I have been jumping for 17 years, in every state of Australia except Western Australia. I had heard so many good things about Skydive Express DZ so when I got invited to come and teach a canopy course I jumped at the chance.

York

York is a resort style dropzone with a huge custom-built hangar that houses manifest, bunkrooms, packing area, training rooms, theatre and a café with fantastic food thanks to chef extraordinaire Harry. The pool would be bliss on a hot summer day, and there is also a sauna, perfect for all temperatures. The Caravan is a great plane for this size DZ. The ‘work-in-progress’ swoop pond is going to be the largest in Australia, and there is a lot of other work being done as the new owners aim to make it the best DZ in the country.

Circuits and Landings

The canopy course was well overbooked weeks in advance and had a waiting list, a good sign that jumpers here are keen to learn and improve their canopy skills. Saturday was spent doing hop and pops from 5,000 feet focussing on circuits and landings. Experience levels ranged from 20 to 1,000 jumps, from novices to instructors and swoopers. I videoed and debriefed all the landings and covered various classroom theory sessions such as down-sizing, getting back from long spots and leaning how to use rear risers on landing.

Flying with Others

On Sunday the course involved hop and pops from 8,000 feet with other canopies in the air to allow participants to see the result of using various canopy inputs while they have another reference point up there with them – a coach under canopy. It’s mostly no contact crw with just a tiny bit of contact thrown in for extra excitement. We also got to do a bunch of follow-the-leader jumps with 50m crepe streamers. They are always a load of fun and a great learning experience too. For a lot of people getting to bump end cells and even build the odd 2-stack here and there is way closer than they have ever gotten to another canopy before. Not only does it enhance skills but it also builds confidence in traffic which is essential on a busy dz.

Train-the-Trainer

Unfortunately as most of my courses are on weekends, the dz staff often miss out. Not this time. I was asked to do a canopy course for the staff jumpers on Tuesday, their day off. The day included a combination of working on personal flying skills as well as some train-the-trainer sessions to allow the staff to improve their own coaching.

Sundowner Boogie

York will host a huge boogie in October 2013 with a couple of caravans and international load organisers of the calibre of Mike Carpenter (Volare), Pete Allum (Sinapsi), Matt Hill (Kristal), Kristian Moxnes (Skywalkers) and more coming. If I am lucky (and I am, just ask me!) I will be back again in October. I will then get a chance to run that monster 120m x 40m pond that will be complete by then. Lookin’ forward to it!