Tango Delta Golf

I broke my camera, and since photographs are my excuse for writing, I lost interest in Blogging. Here's an update on some of the shit that's been happening since my last post.

I went back to Skydive Chicago to hang with El Jefe while he did "AFP in a week". The weather wasn't the best, but I did get 10 jumps in, including some highly educational and entertaining jumps with skygodess Nanette Studebaker. On one jump we did a "spinning compressed accoridan"; now I know what a frisbee feels like! She also helped me work on some bad habits I was getting into since my last instructional jump. Dave Cicciarelli also helped me out a lot, especially with some very important shit like owning my mistakes.

Jeffrey did great in the air but couldn't finish the program 'cause of the weather and some hideous cold that was going around the DZ (all that high fiving in the plane spreads disease like crazy).

Since it was raining the first day we were at SDC, Jeff took all his ground school classes, including his packing class. Like all students, he fumbled with his first few attempts at folding the wing, but eventually he got the canopy in the bag and the container closed. It didn't look particularly pretty, but it looked like it would work, so he decided to jump it on his AFP level 1 jump! I'd bet that there aren't many other freefall students that packed their own rig for their first jump. He said it was his sweetest opening of his 10 jumps that week.

One night El Jefe almost got us lynched by the locals for some impromptu stunt driving he did in the DZ parking lot. Jeff was demonstrating hand brake turns in the rental POS. He had to shout above the sound of the squealing tires as he explained the difference between a "Rockford Files" style slide and a "Hawaii Five-O" skid. Turn after turn, Jefe lit up the cheap tires, leaving perfect black spirals on the pavement and a cloud of blue smoke in the air.

As we left the parking lot, we noticed a posse of four pickup trucks following us back to our trailer. I guess there was a party going on nearby, so there was a good supply of slightly drunk skydivers on hand to form a posse. When they confronted us they were pretty mad - till they realized we were slightly drunk skydivers too, then all was forgiven.

I've only done a few jumps at Skydive New Mexico recently. That's gonna change since I'm no longer working weekend nights. The key to getting jumps at a small, weekends only, Cessna DZ is to be able to hang out all day, a luxury that my schedule hasn't allowed till now.

I spent five days at the Point flying paragliders with Team Death Gaggle last week. Again, the weather didn't cooperate, but I still managed to fly everyday and at least regain some of my basic paragliding skills. I haven't touched a PG wing since last July!

It was great to hang with the TDG crew. Highlights included watching El Jefe teach Nanette how to fly paragliders, a flight on the Nano, an early morning sled ride from the rarely flown top of the north side (thanks Carson!), and five days of great fellowship with the brother and sister apes of Tango Delta Golf.

Sorry for the long post, I'm gonna buy another cheap camera and get back to posting some photos (and short captions) soon.