Saturday July 17, 2010 was the day I have been working towards for almost two years now. When I arrived at the dropzone I had 4 items left to be signed off on my A License proficiency card. Those 4 items were: 1 more "Swoop and Dock," 1 accuracy landing (land within 20 meters of a pre-determined target), 1 "Hop and Pop." and plan and spot the landing on jump run. I was absolutely determined to go home with that license. It was so close that I could taste it. First up was jump number 26. I decided to get the most difficult task out of the way first so with Karl as my coach, we took to the sky to accomplish the so called "Swoop and Dock." I was a little nervous about this one since I had failed to complete the task on my last attempt. I decided that I knew what I needed to do... now I just needed to stop thinking about it and let the training just take over. Karl climbed out onto the side of Skydive Utah's King Air as I climbed into the door. He gave a 3 count and then let go. I counted to 2 and leapt into the relative wind and went immediately into a swoop. I dove fast and hard and caught up to him within a few seconds. As I reached about 50 feet above him, I went back into a belly to earth position and arched as hard as I could to allow my momentum to continue carrying me. It worked and I leveled out at almost the exact same altitude as Karl. A few minor adjustments and I began to extend my legs and drive toward him. I did so maybe a little too conservatively as last time I was a little too aggressive and almost took Karl out. Although my forward movement was slow I was still able to dock by about 7,500 ft. I was absolutely elated and the thrill was incredible. We held the dock until about 6,000 at wich point Karl dove down below me flipped onto his back and gave me a thumbs up as I went into an eastbound track, leveled out, waved and pulled at 4,000 ft. What an incredible rush as my canopy deployed and I knew that I had accomplished the task. But I didn't have long to celebrate as I knew that I had one more task to complete on this jump and that was the accuracy landing. Prior to boarding the plane, we had determined that I would attempt to land as close to a small gravel pit in the North field as I could. I set up my approach as best as I knew how and made my descent. As I turned into the wind for my final approach, I almost jumped right out of my harness I was so excited because I knew that I had set myself up perfectly. I flared my canopy and touched down right in the gravel that I was shooting for! I let out a sigh of relief and then yelled at the top of my lungs, "WOOOO!!!!" At this point I knew that I would leave the dropzone with my A license as the only remaining tasks to complete would be signed off with a simple "Hop and Pop."
The Cessna 182 was still having mechanical problems so we were able to arrange for the last jump of the day to be a "Hop and Pop" from the King Air at about 4,000 ft. What a completely different feeling that was, jumping from the altitude that I normally deploy my chute at. I was a little flustered as I jumped and I allowed the relative wind to hit me and flip me onto my back. Woops! I took a deep breath and arched hard and as I flipped onto my belly I reached back and pitched my pilot chute. I looked up above my head and watched the Sabre 190 flutter and snivel as it finally opened about 5 seconds after initial deployment. I had not yet reached terminal velocity so the canopy didn't open with near the force that it does in a full terminal deployment. Finally, the moment I had been waiting for for so long was here. I landed with a huge smile and made the short treck back to the hangar. I watched and tried to hold back my elation as the DZM signed off the last items on my proficiency card, stamped it with a big USPA A License stamp, and then turned to me and planted that same stamp right square in the middle of my forehead! The announcement came over the dropzone's P.A. System that I had just received my A license and everybody in the hangar sang me a "Him!" If you don't know what that is, you'll have to get out to the dropzone and go through this incredible process and find out for yourself! :-D I don't think I had slept as well as I did that night in years. It marks an achievement that I have been looking forward to for so long and it also begins the next chapter in my skydiving adventures. It has only just begun...
(Despite the matted hair and goofy grin-One of the greatest moments for me!)
