And another two in the evening.

Finished off with a party. Sunset, aeroplanes, bikes, bar, barbecue and, of course, a Humvee-mounted DJ.

The end of a great day

Someone’s got to do it.

Nice day for a sail!

So we are on the ground until the wind drops.

Spanish national canopy piloting championships

Here’s a great idea: let’s see who can go fastest just before contact with the ground. Brilliant spectacle: quite a few injuries.

There’s accuracy and so on too, but swooping is the Real Man’s sport. Some of the ladies appear to be Real Men too.

The Spanish air force arranged a proper plane. A CASA of some sort:
A busy skydiving event at Lillo, Spain
Read more

Three two-ways in the morning

Mark and I banged out three two-way jumps this morning. Great fun in beautiful weather. Pictures later.

We just acquired a weight belt for Mark: if I arch, I disappear.

There’s a man here whose shaven head looks like a freshly-whacked boiled egg. When the clip on my helmet strap broke, it was easy to say “no” to jumping helmetless.

Going skydiving in Spain

I’m sitting in the departure lounge at Gatwick, waiting to fly to Madrid for four days of skydiving.

Managed to resist this opportunity for hope to triumph over experience:

An opportunity not to win an Audi R8 or Porsche 911 GT3 RS

I’m happy to report that sunshine is forecast.

Empuriabrava – an odd place

Notice all the canals? It seems everyone needs their own mooring.

The DZ staff are careful to keep us away from the town. Apparently, landing in the canals is the safe option if you screw it up, like I nearly did this morning.


View Larger Map

Notice that the DZ to the north west of the town is quite narrow. Fortunately, any wind is usually from the north or south, so it’s easy to land on.

Empuriabrava – three more great jumps

Three jumps today before the wind was out of limits for me: that was plenty coupled with the groundschool, but I would have accepted more…

EB sunrise

First was a repeat rear float exit, and I got it right this time, followed by more exercises on body position and forward movement. Second was centre float, setting the timing, and I was nervous, maybe because I was in charge… and I presented badly to the air, flopping onto my back. Easily fixed though :-D Did some good manouevres in the vertical axis while maintaining separation from the coach.

Read more

Empuriabrava – a great start

As it happened, it was a great day for a skydive in the UK. The sunrise at Stanstead was spectacular.

Stanstead sunrise

Read more