Don't Pull Low!

Strange thing happened to me this weekend-

On my first jump of the day, the guy in front of me in the plane noticed that his Neptune reset on the way up. He said he had an audible, but he has low jump numbers, and you need an altimeter for more than deployment altitude. Since I have an audible, wrist mount, and a Viso on my mud flap, I loaned him my wrist mount. No problem right?

So I got out, and enjoy my solo sitfly jump. I did some front flips, and then I checked my altitude by looking at my mud flap Viso. Well, it blew apart in freefall! I had no visible altimeter- the same situation I was trying to prevent for the other guy in the plane!! So I listened for my audible, and constantly scanned for canopies (a sure sign to pull if my audible didn't work).

My audible DID work (thank goodness), and I deployed at 3500 ft. I looked down and I had no idea where I am! I looked all around, and finally I spotted it WAY over THERE. I pulled down to deep brakes. I unintentionally kept looking at what is now a piece of plastic (but used to be an altimeter) to see if I can make it back. I didn't want to be in the situation of making a low turn to get back into the wind, or land dangerously downwind into oncoming traffic. I did make it back with enough altitude to spare.

The guy I loaned my altimeter to did fare so well. He foolishly pulled low, which is a bad idea anyway, and didn't make it back to th dropzone. No big deal right? Well, it rained the day before and there was sticky mud EVERYWHERE. That altimeter I loaned him got really dirty. He was apologetic and cleaned it off.

Well, I got in four more jumps to what was a very cold, windy day. I guess I'll be asking Santa for a new Viso!