Three posts, in under a week?!

So it has been a fairly busy week for jumping. This is my last week of relaxation before I have to start mentally preparing for my other job, so I'm soaking up as much fun at the DZ as I can get.

Monday I did two more jumps. One was an attempt at sit-flying, which in reality means I just tumbled all over the place. The next was a 3-way with Larry and Jared (a new jumper who just moved to the area). Jared was supposed to dive to the two of us, but he didn't make it. So Larry and I went for a 2-way instead. I landed out in the student area on both jumps because the winds were rather gusty and coming from a difficult direction.

Tuesday I got in two more. One was a 2-way with Kevin... I don't think I've jumped with him since I got my A-license last October. We practiced fly-arounds, using my new side-sliding skills I worked on at the wind tunnel last week. I made it to the second point on his side, but when I went to fly around back of him for a caterpillar dock, I went high and had a hard time catching back up to him... so, the rest of the jump was me trying to match his fall rate. I was going to land in the yard this time, but as I turned in on final I chickened out and stayed just outside the fence line. The next jump (#106) was more tumbling/sit-flying. I actually managed to hold a sit for a few seconds at one point in there. I also managed to commit to my yard landing. I had to make one s-turn to get rid of some extra altitude since I started my pattern just a little too high, but I ended up directly next to the peas for a great landing.

And now... I need to hop in the shower so I can make it out there to get one or two more jumps before I have to go back to work tomorrow!

More night jumps

Last night was another almost full moon, which means we did some more night jumps!

Now that I've passed the 100 jump mark, I'm allowed to start landing in the "experienced" area--the grass lawn directly in front of the DZ. To make things more exciting, I decided to make my first attempt at landing in the yard (and not hitting the barbed wire fence or building that surround it) in the dark. Ok, maybe not a great idea, but I managed to talk myself into going through with it. By the time I actually landed, the winds on the ground were a lot lighter than they had been when we took off. Since I couldn't see the windsocks which would have alerted me to that change, I really overshot where I wanted to be. I still managed to stay inside the yard (though I was only 20 feet away from the fence), but I flared high because I was so nervous and PLFed.

The next load (jump #102 if anyone's keeping track) was a 3-way hybrid attempt turned into a 2-way human propeller with a spectator floating nearby. Not sure why Rob and I couldn't manage to get that spin stopped. Once under canopy, I could see that the general direction of the wind had changed by 90 degrees. Given the new direction, an overshoot on landing similar to the one I had just done would result in me hitting the building, so I decided to go back to the "student" landing area outside the fence for the time being. This time my landing was perfect--I gently stood it up, right on target.

In comparison to setting up my pattern in the dark, landing in the yard in daylight will be a piece of cake. Can't wait for my days off this week to go make a few more jumps!

My first pie

I've been a bad blogger.

It's been about 4 months since my last post, and so much fun has happened in that time. I won't go into all the details, but I will share some of the highlights.

I've been busy with two jobs this summer, so I haven't had as much free time for jumping as I would have liked, but that hasn't stopped me from enjoying the little bit of time that I did get out at the DZ.

June and July were pretty slow for jumping. I made it out for a few afternoons of jumping, and for some good after-hours shenanigans (racing down the runway while holding on to the top of the car... in the rain... anyone?).

I spent the first weekend of August in Lost Prairie, MT. That was a FUN boogie. Got the chance to jump out of a twin otter, as well as a helicopter. I didn't waste any time getting into the swing of the boogie spirit... there may have been some flashing involved at one point or another. I also did my first cross country sunset load. We got out 4.5 miles away from the landing area and had a 20 minute canopy ride down as the sun disappeared behind the mountain tops. It was absolutely gorgeous! On jump #87, I did a 3-way horny gorilla jump with a couple guys from Washington, and one of my shoes got scraped off and lost over the Montana mountains.

The following weekend, I did my first night jump. I was soooo excited for it. I was really nervous about landing in the dark, but it wasn't so bad and I was easily on my feet. As I was gearing up for my second night jump, someone suggested we turn the load into a naked jump. I don't know what got into me, but I agreed to it. That was one awkward ride to altitude, and climb-out was COLD! We managed to hold our naked 4-way all the way to 6k, although we were spinning most of the way down. If you think I was nervous about landing in the dark, just try to imagine how nervous I was about landing in the dark without any clothes on. I decided to land out away from the landing area (which was lighted by car headlights) to avoid getting my white butt in the light where everyone could see it. Instead, I had only the moon light to go by, but still managed to come away from it unscathed. It was a huge relief to not have to experience a naked PLF out in the dirt and sagebrush!

The most recent highlight was my 100th jump tonight. I did a 3-way hybrid (another first for me) on the sunset load with Bill and Tim. Tim went into a stand, swinging on my and Bill's chest straps until about 6k. Then he and Bill were going to switch places, but we ran out of altitude. Still a very fun jump! Bill had a cut-away from diving line twists. After we tracked down his canopy, I got a little bit too relaxed and let my guard down... and then I got a pie in the face for my 100th jump. I think the smell of whipped cream is going to be lingering in my nostrils for at least a day or two.

Somewhere along the way I also got everything done for my B license. I'm still stalling on sending the paperwork in to USPA. Once I have a little bit more money in the bank, that will move up my list of things to get done.

I'll try to remember to post some updates more often, but I'm not promising anything!