I have known myself quite well to always plan my weekends. Since I've only got two days, the Saturday and Sunday, it forces me to make sure that I utilise those two days to their upmost fullest.
When I first arrived in Alice Springs I wasted no time and drove 20km North of the town to join the Alice Springs Gliding Club. Ever since then I've dedicated every weekend to gliding which I looked forward toward. The downside I guess was the fact I never had the opportunity to go out and do all the touristy things. However in April the thermals started dying off meaning the peak gliding season was coming to an end. This gave me the opportunity to start diverting my attention toward the other things on my bucket list. One of them was Skydiving over Ayers Rock/Uluru.
A few months prior to the trip I rang the Director and Chief Instructor of Skydive Uluru, Sam McKay and told him my objective of making my way down for a day of jumping over the rock. I needed to have my reserve parachute re-packed first as its as per the regulations to have it re-packed every 6 months. It had been 7 months since my last jump. I was a bit nervous. I kind of forgot how to jump out of an aircraft. With just over 250 jumps to my name, the notion of leaping out of an aircraft still was thrilling. That air, that rush, that scenery. The dream.
I can recall watching an interview featuring Edmund Hillary, the first man to conquer Mt Everest. The journalist asked him why on earth would he put his entire life at risk by climbing the mountain of Everest?
Hillary's response was simple: "because it's there".
Today we have available reliable aircraft, reliable parachute systems, reliable educators so why not incorporate the 3 together and live the dream? That was my philosophy toward Skydiving and to many other skills that I've picked up along the way.
It was a Friday. I finished up a RPT flight, wrapped up the paperwork, got into my car and I was off on the highway heading south. It took me 90 minutes to Erldunda and then veered westbound toward Yulara which took another 2.5 hours.
It's funny. Before I arrived in Alice Springs I always thought Uluru was only walking distance from the town of Alice. It's actually about 4 hours drive South-West of the Alice. Way off.
I arrived in Yulara just as the sun was setting. I met Neil who was filling in casually as a Tandem Instructor for a few weeks in Yulara. He was having some time off from catching bad guys speeding, as he's a highway patrol constable by profession. With the daylight that remained he was kind enough to take me for a drive to visit the landing area and briefed me up on the ins and outs of the DropZone. It was a red dirt area 50x50 metres. The surface was as hard as concrete. The landing area was surrounded in Spinifex plants and scrub. Neil told me to put a hand in the spinifex just to feel what it's like. It stung the moment a few of my fingers touched it. It was like putting tour hand into a bunch of thorns. They were hella sharp!
I put my rig on and went through some simulated emergency drills to demonstrate to Neil and most importantly myself that I still retained that knowledge in the back of my mind. All went well. Neil signed my logbook and we agreed to meet first thing the next morning at 6am for the first jump which was a sunrise jump.
I planned to roll out a swag in the camp ground that night but not before unpacking and repacking my primary chute. I haven't touched the primary chute in 7 months and had no idea on how it was going to deploy. I had a bit of doubt. For the sake of peace of mind, I rolled out my tarp over the grass in the campground and went ahead with unpacking it and then repacking it. The repack got me familiar with my canopy again, especially the nuances involved with my canopy such as the double brake lines and some other small things. Now it was all packed I had supreme confidence that there won't be any surprises when it comes to dumping it open on my first jump tomorrow. I went to sleep under a stary night with excitement ready for action the following morning.
Late night pack job.
I met the crew in town at 6am sharp. It was still dark and a bit chilly. I jumped into the van and found myself heading straight for the airport. When we got there we organised our equipment in the GA terminal. It was a cold morning so I wore a hoodie, then wore my rig over the top. I remembered this time to tuck my hoodie into the back of the jumper because the last time I jumped with one on, it started flapping around during the freefall which was quite distracting.
As we were walking out to the plane I couldn't help but think how on earth I was going to jump out of this thing. I started laughing. The door was tiny compared to the Cessna Caravan's door in which I did the majority of my jumps out of.
I was excited though. Any time there is a first time doing something, it serves as a new experience in my life. This morning was full of firsts. First time jumping over a desert, first time jumping out of a Cessna 206, first time jumping during a sunrise! It had me smiling from ear to ear just thinking about it.
Right before our pilot Travis started the engine I got inside the back and got on my knees near the door to try and visualise how my exit was going to be conducted once it was showtime.
During the taxi I couldn't help sticking my hand out of the aircraft to take a selfie. It was awesome. Since I haven't jumped in 7 months I forgot how lax and easy going the whole experience of chilling out in the back of a skydiving aircraft really was compared to being a passenger onboard a charter or RPT flight.
The departure was smooth, climbed out heading toward Uluru and the pilot turned in various directions to give us a full 360 scope of the rock, sunrise and it's surroundings. It was spectacular. A near 20 minute plane ride to the top and then the sound of the piston engine started going quiet gradually.
It had been 7 months since my last jump and here I was in the back of a Cessna 206, the lip of the sun rising from above the horizon, door open and a crispy cool air rushing into the cabin. We were at 12,000ft over Ayers Rock and the pilot gives us a thumbs up to leap out over the red desert. I was up first and had my heart in my mouth. How do you even get out of this thing again? I played it safe and sat down on the step, legs dangling down. I felt the propeller's slipstream putting resistance onto my lower body. I pushed myself off and found myself in a head up position as I worked my way towards my belly. Now I was stable and accelerating toward terminal velocity.
Prior to the jump I promised myself not to do anything fancy. Just keep it simple - jump out, get stable, a few light 360 degree turns, good altitude awareness, then dump the chute. Simple. As I stabilised I looked at the altimeter. I was going through 10,000ft. I felt more comfortable so I started looking around and seen the sunrise, behind me was the rock. I turned to capture that moment I've been working hard toward. It was the money shot. I looked up and seen Neil and Rob with their tandem clients shooting down while the aircraft banked steeply descending back toward Ayers Rock Airport. The smell of the air was refreshing, it was nice and warm during the freefall. I pitched and looked up and found my canopy snibbling around, slowly opening up all 9 cells perfectly.
It was quite impossible to contain my excitement. I started laughing profusely, even yelling shit out that made no sense. I was ecstatic. When you're happy and joyous, nothing else matters in the world. It was remarkable to think that here I am sitting in my harness watching the sun rising and shining on that big ass rock exposing it's true beauty through the different blending of texture that tended to differ through it's various rocky formation.
Hanging in my harness over Yulara, Uluru in the distance.
I paid $40 for this view - $40! Even the camp ground for a night costed more! Think about it…. This is why I tell my mates to get into Skydiving. Being under a parachute gives us skydivers ample opportunity to view the world from different angles. It opens up different dimensions in comparison to the one-dimensional view when on the ground. Not forgetting to mention the amazing people you meet in the sport.
I was fortunate enough to jump another 4 times after the sunrise jump. It was a busy Saturday, which meant the jumps went on all day. I came here with the intention to get at least 3 jumps in and ended up on 5 out of 6 loads that day. The 206 aircraft is sensitive to weight especially when it's fuelled up to near full. Fortunately, my total weight of 60kg meant that I wasn't left out off a load due to overweight issues. I was able to get on almost all loads which encouraged me to make the most of the experience.
On the fourth jump I mucked up the circuit pattern by turning away from the field for a mere few seconds as I thought I was too high. I extended an oblique base leg and when I turned final I knew I was not going to make the landing area. I was at 300ft by this point and decided to commit to landing in the spinifex! Damn it - it was a dreadful feeling! Luckily I landed softly on my toes without any forward movement from the flare. There wasn't much flare as the headwind was just strong enough to land on one spot. As my canopy collapsed ahead of me, it pulled me with it and I landed face first into the spinifex plants. I'm glad I still had my helmet on. I ended up with cuts on my hand but was more concerned about the canopy tearing. Riley being on GCA ran in the scrub to give me a hand getting me on my feet and untangling my canopy material and lines from the harsh stuff.
As Riley was getting me out of my mess I had my hand on the cutaway handle ready to jettison the canopy as there was a dust devil whirling around nearby! Talk about going for a ride! That would have potentially grabbed a hold of my parachute fabric, re-inflated the cells and pulled it back up again. Wouldn't have been a fun ride for me, but could have made the lads on the ground laugh in stitches while Harvey goes for a whirl behind the hills somewhere.
The amount of times I've told myself not to turn my back on the landing area! Out of all the places I decided to do it in an area with no decent areas to outland. Gotta learn the hard way I guess. That was my very first time landing off. Still owe a carton.
Sunset load!
My last jump was a ripper. I leaped out and banged my body straight into a tracking position. As I was shifting forward across the sky heading eastbound toward the iconic rock, I looked down and back between my legs and seen the sun sitting between my heels. It was an imaculate moment and I kept my eye on it until my audible altimeter started beeping in my ear forcing me to deploy the parachute for the fifth and last time today. I deployed higher than usual to give myself a bit more time to take the whole experience in before landing for the last time of the day.
I want to thank Sam, Riley, and Neil for organising and facilitating a truly memorable day for me. Had heaps of fun sharing that blue sky with you lads. Lots of love and respect.
Blue skies.
