Spectre in a Vector

Vector 3: Dork saver
I bought my rig from Keith N., an organizer, instructor and coach from SDC. That's why the mud flaps are adorned with "STL" and K's Team Funnel Number.

I know it's nerdy, but I love my skydiving rig. It's a used Relative Workshop Vector 3 harness/container loaded with Performance Designs canopies; a new Spectre 170 main and a used PDR 160 reserve. I've also got a Cypres 2 and a Skyhook RSL lurking in the reserve container as back ups to plan B.

There was a serious lack of skydivers at the DZ last weekend, I guess the cold weather is keeping folks away. There were a bunch of tandems and students during the day on Saturday, but only a few sport jumpers. I got in a couple of jumps; a high one filling a tandem load and a low one filling a static line load.

Saturday night we put up 2 loads under the light of a full moon. As a newly B licensed skydiver I was allowed to make my first night jump. The scenery was incredible, and even ratty old 42 X Ray's wings looked beautiful in the moonlight as we made the slow, cold climb to 10.5 k AGL. To the north we could see the lights of Albuquerque and a solid deck of clouds pouring over the Sandia mountains. The cloud deck was being lit up by the city lights and full moon. As bright as they were, the clouds and urban lights were just a tiny splash of light in the overall scene. The vast empty desert, looking very mysterious in the moonlight, dominated the view. I exited solo and just turned slow 360's in freefall, enjoying the icy blast of wind and taking in the view. At the top of the skydive I felt like I was in outer space. After 30 seconds the ground lights started growing, giving me a sense of speed and signaling the end of the freefall. I pulled high, turned on my strobe light, and enjoyed a very mellow canopy ride down to a good, on target landing.

On Sunday there were only enough skydivers on hand to fill the 4 jumper Cessna 182 twice. And 3 of us were on both loads! One of the club Instructors, Elijah C., helped me out by doing two RW dives with me. I did OK on our 2 way, but I funneled our 3 way. It was cold, 12 degrees OAT on jump run, but the winds were fair, the sun was shining, and the cold, dense air was perfectly smooth. So far, I'm liking winter skydiving.