First AFF jump on Friday

[gmcenroe 0]

I thought about skydiving 6 months ago and bought the Skydivers Handbook read some of it and put it aside until a few weeks ago when a friend said he and his son were taking the AFF class and did I want to join them. I was busy and wanted to hear how there class went until I committed to taking it. I also want to learn to fly fixed wing gliders so skydiving was kind of a secondary goal. Well they survived and had fun so I signed up for the AFF at Adventure Skydive in Hollister and showed up at 9AM.

Aviva was my ground school instructor. She is a redhead and during a lot of the class I kept thinking back to my first love who was also a redhead, but anyway I better pay attention this is important. In addition to being very friendly and patient she was a great instructor.

Later Adam gave me instruction in exit procedures from Air King and Cessna. We went throught lots of practice scenarios and emergency procedures, jump flow and canopy control.

I had lunch while my friend took his B jump, all the while thinking a bit nervously about my first jump, more nervous about whether I would remember it all rather than being nervous about the jump itself. I ran through the procedure over and over until I had it down in my head before the jump.

I suited up and met Raff who would join Adam as my jumpmasters. Raff was a real confidence builder and I felt really safe jumping with both of them at my side.

The jump went real well from 15000 out of the Air King. I had some problems with my legs being way to straight but I made it through all the COAs and practice pulls, locked on at 7000 and pulled right on 6000. The canopy opened beautifully and I tested thr controls and sailed into the drop zone landing pattern with Raff's radio prompts for a real soft landing.

My first jump has been running through my mind all weekend and I look forward to my next jump. I guess I am going to have to add skydiving to glider piloting to my air adventures.

I hope all future skydivers have a safe and fun jump as my first one went.

Glenn

[skymama 35]

Welcome to the forums!

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[brianfry713 0]

Congrats. Raff was one of my AFF first jump instructors as well. Aviva's really cool too. Skydiving skills might come in handy if you ever have to use an emergency parachute from a glider. You never forget the first jump, but they keep getting better. There's a lot of good info in the Skydiver's Handbook, but be sure to listen to whatever the fine instructors in Hollister have to say. Have fun jumping out of the King Air, keep it up.

BASE 1224, Senior Parachute Rigger, CPL ASEL IA, AGI, IGI
USPA Coach & UPT Tandem Instructor, PRO, Altimaster Field Support Representative

[gmcenroe 0]

My pilot friend who got me down to Hollister for my first jump and I are flying back down there on Friday from Palo Alto for another skydive. I'm going for my B jump, my friend for his D jump. Last Friday I took a nice glider lesson there as well. That was a lot of fun, just like the simulator. The instructor asked me if I wanted to land the glider while he controlled the airbrake. It was my first flight there so I just flew the pattern and let him do the landing.

I am looking forward to my B jump, hopefully I will be a bit more relaxed this time so I can get my legs right this time. Maybe I may even get a vidoe this time. I can tell my friends at work are tired of hearing about my first skydive. They just think I'm a crazy fool. They don't know what they are missing!

I'll post a followup message after my dive.

Till then, take care,
Glenn

[gmcenroe 0]

Today was a great day of flying and skydiving. My friend Gary is a pilot so we decided to rent one of the Cessna's out of Palo Alto Airport and fly down to Hollister for some more skydiving. Gary was planning on his level D and I was set to do the level B jump.

We flew out of Palo Alto around 10:00 after futzing around with the GPS and all the preflight checks. The sky was very clear with winds around 5 knots. We had a real nice flight, most of the work being radio handoffs through a couple of the flight corridors of the bay area air traffic and arrived in Hollister at 11:00.

Raff and Adam again were my jump instructors. Raff taught me all about foward flight and left and right turns on the dollies, then I waited for my load. Gary got his training and jumped on the first load. He had a good dive but made us a bit nervous with some late canopy turns to try to head upwind on his landing. Fortunately he made a good landing.

My jump started with the usual plane exit and count. I was so much more relaxed this jump I could actually see so much more. After getting stable arch after a real nice exit, I did my COAs, 3 practice touches, then did some forward flight. I was flighing forward but without a reference in the air it was hard to tell that I was really going forward, but I was. Then I did a left turn about 180, followed by a right turn 180 degrees. All went real well. As I completed my right turn, I was at about 5500, did my wave off and pulled. The canopy seemed to take longer to deploy and I looked back just as the canopy inflated. I had a small bit of twist that I got out of and all looked good on the canopy. Did some practice flares, and turns getting set for the landing pattern. Raff prompted me on the landing, but I felt like I knew just what to do on my own. I made another real nice soft landing and was back in the van for debriefing and ride back to Adventure Skydive.

Frankly, in my mind I was thinking that depending on how well this dive went I would decide whether I would continue on training. It was so much more relaxing and comfortable that I really enjoyed it. Now I am committed to completing the training and look forward to my next jump.

Thanks go out again to my jumpmasters Raff and Adam for another great skydive.

Glenn

[gstukey 0]

Welcome aboard!!