Dancing on the Edge

Sorry Fame, I did it again.

Saturday I completed jumps 7 and 8 in my dive flow and it was a beautiful day to do it. Unfortunately Terry and Brent have left this DZ as instructors.....I hope they come back. Cool guys to hang out with and really knowledgeable.

First jump of the day was with Kat to do barrel rolls. Solo poised exit and I found her just fine after getting out. MUCH to my surprise the roll thing was way cool. I was able to go both ways and it was a lot of fun - so much fun that I held a finger up at 8,000 to her hoping she understood that I wanted to do JUST ONE MORE! Flew an awesome pattern after opening and stood up my landing. Awesome jump.

Second jump was with Val to do back flips and front flips. Diving exit and this time out of the Otter. I ended up on my back spinning a couple times which was a bit upsetting trying to do the flips. I was not worried about getting back belly down, I was more worried about not showing Val that I could do the flips and failing the dive. All in all, the acrobatics teach you more about getting stable after you are unstable than doing perfect flips and rolls. You learn by doing something uncomfortable and figuring out how to get yourself out of it. I must have opened my canopy a good .75 miles south of where I needed to be but flew back just fine over the DZ. The canopy ride this time was sooooo slooooow. I hung around 3,000 ft forever tooling around being held up by thermals. Finally 2,000 ft......finally 1,000 ft. Really slow but I flew a good pattern and stood up that landing as well.