Blueskies83
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Weekend Update 7/20/08 - 2008/07/21 14:40
I’m on my 2nd cup of coffee and still tired – that can only mean one thing – we had one heck of a weekend in Bowling Green! The temps were up this weekend, I think the majority of the staff lost a few pounds running around like chickens with their heads cut off and then sweating our butts off on the way to altitude. Man did it feel great!
The weekend started with a welcoming back for THE BEECH! Joanna called over the PA to let us all know it was flying in and we all ran out of the hanger like kids on Christmas morning. As the Beech landed we all cheered, and as Dave taxied in most of us were clapping and jumping up and down. She was a sight for sore eyes let me tell you.
The Beech spent Saturday in Taylorville, a drop zone made up with a lot of our own Bowling Green family. Word has it they enjoyed our plane – and who could blame them?! The Beech is also equipped with a brand new safety feature. The flaps on the left side of the plane have been color coordinated for jump run. There are two sets of strips, the red and white “no go” stripes, and the green “jumpers away” stripes. Now, when exiting the Beech, you will be looking for 2 greens before you leave the airplane, you need the green light from the pilot, and when the flaps are positioned for jumping you will have your 2nd green, the green on the flaps themselves. Great idea Dave!
Saturday started with a wheels up fun load at 9am. I went out with Kerry to test those coach skills of his! We had a nice little 2 way, turned a couple points, all in all a great way to start the weekend. Thanks for the jump Kerry, now that you are Mr. Big Time Coach I guess I’ll have to start begging for you to grace me with your presence?
We had several tandems scheduled for Saturday starting with the 2nd load of the day. Mark and Brian are MACHINES. Those guys pounded out tandems like nobodies business!
Myra, a returning tandem student, Sean, and myself all joined the N.S.C. this weekend. Paul was happy to be flying that load – and Mark had no problem playing Tandem Master on this one! We all 3 owe beer for this one, no doubt about that! I’ve never seen so much congestion in the landing area by spectators, WOO HOO!
Cory, Sean and I made a special jump Saturday evening. We, along with Mark, went out and did Cory’s 100th jump, Sean’s 200th jump, and my 300th jump on the same load. Not something that you get the opportunity to do very often and I was so happy we got to make this milestone jump as a team. This also brought our race to double zero’s to an end. Since we all hit the mark together, we are going to jump in our perspective “jumpsuits” next weekend… stay tuned for some FUNNY pictures!
As the evening wound down we got anxious for our Big Bad Beautiful Beech to come back home. When the moment came we were all lined up around the taxi way to welcome Dave and our jumpers back with a full moon!
Mark and Tracey were our cooks of the weekend. The weather is so perfect this time of year – hot on the ground during the day – cool at altitude – and calm and cool at night. We enjoyed BBQ chicken, brats and burgers! That was some tasty food you two – now that we know what good cooks you two are we may not let you out from behind the grill!
Sunday morning came and I don’t think any of us could sleep in – the excitement of having the Beech back was almost too much to handle. We had a nice sized crowed first thing in the AM and none of us could wait to get on the plane!
Chris, who is well on his way to his A license, brought his friend Tyler out for a tandem. Tyler’s family brought a boat – word traveled to them that we had a Beech at Bowling Green! Okay, maybe they were on their way to the lake, but you never know! And who, Kerry took out Chris for a coach jump (you guys ROCK!) and I got to chase Tyler on his tandem. What a fun skydive!
We had a couple first time AFF students joining us. Frank did an awesome job on his first jump! TJ drug out his whole family to do tandems while he made his 1st AFF jump. Congrats!
Paul – who has been stuck behind the pilot seat of the 182 for weeks now – finally got to skydive again! At first I thought he may need a couple coach jumps but it looks like he got right back into the swing of things!
We had some familiar faces show up this weekend – Lenny – thanks for my new cowboy hat! As soon as I can figure out a way to secure it to my head we can go do a rodeo! Minh & Craig also came out for some Beech action! And who could forget, Brain, it’s about time! Our hybrid rocked something fierce, Sean stabbed it by about 12,500 and we held that baby all the way to 6,000 ft!
Mark and Julie brought out the family for some fun – it’s so nice to see families enjoying the sport that we love!
Amanda, one of our fearless AFF students, had one heck of a 5th skydive on Sunday. The freefall was nice, practice touches, 90 degree turns…. However I’m not so sure she was as big of a fan of the spinning malfunction when she deployed! She did a kick ass job of initiating her emergency procedures and landed the reserve picture perfect. You go girl!
I don’t think any of us wanted to stop jumping Sunday, we just couldn’t give the Beech up for the evening! We organized a fun jumper load and had a nice speed star going. It was really something to see our staff out there just having fun – perfect ending to another great weekend!
Don’t forget we have a great weekend in store this upcoming weekend. Fun jumpers will be out Friday all day to kick off the QL memorial weekend. Saturday morning we will have the annual Sunrise High Altitude Hop-n-Pop around 545am. If you are interested in joining us I think there may be a couple of slots left on the plane. Shoot Paul & Jo an email and I’m sure they can get you on there.
We will also be in the company of the Australian Military who will be presenting Mark and Annette with the Star of Courage in Roberts honor. The Star of Courage is Australia’s 2nd highest bravery award – I just cannot wait to hear the beautiful things that will be said at the ceremony.
As one weekend comes to an end, another is already in the works. Our staff members seize to amaze me. Weekend after weekend you see all of them load after load, working their tails to the bone, and loving it! And the families who are helping us carry in gear and pack so we can edit etc. etc. – it’s truly the amazing TEAM we have that makes each weekend such a success. Don’t miss out on another awesome weekend in BG. come join us this weekend for some wonderful skydives and don’t forget your tissues for the award ceremony!
XOXO!
Ash
Photos by Ashley K, Mark C
Post edited by: Blueskies83, at: 2008/07/21 14:58
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