Friday, September 25, 2009

The Record is Getting Close!














F
ive jumps today - the heat was once again brutal and we finally got the "Yes - it's cold, please don't wear anything different under your jumpsuits. Suck it up" before the first jump...Or something like that.....:-) Arrived at DZ at 6:15AM and we were in full gear by 7AM. Was released from the DZ roughly around 7:30PM - Yes, these are long days. They are fun though! A few kerfluffles occurred early on but the jumps got better each time. Portia - I understand that kerfluffle is a British technical skydiving term?



The excitement for me today was getting moved into a new slot. Sometimes this is a compliment and sometimes it isn't but when your whacker captain comes to you and asks if you would mind switching slots with someone and do you think you can handle it, there is really only one right answer. So - with much trepidation I moved closer to the base. Im now in the second wave at break-off which is a little disappointing for two reasons: 1. It's a lot scarier and 2. I was tracking almost to the interstate when I had the clear air and altitude and was planning to make that my goal for the day. Now I don't get to track as long. The break-offs have beem mostly pretty good today in our area and I have a lot of trust in the people who are now beside me. We've been given many safety lectures and deviations from the plan are being handled very seriously by the captains. As kate reminded us: the teammate tracking beside you that you can SEE is NOT the one who will kill you.













In my new exit slot I now also get to stuff a large radio down my jumpsuit. This is a backup to the visual cues we get for opening the door and getting lined up for exit. It's really cool to hear Kate give the exit commands.

Tomorrow we get extra altitude - we're going to 18,000 feet and for the first time everyone will be allowed to dock if the grips are available. Now, we are really going for the record.



There have been some almost live updates at www.dropzone.com. Click on Forums-->General forums-->JFTC-any news (Depending on how recent the last post is, it might be a ways down the page)

Off to bed - the next two days will get hard but a record is in our grasp.
brenda

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