chrismgtis

I'm in that phase of AFF where we are starting to be instructed on being aware of what is outside of the plane when we jump, where the DZ is, etc. You're right it's a good idea to look around for traffic. You have to admit, it's a big sky and we can make mistakes. At this point I would rather jump out of the plane before looking at an odd angle outside of the plane risking falling out unstable lol. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

Yea if you did a static line HALO jump I'd say you were beyond nuts. That would be a hell of a long canopy ride and way too close to airliner cruise altitude. lol I'd love to do a HALO jump someday, but a big hell noooo on a static line HALO. rofl Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

Are we supposed to be proud of this? lol Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

I personally think it's pretty stupid for any aircraft of any kind to be flying (other than the DZ aircraft taking skydivers up) within a mile of the DZ at all. I know DZs also have small aircraft they take up, but hopefully they know better than to go anywhere near the freefall/canopy path of the divers and to stay on the opposite side of the DZ from where the jumpers got out if possible. As far as aircraft not owned by the DZ it seems like there should be a law to prohibit aircraft from being within 1 miles of the DZ (unless they stay above abotu 16-17,000). That's just my opinion though. I'd personally be pretty pissed if I came within 1000 ft. of another aircraft after I'm out of the plane. 1000 ft is a safe enough distance from myself that I'd feel comfortable, but there are plenty of other divers within 1000 ft of myself that could be very close to the aircraft. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

I highly recommend having a doctor check your ear canals, ear drums and sinuses (before a first ever jump). That might sound crazy, but it can't hurt when you consider the damage that could occur if you go up and jump with a problem. You will have absolutely no clue if there is a partial blockage in your ear canal. If the doctor says your canal is clean and your ear drums look healthy, go for it and jump as long as you don't have a cold the day of the jump. Other than that, have fun and you should be 100% fine. I know about the ear canal blockage from personal experience. I had a huge peice of earwax in my left ear canal that I had no clue was there. My hearing was not effected, but my jump was. I had some pain in my left ear during the freefall (couldn't seem to get the pressure equalized - I just heard a weird squish sound sort of when I would try in that ear). I only felt a little discomfort for about 30 minutes or so I guess after we landed. Then I was fine. Still I had a nurse check my ear and she couldn't see my ear drum because of an obstruction. So I went to a doctor to get checked on cause I wanted to be safe since I was going to jump again and came to find out I had a retracted ear drum (after the doctor removed a huge peice of ear wax from my ear). I waited about 2 weeks to jump and went back up and was fine from there on out. I've not had any problems at all in the last 5 jumps since my tandem. I was told the more you jump the better your body gets at equalizing the pressure. That seems very true because I never even have to do anything to equalize pressure anymore. It just happens naturally now which is pretty cool. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

Yea I read those earlier :). Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

I'm not really sure whether my arms/hands were above my head or not. I'll mention that to my instructor next time and let him/her take a look at my arch to see what he/she thinks. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

The toe tap is one thing the instructor recommended and wrote on my log book to try on the next jump. I've actually been thinking about going to an outdoor tunnel in Appalachian one week. I just need to decide to go without a dive one week and go to the tunnel instead. I kind of hate to do that, but I'm sure it would help. I'll see how it goes this Saturday and if I have the same problem, I think I'll make a trip to the tunnel. I'll speak with one of the instructors at the DZ too that has been on all of my AFF dives except for this last one. Maybe he will have some additional insight into my problem having seen my progression through AFF. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

I had a small issue yesterday morning on AFF Level 4. When the instructor let go, I went into a spin (imagine a yaw turn, while stable on other axis). On AFF3 when I was released I didn't have any problems whatsoever. I floated there for what I think the instructors said was about 30 seconds (not really sure) and when the time came I pulled with no problem and maintained stability in the pull. The instructor said one thing I needed to do was keep my head up and that I kept looking down. I think one attributing factor to that was there was some confusion in the jump (the exit was a little unstable in the first few seconds and then the spinning). It wasn't a big problem. The spin wasn't too fast and I looked at my altimeter right at 6000' and pulled by 5000'. I will have to repeat AFF4 since I couldn't get out of the spin until pull time. No big deal though. Thought I would see if anyone had some suggestions as to what may have caused the spin. In the air I figured one of my legs or arms were higher/lower, so I tried to arch and relax like I was trained. That didn't seem to work so I tried moving one leg up or down. Only had about 4-5 seconds to really experiment. As I said, I felt that I was really stable on all axis except for that one. It was a spin just like the intentional 90 and 180 degree turns that we practice on the ground (and are done in AFF3). Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

I thought it was 1.8 degrees/1000ft? EDIT: Hm, well I was close, hehe. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

I guess there was a little more to the license process than I thought. I know it may differ at different DZs, but from what I understood you complete Phase 1 (7 jumps - the 7th actually being a solo?) and Phase 2 (2 jumps?), then just jump solo (supervised/coached) the remaining 25 jumps and your licensed. It looks like there is a little more to it than that. Sorry if I am derailing the original intention of the post. If anyone wants to just PM me and get me straightened out or something thats fine with me. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

Alright I thought might had totally misunderstood the process or something. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

This might be a question I should already know, but why would it take you 56 jumps? I thought you are required to have 25 jumps total for the A license and as long as you complete the 7 jumps in Phase 1 and the 2 jumps in Phase 2 and eventually total 25 jumps you are qualified for an A License? Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

LOL! I think I've closed my eyes for about 2 seconds after the exit on all four jumps which include my tandem. Either that or I was so buffed on adrenaline I don't remember anything until leveling out a few seconds later. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

Telling my nerves to shut up when it's time to exit. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

Hey don't feel bad. Still scares the crap out of me when I'm about to exit (although I've done only 4 jumps I think the fear just gets worse for me ) . The best thing I know to do is just say to yourself that you're there to jump and if you're going to do it, what's the point in being afraid. Listen to your instructors every word and have faith in what you've been taught. If you don't, talk to your instructors and go over whatever you feel you need to work on. Breathe deep and relax. Think about something else or just imagine skydiving as an everyday activity like riding a bike. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

No big deal. I thought I wouldn't pass AFF1 and I did. I didn't do too well on AFF1. I moved my arm towards my face to look at the altitude and got confused a few times trying to remember what to do. The instructors also had to pull for me because I had trouble finding the hackey sack. On AFF2 I did much much better. Still needed to work on my legs a little bit, but I was pretty happy with AFF2 besides the fact that I hesitated a little and lost altitude and was not able to do my turns or dive. When I repeated AFF2 I did that much better. I got my turn in and my dive, did all my COA's, etc. The landing was great. The one real thing I needed to work on was I didn't exit exactly as I should. A lot of people repeat levels and I've seen some videos of some pretty bad attempts at level 1, so I wouldn't beat yourself up. I did at first then I realized most people don't do too well on AFF1. Besides some people repeat a lot of levels. I'm still a little scared to death of walking up to that door in the aircraft so don't feel bad about any exit anxiety. I found myself saying "why in the ____ am I doing this?" yesterday. You just remember that all that fear dissapears as soon as you exit. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

Yea it does. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

Completed AFF2 today (had to re-do it because I ran out of altitude before working on my turn/dive). Under canopy I had 5-6 line twists and had to get out of that. Had no problem doing so. Thanks to Judy for covering line twists in AFF class. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

Hey don't feel bad. I'm having to repeat AFF2 and I feel like I am more nervous each time I jump. Only on the exit though, after that I'm fine. You did fine as far as I can tell, I've seen people do a lot worse in AFF videos, tumbling like a snowball down a hill. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

That's exactly what I was thinking too. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

That seems like something you might want to ask the USPA or a lawyer possibly. They may know more about the legalities of that type of thing. If the DZ is infact doing that, that's not cool. Accidents happen. If it wasn't that DZ's fault then they shouldn't be punished for it. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

I thought farting in America was part of our culture. A lot of us seem to think it's a little too hilarious. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

Well god-f'ing-dammit, nevermind! Stupid bad weather. Heh yea, a big.. DOH! Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

Neither have I, but then again I only have 3 jumps so far, so who knows. Maybe this Saturday. Just kidding. One of the instructors is going to read this and be like "don't you dare". Hehe. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan