United Parachute Club, PA May 3rd

by Laura Ausel

What weather! What a weekend! Friday was good until the pilot showed up, then went from marginal to lousy as soon as the first Cessna load got in the plane. They got about 50 feet down the runway, then decided it wasn't worth it. So we did the classroom lecture. We had a couple of new folks there, and some folks from the Scranton area one of whom just came to hear Frank & Ted talk. He hasn't been back.

Saturday dawned grey and yuck, and didn't improve any as the day went on. But, not ones to waste the day, we dirt-dived various formations, exits, and practiced echelon "flying." Then we looked at training videos, and talked about docking. For obvious reasons, we quit early and went to supper.

Sunday. What a Sunday... Absolutely beautiful weather! Ted and Frank took the novices in hand (and foot) to give them the basics - Doug Scherbarth got his 4-stacks - while the rest of us attempted to practice our offset skills (with varying degrees of success). Then we combined our groups and things got interesting. Chuck Strong (a local natural) closed 3 out of 3 diamonds. Dan, Chico, and Eduardo were their usual crw-dog selves, and I just tried to get there (and was even moderately successful!).

So closed what looked like a wash of a weekend, but turned out to be all right after all.