With the weekends forecast of less then stellar conditions the Fly Free Skydiving crew crossed all their fingers and all their toes and hoped for a miracle! Someone must have felt sorry for us, because we got a small break and were able to skydive for most of the day on Saturday before the clouds turned into rain and we called it a day.
With the first group of tandems not scheduled until 11am I was able to coax Mark into taking me on a tandem of my own! My FIRST tandem out of a Cessna and my FIRST time taking control as the canopy pilot. There is still no feeling like being on your plane riding to altitude with a rig on, talk about an eerie feeling! Mike did a wonderful job chasing us on video, thanks Mike for coming along! And thank you Mark for letting me take control and land us on my own!
Regardless of the short weekend of skydiving, we got plenty of things accomplished and had some absolutely awesome skydives! We continued the day with Chuck, out to celebrate his 60th birthday! Chuck brought an entire county with him to celebrate and you just couldn’t help but laugh at the enthusiasm and fun this group was having on the ground! Chuck was a natural in the air and it’s never too late to start skydiving so we hope we see him again soon. Even more so we hope we get to see Vicky and the rest of the gang too, everyone deserves a turn!
Kim and Bryan were next up to the plate! Kim was first to make her skydive, her first of many I presume, and did a fabulous job! She set the bar pretty high for her uncle Bryan, but he gladly accepted the challenge! Bryan had made a handful of skydives back in the 90s but hadn’t been in the air in 15 years. We set him right, got him the air back under his wings, and reminded him what he was missing. Rumor has is these two, along with Kerry, will be out again this weekend – Woo hoo!!
We continue to welcome new fun jumpers into our broad each weekend and love to see our family growing! This weekend Jean Michel came to check us out and we really enjoyed having him! As word starts to travel through St. Louis about the DZ we have been so lucky to have great skydivers like him come out to jump with us. It sure was fun watching him do his days ‘stretches’ as he did his hop and pops!
We also were happy to have Pete and Mike come out to join us! These two birthday guys had about 30 skydives each and were a blast to work with. They both did wonderful on their skydives and it was so nice to have two eager learners on the DZ. Mike and I got to work with them on some of their A-License card requirements during the weather hold (great time to change closing loops!) and you can tell these two are going to be in the sport of skydiving for a long time to come. Hope we see you two again soon!
The weather held off just long enough for us to get up Rocky and Ryan, two excited brothers, for their first skydives! These two guys were a blast to have out! We hope to see you guys back out again soon! Ryan and Rocky marked the end of the day for us flying as the weather moved in right behind them, but at least they got in their jumps!
Sunday was a wash if I’ve ever seen one… With a cloud deck that never got above 800 FT we spent the day working on projects around the DZ. There are always videos to be made, things to be organized, and rigs to be packed!
And since the weekend was so short, I’ll add our fabulous Tuesday into the weekly update! Although Tuesday started off to look about the same as our rainy weekend, the cloud parted early in the day and Jennifer and Joe were on our agenda! This father and daughter duo did a picture perfect job making their skydives over Festus and were a blast to be around!
Tuesday didn’t stop there however… As I took on the St. Louis traffic making my way to the DZ, Mark, Mike and Blake got ready to make the night one to remember. As I arrived at the DZ, the sky was clear above us and Blake and I were up to make a monumental skydive – his A license check dive! Blake nailed it, as if there were any doubt he would, I mean I did teach him to skydive…. And we are all so proud of him!! Mike and I took him out on a celebratory skydive with Mark on video, his FIRST skydive as a licensed skydiver – YOU ROCK BLAKE!! Never forget, safety first my young grasshopper!
With so much going on at the DZ the daze mix together and the week seems to pass by so fast. Another weekend is almost here and the Fly Free Skydiving gang plans to make it another one to remember. All we need is a little cooperation from the weather and our fabulous jumpers, old and new, and we will be set to have a great time! Hope to see you there!
Until Next Week…
XOXO
Ashes
What a great day of jumping!