When I got to Orange, Nate was hanging out with another AFF student - I can't remember her name. She was there for her first CAT C jump. Nate was getting ready for his first CAT E. Erin and a local guy showed up after me. In addition to a full AFF table, every person and their brother came out for a tandem jump. There must have been twenty people waiting for tandems. Again, the tandems were put first - which I understand.

Here's my grievance:

I sent a note to ask if I could come on this date. I was told to come on out. If the person making the schedule knew that they had a bunch of tandems coming out, why not just tell me no or tell me to come later in the day. In order to come to Orange, I had left my daughter with my cousin in Frostburg, MD. I had to be back in Frostburg that night because I had to get up at 6:00 AM and drive a friend from Frostburg to Morgantown for a doctor's appointment. When I scheduled my weekday jump, I figured I'd show up at one and be out of there no later than six with plenty of time to face the four hour drive ahead of me.

The plane ride is about 15-20 minutes, freefall is a minute, and canopy descent is around 5-7 minutes (I think). So, a skydive takes less than 30 minutes. Ground training is another story. Depending on your category, ground training can take a little as an hour or as long as six. On this particular day, I didn't need ground training. I did practice emergency procedures in the training harness. The last part of the skydive is debriefing. This usually takes about 15 minutes, but you have to wait for your AFF instructor to be available.

I did eventually get to jump, but I was on the last load of the day. I could have arrived at 4:00 or even 5:00 PM. It's not that I don't enjoy the people at Orange or that it isn't nice to sit in the sun and hang out. I really do love being there, but I have so many other commitments and really hate wasting my time.