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skybytch

JFTC day four

By skybytch, in The Bonfire

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skybytch    273

skybytch
Sigh. Clouds suck.

It was a long day today. Breakfast at 7 means getting up at 5:30. I could almost sum up today with "Eat a meal, make a dirt dive. Eat a meal, make a dirt dive." Luckily the weather gods kinda halfway smiled on us later in the day.

The first dirt dive was good. We did a couple exit frames and solidified the angles that we'd seen yesterday when we laid it down. Every time we dirt dive I get a little better at finding and flying my slot in the air. It's all minor tweaks now, but as Kate says - "Perfection is an achievable goal."

Lots of hanging around today. I snapped off a bunch of pictures of pink suits in full chill mode... and lucky for you I remembered to bring the camera home! ;) Now just hope the batteries last for the download... Will post them as soon as I get them on the puter.

I have enlisted as a soldier in the Lisa Dossenbeck Gallagher memorial Squirt Squad. Armed with only a Super Shooter water pistol, the Squirt Squad is available for sneak attacks on the person of your choice for a "small donation." Since it was cold, we were only practicing our aim and stalking techniques today.You may have seen us on the manifest cam on Perris Cam today.

Also learned a German drinking game that was quite fun. We were sober, of course... not sure how good I'd be at it after a few drinks. We laid in a circle with our hands in boxman position; my right hand over the left hand of the person on my right; my left hand under the right hand of the person on my left. Somene starts the game by slapping their right hand on the ground. The slap travels to the next hand clockwise, then on around the circle. Anyone can at any time slap twice, which sends the slap counter clockwise. If you slap, or even pick up your hand preparing to slap, out of turn, you have to pull that hand out. Last hands in the circle win. We got tired of slapping dirt in our faces in the packing area and took it to creepers in front of manifest, which turned out to be even better.

We had another dirt dive... this one was quite memorable. ;) Mr. Kent paid up on his little wager. We raised over $900 for this show... it was worth every penny. He came out into the center of the formation wearing his camera suit, being driven in on a golf cart. He pulled a "random" woman from the formation (this particular woman has been practicing with her bullwhip in the packing area. I'm serious, guys.) and they put on quite a show for us! Yeah baby..... yeah!

The clouds cleared away enough that they sent the boys up - the JFTC Boyz Wayz - as our weather dummies. Roger Ponce organized a quick dive and they took off in the Monterey Otter.

Kate then called us for a dirtdive with full gear. We all ran to our stuff and hustled out to the landing area. We took up grips and Kate announced that Ponce was checking out the situation and would tell her what it was when he landed, and she trusted his judgement. We had a plan B in case we couldn't get altitude - do the big way from 12500, go lower and do single plane passes if we couldn't get that.

While we were standing there with grips, the load was on jump run above us. Kate made us all focus on "flying our slot" - ie head down, not able to look up at the load dropping above us - and started talking about one of the guys having a mal above us. She kept peeking but made us keep our heads down til after the load had opened. Maybe you had to be there for it to be funny... but anyway, it's REALLY hard to keep your head down and not look when you can hear canopies opening above you!

Ponce landed right next to the edge of the formation and yelled to Kate "Go now." He gave a few details, it sounded good, so Kate sent us to our airplanes.

E plane (y'know. The plane that everyone wants to be on ;)) hustled to the mockup to jamup our new exit a couple times. While we were waiting for our plane to arrive my Mom showed up. :)
Loaded up, took off. We were all a bit edgy. The weather was marginal; we'd been on the ground, pacing, for almost two full days; we had several possible outcomes for this plane ride... and E plane had a new exit lineup to do and a new pilot.

They say shit happens... they're right. One of the oxygen lines was broken at the mask; the jumper noticed it when she sat down. A new one was passed down to her. When we got to 12000 the O2 was turned on; one of the girls wasn't getting anything. They swapped out lines/cannulas with her. Still nothing. The affected jumper buddy-breathed with her neighbor until Rhonda (from a 4000 ft dz) offered hers - she routinely jumps at 17000 msl without oxygen and is used to it. Crisis averted!

We finally got to altitude. It was dicey outside - I could see the SkyVan on our left, but from where I was sitting I couldn't see the ground. But, I trust Kate. I know she won't put the jumpers, pilots, aircraft, dz and herself at risk just for a skydive. The red light came on, the left side of the plane put their bench up. The yellow light (signaling open the door) came on, then went back to red. Then back to yellow. Finally the door was opened, then all of a sudden the green light was on - climb out now!

Somehow I managed to get in my exit slot and somehow I managed to get a clean exit... but the jumpers exiting behind me were hosed. Our new exit lineup will hopefully work better when we aren't in a big rush... :$

Out the door and OWWWWW!!! Little ice needles all over my face! Oh, there's the base, what's this, I have to dive??? Worked my way down there, in my slot, waited for the zipper to complete, picked up my grips and flew.

Nowhere near complete. People taken out in a couple of places. But... it was shown live on LA's channel 7 five o'clock news. And I do mean live. Ted Wagner's air to ground video sytem sent them a live feed of that skydive and they aired it as it was happening. B|

Debrief was held in the Bombshelter. After the debrief Nesta (Nasty) did the raffle - some cool prizes, none of which I won. I do believe a dz.commer picked up a copy of Art of Vrw though...

Then the... err... ummm... strippers showed up. Somehow Kate ended up in one chair. It was quite a show - that's all I'm gonna say. Didn't have my camera for that one either, sorry girls.

Okay, I'm going to try to download the pics now. Then I'm off to bed - another 7 am breakfast call tomorrow. Pray for clear, blue skies here!

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