Simulated Emergency Exit

It was pretty cloudy and miserable by the time I got out of class this afternoon, but because Kevin said they were still going to try to make a couple loads if things let up, I decided to head over and try to wait out the weather. After spending my first hour and a half at the DZ behind the building cleaning up part of the mess left over from refinishing the roof, I was able to make it up on one load before sunset.

Note: I've decided to make my jump numbers here match up with those in my logbook... so please pretend that every jump number from previous posts was increased by 1 to compensate for my tandem in July.

Jump #17

Since it was getting very close to sunset, the jump had to be another hop and pop if it was going to happen at all. Randi and I both got out at 3500ft, Brett (yet another student working towards his A license) and Brad (our jumpmaster for the load) exited at 5500ft. After opening the door to spot, I couldn't help but think about how close we were to the ground. I swear if someone on the ground had waved to me I would have been able to wave back. Since the A license application card mandates that I deploy within 5 seconds of exiting, my plan was to slowly count to 4 and pull on 5. It just so happened that by the time I got to 2 I was stable, so not long after 5 I was under canopy and kicking my way out of some more line twists. It was pretty windy tonight. I did nothing but fly straight to the landing area--no turns, no downwind or base leg of the pattern. Also, I discovered that we actually have a pea gravel landing circle. This was news to me, since the spot I understood to be my target is 15 feet away from it. Anyway, I had a nice braked approach and landing right in the peas.

Even though it was just one jump, it was definitely worth my time to make the quick drive out there. I'm glad I didn't opt to spend the evening sitting in my apartment doing homework... although now I'm going to have to get up early in the morning to do my math assignment that's due tomorrow. I think it's pretty obvious where my priorities are at this point.