This weekend was another busy one for yours truly. Though this time, it all occurred at my home DZ, Canton Air Sports.
Saturday I drove out to the East side to meet Rick so we could make the drive together. Wish we would have thought of this before…could have saved on gas for both of us.
Anyhow, we got down there with a plan, exit head down into a sit. Well, the theme of the weekend presented itself on that very first jump, as we got talked into some RW instead.
It was a fairly inexperienced group – two jumpers with less experience than me – so we decided to plan an easy 5-way dive. Linked exit, out to a round. After one man tumbled away and another fell low, we ended up with a 3-way. We even got a few points at that.
The second jump of the day ended up being quite wonderful. Team Fastrax was at the DZ that day, preparing for a demo into the stadium at Akron University. We were told just before loading that they would be doing the demo first, then we would come back and jump. So we got to watch them exit the plane and complete the demo from 4,500 feet above. It was incredible!
May I just say, for a moment, what a great group of guys Team Fastrax is. They are some of the best parachutists I’ve ever seen, and yet, some of the most down to Earth. It’s great to have people like this in your back yard. I hope to be seeing more of them around our DZ and theirs.
Moving on.
After the demo we flew back and did our original planned dive: 2-way head down with Rick. Randy decided to film us too! Which reminds me, I have to get that video from him. Our exit wasn’t as perfect as the one at Start last week, but once we broke off, we were both holding a sit for quite some time!
I got back on the ground and headed in to take my B license test. And guess what, I passed! B LICENSE BABY!
After this it was time to go, so I trunk packed and headed out. That night I spent a bit of time working on my packing skills, trying to find the perfect method to get the ‘chute in the bag. I’m getting it down, slowly.
Sunday was another bright and early morning, heading down to the DZ. First load was initially planned as a 2-way freefly which turned into a 3-man rolling train that we broke off into a sit.
My landing on this jump was rather painful to watch I’m told, though I walked away just fine. I’m still getting used to this Triathlon I’m flying. It has a tendency to bring me down to the ground rather quick. The key is to start the flare high. At least, it is for me.
The next jump was another 2-way head down into a sit. This plan changed multiple times on the ride up and we ended up going with the first plan. Guess you can do that when there’s only two of you. Our exit went better than the day before and my sit was, once again, just about perfect! 
Jump #3 was a fun one. On the ground we planned a 3-man hybrid, but at about 5,000 in the plane, a 3-way RW group suggested we do a 6-way hybrid. Hell yeah!
These are some talented belly flyers, so it was fun and intimidating to be one of the freeflyers on this attempt. Nick, Fuzzy, John and Dennis were our base, while Rick and I were the hangers. It didn’t go quite as planned, but was fun, regardless.
On the sunset load we finally decided to stick to the planned 3-man hybrid. Nick and Rick were my base. Fun, successful dive with a perfect stand up landing on target. YEAH!
The day ended with beer and bonding. More to come on these discussions, later.
I love having the opportunity to sit down and talk with the people I jumped with that day. The stories and advice are invaluable. And after a long day of jumping, the beer tastes so good.
Until next time…
Blue Skies!
Ashley
[...] I mentioned in Tuesday’s post, lots of time this weekend was spent bonding over beers with fellow [...]