As I’ve grown into the sport of skydiving, I’ve come to realize how much I enjoy being in the sky with other jumpers.
This weekend was filled with new skydiving experiences, starting on Friday with my first solo jump out of a caravan.
Let me just say this, there’s nothing like a plane that can take 17 jumpers to 13,500 in 10 minutes to get skydivers excited. You should have heard the cheering and hollering at wheels up.
Given that this was my first time at a new drop zone and with a different rig I was a little nervous. But once I was free falling my head was right back in the game.
I jumped with an experienced skydiver (and base jumper, I found out) who showed me the ropes of a caravan exit. Once I was under canopy I looked around and saw 10 others in the air with me and it was a beautiful site.
The second jump of the day was from 8,000 feet since it was so close to dark. But I had fun with barrel rolls and turns before dumping.
And that’s when I got into a little trouble.
Flying a 290, I had lots of time to mess around under canopy, but apparently not enough. I ran with the wind a little too long and ended up taking a little trip off the DZ to a nearby field. I landed a few feet from the tree line.
No big deal. But I do owe a case of beer the next time I’m in Canton.
Sunday included more fun jumping, where one of my girlfriends and I performed a couple linked exits and face-to-face flying. It was nice to jump with someone who has a similar fall rate for a change. We’re both fairly new to the sport so we were testing this out together.
Both our skydives were on fun jump loads, so we had some other jumpers flying around the skies, watching us chase each other down, tracking, attempting to dock – it was great fun.
We both felt really great about what we learned and I’m pumped to get out there and jump with her again soon.
And, given that this was my first two-way, it looks like I’ll be buying beer for my home DZ too.
Too bad it’s only Monday. I can’t wait to get back into the sky.
Blue Skies!
Ashley
Neil Hinkle 
Flyin Ryan 
