Tandem Skydive! (Jump 5)

Click here to skip the story and go right to the 5th Tandem Jump execution.		When did you do the Fifth Jump? One day. Just one day. Ok, to be fair, the folks at the skydiving center at Carolina Sky Sports recommended that I do the ground school, 5th tandem, and 1st IAF (Instructor Assisted Freefall) in rapid succession. It wasn't just me and a raging addiction! I didn't get a whole lot of sleep the night before. The excitement and apprehension of what was coming the next day kept me awake for hours. This time tomorrow, I will have landed under my own canopy. Somewhere in the swirl of thoughts and images I drifted off to sleep. The next day I headed to CSS. The little jumpmaster was wide open. He stood on top of the sun roof and arched his little body in the wind. "Faster, man, FASTER!". he screamed. I kept the speed at a respectable 57 m.p.h. For just the briefest of seconds I considered popping the brakes. "Don't you even think about it". he said while hopping down on the headrest. "Of course I wouldn't." I said. "I know", he said. "You're just a little weird." I was watching the sky and signs of wind on the way up. It looked like a perfect day. A group of skydivers was on the way down as I pulled into the parking lot. Another group was getting ready to board the plane. A weekend Boogie at CSS is a busy time, and the people that attend are incredible skydivers. I watched in awe as people swooped in with high performance canopies. All I want is slow and gentle. These people come in with incredible precision and land running. It's fun to watch, but also a little scary. I grabbed my bag and headed in to sign up for my jumps. Brad, who was with me on the first jump, would be coming today to do his 3rd Tandem jump. He arrived just as I was getting ready for my briefing. You Make Your Fifth Tandem Jump... The fifth jump is your last Tandem jump if you decide to progress to IAF. Between the experience of your previous jumps and the ground school instruction, you're beginning to feel that you're going to be able to make it. The instructor comes in. You've jumped with this instructor before. He gives you the briefing and tasks: Approach the door, hands up, feet apart. At this jump, the instructor says it's your choice to give the "Ready, Set, Let's GO!" signal". Get into stable freefall. Arch! Check the altimeter. Find a heading, wait for the tap. Check the altitude. Execute a left and right turn using only your legs. You'll turn left by pressing down with your right leg. Check the altimeter. Turn right by pressing down with your left leg. Check the altimeter. Next, you'll move forward by pressing down with both legs. Check the altimeter. Return to the standard "box man" position in stable freefall. Check the altitude. Repeat the heading, altitude check, and practice cord touch during free fall. At 5500', look, wave off, and pull. Don't let go of the cord. You practice the routine with the instructor. You're confident the routine will go well. Everyone suits up, checks gear, and heads for the plane. It's a full load of people in the CASA. The ride up seems long. Red light. You watch the flurry of activity -- pin checks and equipment inspections. You hear the pilot say "10 second separation". That's a lot longer that you've had before. You ask the instructor to give the "Ready" signal. You'll count to yourself just to see if you're in sync. You watch and count between jumps. Some people seem a little more rushed than others, but overall it looks like the right separation. At the door you begin to count. At "1000 ten" you yell "Ready" at the same time as the instructor. You finish with the "Set, Let's GO!". The exit is almost an exact replay of your previous exit out of the CASA. You perform a summersault and watch the plane slip away. The hard arch brings you back around and into a stable position. The tug of the drouge chute and a tap on the arm follows. You check the altitude. As with all your tandem jumps, you seem to get stable fairly quickly, so there's lots of time. You check your heading and push your right leg down. Not much of turn. Suddenly, it kicks it. Ok.... Altimeter, check... lots of time... You push the left leg down. Nothing. More. Nothing. Finally, you're spread like scissors. Nothing. You can't understand why it doesn't work. Here you make a mistake. You move to the both legs down position. But you didn't look at the altimeter between tasks. With both legs down, you sense the forward motion, slightly. "That's cool, you think to yourself, now I'll try that left turn again." Just as you start to check your altitude, you here a single word from your instructor: "Altimeter." Your eyes were already on the way. "Damn!". Almost 6000'. You realize you didn't finish the tasks or even a practice rip cord touch. It doesn't matter. You know what to do. They have a saying: "Pull time is pull time." You're within your assigned altitude, so you complete the wave off and pull. As happy as you were about the performance in your last jump, you're furious with yourself in this one. You get more time under canopy. It's what you want. You feel you need this more than anything. Your next level will be under your own canopy. You go through the process, but part of your mind is on what just happened. You're not upset about missing the practice rip cord touch and heading tasks. What really gets you mad -- is that however slight -- you let the altitude get away from you! You're confident you would have checked and pulled within the correct altitude, but you were surprised when you looked at the altimeter and saw yourself approaching 6000 feet! The importance of the drills and repetition by every instructor to "check altitude, check altitude, check altitude..." has never been more clear. The canopy ride is pleasant. You feel as if you could do it -- but you don't know for sure. There is no dog leg setup on this landing. The wind direction, height and distance to a good landing area means you come straight in, flare, and land. The evaluation isn't stellar by any means. The instructor seems more concerned that you recognized and executed pull time than about you're not turning left or not doing the practice rip cord touch and heading routine. "Ok,... Let's talk about why you didn't turn left. Do you know why?" the instructor asks. "I don't have a clue. I was spread like a scissor up there." you reply. "Most likely, your right thigh was down and counteracted your turn." The instructor gets down on a board and demonstrates. Suddenly, it's crystal clear. It wasn't your best performance, but the instructor says you're ready to continue. You feel you've learned a couple of important lessons in this jump, too. Your next task will be ground school! Here's the logbook entry for jump 5.

Another beautiful day at CSS!



Each move in the air can be practiced on the ground while laying on a board with wheels.


The practice board is padded and has wheels underneath making it much more comfortable than laying on the floor!






Finding the drop zone is the second priority after opening the canopy -- the first is to make sure you have a good main chute!


The small oddly shaped reservoir is my favorite landmark.



Next, I just look for the four long buildings.


By tandem jump number five, you really need to be comfortable with the basics of controlling your canopy and generally how to get to the DZ.






Remember the Altimeter? Read the story on this page, and you'll find out why I've been putting it in EVERY recent story!






You want to be at 2000 to 1500 feet as you approach the landing area. If not, perform some turns to lose altitude.


Don't get hung up on landing in a specific spot. Watch for others and pick another place to land if needed. There's plenty of room in and around CSS to land!