Sunday, September 6, 2009

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!


1 comment:

Kate said...

Oh my gosh! Another update, already?!?! :P