Now that I have got my reserve deployment out of the way I can get to some good and proper skydiving. Managed to get the record number of jumps for a day - 5 and I could have done at least one more but I had to arrange another rental car for our group. The picture on the left is showing our makeshift hangar - the flag has now been moved to a proper flag post close to the boarding zone - pics to follow :-)

Not only was it my first jump at Deland or in the U.S. in general, but it also ended up being the jump that I had to deploy my reserve. The jump started well as a 5-way group with the local instructor Carl. We broke off the formation at 1.500 m and opened at approx. 1.200 - 1.000 m. The parachute opened a bit slower than usual but I very quickly realized something was very wrong, the canopy was making me go in circles, but not spirals, I wasn’t loosing height quickly but it all came down to my first cell from the left (the parachute is a 7-cell Atair Dragon 170).

Group photo outside the wind tunnel - Click to enlarge Feeling better after the midnights tunnel session, still having problems with some of the techniques but my instructor Aljaž says there are visible improvements. I hope so as I sometimes feel like a sack of potatoes in a tornado when I’m in the tunnel. Today marks the end of the tunnel sessions for most of us as our group will be moving out of the hotel and heading up to Deland, FL.

Wind tunnel This is getting to be really tough. Last nights session started at midnight and I somewhat remember going to bed at 2am. This morning there are another three sessions, the first one on which starts at 9am. I am well and truly sore all over and hadn’t had this much physical exercise in a good few years. Most of us, who are doing RW work in the tunnel don’t have much time to do anything else.

This is the hotel we stayed in No real time to do anything else here as most of the time is spent either briefing for the tunnel, debriefing for the tunnel or actually IN the tunnel. I have hardly any time to eat - in fact I have only eaten once - yesterday’s breakfast - and that is it.

Wind tunnel The wind tunnel training started a day before I expected so I had to get up at about 6am. I did 5x2 minutes in the morning, then another 5x2 minutes in the afternoon and I have just completed another 2x2 minutes session. I have now finished debriefing and it is ten minutes to one in the morning! By my home watch it is just before 6am! Don’t even think that flying in a wind tunnel is easy and not exhausting.

Here I am, in lovely Hickstead, somewhere between Crawley (Gatwick airport) and Brighton in the local Travelodge. Took me about four and a half hours to get here from Haverfordwest and I can sincerely say, I am nackered. The drive was very smooth although I knew I was going to be hitting the London’s circular road (the M25) at rush hour. My satnav took me from the M4 via a shortcut to the M3 and then on the M25.

Ker se uradno tečaji pričnejo šele jeseni in ker se mi do takrat ravno ne čaka, sem se odločil iti na krajši enodnevni tečaj Valežanščine v lokalnem družbenem učnem centru v Haverfordwestu. Na začetku je bilo malo zmede, ko so nas začeli razporejati v skupine - v Valežanščini, kar pa je malce problem glede na to, da nimam pojma o tem jeziku. Čisto lahko, da so govorili v močnem valežanskem narečju angleščine, vendar po pravici povem, da, tudi drugi ne-valežani, niso zlahka opazili razliko.

As usual some of the media outlets are taking a completely wrong ignorant spin on this genuine and sad tragedy. Slovenia lost a great pilot Viktor Bečan (a.k.a. “Som”). My sincere condolences go to his family. My hopes for a quick recovery go to the surviving co-pilot Savo Medved Photo on left featuring the “Som” made by Lubi in Novo mesto (Prečna) in June 2007. Slovenia lost a legend among skydiving planes the “Fata” - Antonov 2 from the Paranoia Skydiving school (part of the ŠOLT organization) that fulfilled the dreams of many skydivers in becoming the vessel for them to do their first skydive jumps.

I must sadly inform you that the Antonov-2 airplane (we lovingly called “Fata”) from which I learned how to skydive and did many jumps, the most recent ones in September 2007, crashed in the mountains near Trbovlje at about 1pm local time. Photo taken by Daniel Zavratnik in Bovec in August 2007. Viktor Bečan a.k.a. 'Som' is the chap on the left in a green t-shirt. In the middle is one of our lovely fellow skydivers and on the right is the legend of Slovene skydiving who runs, in my opinion, the best skydiving school in Slovenia - Aleš Debeljak a.