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.