1rst Twin Otter Jump

[Jabeln79 0]

well just to bore everyone for a couple of minutes ill tell you about my day.
I got up early and headed out to the DZ (Archway) under mostly blue skies.. The hour long trip turned blue skies to cloudy skies...to completly cloudy skies, Not looking very promising yet.. then i pulled into the Parking lot and to my surprise saw two Twin Otters and our King Air out side of the airport. The great people from skydive chicago were nice enough to fly down for the weekend and let us use one of their Twin Otters. This might not be exciting for any of you but i have only jumped from a cesna and a king air so i was really looking forward to this... SO at 11:30 i manifested and then waited until about 1:00 or so before we went on call..the clouds finally started to go away, so up we go all 22 of us, I was bymself getting out right after a 15 way. Wow what a nice exit. Exiting from an Otter is so much nicer than the king air, WEll the skydive is going good i work on basic stuff and at 3500 pull.. and open into some serious line twists that had me spiraling side ways quickly towards the ground.. I finally kick out only to still be spiraling downward i thought about cutting away for the first time. but still had enough altitude to work it out. so now everything is normal accept that im very far away from the airport and wasted altitude kicking out of the line twist. So fly downwind as fast and straight as i could and make it make to the edge of the runway and have to set up a landing just off the west runway, which i did and had a nice stand up landing... So my first Otter jump went great until i pulled the rip cord, But it was fun and a very smoothe ride up to alt..i did four more jumps including an 8 pt. 2 way for the first time.. that was cool. so now i am up to 29 jumps and taking a packing class next sat morning and should finally have my license. I would like to thank anyone out there from Skydive Chicago for the great experience on the OTter, I cant wait for the Casa to come in in mid Sept. i hear thats a great jump plane.. well thanks for listening..
have safe week everyone..
Joe

[FallinWoman 1]

Hey Joe,
Sorry I missed you. I went out Saturday and didn't get to jump due to winds. I was one of the pretty otters!
And, by the way,....... BEER!
Blue skies,
Anne

[FastEd 0]

I have to say I lvoed jumping out of the Super Twin at Empuriabrava, you can do wicked floating exits on that and watching AFF going out after you is seriously kool!
Have fun jumping it!
Ed

[mouth 0]

You really make me appreciate the fact that we have an otter year round. I take for granted that we are so spoiled. I feel bad about fussing since we are sharing a super otter with another DZ...I should be thankful we have a regular otter when we don't have the super otter.

[chicagoskydiver 0]

Did you say rip cord? I didn't know anyone used those anymore except on tandem rigs and reserves. Am I wrong about this? Personally, except on my tandems, I've never pulled a rip cord.
Hackey

[FallingMarc 0]

Hey Joe sorry I missed this weekend, I'll probably see ya out this weekend... looking forward to the CASA coming up too!
Hackey the student rigs plus a couple of rentals at Archway are ripcord mains. The DZO makes us use ripcords till we have an A license... I don't mind really, it was kinda nice having it flung way out once early on when I deployed on my back...
Marc

[PLFXpert 0]

I couldn't agree more, Mouth (LisaMuch love and blue skies,
Carrie http://www.geocities.com/skydivegrl20/

[Jumperpaula 0]

I guess we do get spoiled. I learned in a porter, did most of my first 200 jumps from a king air, now Im at an otter DZ (and a fast otter too) with air conditioned packing. SPOILED ROTTEN. With only 3 cessna jumps in 3 years and 350 skydives.
Can you say "Turbine Snob"...he he....
Fly Your Slot !

[bbbilly14 0]

I never realized how spoiled I am until Summerfest came around. Then, I met skydivers from an anonymous (I really don't know which one) Canadian DZ. 5 Cessnas. Then other jumpers from around the U.S., mainly Cessna DZ's. "My God", I thought, "How horrifying!" I have and will jumped from Cessnas, but these poor people! And this is the VAST majority of skydivers!
It was than that I realized I have learned from the best (Roger, Rook, and Missy Nelson, Mike Ortiz, David, Em, Dusty, and all there)! How lucky am I to have SDC 80 miles from home?
I really don't mean to brag-- that's not my intent. I guess I am just taking this time and space from all your lives to reflect on just how lucky I really am!
STL!
Billy
"Son, you've got a panty on yer head!"