This weekend was a beautiful one. The sun was out, the winds were fairly calm, and I started itching for some freefall.
So we headed down to Grove City, PA to jump with our friends at Skydive Pennsylvania. Lucky for us, they’ve decided to stay open this winter for fun jumpers who are willing to brave the cold.Though they’re not flying the Porter, at least we get to ride up in the cleanest C-182 I’ve ever seen! It has padded flooring and everything.
The cleanliness of the plane is beside the point…
Rick and I met up with jumping buddy Don who we met during our time at Canton Air Sports. Don is a belly flyer, and with the bitter cold that we were going to experience, I decided that donning my RW suit was the best option for warding off frost bite. So in turn, we ended up doing two jumps, both as RW practice.
On the first jump, it was everyone’s task to come dock on me. We got close, but had some fall rate issues. The second jump was switched up, and we were tasked with docking on Rick. Again, there were some issues, and I did have to go head down for a few seconds to catch up, but Rick and I did manage to sync up for a second before I had to wave him off and track away.
It was definitely different to be back on my belly after 50+ freefly jumps, but it was a welcome change. I learned a little about surviving the winter chill – more to come on that – and I also learned that freefly helps with body control awareness immensely. In fact, it felt like I’d improved my RW skills, even after all this time spent only freeflying.
There’s something to be said for the feeling of diving head first out of a Cessna into the brisk, cloudless sky. It feels more peaceful than jumping from a turbine.
*Photo by Lonnie Kirk
Maybe it just brings back all those memories of my first jumps as a newbie skydiver – given that I started my skydiving career out of a 5-person cessna.
Either way, it was great to be back in the sky. Stay tuned for what I learned on staying toasty in the brisk winter skies. Until then…
Blue skies!
Ashley
Ashley 