Entries Tagged 'Skydiving' ↓

Jumping has been getting better and better. My first jump, I rolled out at 11k last night and watched the plane fall away. Then I did a hop and pop from 6k for my license.

Here are some pictures from jumps 14-15.

Blue Skies!

I finished AFF. It took about a month but I did it, and I am very happy about it.

I spent the entire weekend out at Lost Prairie this past weekend. I learned how to pack on Friday night, jumped once on Saturday, and twice on Sunday. The last jump was my 6th AFF and my graduation.

It took me about 15 minutes after my last jump to realize that the next jump I made would be cheap and easy. No more waiting around for an instructor, no more watching tandems fly up wishing I was on the plane, no more jumps filled with instructions and rushed moves. I can’t wait to get back up there.

I finally got to do my level 3 aff jump yesterday. It was way overdue and I would have lost my mind if I hadn’t jumped. It was pretty cloudy and only about 65F out. It was so cold out that when we hit about 10K I could see my breath. After exit the jump went really good. I learned that I need to arch WAY more than I was before and got that all sorted out as Fred and Mike let me go. I fell really straight and didn’t have a problem keeping a heading. I pulled at 5500 and had a snapper of an opening with a line twist. I figured out later that night that since I look over my shoulder on open that I turn which is giving me a twist. Next time I jump I am going to make sure I don’t turn my whole body on open, but just my head. Landing was right on and I only had to take one step forward.

I am heading back out tomorrow night to learn how to pack and get some more jumps in this weekend.

I see why there are so few skydivers. You almost have to take a loan out just to get under 10 jumps, you spend your remaining time and money getting to and from the dropzone. Getting through the AFF course is damn ridiculous.

This week was a dry skydiving week for me. I was going to make a jump on Tuesday, but weather got in the way once again. I talked with the guys at Lost Prairie throughout the week about the next possible time to make a jump. They were heading down to the Hamilton Boogie and thought they could round me up some instructors.

On Friday night I waited for a phone call from Fred that would be a yes or no for making a trip down. I got a call at 9:30 letting me know everything was good to go. The next morning I drove down to Hamilton and started waiting.

I was there at about 11:00 and didn’t do my dive flow until about 3:00. As the day wound on it became increasingly windy and at about 6:00 we pulled the plug on my AFF jump.

That night a storm rolled in and the next morning there were low clouds as far as you could see. I left for the 3 hour drive back. I wouldn’t say I have ever been a patient person, but even though I drove 300 miles for almost nothing I was strangely fine with it. I have really started to accept things that I can’t control, and they don’t bother me like they have.

The forecast for the next week looks great though so it is possible that there could be some more jumps (finish AFF?) over the course of the next couple of weeks.

This Friday I did my second AFF jump at Skydive Lost Prairie. The entire weekend was extremely nice and I was expecting to get at least four jumps in. Unfortunately there were tandems lined up the entire weekend which cut me down to just one jump. It was about 5:30PM before I got to do my only jump on Friday. The jump went well although my nerves were much worse than the first jump. After exit it took me a little while to really sink into the sky, but I relaxed and everything came together. My turns went well and I had time to track forward a bit. I locked on just above 6000 and when 5500 came around I rushed and fumbled for the ripcord a bit before I got a solid grip on it. That was my biggest mistake, but overall I thought it was a good jump. I will be more relaxed for level three and if all goes well I should breeze on through the rest of my jumps.

Mike brings a tandem in for a landing