superman" type dive with arms out to keep stable in the sub-terminal air and counteract my rotation falling off the plane. But very quickly bringing arms back along the sides of my body and pointing toes so that I am no lift head down tracking. This makes it hard to see where I'm going in such a hurry, so I just hold it until I think i might be in the same zip-code as my friend and then push the wind in front with my arms and stick my feet back toward the dirt. I am standing upright on a very skinny column of wind! There he is, sitting and looking for me. He spots me and patiently waits on the most comfortable chair in the world. I push my arms behind me, and feet toward the target I close the distance. He's still got that idiot grin. This kind of free falling really is different that the usual old-style french frog RW kind of stuff. You get a different sense of the sky and that tangible feeling of speed that most jumpers loose after the first jump or two. I feel my jacket collar whipping against my cheek, stinging like the dickens, but this'll be over all too soon. I pass him on the way down and hit my arch. This floats me quite a bit but I do not cork! Now that we are at close range I can get fall rate feedback and get down to him. I discover something interesting....you know how normally when you turn or do any manuevering you tend to sink? Well if you're at the extreme kind of arch I was in you float when you turn! Believe it. Anyway on the first try at docking I reach like an idiot and have to set up all over. But we got the dock.
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