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!