With the weather we had this weekend, it’s hard to believe we are already into the month of November.
Of course, I’m not complaining – that is, aside from the 20+ mph winds that kept us from flying on Saturday.
Sunday, on the other hand, was a different story. A number of my jumping buddies were turbine chasing that day, but Rick and I headed down to Canton Airsports to spend what could be one of the last good jumping days of the season at our home DZ.
With two C-182s running, we were able to knock out three great jumps during the day.
The first was a standard train exit into a sit. Rick and I did the train with Paul hanging out on the strut. It was fun to get to sitfly with Paul for a change.
*Photo by Ken Daidone
On the ride up Paul mentioned that he had a ProDytter for sale and asked if I would be interested. As a freeflyer who’s been skydiving without an audible, I jumped at his offer (no pun intended). After the jump he handed me the Dytter and it went straight into my helmet for immediate use!
The next jump was a very fun freefly! For our exit I attempted to tackle Rick off the strut. In the video it appears that I do so quite successfully, however if he wouldn’t have grabbed me I’m not so sure we would have pulled it off.
From there we went straight into a horny gorilla, and Randy and Joe chased us down. You’ll notice Randy came in a little hot…at this point we broke off and I sat until it was time to deploy. The Dytter worked it’s magic and was screaming, as it should have been, when I dumped. I can tell this device is going to change my freefly experience!
*Video by Richard Simenc
The last jump of the day was a tandem chase. John from over at Traventure Man came to CAS to do his first skydive and we paired him up with our buddy Tod.
After exit I sat to get level with the tandem and watched them from a distance. It was cool to see them deploy, at which point I began tracking toward the DZ as the spot was a little long. During my track I missed one of the most exciting parts of the skydive: Tod’s cutaway.
*Photo by Sandy Weltman (Tod and John under the crispy white reserve.)
With a line over, Tod asked John if he was ready to do it again, and with a “hell yeah!” Tod cut away and gave John a 2 for 1 deal.
*Photo by Sandy Weltman (Load 9 safely back on the ground.)
Hope everyone got out and enjoyed this beautiful fall weather. Fingers crossed for some more weekends just like this.
Blue Skies!
-Ashley
Damn, a cutaway the first time you go out of an airplane. Double rush
It was pretty exciting!!!
I didn’t really know what was going on. But I just had fun, figuring Tod had everything under control. At least I remember the second drop, the first one was more of a blur
Can’t wait to go again!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Skydive Chick and John Jurko II, John Jurko II. John Jurko II said: RT @theskydivechick: 60 degrees in November = skydiving heaven. Tandem cutaways, horny gorillas, & more. http://bit.ly/43JSip [...]
Wow! I can imagine the rush you guys must have felt at times of your skydiving adventures.
Fantastic pictures there.
Take care & keep writing!
Cheers!!
pedro – I told John he has a leg up on all of us experienced jumpers who have yet to cut away. He knows what the experience feels like.
Traventure Man – If I was going to put myself in the hands of anyone, it would certainly be Tod. You were in good company during that experience for sure. Glad you came out!
Chatterbox – Thanks so much! Glad you’re reading. If you ever want to give it a try let me know. It’s definitely a rush that, if you ever thought about doing, I highly recommend trying at least once. Blue skies!