San Francisco

There was one thing I wanted to do when I planned the trip was to see San Francisco simply as a tourist. I moved from Bay Area Skydiving on Monday the 18th to a place on the coast Called Point Montara Lighthouse. Its a real lighthouse and its also a hostel. I had room to myself which was called the the Watch Room and it looked directly out to sea. Point Montara is about 25 miles south of San Francisco. Point Montara provides very reasonably priced accommodation for all ages, families included.

So my plan was to drive to the nearest railway station and get the train into the city. This I did, they have a system of trains called BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). Its a bit like the Metro at home or the Underground in London.

I spent a day and a half having a good look around. Ever since I saw the film Bullet with Steve McQueen I wanted to look around the streets and see the Golden Gate Bridge. I did lots of walking, had a ride on one of the famous trams, went up Coit Tower, went round China Town, visited Pier 39, went to the Wells Fargo Museum, took over a 100 photo's and was absolutely knackered. There is just so much to see and I could have spent so much longer there. My only regret is that I did not get very close to the Golden Gate Bridge, however it was quite foggy the closer you got to the bridge so perhaps it was as well. I did however get to see Alcatraz from the ferry, we actually got quite close.

I have attached quite a number of pictures just to give you a bit of an idea what its like. Once again I hope you like them. I am in Texas now at Skydive Dallas, I will update my blog with this in the next couple of days. john 23/8

Bay Area Skydiving - Nr San Francisco

On the 14th August I moved onto San Francisco from LA. I was heading for Bay Area Skydiving which is at a place called Byron which is 60 miles East of San Francisco. Fortunately this time my journey was uneventful and I got my luggage back without delay which was a great relief. The manager at the DZ had kindly asked one of the club jumpers Carrol Shaw if I could stay in his trailer for a few days and Carrol kindly agreed. Carrol is quite a guy, not only is he a good skydiver and coach he also is quite a cook and more or less fed the DZ over the last weekend.

The first thing that hits you when you get here is the heat, over Friday and Saturday is was over 100 degrees F. at times. Compared to Perris its quite small in a physical sense but they do have rather a nice array of aeroplanes, A PAC XL, a King Air and a Cessna 206. While I have been here I have been jumping out of the PAC. The centre is open everyday except Monday and Tuesday. It was fairly quiet on the Friday I was here but the place comes alive at the weekend. There are the usual tandems but there is a large core of fun jumpers and everyone seems to know everyone else. I did not have a problem with being here on my own and was soon mixing with pretty well everyone. The geography of the DZ means that at certain times of the day it can get quite windy, but the Byron Boys as they are know have learnt to cope with the wind, they can actually jump in winds up to 30 mph here (not students). Its a very open area, mainly scrub land where the landing area is but it is very large. I have attached some still pictures which I took as I was going up in the aircraft to give you some idea of the general area. My stay here has been quite short so the number of jumps I have made here was only 6. However I have achieved one of my objectives for the trip. I did my 100th Jump of the trip on Sat. 16th August. I have done over 1,000,000 feet in descents and about 850,000 in freefall - I hope to get that to over a 1,000,000 before I end my journey. As usual I have attached some photographs, there are a couple of the sunset at the end of last week which I hope you like. Finally I have once again been shown great friendship and kindness by all at the DZ and met some really nice people. I am moving on to-day to a hostel on the coast south of San Francisco so that I can do some sightseeing before I move off again on Thursday, next stop Dallas. john 18/8

Goodbye Perris

On Thursday 14th August I left Perris to head for San Francisco. I have done more jumps at Perris than anywhere else so far on my trip, 20 in total including the balloon jump. The owners of Perris were kind enough to let me have the first 4 jumps free in view of the NACC cause. I always knew I would do more jumping in the USA than anywhere else, particularly at ZHills (17 jumps) and Perris. Again at Perris I have learnt more about my own skydiving and what I need to do to improve things - looks like I will be wearing a lot of weight when I jump FS in future. The sit flying I started in ZHills is coming along quite well now, thanks to the initial coaching from Pip. I will keep working on that going forward.
I have been staying at Dennis Sattlers house, its been really good, a real home from home for me. Dennis had a last minute surprise for me in that he gave me $100 for NACC. Again I continue to be surprised by the generosity of people. john 15/8

Balloon Jump

Early yesterday morning I did a jump from a balloon over the the DZ in Perris Valley. I was up at 4.45 to get to the DZ for 5.45am. The balloon jump was not planned and the opportunity came the previous afternoon. The conditions were perfect, we actually went up to 10,000 feet. When I did the jump I did it with two new friends Tom and Tim we left the balloon to-gether. Its an incredible experience, not at all like jumping out of a plane. It was also my 800th Skydive. I hope you like the pictures. john 13/8

Skydive Elsinore

When I was planning my trip I had not realised just how close Skydive Elsinore was to Perris. You can actually see Lake Elsinore very clearly on the way up in the plane at Perris. So to-day I went and spent the day there to do jumping. The DZ is not as big as Perris but by UK standards its big. They have two Twin Otter aircraft which can take up to 22 people each. As ever when I arrived I got all of the paperwork out of the way and was introduced to various members of staff to get a brief and so on.

The skydive centre is about a mile or so from the lake, the landing area is very large, they also have a swoop pond. Again the weather was very hot, I guess in the 90's again to-day. I did three jumps, one just to get my bearings, but for the other two I joined a lady called Julia who was doing some FS training for small groups. So I got on a couple of 4 ways with Julia, they went quite well and were good fun. Its a very friendly DZ, I didn't have any trouble in finding people to speak to.

As I was leaving I went into the Square One shop to buy a T shirt, by chance I was served by a very nice lady who turned out to be somewhat a pathfinder in women's skydiving. Her nickname I found out later is Purple Patty, I explained why I was there and the purpose of my journey. Patty was really interested and already had some knowledge of Crohns disease. When I got back to Dennis's house I checked on the Internet to find out more about Patty. She has over 4,000 jumps and has done some really fantastic things in her skydiving career. Patty asked if she could sign my log which is how I found out who she was. Patty insisted on giving me a hug before I left, the only regret I have is I should have got a picture. On the note of pictures I have attached some photographs which I took while I was there. john 10/8

Perris Valley Skydiving California

On Tuesday the 5th of August at 4.30 am I left Zephyrhills Skydiving in Florida to head for the West Coast of the USA and Perris Valley Skydiving. My journey initially was to fly from Tampa down to Miami and then onto Los Angeles. Perris is about 60 miles south east of LA. It was going to be quite long day, it turned out even longer than I expected. This time I would be travelling back in time zones, LA is 8 hours behind UK time. I was due to arrive at LA at 1.30 pm local time. I got there OK, but one of my cases was missing - the one with my parachute and all my other parachute gear. I ended up spending the whole day at the airport (from 1.30 until 8.30). My case eventually turned up, to say I was relieved is an understatement. I then needed to get my hire car from National and they were really helpful, I was fairly tired by then and it was dark, I was not looking forward to the drive out of the city. Because of this I decided to take the Sat Nav option, the guy at National set the destination up for me which was good of him and I got underway.

I was to stay at the home of Dennis Sattler who is a fellow skydiver and works at the DZ. Dennis has been really great, he must have been absolutely fed up of me ringing him to say I was going to be late. I eventually arrived at his house at midnight completely shattered. However my accommodation is superb so I could chill and get a good nights sleep.

Now to the drop Zone. I don't know if Perris Valley Skydiving is the biggest DZ in the world, but they have more jump planes than I have ever seen. Its like an airport with nothing else but Parachute planes. They even have a DC 9 passenger jet which takes 80 skydivers. However the main plane in daily use is a Twin Otter Aircraft (they have at least 3 here) which take up to 22 people. They also have a Skyvan and a Porter. I have attached a number of pictures of the planes for you. One other big facility here they have here is a Wind Tunnel which is used to teach people how to fly their body in freefall and for experienced people to hone their freefall skills.

The owners of the DZ are trying to get some publicity for NACC for me, they kindly let me jump for free on the first day, which was great. The facilities here are very good. The weather here is extremely hot, particularly in the afternoons, easily in the 90's, so there are lots of covered packing areas. They have a great bar here, its like a themed bar, but its the real thing (see pictures attached), its a skydiving bar for skydivers. They also have a diner which serves food all day.

One really neat thing is the paint jobs on the aircraft, instead of the lift being called by just the number its proceeded with the word Shark, so lift one would be Shark 1, Shark 2 etc.etc.

I have done 7 jumps so far, I have done a couple of sit fly jumps - its getting better and some FS jumps with some American and British jumpers. I am here for another week so hope to get more in. There is another parachute centre called Elsinore only about 25 minutes away. If I can I will try and get a couple of jumps in there also.

Finally for now as I have found wherever I have gone, everyone has been really helpful and welcoming. I have even bumped into someone I was on an instructors course about 6 years ago, nice to meet you again Shazza

The skydive world is a fairly small one. john 8/8