I took a sequence of stills from my GoPro Hero 5 Black, which was mounted on the top of my skydiving helmet facing backwards.

I have a camera facing backwards as well as one facing forwards on all of my skydives. Mainly as the skydives I am doing are either Wingsuit, or Canopy Formations (CRW) and its a useful tool for debriefing after the jump.

On this jump I was wearing my PTS (Power Tracking Suit, by PhoenixFly). I was manifested on the load for a 2-way CRW jump, but at the last minute the upper winds got very strong and we decided it wasn't a good idea, so I quickly threw on my Tracking Suit so I didn't miss the lift (didn't have time to attach my Wingsuit).

12,500ft the red light goes on, so I open the door and wait for the green light. As I am waiting for the green light I am checking the 'spot', just to double check that the pilot has got us above the DZ where we agreed to be dropped.

Thats the green light, so provided the spot is good, GO!

As I exit the aircraft (Cessna 208 Caravan) I have my hands about shoulder width apart by my side, presenting my chest to towards the propellor to keep stable as I start a left hand turn 90 degrees from the plane to that I can begin my Track away from the other jumpers and the 'jump run'.

Ok after a few seconds of adjusting my arms and legs I have found the 'position', so can start my track.

As this is a post about the deployment sequence, I will skip straight to it. The track has ended, so I go back into a stable position ready for my pull (box man position, to convert my forward speed back into vertical speed).

3,500ft, wave off and reach for my deployment handle

Now throw it like you mean it!

So the pilot chute I just threw grabs air and inflates very quickly, then has the snatch force to extract the rest of the canopy, which is folded inside the 'deployment bag'.

As the D-bag comes out, you'll see the lines are stowed using elastic bands (I know I know, why the f**k are we using elastic bands on sky diving equipment in 2018??)

...well, they work very well at holding the lines under tension until they need releasing. They ensure the lines unstow in a systematic order, from left to right (or right to left) so the lines come out evenly.

This process happens very quickly and is all over in less than 4 seconds.

Now I am at 'line stretch' the risers and toggles come up from the container and towards my hands ready and waiting, so I can grab them.

Parachute is now open, and so I look up to check that it is open ok with no problems.

In this instance there was a minor issue, and that was my 'Slider', (that squared piece of material with the 4 rings), hadn't come down to the grommets, so I gave my toggles a quick pump to help it come down.

Now the slider is where it should be, I collapse it to stop it flapping around in the wind and also to unrestrict my view of the canopy.

We do have a number of things to avoid when sky diving at Headcorn:

1. The Big Cat Sanctuary, which has Lions, Tigers, Cheetahs, Pumas, Jaguars, Leopards, and other animals that have been watching skydivers float past for years, teasing them, just waiting for one of us to land in their enclosues, which have no roofs. This sanctuary is only 3 fields away from the one we land in.

2. Train line, which runs alongslide the big cat sanctuary.

3. Tasha, my mates girlfriend who is reading some magazine outside the parachute centre (don't want to hit her).

I managed to land 'off' on this skydive. The winds were on the limit and I was jumping my 150sqft 7-cell Epicence and I only weigh 65kgs, so was almost getting blown backwards. I crabbed it back to the field with the two trees just short of the crosswind runway.

I knew I wasnt going to make it back to the LZ so chose early on to stuff it in this field away from any hazards. I landed safely and into wind, so avoided a bollocking from the Chief Instructor Pete Sizer ;-)

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