:-)

First take-off is only at 11.30 h. And of course I'm on it. A 5-way with me in the middle. On exit the point flips under the formation, but we keep the faith. Eventually it works out allright. The jump is not great, but fun.

Jump 2 & 3 are sitflies. The second one is fine, I jump with two others, they do their stuff, and I manage to follow their level and stay close to them. On jump 3 I once again completely f**k up the exit, and by the time I am level and start to move in, the jump is almost over. Aaaah, frustrating stuff!

Next is a tracking jump. We are just two, and after everybody else has exited, I close the door and signal to the pilot to continue. The other guy starts acting a bit nervous, and I realise I didn't tell him I was planning to exit about 1.75 mile further than the others (I honestly forgot, I wasn't doing it on purpose). So I monitor on the plane's GPS where we are, open the door, quick glance outside, a nod to the other guy, and there we go. I dive towards the tail, immediately in tracking position, but I go too steep and I go off the right axis for a moment. I have to readjust before I can really take off. I don't see my companion, I barrelroll looking for him, but I don't see him. Well, there's no time to loose or I will be landing in the middle of nowhere, and anyway, if I track like hell, he won't be able to follow me and thus we will have enough separation at pull time. I make it back and I am over the DZ when I pull. When I look behind me, the other guy is already open, way higher then me, and way back, but he'll also make it back.

On my way home, I am stopped by the police for an alcohol test, and I breathe clean. So 3 beers in less than 2 hours is fine :-))

Winter

Cold but clear weather. Not much people, so no waiting between jumps. Looks good! For the winter season, we are not jumping out of our usual Caravan, but out of our Pilatus Porter. I like that it is a warmer plane, and that we can go up with only 8 people, so we can start earlier in the morning.

First jump, only belly fliers on the load, so we brief a 10-way. Exit is a funnel (I am backfloater, great view on all that mayonaise) but then we cleanly build the first point, 2 diamonds held together by their tails with a bipole in the center, so that's 8 out of 10 outfacing. Not bad for a zoo jump. Rest ofthe jump is also OK. Our landing zone is full of really big molehills. On landing, I have good speed, my right foot sliding a bit, and then, ouch, those molehills are completely frozen, hard as concrete. That's one blue toe for the next few days :-)

I split off from this group for a solo next. I wanna try out diving, but at a steeper angle then usual, you know, when it feels like you're in a void, you can't hold steady, can't hold a direction. In the beginning I'm all over the place, but then, click, body position matches dive-angle and yahoo! speed again! Did I just invent atmonauti? Naah, just a fun dive...

3 and 4 are sitflies. On the fourth, a bellyflier, only 12 jumps this year, comes with me. When he dives towards me, he has trouble with the my vertical speed, he dives all he has, but it looks so uncontrolled... I spend the whole jump backing off, and keeping some distance between us, while he spends his jump trying to close in :-)

No time for beer (not even one). Must run.

Sorry

11/10/2008 - 2 jumps
12/10/2008 - 3 jumps
18/10/2008 - 5 jumps (1 AFF)
19/10/2008 - 6 jumps (we did 8-way, a very nice day)
25/10/2008 - 4 jumps
02/11/2008 - 4 jumps
08/11/2008 - 4 jumps (1 AFF)
22/11/2008 - 1 jump
29/11/2008 - 4 jumps

Sorry for the pauze in my posting. Back to the good old 1-post-per-day rhythm from now on. But we are off season, and the weather preview for this weekend is not great at all :-(