Weekly Update for 7/19/09
First and foremost I have to apologize for my lack of weekly
updates! Things have been so busy and so eventful here lately I haven’t
had time to do much of anything. Rest assured, this update will be a
long one, full of pictures, good times and even some blue skies
(finally!). So – sit down – take a break- and enjoy!
Let me start off by catching us up on the last few weekends! We’ve been
busy bee’s but mother nature has not been very nice to us. We’ve still
yet to have an entire weekend without a weather hold and we actually had
to wear sweaters and use the heat in the plane in the middle of July!
All things considered however, we’ve got a good crew out with us and
we’ve managed to make the best of it all.
Our student base is quickly growing at Fly Free Skydiving. It appears
there are a lot of skydivers in the St. Louis area that made a handful
of jumps and then drifted away from the sport like a 90 lb. girl on a
Navigator 280! We are very happy to be providing a new home for so many
and hope that more and more people are able to get back into the sky
over Festus. Ted, one of such students to make his comeback with us,
brought out his lovely girlfriend Jen to make a tandem a couple weeks
back. Jen enjoyed the tandem so much I hear she’s coming back for AFF –
WOO HOO!!!
One last birthday wish to one of our very talented pilots - Happy
Birthday Dave! Seeing as we made him chauffer us to altitude the whole
day, it was only fitting that we give him our birthday wishes in true
skydiver fashion! A special thank you to our tandem students for
getting into the gig with us… we ended up with enough people to write
the “happy birthday” message out just to be sure Dave knew why we were
all there!
We began our long stay in Festus Thursday evening greeted by the man
himself, Mike Wadkins. A quick dinner and a good nights rest and then it
was time for work. Mike spent Friday in the classroom with Mark and
Mike Toombs working on getting them their IAD Instructor ratings. Ever
since the day Mark and Mike got to put each other out of the plane IAD
style it’s been really tough to talk them into hop-n-pops without having
someone deploy for them!! HUGH congrats to our 2 new IAD Instructors –
Mark and Mike you guys rock!!
Sunday we welcomed Rookie, Hoyt and Tyler to the mix! It was such a
pleasure having some of our friends from Siloam up to visit – we really
wish we could have them every weekend! Tyler was busy on the packing
mat, packing us some nice openings and keeping the loads turning with
his speed! Hoyt and Rookie were so gracious as to take up some tandems
so Mark could FINALLY get some video slots! You three guys really made
this last week fun for all of us, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we
did!
The AFF pre-course was in full swing by Monday and Mike, AKA “Stu”, was
ready to show us his stuff. With a weather hold for at least a portion
of each day we got a lot of the ‘theory’ work knocked out quick and we
were ready to skydive! As the week slowly faded away we said good bye
to our friends from down south and the AFF-I course was underway.
Lutz, Fly Free Skydiving’s newest staff member, Allen, visiting from
Kansas City and myself all nervously prepared for hot evals and ground
preps. I’m doing my best to keep this short and sweet (I could go on
for DAYS about the AFF course, what an amazing experience) but I have to
make sure I give some honorable mention to Mike for doing such an
amazing job. Mike was such a pleasure to have as our course director
and my only complaint is that I want to keep him all for our own. His
enthusiasm and humor made the sometimes intense course seem like such a
good time, learning from him is truly a treat.
As I was saying before, there were three of us in the course bound and
determined to teach Mike how to pass his category C and D dives! After
a week of preparation and 2 days of hot ground schools and skydives, I
have to say, I just don’t think that Stu is going to make it as a
skydiver! Lucky for the course candidates however, Stu now has
successful prepared 3 new AFF instructors to take on the real world!
Congrats to my fellow AFF-I's, Lutz and Allen, it was my pleasure to be
in the course with you and I’d jump with you anytime! Thanks for making
the course that much more fun!
As it turns out I finally hit the magic number 500 the very same day I
received my AFF rating. Mike took me out for a practice Cat D skydive
before completing my actual air evals and Mark came along for some
camera time! Thank you Mike for geeking the camera for me, I was too
busy trying to get you off your back and keep you from spinning to do
much of anything else!!!
As the week and weekend went by we became more creative in keeping
ourselves entertained. The pilots out at the Festus Airport really are
an unbeatable bunch of people and we are so lucky to have them out to
enjoy the time with us. Dwayne brought his new as grill out and kept us
from going hungry on the busy days and nights and Brian and Paula swung
by with beer and cupcakes!! We are keeping our fingers crossed this
weekend we can rope some of our local pilots into our swoop and chug
competitions – I’ve seen them drink and all I have to say is I know who
I’m picking for my partner!!
Tandems! Yup – we even worked in some tandems!!!! As anyone who is
around the DZ a lot will tell you each tandem has a story. I’d love to
share the stories of all of our tandems but goodness I’d be here all
night! We have really been lucky to have such a great group out with us
and we hope our luck never ends. Bring on the smiling faces and blue
skies!
Another special thanks to Randy for chasing Mark’s freebag and main out
into the corn field! Mark – you had 4 months left on your reserve
repack – what were you thinking?! I know a really good AFF instructor I
could have you go out and work with to fix that body position at pull
time, you just say the word 
As far as learning to land that big 120 reserve, you’re on your own
there!
We finally got John to get back in the air a couple weekends ago! We
usually keep John tied in the office working on computer glitches and
what not but we all need our baths so John has been sneaking on loads
here and there. We love having you out John, perhaps you should work on
our computer issues all week and then enjoy the weekend skydiving from
now on – I’m just sayin!
After 10 days at the DZ coming home felt more like leaving to go to
work! Mark and I enjoyed everyone’s company this past week and a half
and wish it didn’t have to be over. Alas, we sit here counting down the
days until the next weekend when we get to be back at home in the bright
blue sky.
This weekend we will be celebrating the 3 year anniversary of those who
we lost in the crash of N203E. I encourage all that have let life get
in the way of their weekends at the DZ to take the time to come out and
make some sweet skydives in the memory of those we love. Remember, this
is not a time for us to be saddened and lonely, this is a great time for
us to be together and enjoying the skies in honor of our friends who
loved skydiving so much.
Rob and Deb (Amanda’s mom and dad) will be out with the grill serving up
all the fixins. Bring some beverages and your gear and stay the weekend
with us!! Annette, Robert’s Mother, will also be joining us for some
skydives and there is sure to be plenty of fun skydives planned for
everyone. Ribbon releases, swoop and chugs, high altitude hop-n-pops…
you name it and we’ll make it happen! If there was ever a weekend to
drop what you’re doing and head to the DZ this is it – we hope to see
you there!!!
