Matt and I flew into Boston on Friday and rented a car. Our plan was to skydive in Maine, Massachusetts and Connecticut.  Originally, we were going to try to skydive in Rhode Island as well, but the drop zone I called told me that fun jumping wasn't allowed in Rhode Island.  At some point, I'm going to need to address this issue, but it will have to wait till later.

On Saturday, we started the day at Skydive New England located in Lebanon, Maine.  The DZ is on a skydiving only airport with 200+ acres. They have a restaurant, lots of places to socialize, gear store, covered padded packing area, indoor restrooms, etc.

After we completed the waivers, we manifested for low passes from the Otter.  We took some pictures and made a video of the DZ.  There were a bunch of tandems hanging around and a number of fun jumpers, but I don't remember any of them talking to us. It didn't take long for us to get in the air, but there was an issue with clouds.  We ended up getting extra altitude - Matt and I left the plane together at 6,300!

Although the drop zone sits on 200 acres of private property, much of it is covered with pine trees. If you don't land on the airport, you will probably land in a tree! In addition to the less than ideal surroundings, the actual landing area wasn't completely flat and there were patches of rough dirt.  I didn't have enough jumps to land in the advanced landing area (located to the right of the swoop pond) where the grass was lush and green. There wasn't much wind, but my landing was fine.  With the first of three states finished before noon, we headed to the covered packing area.

At some point while I was packing, I tried to start a conversation with one of the locals, but it was obvious he wasn't interested in getting to know the visitors.  While I finished packing, Matt grabbed some lunch for us from the Ripcord Cafe.  After we ate, we put our gear in the car and headed to the Massachusetts.