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.