(This is why they call it the Blue Sky Ranch)

For my 26th birthday, my wonderful freefly partner took me out to The Blue Sky Ranch in New York for a weekend of skydiving.

I was excited to be in a location where they have three Twin Otters and a bi-plane (which, let me spoil this for you right now, I didn’t get a chance to jump…even though it was my birthday).

Regardless, we still had an incredible time! Our friend Tom was out there on Friday with us as he was passing through town for work and headed to the East coast for a wedding. Our first couple jumps at the Ranch were with a familiar face, which was nice.

I was nervous on that first jump about finding the dropzone. The arial maps were hard to see and given the location of the LZ I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to find it, but turns out we got out pretty much right overhead so it worked out well. Not difficult at all.

One of the first things I noticed from 3,000 ft was this:

There’s a story behind it that I’ll leave for the Ranchers to tell, but I will say that it’s a cemented imprint from a guy who impacted the ground and left a 4″ crater. Enough said.

As the day progressed the spot seemed to get longer and longer. The last jump of the day was a little hazy and we’d decided on the load that we were going to have the pilot do a go-around so that we weren’t completely screwed. Well turns out, the spot did end up screwing us in the long run. We landed about 2.5 miles off in a development that looked like this.

Thankfully they found us quick and we got a ride back to the dropzone. A warm welcome over the PA system from Sarah was what we heard as we walked back into the hangar.

The next couple days were a blur of jumping and socializing – but needless to say it was a great time. We made a few new friends, promoted Jump for Diabetes, and Rick got in his first wingsuit jump!

Aside from not being able to jump the bi-plane, the only other bummer was that there weren’t people swooping the pond. Guess I was under the impression this took place all the time…

If you’re passing through NY and are jonesing for a jump, stop by The Blue Sky Ranch – be sure to tell Sarah and Lauren I said hi .

Until next time, I’ll leave you with a few more pictures that I took from this weekend:

(Sky was stunning on Saturday)

(The infamous swoop pond)

(More of  the pond)

(Lone skydiver heading to the loading area)

Blue Skies!

Ashley