How do you know you had a good weekend? When the Monday after it really, really sucks! Also, when it takes until Thursday to blog about the jumps!
I had plans to drive down to Ohio for the weekend to meet with Ashley Mead from SkydiveChick.com and take a small tour of the local dropzones in her neck of the woods while helping her check off the last few items on her progression card and hopefully to be there when she got her license!
The first stop was Cleveland Parachute Center for a few jumps from their Cessna 185, the first jump was Ashley’s hop-n-pop from 5,500 feet followed by my exit. Â Watch carefully – you can see how I figured out that the step on a 185 is about six inches higher than a 182!
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The second jump was an interesting one.. but no story about it here (go watch the video, be observant), you’ll have to come find me around the bonfire to hear me tell you the story about it!
After the second jump we took off back to Cleveland to meet up with Shawn at http://www.voodoomonkey.org/.  We know how many skydivers wear  a closing pin necklace.. but how many of them would put that pin on them permanently?  Only two that I know of..  but who among us couldn’t use a little good luck charm on that pull hand?
After the tattoo’s it was back on the road the Canton Airsports to meet up with the crew there just after sunset. Â I got to meet a lot of great people and couldn’t wait to come back Sunday morning to jump with them. Â First jump was with Rick, Christa, and Tkoa – we never quite built the first round, but a fun jump anyhow!
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Next I got to fly outside camera for a hybrid attempt, it was the group’s second try at it and they were pretty sure they were going to get it. Â The were so sure, they made two of us squeeze onto that camera step to do the video for them! Â I couldn’t keep up with the fall rate once Rick stood up under the two way, but I love the footage I got of the first camera guy colliding with group at exit! Â I tried to go into a sit, but I just couldn’t hold it stable, I need to practice my free flying abit more for these situations…
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And finally, the last jump. Â All during Sunday we’d worked on getting Ashley card checked off, three ring maintenance, packing (I got to jump her pack job on the first jump of the day), and she was on the plane during the second jump during her check dive to get her A license! Â We thought that was the end of the day, but a few more tandems walked in, and we had just enough to send the plane back up. Â For her first licensed jump, she said she just wanted to do something fun.. no learning, no practice.. so I offered to just spin her around and see how far I could throw her across the sky! Â This was a great end to a great weekend.. A great new dropzone to visit, a newly licensed skydiver to jump with, a new skydiving tattoo.. it doesn’t get much better than this.
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