DrewB

Hi, I just came across this account I had written a while back of a very special jump and thought soem of you may enjoy it. A Leap Of Faith. It took me a second to realize that the drone remained constant, that the change was coming from within; we had fallen silent as, each in our own language, we faced the same realization – it may not happen. We still had fifteen minutes but we were moving too slowly, heading in the wrong direction, and the old enemy was breathing down our necks again. To have come so far and be so close, yet still face the possibility of it all being for nothing demanded silence. A few optimists amongst us boldly demanded pin-checks but mostly we sat quiet, nurturing the little hope that each of us still clung to. Well at least it had been an adventure, I told myself, as I thought back over how one late night surfing session had brought me this far from the support line back home. One lonely post in an obscure newsgroup, “A small group in Maracaibo is planning….”. There were no replies, no comments, but I knew I had to be part of it. What had followed was a week of frantic activity tempered only by the occasional moment of self doubt induced by incredulous colleagues. Getting the time off work and finding a flight was child’s play compared with the logistics of tracking these people down. I had managed to find a phone number the day before I left but that didn’t clarify much. Language allowed only the simplest of communication, but at least I knew they were still planning to try. As I fought my way through Miami International the following day, still unsure of my plans beyond the one extortionately priced night at the Maracaibo Grand, the panic set in. What was I doing ? In twenty minutes I was leaving for South America to meet some people. I didn’t know where, I was not sure who, it was Maracaibo, Venezuela and it was tomorrow, that’s all I knew. There was time for only one small moment of doubt and then I was stepping aboard the Smokey ride they call Air Venezuela. If anything convinced me this had been the right decision it was the little search party that turned up at the hotel shortly after I arrived. The reply I had posted on the bulletin board had taken a circuitous route, but had reached its intended audience pretty much intact. This little band only had my name and flight number but, having missed me at the airport, they had managed to track me down to the hotel where they managed to impart a rough outline of their plans for the following day. The next morning I walked across the taxiway to what I hoped was our meting place and my isolation melted away. All around me were the sites and sounds of home. Rigs lay spread-eagled on packing mats, yards of Zero-P nylon were carefully laid out, people were arguing in a language I could not understand but I knew it was the longstanding debate on the superiority of flat pack or pro-pack . We may not share a common language but we understood each other, we shared a secret, we could fly ! We had shared only one jump that morning but now we were brothers. We sat squeezed together, groaning through the sky as the engines fought against the overly large payload and we prayed for mans best friend – altitude. Never in the history of skydiving were altitude and bearing monitored so closely on the way up. The silence eased a little as we finally crawled over the 10,000-foot mark. No one was giving up yet, we were high enough now but where were we ? We had had to stray miles from the airfield to make our climb, could we make it back in time? By my watch we had 2 minutes before this once in a lifetime opportunity passed us by. I looked out through the open doorway trying to get my bearings, surveying the terrain for landing possibilities if we couldn’t make our target, and froze. Not now, this was too cruel, I could see nothing but cloud cover. Jumping blind with low cloud cover would be breaking every rule in the book and arguably suicidal. That would have been a difficult call that no one wanted to make but moments later our old enemy showed some mercy and like an invitation to the dance the clouds parted to reveal our landing area. Before we had time to appreciate this beautiful twist of fate everything went dark. Our small group was stunned for a moment but adjusted softly to the new reality. The eerie silver glow that outlined this monochromatic world spoke to the uniqueness of the moment and I knew that the planes were aligned for me today. Seconds later I was out the door and hurtling towards terminal velocity bathed in the silent shadow of the total eclipse. The whole of the freefall was in darkness. At three thousand feet, 18 seconds from impact, I threw the pilot chute and heard the comforting whip as the air caught and ripped my Sabre 150 from its pouch. With our rolls efficiently reversed I hung suspended under canopy in the darkness – in wonder. I felt the change before I could see it. Something, almost imperceptible, changed moments before the first glimmers of light were squeezed from the distant darkness. All at once the darkness gave way to a band of light that exploded across the horizon and then started to flow like a tidal wave across the earth. In slow motion it moved from one horizon to the other, pushing back the darkness and breathing new life into a new world. The language may be a bit over the top but it was one HELL of a day !!!! WHEN IS THE NEXT TOTAL SOLAR - ECLIPSE I WANT TO GO AGAIN !!!

Will Do ! Thanks

Good Point! I guess the real reason for a backup rig is the oppotunity for more jumps !!! Also my logic really only applied during the transition period. It wasnt so much about jumping the safer canopy as the one I knew best. Raises an interesting question. If owning two rigs would peoples preference be to have two identical mains or differnet mains for different situations ? Drew

Thanks for that heads up , I had been reading up on that and saw they had restricted the specs on the skydiving gear they will allow. What when and whether I do the bridge is a debate still to be had, the point was that a lightly loaded 7 cell would be a nice backup canopy to have for those less than perfect situations. WhenI got my sabre ( a little bit ahead of whenI should have ) I kept the 190 as a backup and would go back to that for jumping into a new dropzone etc. Just not sure that the tri190 isnt going to be a bit too big a bit too soon . tht would be a .9 wingloading whers reading hear the recondation sems to be for 1 - 1.1 for a new jumper. Blue Ones Drew

Thanks for that info, it appears they are stil made, just not very prominent on the website. Looking at the specs though I see that PD puts an exit weight of 170lbs in the int-adv catergory for a 190 wher as the triathalon sees that loading as a student /novice level. So would a fairer comparison be the tri 170 to the pd 190 ? Thaks again Drew

Hi This is my first time posting in here, I have been scanning the forums trying to get up to speed on what been happening in the sport over the last few years. I started Jumping in 1996, did a couple of hundred jumps and then real life got the the way and I havent jumped since 1999. The other half now wants to learn (yippeee!) so the AFF course is booked and I am set for a retrain this week. My question is regarding thoughts on mains for new jumpers now , as opposed to then. When I graduated AFF the general rule was to start with an F-111 then graduate to a smaller Zero-P. It also seemd to be accepted that you needed a smaller canopy in zero-P than F-111 and also that you shouldnt underload a zero P. eg I was being told to consider a pd 190 or sabre 170. Following this advice. I bought my first canopy , a new PD190 after about 20 jumps ( I weigh 155 - 160) jumped this for 100 or so jumps then bought a sabre 150 which i still have. I was very pleased with this progression which i think is faily conservative. I would have recomended something similar. However it seems that times have moved on and a new pd-190 ( kicking myself for not hanging on to mine now) is no longer an option. Also I have seen a lot of advice contradicting that now. ie you need the same size canopy over your head regardless of zero p or f-111 they fly differently but you still need the same size, and light loading zero-p is now ok it seems. So heres my question , would a similar sized zero-P be about the equivalent rate of progression than an f-111 at the same size , or should it be a smaller zero-P canopy to get the same kind of response as I got from the pd-190 ( damn i loved that canopy !). I have been thinking about suggesting a Triathlon thinking that the 7 cell may make a better starting point ( plus i could maybe use it for bridge day !) but would a Tri 190 be underloaded for somebody of 150 lbs ? I guess what I am trying to get my head around is how would a 190 tri compare to a pd 190 as a first canopy for someone of 155 lbs without gear. Thanks for any input, getting my head around all this when i was living it everyweekend was difficult enough, having been out of the loop for so long it gets really mind boggling. Drew