It was another beautiful and sunny Arizona day. When I pulled into the skydiving facility there was a little white cross that was set out by the entrance for the student that had lost his life the last time I was there. It was a bit ominous and I appreciated the sentiment of the family that placed it there however I really did not need any more reminders of the situation. It is a serious sport. You are only good as good as your sports equipment. The days are pretty much binary. Either they are absolutely tremendous or absolutely tragic.

I still had to do a few more static line jumps to do before I was able to progress into freefall. It was a bit difficult since the last time I had done it the other skydiver in my training class died and all I wanted to get to was the freefall portion. It was another practice rip cord pull. I had a bit of a sweaty handshake but my climb-out onto the wing of the airplane was good along with my launch. My positioning was nice and wide but I jumped a bit flat and was looking at the ground. I was trying to plane myself out instead of jumping vertically and ride the relative wind down. I was going for more of a horizontal position from the start. The skydiving fitness instructor’s recommendation was to keep my head up and look at the plane and to stick my hips out a bit more.

The parachute had a few line tangles in it again, which is quite common, so I bicycled out of it again and started my decent to the drop zone. I had good canopy control and had a good stand-up landing. It is amazing how the modern canopies allow you to land with such a light touch, which is very different from what I used to see in movies. It was a bit of a milestone to get past this jump but I simply would not allow my life to be ruled by fear. Fear is natural and healthy, especially in situations like this; however, I have determined that the main purpose of fear is for it to be overcome.

I was able to get through the day in good health. I suppose that there are times when fear should be a factor in decision making but there are also rather high rewards for overcoming fear.