4 jumps

Stayed in Lancaster last night, got to dropzone about 9:15.

First jump - repeat of last practice pull.  All good, but dropped my head a little when I threw the newspaper.  Not enough to mess me up.  Higher winds today.  Still legal for me, but after all these no wind jumps I was not thinking right.  I opened, did controllability checks, and was over the area where I would have turned from downwind to base.  Tried to get back, but didn't make much progress against the wind.  I didn't do a very good pattern and ended up landing next to the runway down the grassy area to the right.  Stood it up.

Second jump - clear and pull. Bumped my elbow on the step, but no injury, no bruise, no pain.  Broke my arch, legs were a little uneven.  But finally at the point where I deploy my own pilot chute!  Landed next to the runway, down the grassy area to the left.  Jedd says I could do some sashays on final to not overshoot.

Third jump - clear and pull.  Still dropped my head a little.  Worked on canopy skills.  Rear riser turns before unstowing the brakes.  Rear riser turns with the toggles in my hands.  Braked turns.  Landing pattern not too good again.  I wanted to check off the braked approach but I think that was a bad idea given the landing pattern.  On the grass next to the runway.

Fourth jump - 10 second delay from 5000 feet.  Or not.  Mark the pilot said the turbulence at 5000 feet was violent, so he's probably take us to 5500 which was fine.  At 4000+ we were on jump run.  I was spotting.  Supposed to pass over the peas, but we were more toward the parking lot.  Still in the right angle.  I asked for the cut, but Mark was telling Jedd to get us out of the plane.  I don't think we actually got the cut.  I went out, left foot on step.  Jedd next to me.  Out-in-out exit count.  I was totally confused looking at my altimeter with my old man's eyes.  Instead of 5000 down to 4000, we exited at 4000, so I let us go to 3000 because I was looking for the next lower number.  3000 is not a big deal, but not what the jump called for.  Threw, had a fine canopy ride.  Landing pattern was not great.  Winds were definitely higher, and gusty.  Came in next to the runway, down the grassy area to the right.  Flared too high, let it up, then punched it back down.  I was falling straight down with no forward motion.  Just before hitting the ground, a gust started pushing me backward.  My feet hit, my butt hit, and my head snapped down to the ground.  Then the wind dragged me and the canopy until I could get up and more upwind of the canopy.  All were concerned about concussion possibility.  Heather wouldn't let me leave for about an hour.  I feel fine, just a little stiff in the top of the back when I push my chin to my chest.

3 IAD practice pull jumps

 Got here a little later than I wanted to, but in the end that didn't matter.  3 jumps, all practice pull, all with Jedd.

First - Dearched.  Found the newspaper, pulled and threw it.  Even though I dearched, I stayed exactly on heading.  Normal canopy practice stuff.  Another pretty much dead calm day, so I ended up overcompensating for the previous overshoots and landed in the grass next to the runway by the far end of the field.

Second - Same story.  But this time I landed in the corn.  Right at the corner, so easy to get out, but still.  Video shows me with a good arch, but then looking down when I pulled.  Don't know why.  I know I'm doing this by feel, not trying to see what I'm doing, but there is no question what I'm doing wrong.

Third - On "Go" I took a fraction of a second to look up at the wing, then when I let go I focused on watching Jedd watch me while I left the plane and did the practice pull.  That did it.  Head stayed up, kept the arch, threw the newspaper.  There was a little breeze on this one, so I tried to adjust for that.  Overthought it.  Landed next to the runway but next to the field.  Rose up when I flared, so did a PLF.  Austin said it looked like I didn't finish my flare.

During the day, did some packing work with Adam.

After the third jump, I was really feeling wiped out.  Heather asked, "Are you drinking enough water?"  All I said was "Nope."  Did I mention it was 95 degrees?

Back for more tomorrow.

2 IAD Practice Pull Jumps

 2 from 3500.  John S on the first, Josh on the second.  Got the newspaper out on both.  I'm off radio.

First - Slipped off the strut.  Not sure why.  Diverted my attention, so I looked down and dearched while reaching for the newspaper.  Good canopy ride after controllability checks.  Lots of rear riser stuff, braked turns, turns starting in brakes and letting up a toggle.  Probably made my turn onto final a little early.  Landed parallel to the runway.  Flared a bit too high and PLFed, but very close to the X.

Second - I think I slipped off the strut again, but Josh said Go so he's not going to hold it against me.  Decent arch, maybe my legs could have been better, got the newspaper out.  Same canopy stuff as last jump.  Saw that the winds had shifted since we were on the ground, but stuck to the old rule I learned that the landing pattern stays unless everybody agrees to change it.  On the other hand, I was the only one in the landing pattern, so I could have modified it safely.  Landed parallel to the runway a little further down than I wanted.  On the grass, before the line that would be the extension of the corn field.  Hope that makes sense.  Flared just a hair too high, but easy stand-up landing.  Canopy stayed up, then started going behind me so I pulled on a brake line to deflate it.

Think I need to do one more practice pull then I go to 5 second freefall.

2 IAD jumps

Woke up, weather looked better than yesterday's forecast, so headed for Maytown.

First jump was a repeat of my first IAD jump, but this time with John Miller.  Focused on the exit count and got that about right.  Get ready - out the door, on the step, as far out as possible, look back at John.  Get set - hang, keep looking at John.  Go - look up at the wing (which I could have done better), let go and get into an arch.  All good, but need to pull my arms down a little and keep a little tension in my legs so they don't fold up by my butt.

Jed on radio for canopy.  Talked to him before.  Asked him to let me fly unless I was way off course.  He called up that I had a good canopy, asked me to do a 360 to confirm I heard him, then he didn't talk to me again.  This actually messed up Andrew K who was coming out next.  He never heard Jed give me any instructions and thought his radio wasn't working.  Just for practice, I did that 360 with rear risers while my brakes were still stowed.  I entered my landing pattern a little early.  Final was in a west direction parallel to the runway.  I flew almost to the house.  Slid in the landing in the grass on the airport property.

Second jump was another IAD 3500' jump, but this time with a practice throw of balled up newspaper.  Think I was thinking too hard about the timing of the practice throw, so my exit was a little worse.  More on my back.  Instinct was to work on getting belly to earth, but of course the canopy opened long before I could fix my position.  Tried to do a practice throw then, but really wasted effort, and the newspaper had fallen out earlier anyway.  Have to do this one again.  Still need to get my arms down and legs out.

Same story with Jed on radio.  Canopy was good, he never had to talk to me again.  Final was from the runway toward the hangar.  Adjusted my turn altitudes a little to get lined up with the X.  Passed over it and stood up a nice landing about 40' past it in front of the doghouse.

JR Sides was around.  Thought he completely retired to FL, but lives in Chambersburg in the summer.  Good to catch up with him.

First IAD jump

Had some confusion and delays.  John told me and Larry to get geared up, but I honestly thought he just meant Larry because he was in line ahead of me.  So I was manifested on a load, then taken off the load, which led to a scramble to fill the load.  And then that load came down without jumping because the cloud ceiling was too low.

Got on another load later.  Larry and I were students, John S was our instructor, Josh had the radio on the ground.  I was first.  A little tough to maneuver myself from sitting next to the pilot facing backward to kneeling next to the door facing forward, but got there.

Exit was crap for so many reasons.  I got out on the step fine, but didn't reach all the way out along the strut.  Then on "Get Ready" I didn't step off the step and hang on the strut.  Instead, I basically jumped backward off the step.  I knew something wasn't right.  Focused on that and ended up bent forward at the waist instead of arching.  Arched OK just as the canopy was starting to open up, so ended up fine, just absolutely screwed up the exit.

The canopy opening without me pulling the pilot chute was very surprising.  I have 93 previous jumps and I pulled my own hacky 93 times.

I think I did great under canopy, except for some possible miscommunication at the end.  Canopy looked fine, nobody around me, did my controllability checks, then looked around to figure out where I was.  Aimed for the holding area as Josh gave me a couple of instructions.  While in the holding area, did some turns, did some practice flares, and did some rear riser turns.  Josh asked me to do one more practice flare when I was at 1,000 feet, and just as I did that, he asked me to turn left.  Since I was in deep brakes from the flare, I let my right toggle up to do the left turn.

Then the miscommunication.  I thought I was doing everything he asked, and I got a lot of confirmation that I was.  At 600 feet, I started to turn left, which was timed nicely because I was just about to cross the runway.  John wanted me to do my base leg along the area just to the side of the runway.  Josh was aiming me back to the runway.  Not 100% sure what went wrong between us there.  At the end, I kept trying to turn a little left to avoid the runway, but Josh kept directing me toward it.  He told me to flare, I did (and I think it was a good flare), and I slid into the runway rather than PLF on the tarmac.  And I was in the crosswind base leg, not upwind final leg.

Talked to John.  He said I should have landed the way I intended and ignored instructions that didn't make sense.

I'm doing this jump over again, but it really felt awesome to get back in the sky.

Packing training

 Weather forecast said one thing, weather did another.  Too windy for student jumps.

3 of us got some packing training.  Larry - think it's his first time through.  Austin - working on A license, needs one more clean pack job to get the OK to jump it.  Assisted by Colton.

My troubles were flaking the right side and then getting the canopy in a controlled enough condition to be able to get it in the bag.

Safety Day

 Attended Safety Day at Maytown.  Started with a briefing by Dave Grabowski (probably have that name wrong but I'm too lazy to go look it up), the USPA Eastern Region Director.  Follow up briefings by MSPC members on gear checks, aircraft safety, camera flying, angle flying, malfunctions (not in that order).  Winds were pretty strong and gusty, so definitely no student jumping, maybe no jumping at all.

Talked to John (no way I'm getting this right) Stepancik(?) who was my IAD classroom instructor last week.  High points - MSPC has a couple of 260 sq ft student rigs and one 210 sq ft student rig.  The 210 is in high demand.  When I come back to jump, short meeting in the classroom to go over emergency procedures and the dive flow again.  He knows I learned flat packing.  Apparently these days everybody does pro packing.  I should at least watch a video on that.

Talked to Allie, who introduced herself as a packer and gave the gear check presentation.  Wanted to know about the logistics of getting pack jobs and paying for them.  MSPC doesn't have packers, so I'm going to have to get up to speed on packing quickly.  We had a nice chat about how she ended up here (Florida to Univ of Chicago for Marketing, which is no fun anymore because of AI, Chicago to Florida, learned to jump there, followed her instructor to the Northeast and now jumps at MSPC, but will be going to grad school in Nursing at Columbia).

No jumping, but very good trip to Maytown.

Retrained

 A few weeks ago, I decided this was going to be the year.  The next day, JR posted on Facebook that he and Kathie were retiring and there was nobody to buy the drop zone.

Contacted Maytown Sport Parachute Club.  It's an IAD program, which I'm not really sure about, but their first First Jump class of the year was today.  Most of the training is the same as the AFF training.  IAD early jumps have you stand on the step while the instructor holds the pilot chute.

Miserable rainy cold day.  None of us even wanted to be outside for training. We had a team of instructors.  John <something> was the lead.  Need to look for a day soon after Jamaica to come back up and make an IAD jump.

Skipping the 2015 season?

I might have made a horrible decision this winter.  After the frustration of the last couple of seasons, I might just sit out 2015.  The frustration has nothing to do with Chambersburg Skydiving Center, or any of the people who work there, or any of the people I've jumped with.  God knows the staff has been great.  The instructors and coaches are helpful.  Even when JR or Bill gives me shit for screwing something up, they do it in a way that makes it clear that it's a learning process every step of the way, and that I should keep on jumping.  They definitely want me to be a better jumper with every jump.  And it's not the other jumpers.  I've jumped with a bunch of guys and we've had fun and laughed even when stuff went screwy.

The problem is life.  Matt is in his senior year of high school.  Abby is in middle school.  It seems like there's something going on so often that I can't make time to jump.  I can't count the number of times that I've been planning all week to head up on a Saturday only to find out on Friday that something came up and I'm doing something with one or both kids.  Not that I'd want to miss out on spending time with my kids - let's be clear about that.  But it's not really spending time if I'm just driving to a clinic or a practice and waiting to pick them up later.  Games, matches, meets - I'm there, and I want to be there.  But practices, lessons, and clinics aren't the same thing.

This year is already going to be busy.  Matt's going to be visiting some colleges.  Graduation, Eagle Scout Court of Honor, vacation, moving Matt to college, God help me!  And that's just one member of our little 4 person family.

So I think the smart choice is to plan to sit out 2015.  It really hurts to write this down, but it's probably better than the frustration of the last couple of summers when I planned on jumping and kept getting stopped at the last minute.

Will I still think this is right in the fall?  Not sure.  But maybe things will break loose in the fall and I can start jumping again.  Damn I'd really like some air time right now.

2 jumps

Not much to say about the jumps today. Both were solo. First from the 206 with the 280 canopy, second from the 182 with the 260 canopy.

First - Worked on turning with just legs. Opened at 3500. I think I overcompensated for some landings that were close to the taxiway or maybe the wind at a couple hundred feet was stronger than the board said. I landed in the grass in front of the other hangar.

Second - With Grant and Sig. I told Grand I was going to dive out. Grant spotted, then got out of the way so I could go. No way could I climb over Sig and still dive, so I went out on the step. Landed in the grass off the corner of the asphalt in front of the hangar.

2 hop and pops

Arrived at about 10:30 after spending much of the morning at Mt. Hebron getting the Troop off to summer camp. Cloudy skies for the whole drive.

I got on a 182 hop-and-pop load with a 3 other guys. We got 6,000 feet. Got out, hung out for a few seconds, opened at 4,500. I skirted back and forth across the face of a cloud until about 3,500. Landed directly in front of the hangar door.

Sat on the 182 with Chris, Dave, and Wayne hoping to do a 4-way. Couldn't find a hole. Circled 3 times. Eventually, we started coming down. Rob didn't get the word that 3 of us wanted to get out at 5,000 or so, and we landed. Ugh.

Vern and I convinced Harry to go up for one more hop-and-pop to end the day. Only got 4,000 feet. Harry forgot goggles. Vern did a backflip off the step. I stepped off, got stable, opened at 3,000. Landed into the wind by coming between the far hangar and the picnic table canopy. Beautiful landing where I dragged my feet across the tips of the grass while flaring. JR said that I should have picked a different place because if something weird happened, I didn't have anywhere to go. Always leave yourself an out. But what a wicked cool landing!

3 hop & pops, 1 (almost) 3-way

Left the house - sunny, blue skies. Got to Hagerstown, cloudy.

1st jump - Chul jumped at 5,000 feet. John & I circled to try to see how why we could get (we were the test load) and only got to 5,500. Exited off the step of the 182. Landed in front of the hangar. Still jumping the 280 today.

2nd jump - I spotted, got out first. Harry & Gary were on the load. We got 5,500 feet. On final, I thought I was heading for the taxiway, so I used the rear risers to get past.

3rd jump - John and Harry were going to do some crazy back exit. Previous tandem load got 11,000 feet. We got to 10,000, John opened the door, and there was nothing but clouds. We ended up at 5,500 feet. I went last, and was a little long. Basically flew straight back to the 6, and turned into my downwind leg. Maybe a little low, but I did a good pattern and landed in front of the hangar.

4th jump - Wayne, Harry, and I were going to do a 3-way. We got 11,000 feet. Wayne way out, Harry 2nd, me on the step close to the plane. Harry was supposed to take a grip on my arm and do the count and Wayne would follow us down. Harry things Wayne left early, which made him mess up his count, and I might have gone a little early. Tumbled, broke apart, bumped each other, and got stable. We found each other, and Wayne flew to Harry to make a 2-way. I closed in on them, and got a grip with my right hand on Wayne's left. Harry was a little higher than me, so he reached for me, which sent him higher. 4,500 feet, so we broke off. Landed on grass near picnic tables.

Jumped twice

First just was a 2-way with Harold on the 182. Wanted to work on diving down to catch up. He went off the step, I dove after him, but put my arms down so I got a little over and turned. I got stable, found him, and dove down. Got level, closed and docked. He backed off, sort of cannonballed down, and I came down again. I closed a little too quickly this time, but slowed down in time. He wasn't too worried about it. Landed directly in front of the hangar. 280 with no wind, so didn't manage to stand up.

Second was a solo. I intended to jump a third time, but I felt too tired after this jump. I dove out of the 182 after waiting about 8-10 seconds for Bill and Chris to go. Stable, dove again, turns, tried slipping sideways. When I opened, I was level with one of the guys and just below the other, so I spiraled down just to get some separation. With 3 of us, it probably wouldn't have really mattered. Started my pattern a little high, so I stretched out the down wind leg, and ended up landing at the picnic table end of the field.

3 jumps and I'm back in the air

About time, right? I finally got a free day to head up to the Burg. I wasn't sure what I'd have to do for recurrency after 7 months on the ground. The guys didn't make too big a deal about it, and things came back easy. Grant told me that I should do a coach jump and just do whatever I wanted to do. Mostly, I think the idea is to see if I can stay stable in the air. I would have waited for a coach, but then Grant said I could get on load 1 and do a 5000' clear-and-pull with John Howard watching if I wanted. I went for that option.

Jump 1 - 5000' clear and pull. Matt (the pilot) trimmed up the 206. I opened the door to spot. Looked good, John said something, so I left. I sat on the edge, grabbed the frame with my left hand, and rotated out into the wind. Easy exit, instantly stable. Counted 5 seconds, during which I went over the hill, and pulled. It turns out that I never asked Matt to cut, so we were going faster than we should have been. Don't think that matters as much in the 206. On final, I thought I was heading for the taxiway. I used some brakes, then I was still looking at the taxiway. Cleared it be about 2 feet, standing up in the PD 280.

Jump 2 - solo. Cessna 186. Doc Larry told me to dive out toward the tail and wrap my right arm around my waist to make me spin. Probably wasn't the prettiest spin, but it worked. Corkscrewed twice, opened up into a neutral position, and got instantly stable. I tried to work on sliding sideways by tucking the same elbow and knee in close. About 1/2 the time it seemed to work. The other half I turned. Something to work on. Landed on the field in front of the other building, flared a little high, and rolled. Made a pretty crappy step-through.

Jump 3 - 2-way with Mark Muller. Cessna 186. He was going to float off the strut and I was going to dive down to him and dock. He got a little unstable and dropped faster than he wanted to. I dove, went a little bit over, got back to a good position, aimed at him, and then overshot him. I turned, he turned, and I was below him. I started to close, then tried to rise up. We got pretty close, but I saw us at 5000 so I waved off the rest, turned and tracked. Higher winds now, so I ended up landing on the end of the field near the picnic tables. Stood it up in the little gully.

I'm back.

No plane?

I finally got back up to Chambersburg today. Between vacation, a short downtime because of some lower-back muscle pain, and a couple of long days handling merit badges, I haven't been able to get away. So I did today.

The left engine of the KA wouldn't start. The C-182 already had its engine out. Sat around for 3 1/2 hours or so hoping the mechanic would be able to fix the plane. No luck. Crap.

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.

6 jumps - 1 brainlock away from my A

Weird weather day. Sprinkled on and off as I drove out. Got on load 2 first. After load 2, Alan (the pilot) said that we may as well tie down the plane because the weather's going bad. 20 minutes later, we had beautiful skies with some puffy white clouds. All under the 280.

Jump 1 - Solo jump in the King Air. Lots of tandems. Wanted one to shake out the cobwebs anyway. Spotted. Good spot, dove out. Worked on the swoop to get ready for some swoop-n-docks on my yellow card. Did some tracking perpendicular to the jump run. Rain in freefall, stung a little. Landed right between Grant and Wayne.

Jump 2 - Still lots of tandems, so I did another solo from the King Air. Had some miscommunication. The lights in the plane got worse. I was spotting, waiting for red light to open the door. Well, the red light was no longer working, and the signal to open the door was the flaps going down, but I didn't get that message. Casey called for the exit, so I opened the door, took some time to check for traffic and to see where the airport was, and dove out. Talked to Chad and Casey afterwards - not a big deal because there were just 3 tandems with no video after me, so nobody ended up long. Tracked & swooped, tried sliding sideways. Aimed for the grass in front of the hangar, but overshot a little. Ended up just a little further down the grass than I wanted, but still before the taxiway.

Jump 3 - 2-way with Wayne from the King Air. He was in the door, I dove out after. Lots of separation, so I guess I waited too long. Didn't close too quickly, and he gave me some tips later on how to get forward motion better. Closed, not quite level, turned, tried again, closed once, then broke off because we were at 5,500. Did a braked approach. I had already talked to Grant about it. Landed roughly where I hoped to land, but from 1/2 brakes, I didn't get much flare. PLF-ed and managed to end up with a step-through, which I haven't done in years.

Jump 4 - Coach jump with Casey from the King Air. Both outside, me toward the front, my count. I think I got too eager to turn and find him, and ended up upside-down for the first time in a lot of jumps. Got stable, found him, dove, closed. He dropped, and I couldn't get to him before our 5,500 break off. Landed in front of the hangar. Grant gave me just a little grief about my final. I honestly had no idea that there was an imaginary line between the runway and the buildings that I wasn't supposed to cross. Learned something, so that's good.

Jump 5 - Coach jump with JR from the King Air. He got in the door, I dove out. I dove down to his level, closed, broke off. He sank, signaled me, and I dove down again. Got a little low, floated up, closed a 2nd time. At 6,000, broke off while he did some celebratory 360s! Landed about 25 feet from JR in front of the hangar. Great skydive!

Jump 6 - Check jump with Casey from the Cessna 182. I swooped down to his level. I closed a little, then did a backflip, well, sort of a backflip, but it was mostly a backflip and I got stable easily enough. I was supposed to dock with him then, but forgot and started a 360. About 1/2 way around, I realized I screwed up, got completely stupid, couldn't figure out how to fix my screw up, and ended up somehow going upside down in the 360. Especially weird, since my first jump this spring with Jamie after not having jumped for 3 months included 2 beautiful 360s! Well, I got stable, checked altitude, broke off, tracked away, and opened. Landed right where I wanted to land in front of the hangar.

I'm down to a final exam and a check dive. Sat around bs-ing and drinking a beer (which, sadly, I was not responsible for supplying) and headed for home around sunset. Next weekend, maybe, or Independence Day weekend. I'm really that close.

2 solo jumps

Talked to JR first about refresher training. We agreed that I'm good. DZ was very busy today. First good weekend in a while, so all the backed up tandems and CAT A students showed. Still no 230 or 240, so I was fighting for the 2 280s.

Both jumps were from the King Air at 13,500. In both freefalls, I worked on turning quicker, tracking, and forward motion.

First landing was a little poorly planned. Got into the pattern late, turned into base leg late and went quickly into the final leg. Plenty of altitude to get level, just not the best pattern. Slid in.

Second was better. Landed about 25 feet from Amy, who said, "Nice landing."