First C8

I rented my gear for the next jump and got my manifest ticket which I took to Sarah and got myself on a load 38 minutes later. I could have gone earlier, but I didn't want to rush it.

After hanging around for a while, buying a new log book and getting some water and food, I grabbed my own personal gear out of the car-my helmet, gloves and altimeters. Then grabbed my rental parachute. I flew a 260 sq. ft. main again, which is what I've been flying through AFF. I want to get really good at flying it before I start moving down in size. I am amazed at the smallness of some of the parachutes the instructors are flying. They are almost closer to kites than parachutes! With the gear in hand I did a gear check. Everything looked good. So, I suited up and went to wait. I started a conversation with a fellow named Josiah who was also doing his first C8 jump. We went through what we wanted to do on our jumps and then did a gear check for each other.

The ride up to 12.2K took a while. I was glad that I was going to be one of the first out of the plane because I didn't want to have to really spot the jump location or be the one to tell the pilot to circle back. The first group exited and I waited until they were visible at a 45 degree angle from my vantage point. I then did a poised exit and got myself stable.

My plan for this jump was to just jump. Maybe do some turns, but just to experience everything for the first time on my own. I had a few moments of instability, but just arched a bit more and everything was fine. I noticed that I was not really over the holding area so I turned and tracked until I was in a familiar location. I think for the first time, because I wasn't doing anything, I got to see what my surroundings looked like. I looked at the lake and the hills and then just locked onto my altimeter and watched it.

Then the alarms started going off on my audibles. I had set them for higher altitudes, but since this was my first time using them, I figured I could just see how they worked but still pull at 4500'. It's probably not a good idea to have two different audibles because the competing beeps was very nerve wracking, and I definately wanted to pull. So, I ended up pulling at 5500'.

I was still really excited about my first solo jump, and the ride down went smoothly. I had a soft but falling landing.

I walked off the field proud that I had made my first solo jump. It was a great feeling.