High and Low Solos
Oh dear god, I am poor, poor, poor. In addition to my high and low solos today, I bought a helmet, an altimeter, and goggles, which was much more expensive than it ought to be. But the altimeter was rather necessary as I was entirely on my own today.
Saturday was spent being naked and lounging around in bed all day being lazy (yes!) like a White-Harp. Today Bear and I went down to the dropzone so he could graduate, which he did with no problems. Huzzah! We were in the same load for his graduation jump and my high solo. I was a little nervous about my high solo being as it was the first time I’d be going out the door without an instructor beside me. I was still on radio in case I needed it, but I was otherwise on my own for an entire 60 seconds of freefall.
I did a float exit, which I hadn’t done in a long time (my past three exits have been dives) and then a back flip, changing my fall rate (hearing the change in air speed was eerie) and then fell belly-to-earth the rest of the time, wondering what I should do with all the time I had left. I moved forward a little to avoid falling through a cloud and pulled at 5000ft.
The low solo was a little weird, being as I was the only one to exit at 5500ft. I pulled within two seconds of exit and was fully open above 5000ft, meaning I was under canopy forever. Still, it was pretty cool to have the entire sky to myself. I practiced rear and front riser turns and landing was fine with no radio assistance needed.
And now I’m beat. A better update to come later. More snuggling with Bear. Do not want to go to work tomorrow.
