Jump #3
Had to wait two weeks for this one, then on Friday the day before I was going up, Mike at NSC calls me and tells me they won’t be flying for the weekend… Thought about letting it drop at that… but could bare to make myself wait another week. So I started looking for another DZ in the area that was open… I found my way to Tecumseh Skydiving… decent place… busy for sure. I got my jump in, but it took awhile though, it seemed like I had to wait in line behind any tandem jumper that walked in. Stayed the night out there, but Sunday morning the winds were to high for me to jump (as a student I can’t jump in anything past 15 mph) so had to go home with only one jump in for the weekend… better luck next time I guess.
Was nice to use some different equipment though, I used a 235 sq ft main chute this time, rather than the 288 sq ft I had been using, also the deployment method of the rig was different, BOC vs. the rip cord. I do have to say I preferred the equipment at Tecumseh…
I think after a day of waiting around for them to find instructors for me kind of blew my nerves. The jump wasn’t so great, I kept “potato chipping”, rocking front to back, so they could never let me go, I’ll have to repeat this jump again 🙁
Other than that… I’ll just say that there is a difference between DZ’s and there is a difference between different teams of instructors… and next weekend, I.ll find my way back to NSC.
[edit – 513 jumps later]
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If your Instructor or DZO tells you to wait another week. Listen. They are more experienced and know what’s best for you. Sorry Mike! My third jump might have gone better had I kept with the same staff, equipment, etc.On the other hand, I wouldn’t change that mistake now, as that is how I found my home DZ, <a href=”http://skydivetecumseh.com”>Skydive Tecumseh</a>. Thank you Google, your maps always know the right place to go.
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A dropzone is a business and the primary driver of that business is Tandems, that is how skydiving works. Another Skydiver I’d met on the day of my first jump was there at Tecumseh. We sat under the tree at manifest and he, in retrospect, tried to explain that to me. Thank you John. Damn, aren’t I the arrogant student that took five years to listen? By the way, he was just John then, but most people call him Packer John now. Personally, the last time I wrote his name, I called him John rigger.
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If you’re a student and you’re thinking of writing a blog, which I would highly recommend, before you post your first thoughts.. take a good look at your logbook. Perhaps you shouldn’t ever write anything that isn’t as nice, helpful, and positive as the things your Instructors wrote about you. I promise you student (yes, I’m talking to myself) the only mistakes that day were yours, you should have just relaxed, all day long.. maybe even told yourself to go home. Great thanks are due to my main side Instructor, for training, and re-training me that day and mostly, for not letting me go. Thank you Deb.
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My blog will never be the place for politics, because honestly, I don’t even care to try to understand them. However, I will say that there is only one person responsible for getting me up in the air that day. Only one guy went to bat and absolutely insisted and demanded to whatever powers that be, that me, an unprepared and out-out-place student… be allowed to fly that day, because I wanted to. Thank you Pete.