One of the best things about Wednesday?  I am not overwhelmed by the number of people! The weekday regulars were there - Dennis, Mike, Gigi, Tres, Brian and Josh. At some point, Rebecca came. There were a couple of men that I had seen before, but didn't know, a few tandems and a student that I had never met.

It had been a long time since my category D ground training. Nick had me do a gear check on the rig I'd be using. Surprisingly, I remembered everything that Kevin had taught me during ground training. We used a creeper (a board with wheels) to practice the skydive on the ground. They call this a "dirt" dive. I'd be making 90 degree turns. Nick explained the subtle shoulder and arm movement that causes your body to turn. It's strange to practice this on the ground.

We discussed where to land. Since there was so much construction near the old landing area, Nick suggested two alternative places to land. We looked at an aerial photo of the drop zone, and we used a Flight Planner to map out my landing pattern. When we were finished, I decided to walk up to my planned landing area. At a glance, everything looked fine. Nick said that he would be wearing weights so that it would be easier to stay with me. I still don't get the "falling fast" thing. What's up with that?

I asked Dennis if he would jump with us and video tape my jump, but his back was bothering him. Nick suggested that we ask Gigi. She agreed to go with us and tape my jump if I paid for her seat on the plane - not a bad deal! She was still learning how to do video.

They weren't using the white board today.  Instead, Mike put together a list of people that would be on the plane.  Once we were all geared up, we headed to the plane.