Born to jump!!! Not...

  There are certain people in this world that are born to do certain things. Michael Jordan and LeBron James were born to play basketball. Derek Jeter was born to lay baseball. Tony Stewart was born to drive race cars. Some things just come naturally to people. Well, as I found out Saturday, Dale Hall is not a born skydiver.
  When I took my initial scuba diving classes, my instructor said he saw something in me in the first class and thought to himself, "This guy is a scuba diver." And, most of the stuff did come pretty easy to me. I have gotten all my ratings with ease and have never had a real issue with anything new concerning scuba diving.  I can assure you, my skydiving instructors are not thinking the same thing about me.
  Saturday, 6 Sept 2014 was my Level 3 AFF jump. Level three is where they let go of you for the first time. And, if you remember the multitude of steps I had to do in Level 2, that I did all in the wrong order, this jump was MUCH easier.  All I had to do on this time was: Exit, and when stable, call out altitude one time, 1 practice pull, tap my toes together, and then stay steady when they let go. Hold heading, lock at 6000, wave off and pull at 5500. Under canopy, I only had to try and stall my canopy and then I could play around until 2000 feet and then start my landing run at 1000.  Easy-peasy!!! Well, the steps were easy to remember.
  Today, my instructors were two I had never met before. My main-side was Ryan and my reserve-side was Ashton. Ashton is a tiny female that weighs about 100, if that. So, because she doesn't fall very fast, they put me in a HUGE jumpsuit to slow me down. (Only because she's tiny and not because I'm a fat ass.. Um, yeah. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it)  After I did my first jump of the day briefing with Gary, they hooked me up with Ashton and Ryan. We did the gear check and when we got the 20 minute call, we geared up and went to the mock up to practice the exit and dive flow.  Everything seemed good to go.  We boarded and after doing my handle checks and practice wave and pull at 5500 feet, Ashton turned around and did the final gear check for me and we went back over everything. At about 11,000 feet, the "skydiver handshake" was being done all around and around 13,500 feet, the door opened. The green light comes on and the Silver Wings pile out in one big group. After them, a single fun jumper went and then it was my turn before a big load of tandems. Again, the nerves were there but nothing that couldn't be handled. That truly does get better each time. In the door, Right Hand, Right Foot, Left hand, Left foot. Check in, Check out. Prop! Up! Down! Arch, Arch, Arch! Down the "hill" we go and we get stable. I check altitude and yell over to Ashton. I didn't wait for her to give me the "OK" and moved over to Ryan. Then, I see both of them give me the "Legs" signal. I push them out and get better. I do my practice pull and my toe taps. Check altitude. I feel them start to let go, but I keep feeling like I want to turn. I get the "Arch" sign and try that and then I see another "Toe Tap" signal from Ryan. I do it, but I still feel like I want to turn. I'm struggling to stay steady and although not tumbling through the sky, I feel totally out of control. Maybe not "out of control" but definitely not in control. I'm watching altitude while struggling to maintain heading and stability. I finally lock on at 6000 and wave off and pull at 5500. (I was happy I was finally able to wave off and pull on my own this time) When the canopy opens, both left and right end cells didn't inflate, but I grab the toggles, one quick flare and everything is square, stable and steerable.  Under canopy, I did my stall. You can't really stall that big of a canopy, but I did get it to slow enough where it pendulum-ed me forward. After that, I just played around with spins and turns over the playgroup. Over in the distance a big thunderstorm was happening and it looked awesome from a 3000 foot vantage point. That was the first time I wished I had a camera with me. Ryan talked to me a bit on the radio to keep me away from some tandems and then I brought myself for another text-book butt-scoot landing. One of these I'm going to stand one up, but not today.  After I was down, Ryan came over to help me with picking up the canopy. I thought I knew how to do it, but I was so bad at it, he had to have me put it back on the ground and start over three times before I finally got it right.
  During my debrief, we went over the dive. To make a long story not too much longer, I had de-arched slightly during the dive and I had one leg that was a bit lower than the other. Those two issues caused me to want to spin. I asked if they even let go of me and he said they did, but they stayed close and blocked me with their arms to keep me from spinning. I never got out of the wanting to spin stage, but they were hands off for most of the jump.  He said my canopy run was fine. He said my landing was started about 2 feet too late and I was slightly slow on the flair which resulted in the butt scoot. If I start a bit higher and flair a bit faster, I'll be spot on. All in all, it was good jump, however, in level 4 you must go hands free while making 2 90 degree turns and dock with your instructor on forward flight, they weren't confident to let me go on to that level. He said, to help me progress, he does feel confident I can go with one instructor, but he wants me to repeat the Level 3 dive flow with a single instructor. Although bummed that I didn't totally pass it, I totally agree with his assessment. I have to be able to stable before I can turn and dock. So, instead of moving on the Level 4, I will be doing, what I call,  Level 3-B.
  Like I said, some people are born to do certain things and those things come natural to them. I am not a born skydiver, but I can be taught.
Until next time...

Top pic is me coming in on final.
Bottom pic: Waking back in with Ryan after FINALLY getting my chute picked up.

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...