Adventures in the Wild Mid-West

I've heard about mid-west drop zones with rigs with rip cords and only Cessna planes, but I'd never been to one before.

Before Saturday September 27th that is.

While visiting St. Louis MO for an applied sport psychology conference (for work stuff), I met up with a fellow sport psychologist (Sam) who is also a licensed skydiver. I had no idea that he's jumper! He told me that he was going to go for a jump at a local drop zone and invited me along.
"But I don't have any of my gear!" I said. "Neither do I," he responded. "We can rent."
Why not?

So off we went on an early Saturday morning, with ambiguous directions and a useless GPS. We found the place and approached Manifest with vigor. After showing my USPA card and a quick call to my home DZ to verify my currency (no log book), we were manifested for load 1. Sam and I were so excited! That is...

....until manifest told me that the smallest gear that they have is their 280. 280? 280?! Are you kidding me?!?! I fly a Stiletto 150 and just downsized to a 135. Sam flies an Icarus 189. I picked my jaw up off the floor and went over and told Sam. He was in as much shock as I was.

I laughed as I went over the arial map over and over again, planning what to do if I overshoot the landing area. Sam kept repeating over and over to himself, "280? 280?"

Just when I thought the surprises were over, it got better. Manifest told us that our gear was ready and that we should go into the student gear room to get it. As I flipped the rig over and started doing my gear check I noticed that these rigs have rip cords. Real rip cords. Like in the movies. Like when the old guys at the drop zone stand around the bonfire after drinking a case of beer and telling stories about these rigs by starting out with, "No shit, there I was..." Now I was going to be jumping one. No shit.

I just kept shaking my head and laughing out loud as I turned the student Cypres on and praticed my rip cord touches. Sam and I looked at each other in disbelief; are we really doing this?

As we clumsly practiced the exit, I unintentionally scrape the top of the rig all over the mock up. A staff member of the DZ comes over to us and reminds us that the student cypres activates at 2000 ft. Sweet. At least we have GPS, right?

Thankfully we did. It was a slightly bigger Cessna, so 5 people fit into it, not just 4. After 20 minutes of admiring the view (it's been years since I jumped in the Mid-west and it was so beautiful), I did something that I haven't done in a while. I started to get nervous. My heart started pounding as I kept repeating to myself over and over, "Hold the ripcord. Hold the ripcord. Hold hold hold."

Finally it was time to go. The first two guys went and then it was our turn. Here goes nothing, right? I was supposed to hang off of the strut but I was afraid that if I didn't, I'd go flying off of the plane without my dive partner. So I kept one foot on. He nodded, I counted and then I just let go!!

The view of looking up and seeing Sam diving down to get to me was amazing!!! We caught up to each other and did what we planned on our dirt dive, smiling the whole time. I was very careful to keep track of the altitude, as I usually jump with an audible altimeter. But this time I didn't even have a helmet on. I turned and tracked and thought, "Do I pull now? Or keep tracking?" I waved off and looked at my altimeter; yikes! It's 3000 ft and I should have pulled 500 ft ago. I put my hand on the rip cord and thought, "Hold it!" I pulled and held on to it.

The opening was so soft and on heading; I'm not used to that on my Stiletto. I did some practice flares and kept holding into the wind. I set up my landing, which was perfectly on target, and land softly on my feet! I was full of electricity from the excitement- what a rush!! Sam and I bumped fists as we greeted each other in the landing area.

My thanks for Archway Skydiving Center for all of their help for making my visit so wonderful. Many blue skies!!!!