Traveling Thoughts

I did my second skydive today, which was really my first AFF jump.  AFF being Accelerated Free Fall, accelerated in terms of the quick learning pace of the course, but really, my free fall was slightly accelerated when compared to my last jump, so take it as you will ;P

The day started with something like 6 hours of ground school.  Elijah tought ground school, Ken aided him when necessary.  I learned all sorts of things.  All of it was rather important in terms of I really needed to know all of it, but there were a few things that stick out in my mind mainly because it’s the things that either I didn’t do (and needed to) or the things I had to do (and wouldn’t have needed to had I done what I needed to).

It was the FIRST FJC (first jump course) that Elijah taught, and he did a good job as I have survived.  He taughted me everything I needed to know for everything that I encountered. 

This jump was basically 3 chapters, and in each chapter we were to focus on that chapter and only that chapter, although I find it difficult to think about much more than what I need to while I’m up in the air.

Chapter 1: Exit
We spent a fair amount of time on the exit (while we were on the ground), and I did my hotel check and count really well (in the air). 

Chapter 2: Freefall
But then I had problems, instead of arching I dearched, and basically I feel as though I may have tried to ball up when I let go of the plane and jumped backwards.  That was mistake one.  We did get me into arch position pretty quickly though (we being Ken, Elijah, and I). 

The next problem I had was with my leg extensions, I had them bent too much at the knees, so instead of flying belly parallel to earth, I was more knees paralell to earth, which created a few problems for me.  We were falling at an incline, which is difficult for me to describe here but when I get the video I’ll put it up.  They tried to get me to fix my legs, and at one point they were fixed, but then I went back to bending them.  They were giving me the proper hand signal but a few times right before I waved them off I was reading it wrong.

My arms were an issue as well, I held them too closely to my body instead of 90 degrees at the shoulders and 90 degrees at the elbows.

My arch was good though, I only recall getting the arch hand signal once.  I did all 3 of my practice deployment sequences well (where I touch the ripcord and put my other hand behind my back).

According to my altimeter we jumped at 10120 ft.  I don’t remember the altitude for most of my circle of awareness checks, but I did look at it at 6500 ft, saw the hand signal to straighten my legs, looked again, was at 6000ft, locked on to my altimeter, waved off at my 5500 ft, grabbed for my ripcord, it was tougher to pull it seemed like than when I tandem jumped, but I got it out, and hung on to it :)

Chapter 3: Canopy Flight
Due to my arms and legs however, when I did deploy I was turning so my lines got twisted, but that’s one of the 3 correctable routine opening problems so I was able to correct it.  I simply grabbed the risers above me, pulled them apart and kicked and I became untwisted.  I checked my chute again, it was big and square and full of air which meant that I was good to go on my controllability check.  I made sure that I was clear of traffic, released my break lines, did my 90 degree left turn, my 90 degree right turn, and my flair, I was in control of my parachute.  At this point, I heard Lee over the radio (we had radio control to guide us to the dropzone, but in an event that I lost contact, I did know how to at least find a clearing and land, even if it wasn’t at the dropzone, my priority at this point was to land safely, but I did have contact so I’ll continue on now)  Lee sent me in the general direction of the dz (dropzone) and let me spin (when you pull one toggle down to turn, but you pull it down hard so that you spin fast, that was fun. 

When I was at about 1000 ft, we set me up for my landing and I began my little box pattern (Lee directed me of course) and I was paying close attention because at some point, I’m gonna have to do this all by myself.  It was cool though, because instead of doing 90 degree turns, Lee instructed me to do 450 degree turns (360 and then my 90).  It was a lot of fun. 

When it was time to land, I was all set up to practically land in the middle of the target (which is what will eventually be my goal when I have to land with no radio instruction) I flaired on command and landed on my feet, but my parachute went forward so I went down on my butt.  I said it was a butt landing but everyone else didn’t think so, it’s like I basically sat down after I landed.  It was a lot of fun.

Big John helped me up and helped me pick up my chute (actually, he did all the gathering), as we have to be very careful to not drag it on the ground.  And off we went to the van.

In the van I had my debriefing, in which we talked about my arms and my legs and what I did right and wrong.

And now the fun stuff, speeds, numbers and logbook entry.

I jumped at 10,120 ft
Locked on my altimeter at 6,000 ft
I waived off my instructors at 5,500 ft
I pulled the ripcord at 5,000 ft
My parachute was fully deployed and functional at 4,170 ft
My fastest speed was 138 mph
My average speed was 130 mph
My slowest speed was 120 mph
I had 36 seconds of freefall time

As the logbook tells us, I had:
Good climbout.  Good count.  Dearch on exit.  Legs to far in.  Good response to hand signals.  3 prep’s completed.  Good altitude awareness.  Work on leg extension, arm postitions.  Clear to Cat B.  Good canopy work and landing.

I think the most important thing there is that I’m clear to do my Category B jump.  It’s basically the same thing as my Cat A jump, but I also get to be aware of where I’m heading.

Can’t wait to jump again, I’m thinking 2 weeks and I’ll be in the air again.