End of the Year Road Trip

Brett & I took a little road trip to Eloy, Arizona for a few days of jumping. The 13 hour drive reminds me to always consider the alternate & fly commercial. We arrived late on Friday the day after Christmas. The original plan of camping went out the window when the temperature was sneaking up on freezing. Due to last minute cancellationg the Skyrider Inn had vacancy. We hooked up with EGO & split a room instead. The next day welcomed us with cold weather but it was still much warmer than the Bay Area we had just left behind.I made three jumps the first day, two out of the Sky Van & one out of the DC3. I hadn't jumped that DC3 since the mid-90's. Brett was excited to jump it for the first time. We free flew out of it & got great video. I ended up making a total of ten jumps over the course of the four days we spent there. Late Saturday I organized a Beech 18 load & setup the jump for the Sunday at 1:00pm. The Byron Army took up the ten slots. It was exciting to fill up the old classic airplane with ten friends, nine of whom had never jumped a Beech 18.

That inspired me to setup a Porter load. There were nine slots available and again I filled them with the Byron Army. As before, eight of my buddies had never jumped a Pilatus Porter. I asked EGO to organize a eight way chunk to pull off on exit & he came through. The plan was to launch an eight way chunk with four in the base & four hanging onto between each person in the base. Once stable Erik, Chavi & I were to sit & hang for a hybrid formation. We pulled the chunk out of the airplane but it funneled shortly after exit, flipping twice before it split apart. EGO climbed out in front of the strut & managed to get great video of the jump, exit & all. My favorite part is that he got the entire exit with the aircraft in the background. The nine way became a seven way with Erik & I hanging. It's great to know that if you want to jump exotic aircraft they are sitting in the hangers in Eloy ready for you.Many of the Byron jumpers jumped, for the first time, the DC3, Beech 18, Pilatus Porter, Sky Van & a hot air balloon. It was a boogie to remember!