First Jump Course and AFF Level 1

  As I mentioned in my last two entries, I'm getting into skydiving. After doing the two tandem jumps, I realized I could conquer my fear and actually get certified to jump, so I signed up for the First Jump Course (Ground School) and the first actual jump. The type of jump training I'm taking is called "Accelerated Freefall" or AFF for short.  There are 7 levels to AFF. The first three jumps, you jump from 14,000 feet with two instructors, each holding onto you as you freefall.  There are certain tasks you must do correctly during the free fall and then you deploy your chute and when it's time to land, they will talk you down on the radio. The next 3 jumps, you jump with only 1 instructor who only holds on to you when necessary and they only talk to you on the radio if necessary. Jump 7 puts it all together with one instructor. If you do everything good on that jump, you are then certified to jump solo (sans instructors) and work on proficiency tasks until you get 25 jumps and can be awarded your "A" license.

  This past Saturday, I started with step 1. I got to Skydive Atlanta at 0750 for an 0800 class start time. After sign in, and getting our student hand book and log, the instructor, Nick, came out, introduced himself to me and the other 3 guys in the class. Of the 4 of us, two of us had some previous jump experience and the other two had zero. How those two got up the nerve to try AFF with not even doing a tandem first is well beyond my comprehension. I had to do two tandems before I could decide to try it. But, Good on Them.  The class took most of the day. Nick taught us everything he could from showing us the airplane, the parts of the rig, how to put it on, how to arch, how to throw out the pilot chute, the dive flow, hand signals, pull priorities, how to do emergency procedures, landing patterns and altitudes, decision altitudes, how to deal with nuisances and malfunctions and how to tell the difference between the two, how to land, how to recover, and the list goes on. As you can see, with a 6 hour class, there is a lot of information to take in. Near the end, there started to be a bit of information overload. 

  After the sit down portion was over, we headed out to the mock-up where they have the door of the airplane built to practice exits. We went over the entire skydive that we would be doing that afternoon a good number of times.  Getting to the door: Right hand on door, right foot in doorway, left hand on door,  left foot behind right foot.  To inside (main side) instructor "Check In!" and he nods. The outside (reserve side) instructor, "Check Out!" and he nods. Look forward and yell "Prop! Up! (while raising your knees and heels up so they can see since they can't hear you) Down! (putting knees and heels back down) "Arch!" as you step out the door of the airplane at 14,000 feet.  All of that should be in a sort of cadence so the instructors can time it to leave with you still holding on. After you are stable, then look at your altimeter and call out the altitude to your reserve side instructor and wait for thumbs up.  Same to main side. Also look for any hand signals for things you might need to fix. Then you do three practice pulls with your pilot chute, then do you altitude call out again. After that, you just watch altitude and for any hand signals to comply. At 6,000 feet, you "lock on to altimeter." Meaning: Watch it and don't look away. At 5,500 feet, you wave you hands above your head to let anyone around you know you are about to deploy your chute and then you throw your pilot chute out. When your chute is out and everything is good, you go to the "playground" and play with you canopy until you get to landing altitude and then you do your landing procedures and pattern while they talk to you on the radio. Simple enough, right?? As we were doing it in the mock up, it was easy. :)  After the mock drills, we went back to the classroom for the written test. 30 questions. All 4 of us scored a 100% on the tests. And so, all we had to do then was get manifested and wait for our load to be called.
  Two of the guys went up in Load 7 for the day and me and the other guy went up in load 8. After Load 7 came in, one of my instructors, Gary, came and found me. We went in the gear room and he showed me the gear checks to do prior to any jump and the first jump of the day. After all the checks were done, I put on the jumpsuit that has handles for the instructors to hold and then the rig. After all the gear was on, we went out to the mock up and did the practice jump a couple times so they were sure Nick taught me and I retained what he taught.  Then we got the call to load......
  I put on my helmet and we boarded the plane. Rock, paper scissors and we were going to be the last group out of the plane on that load. (That actually comes into play a bit later)  We take off and at 1,000 feet, we unbuckle our seatbelts and take off the helmet. At 5,500 feet, I give a practice wave off and pilot chute pull and we all check each other's altimeters to make sure they are close. At 10,000 we do another handle check (this is actually about the 4th or 5th one we've done since putting on the gear) and Gary goes over hands signals with me again along with the dive flow.  At 13,000 feet, Gary asks me, "Are you ready to skydive?" I say, "Yes Sir!!"  Although, at this point in time, my heart is starting to race again. It's not near as bad as the first time and it's not as bad as the second time, so each time is getting better, but there is a healthy fear/anticipation along with every jump. Close to 14,000 feet, the door opens and people start to empty out the airplane. It's now my time. I get to the door.. Rich climbs out the door and hangs on. Gary pats the door sill and that's my cue.  Right hand, right foot, left hand, left foot.  I'm standing in the doorway with my right shoulder under the top of the door and my head and left side outside the airplane.  I feel hands on both sides of my jumpsuit. "Check in!" The nod. "Check Out!" The nod. As I look forward at the prop, I take a deep breath to clear my mind.  "Prop! Up! Down! Arch!" and away we go.  It takes but a couple seconds to get stable and start my "circle of awareness" heading, altitude, reserve side, main side. As I call out my altitude, I get the signal to push my legs out. I do, but not enough. I call out to my main side and he also gives me the legs signal. I try it some more. But still not quite there. I do my three practice pulls and I get the legs signal again. I push out this time and can actually feel the difference and so I finally got it right. I was about to call out 8,000 feet to main side and as I look over, he's giving me the "Pull Now!" signal.  I had no idea what was wrong, but I'm not arguing, so I pulled.  By the time the chute opened, I was at about 7,000 feet. 1500 feet above my pull altitude and close to 2,500 feet above the altitude I should be at after opening. I looked up and the canopy was square, stable and steerable, so I was good. Except I was way the hell up there. I did my steering checks and then went over to close to where we were supposed to use as our "playground." Since I was so far up, I stayed a bit away from the playground and would work my way over there when I lost some altitude. I was a bit bummed at the "pull now" because I figured, somehow, I screwed up and he aborted the jump.  I played around with the canopy doing turns and flaring and slowly worked my way towards the playground. When they finally got on the radio with me, they wanted me closer to it, so they go me to come on over. I was still about 4000 feet up. They had me doing 90 degree turns and other stuff to bleed off some altitude. Finally, I was within landing pattern altitude and they started talking me in. I was still a bit high, so just like I was told not to do, I ran my downwind portion a bit long hoping to lose enough altitude to not run long in the landing area.  Well, I sure didn't run long. In fact, because of the headwind I had, I barely even made it to the landing area. And since I was so close to the edge, that is also where the big gas tank is they use to fill up the gas truck.  That thing was getting bigger by the minute and I was headed right to it. I put it a tiny bit of right and was able to go right beside it. I was so fixated on the gas pump, I didn't flare as much as I should have and butt scooted my landing. My chute fell and it covered the gas pump. That's how close I was.  But, I was down safe and I now I wanted to know what I did wrong.  Gary came over and helped get the chute off the gas pump and I asked why we pulled so high and if I did anything wrong. In turned out, Rich was watching our progress and because we were last of the airplane, we had run pretty far past the airport. He had us pull high so we all had enough altitude to make it back to the airport. They both even told me that, normally, when they give the "pull now" signal, most people question it and they were actually surprised when I pulled as quick as I did, so I got kudos for that.  Sweet!!
  So, my debrief went well. They told me what I need to work on. I need to have a better "cadence type count" in the door way for timing. I also need to work legs out. They also brought up the fact that ran my downwind long and not to do that again.  Other than those things, they were happy with my other tasks and cleared me for Level 2.  Whoo-hoo!!
1 down, 6 more to go.. I'll write about them here also.
Until next time...

Skydive Part Deux

As I mentioned in my last post, we were slated to go skydiving again on 7 June. I had a group of 7 of us that decided to make the jump. 4 of us were repeats while three were first timers. A few of us met up and carpooled to the drop zone. The rest showed up at the DZ and everyone was there by the scheduled time.  We were split into 2 groups for the lifts, 4 in the first load and 3 in the next. Since we were split into two groups and three of us requested the same tandem master, I guess, since I was a repeat, they decided to let me jump with someone else. I had a deal with “JW” that he would let me use an altimeter and let me do everything there was to do to see if I was capable of doing it, so I was a bit bummed when they slated me with someone else. Remember, I was going to use this jump to see if I could overcome the pure fear that got me last time and to see if I actually had what it took to be able to get certified. He went and talked to “Drew,” my tandem master for this jump, and everything was cool. Drew got me an altimeter to use and he went through all the steps for me just as he would if I was an actual student.  We practiced the moves on the ground; how to hold my hands, how often to check the altimeter, how to grab the ripcord, etc., etc. Then we simulated hooking up and we did a dry run on the ground.  After that, we boarded and I noticed we were going to be the last guys off the plane where we were sitting.  On the way to altitude, we went over the steps and he gave me a couple ways to try to stay calm and keep the mind from racing, which did work, by the way. We kept checking altitude on our altimeters going up and once we got hooked up, we did our final check, the “skydiver handshake” and then the door opened. One by one, actually, two by two, we watched everyone plummet out the door on their 14,000 foot, 120 mph ride to Mother Earth.  Finally, it was our turn. We slid up the bench and got to the end of it where there was nothing between me and that open door. The last time, the fear was almost paralyzing. This time, there was anxiousness, but nothing more than a VERY nervous energy and anticipation running through me.  Although my stomach was turning, it was nothing compared to last time. We got to the door, I looked out at the horizon, took a breath to calm down even more and we were on our way.  The initial drop wasn’t as bad as I remembered it and we were stable under the drogue within seconds.  I got the tap to let go of my “happy handles” and assume the arch. I arched and immediately checked my altimeter.  When I checked, Drew then grabbed my arms and showed me what to do to turn in circles as we were falling. To be completely honest, I don’t remember which hand goes which way to turn which way, but it was a pretty badass feeling to control yourself like that. I checked altitude again. I also had no goggle issues this time. We do some more turns and I check again. Once I look down and see we are at about 6200 feet AGL, I stop looking around and focus on the altimeter as instructed. At 5500 feet, I wave my arms above my head like a Football Ref calling for time out. That lets everyone around you know you are about to pull the chute. After I wave, I reach back with my right hand, I put my left hand out in front of me (to counter act the hand going back) and pull the release for the chute. The chute opens and once we settle down, the first words from Drew’s mouth are, “Dude, you were awesome!! That was fuckin’ textbook!”  That made me feel great!!  He said every time he was about to tap me to remind me to check altitude, I was already doing it.  He gave me the toggles and let me steer towards the airport. At one point, we came into a cloud and he said, since you can’t see other canopies, you should spin down through a cloud, so that’s exactly what we did. My first skydiving IFR flight. It was very cool spinning down through the cloud.  Once we got closer to the airport, he took back over and brought us in for a nice smooth butt-scoot landing.  I was totally jazzed when we got on the ground!! I stared at what was/is one of my most primal phobias and took a major step towards conquering it. To really conquer it is to be able to jump out of that door with no one strapped to me or anyone holding onto me. I have 7 jumps I need to accomplish for that feat to happen.  I’ll write about each one of them.  My first is scheduled for Saturday, 5 July.
  On a side note: If you have ever wanted to try jumping out of a “perfectly good airplane” go do it!! With the chutes they have and the tandem systems, you have nothing to fear except fear itself.  Go see what it’s like to fall without feeling like you are falling and then the graceful glide of a parachute to a gentle landing in the grass. You may not ever do it again, but you will be able to say you did it at least once.  Then again, you may get bitten by the bug and want to learn to do it on your own like me.
Oh, and by the way, all 7 of my group were safe and sound that day and everyone had an AWESOME time!!!