Martin McDowell's Blog

The day was very very cold, but with blue skies all day. I did 5 jumps, but was hoping to do 6, unfortunately the sunset load was cancelled – we wanted to do a big way At the moment the first group has already departed for Orlando airport with the second group waiting to go [...]

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We woke up this morning into a very cold day. After witnessing the birth of the foal we decided to have a look at the DZ in case there was spomething going on. There was, despite the low temps, clouds and high winds. The clouds were very high, above 4.000 metres. Some of the groups [...]

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Pred kakimi dvema urama sem imel čast prisostvovati rojstvu žrebeta pasme konja imenovanega Palomino. Kobila je last Dennisa, ki nam daje tudi v najem hišo v DeLeon Springsu, v kateri trenutno smo. Porod je šel mimo brez kakih posebnosti in žrebička je že ne nogah in sesa. Pasma ni tako pogosta in konji te pasme [...]

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Although the waether did not look promising for today we were able to book the first and only flight from the Twin Otter today. We made two formations, the first one being an 8-way and the second a 9-way. I was a diver in the latter. I did manage to join the formation even though [...]

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The morning was a bit foggy but that soon cleared and the weather hold on the jumps was lifted by about 11am. Then we went full throttle as we knwe we might have another weather related bad jump day tomorrow. I managed to make a record 8 jumps, the last one being the sunset jump. [...]

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The morning had low clouds but we hoped that they would soon lift and that we would see blue skies again – unfortunately this took much longer than first predicted as we started jumping at about 1PM. As it was a Sunday most of the skydivers wanted to make the most of the day and [...]

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As we woke this morning we could only take a depressing glance out of the window and despair over the rubbish weather we had. It was bucketing down. We had to decide either to stay in the house, go on a (inside) sightseeing tour, or drive to a DZ that does not have bad weather. [...]

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Še nekaj kitic v slovenskem jeziku, da ne bom samo te forenščine natepaval. S sabo sem privlekel zastavo, ki sem jo kupil že pred mojo selitvijo v Wales. Zdaj ponosno plapola na dropzonu v DeLandu. Vreme, kot ste verjetno razbrali, ni ravno veselo in skakanju primerno, že včeraj sem opravil le dva skoka, za danes [...]

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The weather, again, was a bit of a disappointment. In the morning we were not sure if we should bother even going to the DZ. Our landlord Dennis said that the clouds should break up. When we came there the DZ was closed for jumps and it looked like nobody was going to jump today.However [...]

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As the weather wasn’t very promising most of us managed to do only two jumps, the last one in many cases being in the rain and believe me, it is not nice or romantic to free fly through rain. It feels like you are being pricked with pins all over your face. I did a [...]

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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 [...]

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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. [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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.

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The wind tunnel training started a day before I expected so I had to get up at about 6am. I did 5×2 minutes in the morning, then another 5×2 minutes in the afternoon and I have just completed another 2×2 minutes session. I have now finished debriefing and it is ten minutes to one in [...]

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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 [...]

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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 tu, v Haverfordwestu. Na začetku je bilo malo zmede, ko so nas začeli razporejati v skupine – v Valežanščini, kar pa je malce problem glede [...]

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… meaning less than a week left till my trip to Florida. Yupee!!! Have got most of my travel arrangements ready (or so I hope). As I will be there for three weeks I have arranged to get a SIM card from a SIM card re-seller in the UK. It seemed a better idea than [...]

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Pa se je izkazalo, da ne bo niti snega niti sonca temveč tisto tipično deževno vetrovno vreme, ki ima po mojem tu registriran patent. Johnston, Haverfordwest, danes, ob 11.51 GMT

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