First attempt at tracking

Lucky me, there was a pilot at the DZ last night.

Jump #10

I got out there around 5:00 and got in the plane just before 6. I did a coach jump with Dan, who's been around the sport forever. He was really helpful in going over new canopy techniques with me, and he also answered a couple of my questions about spotting. This was my first tracking dive, and it went OK, I guess. It took me a few seconds to figure out where my heading should be, and then on my first attempt to track I started drifting to the left. Dipping a shoulder to correct the turn didn't work very well, so I went back to the neutral position, turned the direction I wanted to be facing, and gave it another shot. I managed to fly straight this time. The plan was to track back and forth perpendicular (north-south) to jump run, but we were so far north of the landing area that I just kept heading south and didn't stop until just before pull time. I'm now pulling at 4000ft instead of 5000ft. My landing was very gentle, and only 10-15 meters off target.

If I finish moving my mom out of her house early enough on Sunday, I'll try to do a couple solo jumps in the evening. If not, I'll probably be waiting until next Thursday. Pretty soon I'll be out of money (or out of money that isn't already committed to paying my mom's living expenses and mortgage), so unless the DZO is willing to let me start a tab, I might have to take a break from jumping for a bit. If my mom's house would just sell already, I'd be set. Then she'd pay me back the money I've given her, and I'd have few grand extra to start buying my own gear. The only problem with that is so far there's been very little interest in her house. If anyone knows of a family looking for a ~20yr old house with 6 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, and 2 kitchens in a nice southern Idaho neighborhood, send them my direction.