Well, actually not "Hooray", more of a "damn and blast!".

I only got one jump yesterday but it was another solo. I'm starting to really enjoy the solos. I'm still very nervous in the plane on the way up but it's under control and I think I'm confusing the adrenelin and excitement with fear. Fear, up to a point, is good because it keeps you safe but I think I've got it into my head that I'm really scared when in fact it's just the nerves and excitement of it.

There were a whole load of guys from the DZ going up for jumps as well and with Tobi and his instructor the plane was packed. It's really uncomfortable sitting on the floor all squashed up against each other. Luckily it only takes ten or fifteen minutes to get up to 12,000 feet so it's not to bad. We were just getting to altitude when the pilot tells one of the guys that we've been put on hold by Air Traffic Control at the Airport. We can't jump until the pilot gets the OK from them and for some reason they don't want us jumping right at the moment. Seven minutes seems like a lifetime at this point! Eventually we get the OK and the guys all go out (still can't watch). I'm next before Tobi and Brendan. Brendan goes to the door and looks out to make sure the guys who've just gone are well out of the way and then gives me the OK. I get to the door. I'm doing another dive exit. Brendan taps my shoulder and shouts "Have a good one". Forward, back, OUT.

This time the dive exit isn't quite so good and instead of swooping down into the belly down position, I sort of swoop up again and suddenly realise I'm standing up in the air. It actually feels really good and is one of the things I'll learn to do later but it wasn't what I wanted to do. Then I tip forward and settle into a stable position. Check my height. I'm going to practice back flips which I need for stage seven. You can't practice them on the ground as you have to bring your arms down past your hips, bring your knees up to your stomach and fling your head back all at the same time. If you've got it right you flip over backwards onto your back and then as you go over arch and end up back on your front. Here goes. WHOOPS! I rolled forward and did a forward roll. Clever stuff (I was told forward rolls are harder than back flips) but not what I intended. Check my height. Keith says I'm not to try any backflips under 7,000 feet. I'm OK, plenty of height left. Let's try again. Damn! Forwards again. Check height. Try again. Forwards with a wobble off to the side. Check height. Room for one more. Bugger!!!!!! Forward, wobble left, wobble right, roll round fornward and twist. Check height. 7,000 feet. Aw, crap.

Time to do a bit of heading practice. There is a lot of low cloud below me and I can't see the DZ at all. There is also a lot of wind. Keith showed me where to be at 2,000 feet and wants me to stay up wind for most of flight down under canopy. I can just see the point on the edge of lake where I want to be at 2,000 so I make sure I'm facing that way. I deploy at 4,500 and just have time to head the canopy in the direction I want before I sink into the cloud. I've dived through cloud before but I've never opened above it and flown my canopy through it.

This is awesome. I sink into the cloud. When I've been on a plane and we go through clouds I always look out of the window at the cloudscape and wonder what it whould be like to be outside and what clouds feel like. This isn't very thick cloud but as I sink down it's like a thick white mist coming up from underneath and all around me. It's whispy to start with and can see along the top of the cloud. I can't see anything below me except this white blanket. Then the mist gets thicker and thicker. I do what I've been told to do which is to do a gentle half brake turn in one direction. The idea is to keep spiralling slowly over one spot until you come out of the bottom of the cloud. What sometimes happens is that people think they know what direction the DZ is when they enter cloud and try and fly that way. The danger is that they then travel quite a distance inside the cloud and lose their bearing and end up a long way away from where they should be and have a difficult job getting back to the DZ. I keep the spiral going. It's not really cold. I can't see much. It's like being in thick white fog during the day. It's not a uniform white sheet as I can shapes as the wind is blowing bits of cloud around. I'm not cold. I thought it might be really wet. I don't really notice anything apart from it feeling generally moist all around me. My goggles don't get covered in water either. Then it thins out and I'm below it. I'm just under 3,000 feet and exactly where I wanted to be. I head out over the lake a bit as it's better to stay upwind when it's strong as you know you will have enough speed to get downwind to the DZ when you want. If you come downwind too early you can have a hell of a job turning back to the DZ.

After a while I can see Tobi's canopy above me. Keith seems to have given up talking to me on the radio lately. I can hear him giving instructions to Tobi but he seems happy to let me get on with it. This is so much fun. I'm really supprised that I like canopy work so much. I thought I'd just have to put up with it but I really enjoy flying the canopy. I'm not going to get too cocky though as I'm sure I'll get it wrong one day and land off the PLA and have to have the van come and get me! I keep heading into wind until I'm at 2,000 and then start flying around a bit to get down to 1,000. Then it's time to head along the edge of the PLA. I turn left at the corner and head down the short side. I'm at about 500 feet now. Left again to go back the way I've just come. Still a bit high so I do some S turns to loose some height - I'm too low to do spirals. OK turn right and go back until I'm half way along the short edge of the PLA. The wind is coming off the lake and I'm going to land into wind which is happily along the long stretch of the PLA. Down I come. A few slight turns left and right. Here comes the ground. FLARE!. Bugger! On my arse - lovely slide for several feet along the ground 'though! I think Lorraine has got it right. I spoke to her last night and she said something that made a lot of sense (as usual). When you start learning you tend to flare too early as you're worried about hitting the ground. Then you start making yourself wait and wait as you know you're probably going to flare early so if you wait that bit longer you'll be OK. What's happening now we think is that I've actually got the hang of when to flare but I'm still making myself wait because I think I'll have got it wrong. Well, I'll put it to the test next time!

Whoops! This was only going to be a short email to say I'd only got one jump yesterday. Thinking about it all again I got carried away. I'm not sure if I'm jumping today. The plan was to jump at 10am, but it's too cloudy. There are tandems booked for 1pm so I'm hoping to get another chance to practice my back flips. I know what I did wrong - I was flinging my head forward instead of back - like I was trying to do a tumble turn in a swimming pool. It's a bit difficult to concentrate when you know you're falling through the air at 120 miles an hour!

Bye for now,
Ian.