One jump, then wind

The plan today was to just do as many jumps as I could squeeze in. Probably all solo fun jumps, but maybe a coach jump, too.

Winds were out of the WNW at about 10-15 when I got on the plane. Turns out they were a little stronger when I landed, and if there had been another wind speed reading before I got on the plane, I probably would have been grounded.

The upper winds were strong, too. Roughly the same direction, but 45 & 50 mph.

Todd (never met him before) got out first. I went out a few seconds after him. Stable almost instantly. No tumbling or flailing. I did a couple of 180 degree turns in either direction. At about 9,000 feet, I looked down to see the ground moving under me. That surprised me, until I thought for a second and realized that's exactly what should be happening with 50 mph winds. I did a barrel roll, a couple more turns, then waved off and pulled.

I opened up across the street from the airport near the trailer park area. I tried to get to the other end of the airport for a while, then took Grant's advice to point into the wind and not get blown to the other side of the runway. I never really got into a good landing pattern, but I got pretty close.

I landed in the main area a little toward the picnic tables. Didn't stand it up, mostly because of the wind. Fought with the canopy until Jamie yelled that I should swing around to the other side. Once I was downwind of the canopy, pulling on the lines didn't make it reinflate.

In the hangar, the chart showed the winds were too high. I waited for a while, and finally got a reading low enough for me to jump. The next reading was back up to 17, so the clock reset. I headed for home.