A VERY FUN JUMP AND A "MEET THE TREES" JUMP
Saturday, October 21, was another gorgeous, warm, sunny fall day. I was suppose to work until 1:30PM. A co-worker offered to split my shift with me because I had taken her hours on Thursday. I really wanted to have her take the second half so I could go skydive sooner but if she did the early shift I would be able to go see Colleen's soccer game. I decided to go to Colleen's game. After the day turned out so perfect I was almost wishing I had done it the other way. But then Colleen's game was so exciting I was glad I got to see it. They were playing the top team, who had slaughtered them 11-0 last time and that was with the other team holding back. The girls had been working hard in the last 6 weeks and the score was 0-0 at half time! What an improvement! They did ended up losing 2-0 but it was still a great game and I was so glad I got to watch Colleen.
I couldn't get out of work fast enough. I had Boomer pick me up and we headed directly out to Orange. It was 1:30 then and we had to have Colleen back for a sleepover birthday party for her best friend by 6:30. We wanted to get a couple jumps in because the temperature was suppose to drop about 20 degrees on Sunday.
JUMPTOWN
As soon as we pulled in I headed to manifest to check the board and see what load I could get on. I found one and then went and checked with the riggers to see if I could take a manta.
Brian and Jud madly packing.
My lucky #6 rig was there and ready to go and they said I could take it. I put it aside and checked it over. Everything looked good. I knew Dave was down at Bridge Day so he wouldn't be around and I saw Chris but I knew it was "Reunion" Day with a lot of the jumpers from the Turner's Falls days returning and getting together for jumps so I didn't want to bother him. I just planned on doing a solo and working on turning and tracking since I was so bad at it and it was a very important skill to have if you jump with others.
I was real surprised and thrilled when Chris found me and asked if I wanted to do a jump with him! Cool!! I told him about my jump with Dave and how that went. We decided to work on exits, forward and backward motion with docking, and then the turning and tracking. We went over everything and did some dirtdiving and I was feeling good. Soon it was time to head for the plane.
Since there was only one tandem, I ended up sitting on the floor of the plane up near the front. I was feeling pretty relaxed and good. I wasn't all nervous like usual. This was going to be a fun jump. I could just feel it. I even felt relaxed enough to chat with the tandem student a bit and to talk with Aaron, another recent graduate, who was sitting across from me. Since there weren't the tandems and students as usual I knew most of the other people on the plane and I think that helped, too. Chris was sitting down by the door because he was spotting. In no time at all we were on jump run.
When it was our turn I followed Chris out and really tried to concentrate on my exit. I wanted to get it right. Climbout went good. Nice, easy exit count. Off we went. And there I am spinning around again!! I did see the plane but only for a few seconds before I was turning and spinning around towards my left. I did a complete circle but stayed stable the whole time. I saw Chris in the distance and headed towards him. Just as I started to dock I went up above him a bit. I arched harder and we got even again and I moved forward and docked. We let go and I backed up and then came forward and docked again. Going good!! This is fun!! I checked my altimeter and saw I had plenty of time so did it again. When I checked again the next time I was just below 6000. I should have had time to do one more but while I stopped to think about it I lost time so I then decided to turn and track. We had planned to stop again at 5000 because I get so anxious near pull time that I rush my turn and track and I was hoping that with knowing I had that extra altitude that I could calmly do it right.
I turned good making sure I had stopped turning before trying to track. Chris thought that might have been one of my troubles and I had also been thinking the same thing. I pushed my feet out and down and started forward and then tried to bring my arms back and push down. It felt like I had been taking a while so I stupidly tried to pull my left arm forwarda bit and check my altimeter and that made me bobble a bit so I panicked again and arched and pulled. I should have just kept tracking a few seconds and not tried to check my altimeter. I should have been counting. But my deployment went well and I had a good canopy. I'll try again next time. And when I got to see the video of this dive there was a BIG improvement over the first time so there is hope for me!
I had a great canopy ride down. I worked on some more turns with my rear risers and I actually got one spiral going pretty good for a manta... at least in my mind. You probably couldn't even tell it was a spiral from the ground. I set up my landing and it went as planned and I had an easy stand up landing 8 meters from the X!!! I was psyched!! Just one more accuracy landing for my A license! I was so happy. I felt things were finally starting to click for me and best of all... I HAD FUN!!!! I couldn't wait to jump again!