Monday, December 27, 2010

My Christmas present

While I was in Colorado, I discovered that one of my hosts, Josh, is a parachute rigger who just happened to have a Spectre 150 in his loft that he wanted to sell. I had been telling him about my fruitless quest to find one. This is EXACTLY the canopy I decided I wanted to fly, because it's much more docile and sedate than my Stiletto 135. While this is arcane information to anyone who doesn't skydive, for me it's the perfect canopy for a little old lady to fly (like me). So I bought it from him and brought it home. I wore most of my heavy clothes on the plane and stuffed the canopy into my carry-on, which was pretty darn puffy but still fit, although I had to sit on it to get it closed.

The Christmas present part is that I asked Smart Guy if he would hook it up to my container as a Christmas present to me. I had little expectation that it would happen quickly, because after all, it's wet and wintery here in the Pacific Northwest, and hardly anybody is jumping, certainly not me at the moment. However, he decided to get the work done now, which is pretty time consuming. He's busy checking the lines to make sure they are correctly positioned before moving on to the next steps. If you were to enlarge the above picture, on the bottom of the TV stand is a picture of us on our anniversary after we had made our tenth wedding anniversary jump. We were married in freefall exactly ten years before, which I wrote about here.
 Most skydivers spend their careers learning to fly smaller and smaller parachutes, because the smaller they are, the more high performance they are. If you are still jumping into your sixties, however, it makes perfect sense to move to something that is gentle and forgiving. My Stiletto would sometimes open hard and so I had to be careful with how I pack it; in the days when I jumped a Spectre, I remembered that it NEVER opens hard. In fact, Josh said this one opens "like butter." Who could ask for anything better?

Each canopy has a personality, so even the ones that are the same brand and size are different from each other, and although I really enjoyed the flight performance of my Stiletto, I didn't like the fact that it rarely opened predictably. This one will, and the extra fifteen square feet (the difference between 135 square feet and 150 square feet) will give me even more cushion for landing. I can't wait!
:-)

21 comments:

  1. DJan, I am so happy for you! What a coincidence that the canopy of your dreams just happened to be there when you all were remembering Emily, who also was a parachutist. It seems some good came out of your trip.

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  2. Wonderful synchro! Hats off to Smart Guy, too!

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  3. nice. if and when i get up there...i want a really big one to go with a song landing...ha.

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  4. The very word "Stiletto" seems to say "living dangerously." Congrats on your new canopy!

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  5. Back when I still jumped I used to roll the nose into the first cells so the harness would be a little kinder to my groin at opening. I got in the habit of packing that way.

    Then one day we jumped from 3k due to a cloud cover. I forgot I had packed for a slow opening... oops. But I just shook out the risers like I was fluffing a blanket for a picnic and opened with room to spare. It was a good "teaching moment" though.

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  6. I'm glad it worked out for you. I'll bet you're looking forward to giving it a go.

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  7. Gosh DJan, I'm remembering the days when I thought my PD 190 was hot and Bob had this radical canopy called an Evolution. Talk about the Dark Ages...

    Enjoy your new canopy. And if I ever get back into the sport, I'll want your rigger's name and number. I have dreams where I'm on the load but I have to scratch because I suddenly remember my reserve is out of date by about 15 years!!

    Happy 2011 to you and the smart guy, and your rigger too!

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  8. After the sadness you have been experiencing, I am glad to know that you are smiling again. As long as this new canopy makes your "dropping out of the sky" easier and safer then I am happy for you because I am looking forward to many more blog posts from you in the future.

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  9. Call me thick! I thought you only used a parachute once, LOL
    Glad you got what you wanted D-Jan.
    Blessings Star

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  10. I wish safe flights and great hikes to you in the new year DJan!

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  11. Talk about synchronicity...!

    Happy landings. :-)

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  12. What a wonderful Christmas present for YOU!! :)

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  13. That trip to Colorado was grief mixed with blessings. And I for one am glad you are opting for a gentler landing!

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  14. These look like Emily's colors. Nice remembrance. Wishing you all "butter soft" landings with your new gear in 2011.

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  15. If you are excited and cant't wait to use it..then I am excited for you too..I hope it is soft like butter..I am sure you will give us a report! What a great guy your Smart Guy is..:)

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  16. Those are TOTALLY Emily's colors. She's at work in the universe already, as I suspected. :) Sarah

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  17. What a great find for you. I wish you many happy and safe jumps, great walks and much happiness for 2011.

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  18. The only time I worry about not having a parachute is when I am in a commercial airliner at 5 miles and see an engine on fire. Happened to me once in a Constellation between Honolulu and California.

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  19. definitely your kind of Christmas present! :o)

    I can't wait 'till you tell us how it performs! ;o)

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  20. I have to agree with one of the comments above about the name Stiletto, that just sounds sharp and hard. Butter is a much more soothing thought when it comes to something like this.

    Enjoy your new chute, that's a great Christmas present.

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  21. Parachutes, eh? Glad you cleared that up; at first glance I thought I was looking at bags of trash ready to be taken out. :-)

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