First jump with a license

After spending a couple of hours taking down the old satellite dish and putting up a new one with John, Mike, & Anthony, the weather finally cleared enough to jump. I checked in, got geared up,and got on load 1 at about 2:00.

Henry spotted, Vip was first out solo, I was second out. Turns out we were way early. Henry OKed the spot because the weather reports had some winds below us that were blowing toward the airport. Vip and I both tried to track some back toward the airport after we got out and saw how far off the end of the 24 end of the runway we were. I was over a cloud, and tried to track toward a hole. I wasn't going to make it, so I got neutral before sinking into it. Once below the cloud, I tried to make a little more headway toward the airport. Opened at 4,000. Had one complete 360 degree turn when the canopy opened. Weird, but no big deal. I was still off the end of the runway, so I aimed toward the hangar and stayed on that heading. I saw Vip come in straight with no pattern at all and land in front of the hangar. I was a little higher, but there was no way I was going to do a standard landing pattern. I stayed over the buildings, because I didn't want to be near the runway with the plane coming in behind me to land. Grant was level with me at about 1500 feet. He spiraled down and ended up well below me. At the edge of the hangar, I turned left toward the field, then turned right and landed on the far field in front of the hangar.

I talked to Dave afterwards about it. He said that sometimes the first load of the day tests the winds and that we really couldn't have known to stay in the plane longer. Poor landing pattern, but the fact that I was aware of where everybody else was flying helped. Nothing much I could have done, other than land way off.

A License

In my inbox: "Congratulations on your new A license!"

Got my A license

2 jumps today. First was my standard warm-up jump. I dove out of the plane facing the wind, got stable quick. I tried all the things that I was supposed to do with Casey 2 weeks ago. Easily did 4 360s (2 each way) and 3 back flips. On 2 of the back flips, I finished on the same heading. I turned onto final just a little early and landed on the taxiway. Bill H gave me some tips on using brakes to slow down my forward speed and land where I wanted to.

2nd dive was my A license check dive with Bill Hanrahan. I spotted after a 6-way went out. He went in the door and gave the count. I dove out right after him. 1 360 each way. 1 back flip. Bill moved in front of me as I turned to face him. I closed on him and docked. We were still at 9,000 feet, so he signaled for a couple more 360s. Stopped at 6,000. At 5,000, I turned and tracked away. Opened by 3,500. Under canopy, I played with the brakes based on Bill's suggestions from the last jump. Again, I saw that I turned into final heading for the taxiway. The brakes stretched out my glide path instead of shortening it. I went over the taxiway, and landed in front of the other building. Bill said that maybe next time I should try deeper brakes. The 230 and 240 rigs are back in use, so I'm probably not going to be jumping the 280 anymore.

Final exam, some paperwork, and I have my temporary A license. First jump was 4 years ago yesterday.