Day 5 in Deland - back in the air again

The morning had low clouds but we hoped that they would soon lift and that we would see blue skies again - unfortunately this took much longer than first predicted as we started jumping at about 1PM.

As it was a Sunday most of the skydivers wanted to make the most of the day and the DZ became very busy as there were 3 planes flying at any given time (Twin Otter, PAC 820, Skyvan or Porter), today we saw the first appearance of the Skyvan . The problem was that the pilot for the Skyvan was the same as for the Porter so the jumpers who wanted to use the Skyvan were without their favourite plane for a few times during the day.

The photo on the top was made on the last jump where Barbara (white helmet, pink grips), Babi (white helmet, blue/white suit), Gvido (red helmet) and myself (blue/silver suit) made a 4-way formation.

I managed to make 4 jumps and they all went quite well, the last one was even from the Skyvan which turned out to be quite a terrifying experience. We were the first group to leave the airplane but none of us had any idea how to open the door. The team behind us were some Swedes and they did know how to do it either. We found a Slovene freeflyer Igor who saved the day (or the load in this case) and showed us how to do it.

Jumping out of the Skyvan’s ramp was a exhilarating experience and very frightening. I will probably stick to the Otter and PAC from now on. I am still quite comfortable leaving the plane by its side door.