On Sunday, September 17th, Boomer got to make 2 jumps but I didn't get any. It was really cool in the morning and cloudy but the clouds were up high so they were getting to jump from at least 10,000 ft. Actually I liked the idea of LESS altitude... less free fall time I had to stay stable in before I could pull!! lol Boomer went first. His jump went pretty well. He did a dive out exit and almost had it but then tumbled a bit. He did some tracking but that was about it. He did end up with a crummy spot... they were short... and he was too downwind to make it all the way back to the bowl but he did make it to the edge of the airport and landed in the grass there.... stand up landing again, too.

Then I hemmed and hawed a bit before getting up the nerve to go myself. I had thought Chris, one of the instructors who does coached jumps, was going to be there and that I could do some jumps with him but he wasn't there so I was on my own. I finally got on a load and it was warming up quite a bit by then (Boomer's hands had been cold on his jumps and my hands are usually pieces of ice anyway so I was a bit nervous about the cold). It had been a bit windy... 10-12 MPH but it seemed to have settled down a bit, too. I was so happy to get on what I considered a good load.... 2 tandems, a camera man for one of them, a 2 way of people with about 100+ jumps, a 4 way of very experienced jumpers, one of them Gary (so we'd have a good spotter!!!!) and S/L John who now has about 40 jumps. Exit order would be the 4 way, the 2 way, me, S/L John (he wanted to watch me tumble so was making me go ahead of him *bastard! lol* and he was planning on pulling high, too) and then the tandems. Because it was windy Gary was saying to make sure we left good distance between the groups... 5-6 seconds at the least (I guess the plane going into the wind isn't moving as fast so there is naturally less distance between groups plus the wind sometimes can blow you into other groups in freefall). But then the TMs were saying to NOT leave too much time because then they get screwed with a bad spot being last out! I decided I was leaving a good 6 seconds.

It was a nice ride up and one of the TMs, Kevin, who is very friendly and talkative started telling the tandem students what a wide variety of jumpers the plane had. The other TM was Charlene, the woman who is traveling around the country with her husband, Glenn (who was the videographer on the plane) visiting and working at different DZs. I am very impressed with both of them. Well Kevin had everyone tell how many jumps they had and we were all talking about that. Soon we were on jump run. Just then the pilot got radioed that the winds had picked up considerably and were now at 14-21 MPH. They passed the info down the plane. I thought for a second that I'm not suppose to jump yet with winds over 14 mph. But then I said to myself... well I guess it's OK because I'm already on the plane. I decided I couldn't be worrying about the canopy yet... that I had to get thru free fall first!

Then Charlene goes to me, "You should seriously consider staying in the plane." I said, "You really think so?" She said, "Yes. At 14 MPH you would probably be OK, but at 21 you are going to be in trouble." The guy from the 2 way tells me since I'm landing in the bowl that I'd be fine. People start quickly debating if I should go. A few are saying Go, some are indecisive and I'm freaking out because I need to make a decision and quick! On one hand I'm thinking... well I'm already up here and I'm already mentally prepared to jump out that door and besides... I don't want anyone thinking I'm a wimp. On the other hand I'm thinking I want to be able to jump next weekend etc. too so I don't want to get hurt and I don't want to be stupid and get in over my head just to NOT look like a wuss. So I look back at Charlene. She tells me it's my decision. I can tell from the look on her face she definitely thinks I should NOT go. She starts telling me if I do go then I need to make sure I stay up wind and to... blah, blah, blah... which is all totally greek to me and I have no clue what she means. I tell her this will only be my 3rd jump without a radio. She shakes her head and lets me know she thinks I'm totally nuts if I jump then.

Kevin yells back to Gary and asks him what he thinks. (This is all taking place in like 30 seconds as we are on jump run). I tell him I'm jumping the manta. I think Gary is going to say... Oh you'll be fine... as that is usually what he says about everything. But he is quiet for 3 seconds and stares at me and then say, "You might want to ride the plane down." Well that was it for me. If he was saying it, I was listening. Luckily someone (the 2way guy actually) thought tell me to shut my AAD off. They told me I had to shut the door for the pilot and then buckle back up right behind him. And then they all disappeared out the door.

It was so weird being left behind!! I wanted to cry! And part of me felt like a failure. Then I had to go shut the door and I was really afraid of falling out! (Stupid, huh??? I mean I DID have a parachute on!! lol) I finally got it. The ride down was actually cool. He bombs it straight back down! (Well it felt like it to me anyway! lol) You feel like you are going to crash right into the ground. I was paranoid about my FXC really being off and leaned back hard against the seat just in case! Then I started thinking about Boomer and Colleen who were down there expecting to see my canopy in the air and how worried they were going to be when they didn't see it among the others! When we got on the ground, Billy, the pilot, told me I had made a very good decision as the wind gusts were so strong they were tossing his 9,000 lb plane around and no way would he want to be out there under a canopy.

We could see the tandems struggling in the wind and Charlene's ended up landing off... in a street! Every time she turned into the wind she got blown backwards. I guess the gusts had gone up to 23 MPH. She was getting blown into the one area where there were no real outs. All there were were houses with tiny back yards with power lines. So she had to go for the street with the pavement. She hurt her knee and her student got quite a few scrapes and was shook up. From what I've seen of Charlene the past month or so, she is an incredible skydiver. She's the only one who would take this really tall guy a few weeks ago. And she did an awesome job with him. She looked like an ant on his back coming down. I don't know how she did it.

I was really sad I hadn't gotten to jump. And I was totally exhausted and had nothing to show for it. Yet I also knew I had made the right decision. It was hard though. I talked to Charlene afterwards and thanked her for looking out for me when I was too stupid to know better. She said she was really glad I had listened to her. She said I really had to think about who was telling me what when there is conflicting advice like that. She said she knew that I didn't know her and that it's hard to know who to listen to sometimes but there might be other times that I'm jumping with people I don't know and it's important to learn WHO to take advice from. It's so weird that on the way up we had all just discussed jump numbers or otherwise she would have had no idea that I was such a newbie.

Anyway after that they closed down until the wind died down. Brian, the rigger, took the time to give a packing lesson which was really good. I've really got to get some practice in doing that now. Saturday night they are having a canopy control class (free... just pay for your jumps on Sunday) so maybe I can go up early and get a rig and practice and then use it to jump on Sunday. The rules there are... you pack it... only you can jump it. So I need to be able to jump not long after packing so I don't tie up one of their rigs. The jumps Sunday are going to be from the Cessna which is good because I won't have to worry about free fall (they are going to be low altitude) and I've gotten kind of scared about free fall since I was so shaky on my two solos. But then again I wasn't wild about hop & pops either! I'm getting to be such a wuss!

Well after about 2 hours the winds came back down and they started jumping again. They were still 8-10 and I was kind of nervous to see if the gusts were completely gone. I didn't want to go through getting up there and then not jumping again so I told Boomer he could go again while I saw what happened to the first few loads. The big boy rig was being used by a S/L student so he decided to take a manta. He had a great jump. He held his dive exit and did some turns and stuff and felt pretty stable. He botched his landing pretty good though. Flared too late and came in hard and hurt his knee. It's OK... just sore. While he was up there I had tried to get on a load but all the S/L students had taken all the gear. They felt bad I couldn't go so they gave me a credit for a free jump next weekend anyway. So I ended up going home pretty bummed out. I was wiped out and didn't even have anything to show for it!

But after I got home and started thinking about everything, I realized it had been a pretty productive weekend after all. As I thought about what a great TM Charlene was and the trouble she ran into in those sudden wind conditions, I knew if I had jumped I would have been in loads of trouble. There was a very high chance that I would have had an off DZ landing. The winds were blowing in the direction where there were the least outs. Even if I made it to the DZ I would have been freaking if I had been backing up. At my experience level I am just not ready to handle these things yet. The thought of ending up in power lines just gives me the willies!

Lucky for me, Charlene was there and spoke up and convinced me to ride the plane down. I stupidly would have never thought to do that on my own. I would have blindly dove out of that plane. And what happened to me would have been my fault. I am no longer a student. I am suppose to be able to jumpmaster myself. That includes making responsible decisions on whether or not I exit that plane. I was taught that novices shouldn't jump in winds over 14 MPH. I was told on jump run that they were 14-21 MPH. Instead of just a quick thought about not jumping, I should have given it serious thought. I can't let what others may think about me influence my decisions. In skydiving you need to think smart 100% of the time. Mistakes could have life or death consequences. If in doubt it is better to err on the safe side and have the opportunity to jump another day. I listened to Jay give us the off-student status talk but I don't think it completely sunk in what he was getting at. It has now.