After only getting one jump last weekend I was really hoping the weather yesterday would cooperate. Luckily by early afternoon the overcast clouds that had hung around all morning began to break up. Although we had plenty of Tandems, enough to help send the Otter up three times – not bad for a weekday – I only got two jumps myself, after having to pull myself off the second load to deal with a minor equipment issue.
The first jump was a five way, first point to be a round, then open accordian, then break the two pairs of the ends, rotate them 180, then bring it back into the round. After getting a four way together our fifth man was just too low to get back up to us, so I keyed the point to move into the open accordian, that went well, but Greg on my left had to clue what to do when I keyed them to do the rotations as he was flying solo on that side! As you’ll notice, there is no exit in the video, as I’d somehow forgotten to turn on the camera before exit, but realized as I came down the hill and just waited for a good opportunity to turn it on!
The second jump was a bit better, Ian had come into the dropzone saying he needed a real fun jump, so he gathered us all together and decided on a “dancing spider”. This is a great jump for a five way, one I’ll have to remember and try again. There is a single man in the base, with each of the other four jumpers taking a single handed grip (an open accordian off the front, and a wedge off the back). With each key, the jumper off the base’s right leg becomes the next base and everyone else rotating clockwise into the next slot. There is a lot of flying for everyone! We lost a man after the first point, so the four us tried to finish in “missing man” style, holding the empty slot for him on each rotation, not the easiest thing to do with this dive.
Without further ado, here are the video’s, hope you enjoy watching them as much as I enjoyed the jumps!
Tags: 5-way, experienced, GoPro, launched exit, Otter, Skydive Tecumseh, Tandem