Floating to earth
A day in Bitburg
22 April 2006, a glorious day to be led out and astray. To go above it all, floating in the clouds, until I finally come down to earth.
The location ..... and the chance to play.
Getting packed up and ready........ then suited up and ready to go - Sandy, Andy and I
Inside the rather small Cesna
Freefall from 3500m to 1500m, then picture taking. Watch the "S" coming down through the clouds.
You can see the large grass landing zone on
the far left coming gradually into view. We circled completely around counter-clockwise to land between the runway and the apron
next to the building. For others apparently it is the adrenaline rush of free fall. I will admit it is amazing to look up and see the plane
receeding overhead. I just loved the quiet of hanging there under the canopy for a long as possible. I have a couple dozen more pix as you might suspect.
And afterwards? Even an Ürkunde for my first Jump!! This time Tandem, who knows in the future?
A great time at Air Scout - at the Bitburg Flugplatz
A day at Empuribrava
18 May 2006, while we were in Barcelona, I caught a train up the coast. Perhaps the largest skydiving club and school in Spain, perhaps in Europe is located at the end of a dusty busline. I met a Belgian videographer on the bus, coming to record an upcoming freefly competition. His background including over 1200 jumps. The tandem masters, as it turned out, came from all over the world. The young Brazilian that I drew had over 5000 jumps to his credit. What he could not understand was my desire to take photos on the way down. Didn't I want a video of me? No, I wanted my own photos of the area, the sea, the mountains and the landing platz. And I wanted stills, not video.
The plane was a twin otter, with a nice role-up door on the side, much easier to exit. Three jumpers headed out at lower altitude, then two first time tadems along wth video photographs. It was then our turn leaving only a team of five to go out last with their video man to practice somekind or other formation. A bit of a twisted chute after free fall cost me a couple of minutes of photography at the beginning of canopy time. It also resulted in a bit of an irritated jump instructor who told me to forget about the pictures. So I have only a couple, not clearly showing the blue of the sea, or the changing colors of the farms and the land as we courved aroun on field approach. The mountains curving around the bay were kilometers off, old and worn over time.
The location ...and the sight that greets you on rounding the corner
Freefall from 4000m to 1500m, then only a short bit of picture taking.
I stopped off in a couple of towns on the way back to see some sites and to just wander around. And no, I did not find any yarn shops.