“Why does one want to walk wings? Why force one’s body from a plane to make a parachute jump? Why should man want to fly at all? People often ask these questions. But what civilization was not founded on adventure, and how long could one exist without it? Some answer the attainment of knowledge. Some say wealth, or power, is sufficient cause. believe the risks I take are justified by the sheer love of the life I lead.”
— Charles Lindbergh

I love it, wish I could do it more, wish I could amp up my abilities to a near competition level if I could. I don’t have time, and like everything time in equals mastery out so you have to work hard at it.

Moments to Perfection

For skydivers, unless they do tunnel time, we learn one (1) minute at a time. Makes you really think about how hard you need to execute, how well you need to plan, how rigorous you must perform to maximize your one minute in the air. Next time you are slacking over an hour think about what you could do in just one minute. Test yourself with your own boundaries and see if you can go farther. It’s one lesson I’m always taking to heart.

Achievements can happen in moments so try not to waste many.

An Excerpt, J101

The following is a little excerpt from my life. It takes place on my 101st jump where I take a Flip Minos around my neck and take some video after a high-pull (meaning to pull your chute directly at altitude out of the plane). I had a nice 8 minute journey back to earth and let my adrenaline speak for itself.

It’s not the best video, I’ll get better when I can mount it on my head (hah). For now though I think it speaks volumes and gives a sneak peak into the view I enjoy so much.

Know Andy, a Quick Jump for a Long Fall

Join me at my home dropzone Skydive Carolina, or check out their Facebook page.

Photography Video Montage

A Heat Wave to Remember

The heat was magnificent in its ability to melt us all. With a high reaching 103’ on Saturday (at least by my altimeters function), how we all lasted day after day is a real wonder. It did slow me down though I wasn’t readily willing to repack as quickly or even don my flight suits (hey I got a new free fly suit too!) since you turn into a human sprinkler if you did. We still managed to enjoy each others company with eager smiles.

A Coordinated Effort

The event coordinators really did amazing keeping everything running so smoothly. We even had an expected visit by the FAA (man those suits walk real upright), but the show went on with only mild delays.

One day we had two Casa’s, one Twin Otter, and a helicopter all in motion. James La Barrie really handled it tactically and no issues means he did a stupendous job.

Funny enough the only thing really squawked on was how Outback really screwed us on our meal plan serving us up some real airplane fare for the price of steaks. If that was the only beef (/sarcasm) then I’d say it was a success.

Do You Know Howie?

A profound shout goes out to our friend Howie. A man who would have rather been left be had his own fan club after him; you can many times hear, ‘Do you know Howie?’ shouted onboard a plane.

During our sunset tracking dive we put ourselves over some tricky terrain and the flank Howie was on was in the deep of it and not going to make it home. After a rough landing Howie sustained a few broken bones (tib/fib/fingers), and a fractured hip. Can you believe he called 911 for himself? What a guy!

The dropzone being what it is with the local family we were quite a buzz over our friend. From the latest intel we understand that he is doing the best he can and we send our well wishes and speedy recovery.

Rodriguez Family Reunion

Thus completes my, Pelargo Rodriguez, first year as a family member. We celebrated in style and brought on board a slew of new family after many jumps with initiates. As always Shaggy manned a deadly liquid cooled tequila machine which caused personal malfunctions everywhere, haha.

Welcome new brothers (and bumpy brothers), may your lives be long, your sombreros be shade casting, and your tequila glass cold.

Good Festival

If I heard right we’ll see these guys again next year under hopefully cooler early June circumstances. We met a lot of new people and got to hang with a lot of those we just don’t see enough of these days.

Always looking for new recruits to come jump with us so if you need the right motivation let me know!

Robin and I packed up and went down to [Skydive Carolina](http://www.skydivecarolina.com) on Thursday to save waking up at a horrible hour to make it to my class on Friday at 8:30a. We worked a little on the cabin, grabbed some local chow, and hit the sheets early.

Friday came quick and I was ready as ever. We met with Scott where he informed us that our Cessna was being taken to Clemson and we were going to have to wait for Eric, our pilot, to get back to fly the Twin Otter. Not a big deal. We crammed more of the classroom work in and then got started around 1:30p. I was also lucky enough to have some great people get me a demo of my upcoming parachute the [Performance Designs](http://www.performancedesigns.com/) Sabre2 230 so my lessons would have direct translation.

[Scott](http://freedomofflight.tv/public/index.php?which=aboutUs) created this course because of the absence of the training in the industry. Before the 90’s canopy related fatalities were about 1 a year. In the mid-90’s it rose above 10. The reason, performance canopies were in, experts were jumping them and novices wanted to play too. This brought a lot more people into the landing pattern a lot sooner than it used to be and with more people there are more accidents. Scott is working with the [USPA](http://www.uspa.org/) to find a way of improving their AFF course to include these materials in an effort to make our DZ’s a safer place.

The class is normally broken into an hour of lecture, a jump to work on skill building, then back to the classroom for video review/critique and another lecture. Seeing yourself on video—which shows everything—even things you don’t realize you’re doing, is so very helpful. Then getting wise instruction on how to repair what you’re doing for the next jump is just an enormous aid.

The [essentials course](http://freedomofflight.tv/public/index.php?which=canopy) is the first of two courses for canopies. Our class was broken into the understanding of perfecting the flare and finish, accuracy/precision landings, flat turns, stalls, and handling cross country—long flights. Anything that was to be done near the earth was done repeatedly from 5,000-2,000ft above ground. Doing so builds great confidence and kinesthetic understanding for when you’ll need to react properly in diverse sometimes dangerous situations.

We worked our tails off. After a light variable wind day pushed us down wind for nearly all our landings I think we performed pretty well. If I were to say what three things I enjoyed most it would have been learning the timing of the flare and the idea of a finish to improve landings, the details for planning my jump run more effectively, and my first cross country from 2.5 miles off the DZ sitting on my toggles in 75% brake.

We stayed over night again since I was given the opportunity to continue flying the demo canopy. Over the course of the day I put in three more jumps and Robin recorded them. I stitched it all together for a [youtube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=426qRU-3aD0) video.

If you want to learn how your canopy really operates and some hard hitting methods to gain even greater control visit Scott in DeLand or keep on the look out for his course coming to a DZ near you. It is practical and should be a requirement for all of us. This sport is a risk, but a calculated one, the more we know the lower that risk ratio gets and the more fun we can all have.

-a

Well I’ll never get lost. hahah. A few months ago I found out about [Tracking Derby](http://www.trackingderby.com/). Mount a GPS (like the Garmin Foretrex 201), record your jump, upload it to their service where they [show](http://www.trackingderby.com/en/trace_view_training_2329_meters.php) it. The overall thrust of the group is competitions but for a lowly diver like myself it’s another vantage point with which to see what I’m doing, where I’m going, and replay for learning more of the experience.

Tracking Derby will export your data to [Google Earth](http://earth.google.com) which was really neat to see. The shot below (click [through](http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciordia/425990865/) for a better view) is of Chester, SC—the municipal airport, and [Skydive Carolina](http://www.skydivecarolina.com). My 19th jump is depicted in the yellow line, my 20th the blue. Both start tracking around 8-9k feet. I haven’t figured out the knack for getting signal in the Otter yet. Most of what you see is the last moments of free fall then transition into a canopy descent/landing. This is pretty usual for me; I hang out at the end of the main runway until 1-2k then weave into the traffic pattern.

Even if you don’t understand it at the time of exposure the more facets you give yourself to explore your world the more you will reap from it. Looking at my altitude data from my altimeter data-logger has shown how I synchronize with coaches, how my flat tracks are coming to smooth transitions in velocity. You shouldn’t get lost in what is important with each thing you do, but having something to reflect on in hindsight is really special.

It was a great day out this weekend. Spring is definitely in the air and I was too. Soon after reaching the [Skydive Carolina](http://skydivecarolina.com) dropzone I was on a load to the heavens. As I quickly got my gear, inspected it, and sat on the plane ride in anticipation I reflected on how far I’ve come since last October. My nervous energy is gone, but I still get the last moments anticipation rush of less oxygen and adrenaline. A red light glows by the exit door, and we all grin, it flashes green, the door slides open, the spot is checked, and the teams and low openers jump out with glee. I generally float near the front of the plane (one of the last out), there are no tandems on my loads today just wingsuits and a few other AFF graduates pulling between 4k & 5k. I exited for my 13th jump and worked on many skill-sets Pete my AFF instructor, now coach, has asked me to work on. Cupping air, tracking, more granular leg control. 59 seconds goes by quick and yet slow. Yes, there is dualism present. For the last 3k feet I watched the ground and saw the beginnings of ground rush, when everything pops into realism like popcorn. Pulling at 4,000 ft my trusty student 260 opened on heading and I crabbed along the end of one of the runways till about 1k when I went into final.

For number 14 I got to downsize to a 230 canopy. Exiting the plane I tried to mimic some of our free/sit fliers in a sitting position. It lasted all of 2 seconds before I turned it into a flip and went back to belly down. I think I’ll stick with relative work for now, then work on other disciplines—but it’s fun to try. This jump turned a little sour when a loose strap from my helmet began to beat me in the cheek and neck. You don’t recognize the cold in the air usually, but as my strap beat on me it hurt, and that hurt led me to think of how cold it was because the pain was biting. That distraction really blew my ability to stay focused. Every time I’d capture the zone to do another exercise I’d inevitably be drawn back into this minor but highly annoying issue. I ended up at about 7k just waiting for pull time (5k) and working on slowing my descent due to frustration. Our new packer on the ground and AFF friend Allen packed my 230 and it opened like it should and on heading. I’ll tell you what though, jumping something new makes time slow down even further during that opening process. I would have ran my landing off had it not been for a hole I stepped into as I left the green short grass for thicker bramble. My down-scope angle was a bit off so I misjudged where the final spot would be of my landing. I think it’s to be expected when you change canopy sizes. Don’t let my sourness fool you, I had a good jump, it taught me about distraction and there are some great lessons there I might share on [Nuance Labs](http://blog.nuancelabs.com) soon.

After much hounding for a would be [deal](http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2684404 “DropZone.com Forum Postings”) I decided it was time to lock down my rig. I worked with Gus of [Rigging Solutions](http://www.riggingsolutions.us), our local Master Rigger & shop owner. Between his expertise and Pete we finalized my order of a Performance Designs [Saber2](http://www.performancedesigns.com/sabre2.asp), a PD Reserve 218, and a [Wings](http://www.skydivewings.com/) container with a number of healthy, safe, and comfort options.

All in all a wonderful day. I’ve committed to the sport for a while by my purchase and Robin is getting into the swing by signing up to work at the DZ in manifest over the summer. Can’t beat that kind of support! If your in the area come on down and just watch. Just being in a spot where so many people are having such high-energy fun is exhilarating.

Fun statistic, I’ve currently fallen about 20 miles in about 9 minutes.

-a

It might have been cold but we rose midmorning to head down to [Skydive Carolina](http://www.skydivecarolina.com). The winds were calm and I was psyched to get a few jumps in.

I had packed my day-bag with care that it might be windy I would have everything I needed to work. Of course with that much consideration it was should not have been surprising that I would need none of it. Many of my original AFF class turned out and we were all glad to get at least one spin in the sky.
I took my air time to get back to basics. Four weeks out of the air makes one washy so it was good to stretch, spin, and flip your way back into comfort. My second jump I was getting a bit cold and just enjoyed some smooth tracking. Unfortunately I pulled early and had a lot of hang-time in the cold. I used the time to pull on my front risers for turning and to see the angles change. Finished it off parking my canopy near the flags for a running landing.

Robin ended up taking 48 pics which we paired down to 28 for keeping, then only posting 18 to [flickr](http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciordia/archives/date-taken/2007/01/20/). Prioritization sucks, heheheh! Robin’s getting good at finding the action. Now it’s time to get back to the books and planning board. I’ve had my fun; my heart and head swim again giving me the momentum to run more.

Oh yea, if anyone spots a 230 rig, the more complete the better, I’m on the market for one.

-a

On my first jump I didn’t have a picture of what was to be. I had no map, no fore-knowledge, nothing for me to really be scared of knowingly besides the act itself in a general way. After my first jump apprehension was quick to set in since I now knew what to expect. I understood what was going on and being so helpless due to the influx of new information it was going to allow fear to edge in. I knew if I didn’t get another jump in soon my anxiety level would be raised to a point possibly stalling my progress. With a bit of hesitation and a nod from Robin I gave a call Sunday morning to register with manifest. Once committed a lot of my anxiety dissipated immediately. I think I had more of a commitment fear than an actual fear. Heading down there I was hell bent on practice.

I wanted to ingrain what I was learning into rock solid reactions. You don’t have many luxuries of time to wait and think, you must be ready to act. Utilizing the drop zones tools I began to just exercise what I learned in class and through my first jump. Then I met my instructors for the day Delfina and Pete. I was instructed that we would be jumping in the next few hours on load 12 of the day. Pete walked me through what was to be expected a few times and then left me to my own devices to continue practicing, and practice I did. The exercises of the day including 90’ left, 90’ right, sky tracking forward, along with the prior lessons of circle of awareness’, checking parachute ball, and altitude awareness.

We boarded a Casa. A 22 passenger plane that has a rear hatch door that we get to hop out of. Quite nice! The Casa took us to 14000ft which gives me about an extra 4-5 seconds of free fall which being a heavy guy, the more time the better! Exit was clean, awareness on queue. I was a little soft in my right 90’ rotation. I firmed it up for the left 90’ and was on time for my sky track forward. What a great sensation burning through the air. My instructors said when I came out of my sky track they momentarily were given a little zero G (they are a lot lighter than I am hehehe). I checked my altimeter and it said 6500, and for some reason I locked eyes with Pete and like a programmed monkey told him. He shook his head grinning and told me to pull, so I did. Upon pulling I was very careful to be aware of the 3S’s; Square, Stable, Steerable. Unfortunately my chute had malfunctioned in a common way in a line twist. Quickly I got the direction of the twist and kicked myself counter to it freeing up the lines and being in control at about 3000-or-so feet. The rest of my air time was spent doing circles while tandem flights landed. I enjoyed myself throughly and let Danny guide me down. I would have walked the landing but I started about 3-4’ft too early and ended up doing a PLF onto my side.

I was really happy with myself and Delfina & Pete were too. My debrief went without a hitch. I only wish I had more time in the next few weeks but scheduling conflicts are upon me. I feel fantastic though and am ready for more.

-a

technorati tags:parachute, skydive, AFF