The story of the student and the minivan

[veritas 0]

To make a long story long, there was some tandems coming down below me (my canapy is pretty large and although i was going with my toggles all the way up and bleeding altitude, some tandems still got down the same time i was coming down. This caused my radio guide to give me directions to the far part of the field near the hanger, there was a miscommunication (left right)and against my better judgement i did what i heard on the radio because this is only my second time landing on my own and the dispatcher obviously is way more experienced (was further away from where the radio was dispatching and depth of the field from that distance must have interfered because the landing area i was told to aim for ended and the small parking area near the road was where i ended up, over the fence directly onto the roof (i am glad it was not a convertible or i woulda been riding shotty) of a silver minivan (its cool cause i detest minivans) as the family moved away from area they were standing in (directly in front of the minivan)

I flared and hit with my feet and as i fell off i put my hand on the bars on the roof and used my foward/sideways movement to guide myself off to the ground (landed standing up) . It was actually pretty cool and i got more than one complement on it but not something i would not try again if i can help it. factors beyond the dispatchers control in this situation made for a tricky landing and if this situation were to have happened again i would not have taken that right turn to head towards the minivan ( i thought i could possibly drop before it on the grass and thats what the dispatcher thought as well... )

moral of the story is that its up to me to save my own ass or windshield or whatever (i knew that well as i was told many times but since it was my second solo landing i was determined to do exactly as the dispatcher said even when my judgement would have been different.... mistake)

all in all it was a great learning experience and no-one/nothing was injured or broke. I would like to thank all the people at the ranch who made it a fun and interesting skydive and i will see you this weekend also much thanks to chrysler for making a minivan with a giving top. Thanks for reading and blue skies...

[aulbjerg 0]

Congrats on your first CAR landing!!
...good thing you didnt hit the windshield or anything else hard!

Did you buy beer that night??

---
BLUES - Jacob
D-601, Denmark

[Pendragon 1]

I can hear it all now...

"Left, left.... NO THE OTHER LEFT!"

(hey, I once suprised a cow with my hang glider, that was funny! )

--
BASE #1182
Muff #3573
PFI #52; UK WSI #13

[Jeth 0]

Wow, glad to hear you and the minivan are okay! Yup, we gotta trust ourselves and just use common sense. The instructors can't see or feel what we do up there.
On my 1st solo jump my radio didn't work so I had to land by myself and I ended up in the corn field! But that was right next to where I was supposed to land, so I was close!

I guess it just takes practice to learn how to land, we'll get it! (My next 2 landings were in the field, so I am making progress.)

Jeth

"At 13,000 feet nothing else matters."
PFRX!!!!!
Team Funnel #174, Sunshine kisspass #109
My Jump Site

[aulbjerg 0]

Actully at my 3rd jump i think, some taxi company came on the radio... When i came down at about 1000 ft. my instructor was back!!
Pretty scary...

We later found out that the taxi company is from a place about 60 miles away... They have changed frq. now...

---
BLUES - Jacob
D-601, Denmark

[cvfd1399 0]

That would have sucked if you landed on your own car out of everywhere there is to land. Nice job on that. When training I got the pleasure of landing tailbone first on the taxiway. One night I am gonna paint a ass on the asphalt to warn other jumpers that that has to be the hardest part of the whole airport. Ass certified!! good job with the stunt man landing.