When I called to make an appointment to do a recurrency jump, I was told I didn't have to arrive at the drop zone until 9:00 AM.  During the colder months, student training starts an hour later. YAY! That mean an extra hour of sleep, but it was still below freezing when I arrived.

Winter Orange is very different than summer Orange.  The hangar seems so much bigger!  There were only a handful of people around. In addition to the cold, the winds were supposed to be picking up.  Nick didn't waste any time getting me geared up and they put me on the first load of the day.  From my previous experience, they didn't put the AFF students on load one.  I wondered what was different about today.

I was relieved that Nick didn't make me go back to two instructors.  He said, I would be fine with just one.  After I had my turn in the hanging harness, we discussed the skydive,.  Most of the focus was on the landing.  I practiced doing a PLF.  I told Nick that I was doing a PLF no matter what.  I really wanted video, and I was so happy when someone agreed to do it for slot.  I think they felt sorry for me!

As soon as we were geared up, we headed out to the plane.  It reminded me of a quiet Wednesday.  There weren't very many people on the plane with us and the climb to altitude was very fast.  When they opened the door, I was nervous.  It was the first time I'd be jumping in the cold.  My climb out was fine, but I dearched and kicked a little when we were exiting.

When Nick released me, I started to slowly turn.  This may have been the result of having a small aircast on my ankle.  I didn't want to take any chances getting injured when I landed.  I waved off and pulled.

Nick didn't baby me too much.  I started a pattern and I flew a little too far down wind.  I based my pattern on my previous jumps, but I should have made an adjustment for the strong winds.  As I got closer to the ground, Nick told me to flare.  With the wind conditions, I could have easily stood up my landing, but I was determined to PLF.  It was almost like I was falling in super slow motion. My canopy didn't want me to do a PLF, but I was determined! SOFTIST PLF EVER!

When I got back to the hangar, we went on a wind hold.  Nick sat down with me and we discussed the skydive.  He said I could move on to D-2!  Woo hoo!