One of the women I had met at Skydive Orange, Jennifer, was planning a trip to Florida. She invited me along. Jennifer was very generous. All I needed to purchase was my airfare! She said I would be doing her a favor by coming along. She had already reserved a car and hotel room. Without Jennifer's generosity, I wouldn't have been able to go on the trip! Our destination: Florida!
During this trip, I made my first visit to Z-Hills! They are having their Annual Easter Boogie March 18-27th! I was a little overwhelmed by the number of people attending, but I did get an opportunity to do a recurrency jump. Since it had been over three months, I wasn't sure what sort of jump I should do. Prior to jumping, my instructor, Laura Song, did a complete retraining session with me and a recurrency briefing. I brought along my computer so she could watch my last skydive with Nick. Although I did just fine, we agreed to do a CAT C-1 jump with two instructors. The second instructor was named Paul.
Laura picked out a jumpsuit for me, a helmet, and an altimeter and we got ready to go. Things move fast at Skydive City. They have multiple airplanes and I didn't have to wait long before we got on a load. As we were walking to the plane, the other instructor commented on the jumpsuit. "Hmmm...no grippers." Oops...Laura had given me a suit without the grippers they use to hold on to their AFF student.
On the climb to altitude, I went over the jump in my head. I was starting to get used to the dive flow. The top priority was always - altitude awareness and pulling on time. The jump went smoothly. Here's what Laura wrote in my log book:
3/19/05: Jump 9 - Z-Hills, FL - AFF: Level 3 Recurr (Equivalent CAT C 1) - Complete retrain/recurrency briefing. Excellent setup and count, good exit after very slight delay. Great COA, 3 practice touches, forward movement. Released, kept heading really well! Locked on @ 6K, both jm's close by. Solo wave off & Successful pull! Excellent pattern setup and good landing - slid in a bit, but you definitely could have stood up. Go to Level 4 or Cat D. Laura Song C-30407 / AFI 05
When Laura finished the debrief, Laura confided in me. I was her FIRST AFF student!