On the way to Skydive Ft. Wayne (AKA Gravity Powered Sports), we discovered a TON of yard sales. We were surprised because it was a Friday. Do any of these people work? Over 40 miles on US 12 in Michigan, there were of yard sales, garage sales, estate sales, and flea markets. It was really something to see. Signs everywhere, people everywhere and a ton of stuff for sale. I wondered…what’s up with these yard sales? When I got home, I looked online and discovered that we were on the “Heritage Trail” and they were having a three day yard sale - Michigan’s Longest Yard Sale . The things you don’t know that you don’t know! We had never heard about this crazy yard sale trail. Needless to say, we were just a little bit frustrated as there were people slowing down and pulling over and people pulling out in front of us. All we wanted to do was get to the next drop zone!
As we drove to Indiana, we ate some snacks and started talking about the rest of our trip. We checked the weather for Kentucky and it wasn’t looking great. I suggested that it was possible that we could do Wisconsin in lieu of Kentucky. When I was planning the trip, I discovered a drop zone just north of the Illinois border and not terribly far from Skydive Chicago. I intentionally didn’t include it on our map as I really didn’t think we’d want to go so far north. With Kentucky off the plate, it seemed like something we should consider. We didn’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves – we need to focus on today. So, we agreed we’d do some more research after we finished with Indiana.
Have I ever mentioned that I love love love Cessna drop zones! When you show up at a Cessna drop zone, everyone says hello. There aren’t a bunch of teams training, a clique of local jumpers, or a bunch of sky gods ignoring you. They are genuinely happy to see new faces - that is unless they are a dreaded tandem factory! They could care less if they ever saw fun jumpers. We try to avoid those! The airport was easy to find, but it took us a minute to figure out where to go. Once we found the hangar, everything went smoothly. I popped the trunk and grabbed my rig and one of the locals said they were expecting us. As he geared up for the next load, the owner of the place (Tod Motler) told us to fill out waivers and he’d get us on a load when he landed.
One of the other locals named Duane gave us the drop zone briefing. The wind direction was causing a little turbulence near the hangar, but they told us we could land anywhere we wanted on the vast airport and they would be happy to come and pick us up in their truck. We went out to watch the others land. The owner actually landed right next to the hangar on the asphalt. With years of experienced and being in charge, you can land wherever you please!
At smaller drop zones, there isn’t always a call or formal announcement. Once you’re geared up, everyone gets together. It was a Cessna with a maximum of four seats. As we were walking to the plane, I realized that the young woman with us was the pilot! She didn’t look old enough to vote little lone fly an airplane! A female jump pilot – very cool! There was plenty of room on the plane as only one other jumper came along. He was relatively new to the sport with less than 90 jumps. As we climb to altitude, I told him that I’d leave last. I like leaving last. I can pull a little higher and check out the view. Plus, I like being able to see everyone!
There were a couple of things we should have checked before getting on the plane. The first being… the uppers! Valuable information we didn’t analyze. Spotting at your home drop zone is super easy and many of us have the luxury of lights and planes with GPS. I think we also rely on the fact that the pilot will open the door not long before we should be exiting. In this instance, the pilot opened the door about a mile prior. Matt didn’t realize that he should have waiting longer to exit and he left way too early. Of course, the newbie and I followed not far behind. I opened high and I could see that we were pretty far out, but it wasn’t a problem for me. With a Spectre 170, I knew I could make it back.
I watched as Matt flew his canopy over a small pond and landed at the end of the airport. The other jumper wasn’t landing far from him. I was debating about landing closer to the hangar, but then I turned and bled off my altitude so I could land near them. Solidarity! Just like that, we were done with another state! Woo hoo! Indiana! The owner of the DZ came out to pick us up and when we got back to the hangar, one of the locals teased us about spotting. Some lessons you learn the hard way! At least we landed ON the airport!
While we were packing, we met a local man with gray hair, I think his name is Durand Shipley. Anyway, he said he used to jump at West Point and he remembered when Carolyn Clay first started skydiving. He said that they knew she was a Queen in the 70’s! When we were finished packing our rigs, we went to check out the t-shirts. We were looking for a shirt with the location - the new Gravity Powered Sports t-shirts seemed generic. They had one last Skydive Ft. Wayne shirt. When I asked Tod, how much he wanted for the shirt. He said, “Take it”. He just gave us the shirt for free! Woo hoo! Either way, we would recommend the DZ to all of our friends trying to do every state. The people were very nice and the vibe was very positive. No drop zone divas! The owner was skydiving right a-long side of us and we genuinely excited about our endeavor to skydive in every state.
We put our gear in the car. It was only 2 PM and we had already done in two DZs in one day! Dare we go for #3? Could we make it to Skydive Chicago in time? We pulled out the directions. Skydive Chicago was just 216 miles away – a 3 hour and 16 minute drive. With the time change, we could get there at around 6:30. It was definitely worth a try!
