I talked to Martin Lemay, the main organizer for this party, and asked how many people they were expecting. I was surprised when he said "One hundred and ten." I thought they would have been doing well to get 80. He went on to say that only a week ago they had 90, and were looking everywhere they could to try and find qualified people to fill it out to the targeted 100. Suddenly all the people who had been either hanging back to see if enough people would register, or trying to get time off work, started to call. If we get enough people show up, Martin even talked about getting another plane to add to the fleet of 3 Otters and the Sherpa. He said he'd steal one if he had to. This is looking better and better all the time.
By late afternoon people had begun to trickle in, and tent city was quickly filling up. Gravel had been poured in a large part of the area that used to be for tents so they could park RV's and trailers. There's not a lot of room left so it's going to get pretty cozy.
Since I figured I'd spend enough time in the air over the next 6 days I felt no need to do a jump, and instead started handing out cold beer to anybody in tent city who was interested. I don't think anybody said no thank you. Kim and Mathieu arrived late in the afternoon, with the RV pulling a trailer with their car on it. Tiny little Kim was driving, perched atop a couple of cushions so she could see over the dashboard. It was an early night, and earplugs were in order to sleep through the noise of the traffic on the highway just across the parking lot.
Mission 100. Day 1
"I only have 2 things left to do today, and the second one is To Fuck Your Widow!"
That's the greeting I called across the packing mat to Brian Forbes. He shouted the last part back in unison with me. It's the punch line to one of his favorite jokes.
We had a 9 o'clock start, and as we met on the creeper pad (in jumpsuits, no exceptions, no excuses), it was like a joyous family reunion. Everybody was greeting all the old friends they hadn't crossed paths with lately, and we were all running about shaking hands, hugging, and shouting greetings. But Martin Lemay quickly got down to business. he laid out the plan for the week, then Mario Prevost delivered a safety briefing. It was all pretty standard, except for how they were going to handle loading the Sherpa.
A Shorts Sherpa is like a stretched Skyvan. It will hold 34 jumpers, and needs a runway longer than is available at Parachute Montreal. The plan was to ferry us over to another nearby paved airport with 2 twin Otters, which would drop us off to load the Sherpa, and then the Otters would return to to St. Esprit to pick up the load they would carry to altitude. Martin asked us to be patient while they worked the kinks out of the system.
At the end I stuck up my hand to ask what the beer rules were. Several infractions were outlined, and in light of the expertise I had gained in the subject at the P3 camp, Mario appointed me Beer Cop for the entire event.
We were separated into groups, and got to work. I was in a group led by Mario, and he explained we would be doing a series of one point skydives, building formations similar to what we would see later in the week. At this point they were probably evaluating a number of people to see what they could, or could not do. When he asked for people to fly base and be a target for the rest of them, I stepped forward figuring I'd have plenty of opportunity to dive later. One guy showed up at the dirt dive without a suit, and I gleefully imposed a fine of a twelve of beer. "Nobody told me to bring my suit!" he protested. Serge turned on him and said "Be on time for the dirt dive, with your suit, no exceptions, no excuses!" We did learn a few things in California this spring.
The first jump took a while to lay out, and we were the third group to be ferried over to ride the Sherpa. We left St. Esprit at 10:45. The Sherpa was just departing with a load when we arrived, so we found the only patch of shade on the airport to await it's return. When it got back, it had to refuel, and so began the slowest refueling I have ever seen of any aircraft. We waited so long it our patch of shade that we had started to speculate about whether the pilot even knew we were waiting for him. Finally somebody walked down to see what was going on, just as the process was completed. We finally boarded the plane at 12:30.
But in the end, the ride was worth the wait. We took off with the huge rear door open, and when the pilot started down the runway we suddenly found ourselves sliding towards the opening as the slack was taken up on the belts securing us to the floor. I was at the very back and in a brief moment of panic as the aircraft lifted off I thought the pilot was trying to dump us out the back and pour us in a stream down the runway. As soon as we hit the ends of our belts I looked around to the wide eyes of the rest of the load, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one who had thought they were going to slide right out that door. The plane ride is usually pretty boring. After our heart rates returned to normal we enjoyed the view out the door as we climbed to altitude.
Our skydives went well, they quickly had the aircraft cycle and refueling problems worked out, and the rest of the day went smoothly. Except for when the guys who were exiting directly behind us flipped over and landed on the base shortly after an exit. But even that was a soft hit, and we almost flew through it before we dropped grips.
After the day end closeout, I wound up talking to Michel Lemay, and he explained the basic plan for the next few days. The 30 way base was pretty much set, and they would be jumping together as they locked in their mental pictures, and got used to dealing with any of the small problems that came up. The rest of us would be practicing building the helixes and the arms coming off of them. There would be a lot of repetition, and by the time we start the record attempts, "It will be like Groundhog Day." Instantly I knew what he meant. In the movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray keeps repeating the same day over and over and over again, until he knows everything that could happen that day, and how all the events could influence each other. We'll be doing the same, repeating dives, sorting people into their perfect slots, and working out everything that could happen so everybody is ready to deal with any glitches in the air.
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