Mike Jehn (me!), his sister Beth, and CMU student Yatish Mamniya spent the day at Canton Air Sports. Beth's tandem jump was my birthday present to her. She swore that she'd never even get into a little aircraft like that, much less jump; but she did it, LOVED it, and wants to do it again!
Alastair Firth, Steven Benders, Greg MacLean, Sarah Shade, and I spent the whole day at Canton Air Sports. It was a hot and humid afternoon but excellent for skydiving. The DZ was a lot busier than we expected it would be; we ended up staying until nearly sunset so that everyone could get their jumps in. Steven and Sarah did their first tandems while Alastair continued with his AFF training. Sarah and I both worked on our respective tans (sunburns!), and I kissed a toad and a frog--neither of which turned into anything, unfortunately. Greg and I attempted a two-way maneuver known as a "Mr. Bill" in which one skydiver hangs onto the other on exit. The person on top opens his parachute at high altitude while the other person hangs on, only later dropping away and opening his own parachute at a lower altitude. It didn't quite work out because we spent too much time getting into the correct body position (opening should happen within a few seconds of jumping), and Greg got wrenched away from me with tremendous force when I opened. However, we're looking forward to trying again soon.
-M. Jehn
Nine folks drove out to Canton Air Sports for a beautiful day of skydiving, coupled with viewing of an airshow across the runway field. Five students completed their first tandem skydive, and Alastair and Steve students proceeded through training for AFF levels 3 and 1 respectively. Mike and Greg successfully launched a horny gorilla from just below 9,000 feet, but only completed one jump that day. Due to shifty winds under 1,000 feet beginning during mid-afternoon, lift turnaround was significantly decreased--then halted temporarily--and for safety reasons, Steve and Al did not get to complete their AFF jumps. Mike, Greg, Steve, and Al will return to the dropzone on Wednesday to follow up, continue jumping, and expose more students to the thrill of skydiving.
-G. MacLean
'Twas a beautiful day for skydiving: hot and humid with scattered clouds, fairly light winds, and only a few ominous rain-producing thunderheads to dodge around mid-afternoon. We set out for Canton Air Sports (outside of Alliance, Ohio) at 8am and arrived before the first load of the morning had gone up. Matt Buchovecky, Averie Yang, and Lilly Chen all made their first-ever tandem jumps, while Alastair Firth successfully completed levels one and two of the Accelerated Freefall Program, currently the most popular method of achieving solo skydiver status at many dropzones. (Traditionally, folks went through the static line progression program, but AFF puts you into freefall from high altitude on the very first jump.) Averie got a longer-than-usual ride under canopy, and a shorter-than-usual freefall experience, because her tandem instructor's parachute accidentally deployed shortly after exiting the plane. I did my first two jumps with a friend from the dropzone; we worked on falling relative to each other and generally chasing each other around in the sky. I exited from the end of the wing strut each time while he followed me out very shortly thereafter from the door position. Although we were not close enough to each other during freefall on either jump to actually do contact relative work, working on staying relative (on the same level as each other) was good practice. Having a few fluffy clouds in the vicinity made for beautiful mid-air scenery. On my last jump, I watched Alastair and his instructors, Mark Katich and Chuck Bramel, exit the plane together, and followed them out about five seconds later. I was close enough to Alastair when he pulled his ripcord (though not so close as to present a potential risk!) to watch his canopy open, which was very cool. All in all, it was a fantastic day--and as always, I can't wait to get back up in the air!
-M. Jehn
'Twas a beautiful day for skydiving: hot and humid with scattered clouds, fairly light winds, and only a few ominous rain-producing thunderheads to dodge around mid-afternoon. We set out for Canton Air Sports (outside of Alliance, Ohio) at 8am and arrived before the first load of the morning had gone up. Matt Buchovecky, Averie Yang, and Lilly Chen all made their first-ever tandem jumps, while Alastair Firth successfully completed levels one and two of the Accelerated Freefall Program, currently the most popular method of achieving solo skydiver status at many dropzones. (Traditionally, folks went through the static line progression program, but AFF puts you into freefall from high altitude on the very first jump.) Averie got a longer-than-usual ride under canopy, and a shorter-than-usual freefall experience, because her tandem instructor's parachute accidentally deployed shortly after exiting the plane. I did my first two jumps with a friend from the dropzone; we worked on falling relative to each other and generally chasing each other around in the sky. I exited from the end of the wing strut each time while he followed me out very shortly thereafter from the door position. Although we were not close enough to each other during freefall on either jump to actually do contact relative work, working on staying relative (on the same level as each other) was good practice. Having a few fluffy clouds in the vicinity made for beautiful mid-air scenery. On my last jump, I watched Alastair and his instructors, Mark Katich and Chuck Bramel, exit the plane together, and followed them out about five seconds later. I was close enough to Alastair when he pulled his ripcord (though not so close as to present a potential risk!) to watch his canopy open, which was very cool. All in all, it was a fantastic day--and as always, I can't wait to get back up in the air!
-M. Jehn
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