Finally! A beautiful day to skydive and no more wicked wind! I arrived at Orange early so I would be certain to get in the air. Fortunately, I had reached the part of training that only required one instructor which put me in a better position for getting to skydive!
My first jump of the day was a CAT D 2. Ostrich did my ground training for the skydive. On this jump, I would be "observing" stopping. I'd leave in a solo poised exit. Do a circle of awareness and my practice touches. Once I found a point of reference (or a heading), I could do my 180 degree turns, and then move on to 360-degree turns. He wanted me to wave off by 5,000 feet and pull by 4,000. I was excited because I got to see if the tunnel time would translate to better moves in the air. After we finished the ground training, we manifested for Load 2. Woo hoo!
It was very cool to leave the plane without anyone touching me! I was very pleased with my altitude awareness, and my turns. Ostrich was smiling, so I felt like I must be doing them right! Yay! I waved off and pulled. I had a pretty good landing pattern, but I ended up flaring late again and went down on my knees. During the debrief, Nate wrote the following in my log book:
4/10/05: Jump 10 - Orange, VA - AFF: CAT D 2 - One Instructor - Solo exit. Stable. Be a little presented into the wind. Good PRCPS. Excellent turns. Good altitude awareness. Pulled on time. Need a little more help with flaring. Proceed to Cat E. Nate "Ostrich" Solloway D-25504 / AFI 05
Cleared for E! I'd been reading ahead and Category E-1 sounded like it was going to be so much fun! Flips, barrel rolls, and backloops! Fun Fun Fun! For this jump, I was paired up with Steve H. Steve had been skydiving FOREVER! It seems like he trained all the instructors that trained the instructors that trained my instructors. What's shocking is that he isn't even very old! I don't know how many skydives he has, but he makes it look so easy!
This jump was going to be awesome! I had most of my gear together from the previous jump. I just had to find a packed rig. After I located one that would work, we put ourselves on Load 10. I couldn't believe that I was going to do two jumps in the same day!
Before I knew it, we were on the plane. After checking our spot, I climbed into place and did a poised exit. I had a wonky exit, but then found my groove! I cruised through some barrel rolls and back loops making sure to check my altitude in between each. I waved off and pulled on time.
At this point, I thought I was starting to get better at setting up my pattern. I'm diligent about checking my altitude and being at my 1,000, 600, and 300 points, but as I got closer to my 300 point, it seemed like I was lower than my altimeter read. I ended up low in the pattern and flared late - AGAIN - knees on the ground. With the exception of the exit, the freefall portion of the skydive was pretty awesome (at least that was something positive). After the debrief, Steve wrote in my log book.
4/10/05: Jump 11 - Orange, VA - AFF: CAT E 1 - One Instructor - Exit started great - Then kicked legs - flipped over but recovered! Perfect Barrel rolls - 2 Nice back loops. Good altitude awareness and perfect arch. Good wave off & Pull. Got low in canopy pattern (Altimeter off 300') flared late. OK for E 2. Steve Hetrick D 8585 / AFFI-05
From here on out, I would be "Self-Supervised". I would still need to do a few jumps with coaches and my check dive, but I would be the one writing in my log book.
