And now, on to today's main news:

Hi Everyone!

To start with can we all just assume that every email from me about skydiving is going to have the following words and phrases liberally scattered throughout? awesome, amazing, fantastic, out of this world, unlike anything I've ever done, huge rush, what a buzz, can't believe it, cool.

Thanks, just imagine that they are there in every other sentence and you'll have it about right and I'll save on a lot of typing.

Ohhhhhh, so close. I only got one jump in today. We didn't have a pilot in the morning and then there were six people booked in to do tandems and three guys going up to do solo jumps and Lorraine who was doing her stage 8. Big congrats to Lorraine who passed.

I had a really good "stage four and half" dive. Unfortunately I'm just not quite there with the heading control. Damon says I just need to be a bit more aggressive when I'm doing the turns to keep him in sight and that I'm so close to being there. He says that there is no point in making me do "four and a half" again, so tomorrow (weather permitting) he will brief me on the Stage Five stuff which is doing repeated 360 degree turns under control and at the Jump Masters signals. Then we'll do the jump as if it were today's jump again and if I can nail the heading control at the top of the jump then he'll give me the signals for the 360s and if I do those OK as well he'll give me a Stage Five pass. I don't think I can ask for better than that. Even if I still don't get the heading control right and have to do it again it's still another jump under my belt.

Jumping with just one Jump Master is much better. I was still very scared on the way up, but the real worry didn't kick in 'till about 7,000 feet this time. The three guys doing solos went out first and then Damon told me to go to the door. He stayed inside (holding on to my right arm and leg). So, I didn't have anyone on the outside holding me on my left. Then it was just look at Damon, get the OK and then look forward, move up and down and then jump. Much, much better. It's so much easier without someone on the outside. Damon came out with me. I took two deep breaths as I felt myself rock back and then swoop forward into the belly-towards-the-ground position. I looked to my right to see if Damon (who was still holding me) wanted me to adjust my arms - no - and then to see if I needed to adjust my legs - no. Then he let go, flew in front of me and it was just a case of trying to turn to keep him in front of me as he moved from side to side. That's the bit I'm having trouble with. I think I'm being too hesitant. In the de-brief I said that I felt like I had to turn very slowly and stop and then turn again as if I was afraid of over-doing a turn. Like Damon said - it doesn't matter; what am I going to bump into if I turn too far?! He reckons I'll nail it at the top of the jump tomorrow but I'm not sure. It's actually really hard work as you have to just move your upper body while keeping everything symetrical so that you don't spin or drift. You concentrate so hard on what you're doing for the turn that it's really easy to forget your legs and let them start you drifting off.

Keith didn't even bother to ask if I could hear him on the radio when my chute was open. He didn't talk to me once during the whole flight down. It was great to be able to fly it exactly how I thought I should. I even did some spirals to loose height so I'd hit all my marks. I was expecting him to talk me down from the 500 foot mark and he didn't even do that. Once I'd got down he just shouted over "Absolutely brilliant Ian. I couldn't have done it better". How I got my head through the hanger door I don't know! Mind you, I'm not going to get complacent about it. I was lucky that there was almost no wind today and the flight plan we worked out was very simple. I'm sure you'll be getting an email at some point in the near future telling how they had to drive a couple of miles to pick me up as I missed the PLA completely.

There are no tandems booked for tomorrow morning so it looks like I won't get a jump until the afternoon again. The clouds this evening don't look very good, so if bad weather sets in then I might not get to jump at all. I'll let you know.

I get to pack my own parachute after every jump now. It's pretty complicated but I'm supervised by a qualified Packer all the time and it's interesting and re-assuring in a funny sort of way to know how it works.

Need to eat. One of the guys today was saying that when you're learning, each dive you do is like a full day's work. It certainly feels like it but this is way much more fun!

Insert all the previously mentioned words and phrases here!

Ian.