Day 6 of Mission 100

Without having built a record as hoped for yesterday, we were on the field at 6:30am with full gear, anticipating at least 3 jumps this morning. Unfortunately, the Sherpa pilot needed to be back in Illinois by mid-afternoon, meaning we had a small window to skydive, with 12 noon being our deadline. The first jump of the morning was extremely close to successfully building a 100 (or so) way. It felt that if we had only had another 1,000 feet, we would have been successful! Geez, not a great time to be scrimping from our promised 20k (we had 18k on that first jump). The next jump was kind of a zoo (I didn’t even get a chance to dock with so much zoomy traffic in my quadrant), so with the final jump being lined up, we all gathered together, breathing deeply in sync, praying for peace and success in our final skydive. Had a fellow jumper not had a premature deployment at 19,000 feet, I truly believe that we would have built our Canadian Record. The formation flew so quiet and beautifully solid. Only one sector of the opposing helix was incomplete (due to the preemie jumper still under canopy at altitude). Dang, it felt good to fly together as a collective flock, smooth, slow and safe in our maneuvers. But alas, 6,500 came too quickly, and we realized our Mission 100 record attempts were over for 2011. Collective as a group, we had some pretty spectacular skydiving this week. Much improvement in skill and flying was seen. Although a Canadian Record was not set at this event, we can all hold our heads high, having achieved much success and many wonderful memories in the little jumping that we did do. Well done friends! Here’s to trying again next year :).

Success is not the key to happiness.
Happiness is the key to success.
If you love what you are doing you will be successful.
~ Herman Cain