I've done it. There was one tandem booked today at 2pm. The weather just cleared long enough to go up.

My hands were cold in the plane! I've been saying to people for ages that I never notice how cold it is up there because I'm so nervous (the other day apparently it was minus 15 degrees at 12,000ft - I had no idea it got that cold). Today I could feel my hands were cold.

I was fourth out after Herb, Matt and Toby. I sat in the door and looked down. I did a dive exit (love 'em). The wind up there was very strong today. I did a backloop and it was a good one. I started to try to stand up but the wind was really buffetting me arround so I gave up on that and just enjoyed the view. I flipped onto my back and got myself back over without too much effort. I tracked for a bit (still an awesome thing to do). Before I went up I decided that I was going to pull low. I've been pulling at between 5,000 and 4,000 feet. I thought today that I'd pull a bit lower to get longer in the dive and not have to take so long to get down under canopy. I wasn't going to be stupid - I want to stay safe but I just felt like it was time. The height I'd decided on was 3,500. So as I fell through the cloud I looked at my altimeter and it was 5,000. I felt very stable and safe. I wasn't turning and I wasn't wobbling so I thought I'd go for it. 3,500 with the ground really starting to rush towards me I wave off and pull. Awesome. The dytter (the audible altimeter in my helmet - it's pronounced to rhyme with titter as in "Ooh missus, don't titter" a la Frankie Howard) went off while the parachute was opening which I was expecting. The canopy was fully opened and I released the brakes at just above 2,000 feet. When I looked around, Tobi who'd jumped before me and is flying the same size canopy was way above me with his canopy open. When we got back to the hangar, Keith laughed and said "How the hell did you land before Tobi then? Did you pull low?". I looked him right in the eyes and just said "Yep.". He laughed and said "thought so" and came over and shook my hand and said "congratulations mate, A license. I'll bring the forms in for you to sign tomorrow". In my log book he wrote "Well Done. Congratulations". Coming from Keith that's pretty good!

I'm so stoked about this. Finally I've got there. It hasn't really sunk in yet. We're having a big party to celebrate on Saturday night with all the guys from the Drop Zone. I'm really glad I did my 25th jump on the same load as Matt. He was made up for me when I got back down.

Thank you for letting me share this adventure with you all. I hope you've enjoyed following the journey as much as I have enjoyed writing about it. I'm looking at my B license next. Now I'm licensed I can jump with other people so I'm hoping that soon I'll get some good pictures and maybe video of me jumping solo which I'll put on the web site. Not sure when that's going to be as a quick look at the weather forecast isn't filling me with much hope for the rest of the week at the moment.

Cheers for now,
Ian.