Starting back two weeks ago I had a great day jumping at Tecumseh – as I’ve been jumping out of town a lot lately, I really appreiciate the days that I get to jump back at home.  On a Wednesday, the weather was great, and the Otter was flying!  As soon as I drove into the dropzone I saw people gearing up so I rushed out of the car to see what the call was.. 5 minutes!  Sure, I could make that ;)

I jumped with Rob, whom although still on student status was just knocking off the last few jumps to 25, he already had his A license card filled out, so we just went up and did a simple dive, sidedock, round, sidedock, round..  he is still working on staying in control of his levels, but the jump went well with four points.

As soon as I got down on the ground Manifest pointed Ben, a fresh AFF grad student my way.  After going over his log book we decided we would be doing a Category G dive.  We had to wait for the gear he needed to be avaible, so while he waited, I jumped the next load to go up with Dale, Jon, and a few less experienced jumpers.  It was a fun jump – one that pointed out that the amount of fun has nothing to do with the number of points.

Once back on the ground, I went through the ground prep with my student Ben and we got geared up for the next load. He did really well, completing both docks requiring an adjustment in fallrate, as well as one swoop and dock.  Then at the bottom end of the dive, signaled breakoff right on queue and turned his 180 and had a great track away.

After landing I thought that would be the last jump of the day, but Dale was trying to get one last load up before sunset.  It was about time I finally figured out what was going on with my camera, it had some how filled itself with just the canopy flight (not the freefall!) from the first jump, nothing else had been recorded!  Anyway, with the days video’s lost I thought I would test out the picture mode on the GoPro for the last jump, we ended up doing a sunset six-way full of experienced jumpers – 4 points :)

A great way to end the day.

The first jump was with Larry and Glenn, a classic three way Larry special skydive -- a circle into an open accordion, then breaking the grips, and rotating the pieces.. over and over.. :)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kYqtAo9UK4

On the previous jump Neil was on the plane doing his last student status skydive to jump his first pack job.. upon landing he earned his A license and was able to jump with us for his first licensed jump, his first jump with non-instructional staff, and his first four way… (haha, can we say BEER!) This was the first time I’d seen him jump and was really impressed with both of his docks. Also, watch his exit at about 12 seconds into the video, he had his legs out a bit too much which was causing him to roll forward and loose stability, but with some quick thinking on his part he grabbed his knees and tucked into a front flip and then came out of it right back into a dive.. very nice Neil -- but next time keep your feet on your ass when diving! ;)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aimUDjIRFpQ

Not sure what happened to Glenn and Neil after the last dive, but it was down to me and Larry for the last dive of the night, we tried the same dive plan that me and Jon scored 29 points on a few weeks ago, and it went off well, not quite as many points, but still a great dive. The video cut out just before we got the 12th point, but as i recall we finished that cycle right before the end of the dive, would have been 15 points.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5eazjDaXnE

With that dive done, it’s put me at 275 skydives so far, so I’m starting to put some thought into where and what I want to do for my 300th skydive.. any ideas? Also, yes I’m aware there is an awful whistling sound in some of the video’s this week. The locking mechanism of my GoPro camera got a small crack in and I’m waiting for the company to send out a replacement part. Until I receive the part to fix it, when the wind catches it right… well, you can hear what happends.. :(

I had plans to drive down to Ohio for the weekend to meet with Ashley Mead from SkydiveChick.com and take a small tour of the local dropzones in her neck of the woods while helping her check off the last few items on her progression card and hopefully to be there when she got her license!

The first stop was Cleveland Parachute Center for a few jumps from their Cessna 185, the first jump was Ashley’s hop-n-pop from 5,500 feet followed by my exit.  Watch carefully – you can see how I figured out that the step on a 185 is about six inches higher than a 182!

The second jump was an interesting one.. but no story about it here (go watch the video, be observant), you’ll have to come find me around the bonfire to hear me tell you the story about it!

After the second jump we took off back to Cleveland to meet up with Shawn at http://www.voodoomonkey.org/.  We know how many skydivers wear  a closing pin necklace.. but how many of them would put that pin on them permanently?  Only two that I know of..  but who among us couldn’t use a little good luck charm on that pull hand?

After the tattoo’s it was back on the road the Canton Airsports to meet up with the crew there just after sunset.  I got to meet a lot of great people and couldn’t wait to come back Sunday morning to jump with them.  First jump was with Rick, Christa, and Tkoa – we never quite built the first round, but a fun jump anyhow!

Next I got to fly outside camera for a hybrid attempt, it was the group’s second try at it and they were pretty sure they were going to get it.  The were so sure, they made two of us squeeze onto that camera step to do the video for them!  I couldn’t keep up with the fall rate once Rick stood up under the two way, but I love the footage I got of the first camera guy colliding with group at exit!  I tried to go into a sit, but I just couldn’t hold it stable, I need to practice my free flying abit more for these situations…

And finally, the last jump.  All during Sunday we’d worked on getting Ashley card checked off, three ring maintenance, packing (I got to jump her pack job on the first jump of the day), and she was on the plane during the second jump during her check dive to get her A license!  We thought that was the end of the day, but a few more tandems walked in, and we had just enough to send the plane back up.  For her first licensed jump, she said she just wanted to do something fun.. no learning, no practice.. so I offered to just spin her around and see how far I could throw her across the sky!  This was a great end to a great weekend.. A great new dropzone to visit, a newly licensed skydiver to jump with, a new skydiving tattoo.. it doesn’t get much better than this.

I did three jumps; a two-way with my coach (to get my license current), a four-way (my first), and a solo jump (where i got stable on my back for the first time). I had three stand-up landings, but all were off target. My first was off by 15 yards, the next two by more than 50! I guess I’ll have to get out there and practice some more!

After five months waiting through winter, and a month waiting through spring weather… It was nice to finally get some altitude. All in all, was it worth the wait? Of course it was! Next year, I’ll try to be more patient!

Finally here… last dive to get my A license. To celebrate even, my mom and my little sister came up to watch, and i talked my mom into doing a tandem too!

On this jump, i was a little bit nervous again, not because of the jump really, I’m comfortable with that, but i just wanted to make sure this jump went well. I’ve seen a few students go beyond the 25 required jumps to get all the stuff on their A card filled out, their hop & pops, etc.. And I really wanted to have it all done when I landed. So before we went up, me and Todd went over my A card and had to finish up a few of the category quizes, then we got ready for the load. The ride up was pretty nice, everyone knew it would be my check ride, and were really supportive, as always.

The dive was flawless. Todd got out on the rear float, and i took a diving stance and gave the count.. out.. in… go. The exit was really nice, i was about four feet away from Todd all the way down the hill. All i had to do was a 360 right, 360 left, and a backflip, then turn 90 off jump run and track back and forth, five or six seconds in each direction til pull time.

I was done with the manuevers by 9,000 feet, then starting tracking. At 7,000 feet some clouds had blown in (i swear, we didn’t see anything when we spotted ;) ) and i went right through them for two thousand feet! When i first went into them i stopped my track and just held my position until i dropped through the bottom, then started my track again til 4500, did my wave off and pull.

The spot was a little long, but since i had the wind at my back i used my brakes to push myself a little faster forward and made it back for a perfect on-target stand up landing..

Once we got back into the packing area Todd was happy to sign-off and stamp my A card (now my official temporary license untill i get my new membership card from USPA).

And that was it! Now I’m a licensed skydiver!

Well, first I have to send $20 to the USPA…

…then i’ll be a licensed skydiver!