Aggies Over Texas, TX Apr. 27th

by Tina Femea

Saturday morning was overcast and windly, but there were 10 us who showed up to try to build diamonds. After a few hop-n-pops, the weather cleared up enough for altitude jumps by about 2pm, and we attempted a 9-way diamond. The 4-way built quickly - by about 11K. The wings hung quickly, although one side was very heavy, causing the formation to turn. After trying to correct it, the pilot called a breakdown. There was some confusion about whether the 4-way was going to be broken down as well, or if it was to be kept - resulting in the tail being released first on one side. When the other wing dropped him, he floated up into a wing, driving it around to wrap with the other wing (at about 9000 ft). They stablized the wrap into a bi-plane (person A in front, but his canopy in back, and vice versa). It went to a side-by-side at about 3K, so one person chopped and landed uneventually under his reserve.

Winds picked up, so we didn't do any more CRW Saturday - Sunday morning winds were even higher, and they were predicted to get worse. Most of us had left by noon on Sunday.

Thanks to Aggies for providing us with that beautiful Otter -Maybe the weather will cooperate next time...