Turn up at the dropzone for an afternoon jump, and get on the board for in about an hours time, so help out catching tandems. In this hour, the clear blue sky starts to fill with patches of cloud that start grouping together. By the time we get up in the air, theres some pretty large patches floating around, and in the plane on the way up, we are told that we may have to go back down. Im due to be first out, so am sat right in the door, and looking through the holes in the cloud. At jump height, the jumpmaster points out to me the end of the runway directly below us in a perfect hole in the cloud, and gives me the thumbs up, I dont need telling twice, and roll out of the door.

I get stable, and as im first out again, i turn and do a good 20 second track away from the plane, this is brilliant fun, proper like superman, flying through the sky, i think next time, ill try it with the one arm out :p after this, a few fast 360 turns, before turning back to face the runway, but, below me, either the hole has closed up, or ive tracked quite far and am now over somewhere that im not too sure about.

I open my canopy at just under 3,500 feet, and do a few rear riser turns, i then do some hard 360 turns, first left, then right, then left again, just to see how fast i lose height while turning like that, at 2,500 feet, i go into the cloud, i turn into the wind, as i dont want to end up miles away, and pop out of the bottom of the cloud at just under 2,000 feet, with the landing area behind be, and im still facing into the wind, excellent 🙂

A few S turns to get rid of a bit more height, then at 1000 feet, start my approach. During my crosswind part, and while watching the windsock below me, the direction of the wind changes by around 60 degrees every now and then, so my crosswind is half the time into wind, so i abandon the idea of making it to the blue flag, as im being blown sideways too much, so i turn into the wind at about 500 feet, and just keep adjusting my direction slightly to stay in the wind.

As i flare to land, i feel the left pull starting, which i had a lot of in the past, so, i give a little more pull to the right, followed by a full flare, and land nicely, standing up, and collapse my canopy 🙂