So it's been a while since I've updated this thing. Apparently the excitement of sharing every detail about every jump has worn off. Just because I haven't posted in a while, don't assume I haven't been jumping.
A month or so ago a co-worker of mine came out for a tandem, and I rode along in the plane with her. I went out solo just before her (jump #39). She liked the jump so much that within 10 minutes of getting back on the ground, she had already purchased a second tandem that she's going to do some time this summer. She was also nice enough to stick around long enough for me to go up for jump #40 too.
A couple weeks after that, I came out just to fill the plane when another tandem was going up. Jump #41 ended up being an accidental cloud encounter. Apparently I need to work on my spotting skills when it's not clear blue skies. Falling through the cloud was a really neat sensation, though. It felt like I was spinning out of control, even though I knew that I wasn't. I had paid attention to where the cloud base layer was on the ride to altitude, so I waited until I came out of the cloud at 4k before deploying.
A week and a half ago I managed to spend most of the weekend out at the DZ and got 4 more jumps in between lots of lounging around and enjoying the sunshine. My mom came out to watch me for the first time, and later announced that she wants to try a tandem to see what it is that I love so much about this sport. Jump #42 was a two-way with Pat. She went out long, I dove after her. We never made it together--I didn't put the brakes on soon enough and flew right past her. For #43, we switched roles. Still not a complete success, but we got a lot closer. We managed to at least fall at the same rate, and were only 5ft apart when it was time to turn and track off. Jump #44 was a 3-way with Pat and Bill. Bill went long, I dove from the crotch, and Pat dove from the door. I managed to make it to Bill, but Pat went low and didn't quite make it over to us. Jump #45 was a bit of a mess. Pat, Julie, and I were going to do a 3-way. I went out long, Julie dove from the door, and Pat scrambled out after us. Julie dove down to me and went a little low. When we got close enough to dock, we both had too much speed and just crashed and tumbled apart instead. Pat watched the whole thing from above at a distance--since the exit timing got so messed up, there was no way she could have made it down to us.
I spent most of this weekend at the DZ as well, but didn't do as much jumping. Saturday was pretty cloudy, but I still got jump #46 in. For jump #47 on Sunday, I switched to a slightly smaller canopy for the first time. With the weather warming up and student activity increasing, it was about time I move off of the student gear. I was pretty nervous about the change. My landings have been picture perfect for a couple months now, but this time my nerves got to me and I screwed things up again. I started my flare a little early, and then reverted back to my old habit of throwing my arms straight up instead of punching out the last bit of the flare. So I had another PLF landing, but at least I didn't get hurt. Give it a few weeks and I'll get my landings figured out again. Hopefully I won't re-sprain my ankle in the mean time.
On a different note, I'm almost the proud owner of my first rig. I bought a container and reserve last month from a friend that I met at the boogie in Mesquite. In the next few weeks I'll be getting a used main (maybe Pat's Triathalon), and then I'll be good to go. I'm working on saving up for an AAD as well, but that will probably have to wait until summertime. Ahh... summer... can't wait for it to get here!
