Yesterday I did my fifth jump. This time I did a practice rip cord pull. This means that my chute is still being deployed as soon as I jump, but now I’m reaching for where the rip cord is supposed to be and pulling out a wadded up rag as practice. A couple more times and I’ll be pulling the real thing.
I also had less help from the guy on the radio below. I basically guided myself down the whole way. I landed on the field, which is good, but I wasn’t happy with how I guided myself. I was way too high when I was getting ready to land, so I tried to bleed off altitude, but I was too low to do it properly, so I made a bit of a mess of things. It’ll take me a bit of practice to get it right, but I’m definitely making progress towards being able to jump on my own.
I’m not sure what I’ll do after I get to that point, though. I really like jumping, but it’s extremely expensive. When I think about how many hundreds of dollars I’ve already spent on this, it not only boggles the mind, but it also makes me feel guilty. There are so many better things I could be spending money on. I could be donating it to charity, I could be saving more towards retirement or a home, I could be investing in the market more. I could even be spending it on a vacation or cruise. On the plus side, it’s not like I’m addicted to crack or hookers. And I’ve got stories that I’ll remember, too. We’ll see what happens.