I landed off the dropzone for the first time because I spent thirty seconds tidying my straps at the wrong moment. Every decision after that was about giving up a worse option.
2024-07-18, jumping at Dropzone Thailand to keep my license current.
The red arrow is the direction of my final. The yellow arrow is the windsock.
After I pulled I was across the runway, so I set off to fly back over it. While I was doing that I did some housekeeping - tying the slider, the leg straps, the chest strap. That is where this goes wrong. Housekeeping is not free; it costs you attention and it costs you the distance you drift while you are not watching.
By the time I looked up I had flown past the runway and reached the road, with about 2,000 feet.
I aimed for the start of the downwind at 800 feet, saw I was not making ground fast enough, and switched to aiming for base at 400 feet instead, with about 1,500 feet left.
At about 800 feet it was clear base was not reachable either. I went to half brake, checked my position against the ground, saw I was not moving, and let it off again.
At about 200 feet there were two options left: keep pushing for base with a good chance of finding the trees, or land off. I took the offsite landing, made a small turn on final at about 100 feet, and landed safely in tall grass that was still wet from the monsoon.
After that jump the dropzone set a 300-jump limit, so I moved to another dropzone.