Does solo fear go away?

[peanutgallery 0]

Hey everyone, I am new to skydiving and new to the forums. I have made two tandem jumps in the last 3 weeks and am seriously considering taking the TAFF course at my DZ. I trust the tandem masters with my life (obviously) and I'm not sure if I will ever trust myself that much. It seems like most accidents are lack of quick thinking and decision making, I'm worried that I will panic during an emergency. Does that confidence get built with the training? Any advice?

I used to have a handle on life, but it broke

[peregrinerose 0]

Congrats on your tandems!

Once you sit through an AFF course and the training is beaten into your head during that first jump course as well as subsequent training/jumps, you do get to feel more comfortable with your ability to react to problems and the manageability of skydiving.

It's just like anything else... the unknown is a frightening thing. AFF is designed to take skydiving from the 'unknown' to the 'known' and you'd be surprised how reassuring that is.

I am still just a little nervous before every skydive, but that's okay. I love jumping and the friends I've made in this sport.

Do or do not, there is no try -Yoda

[DFWAJG 4]

well, yes and no. I have over 200 jumps and I still get scared. But the less time between jumps, the less afraid I am. As far as "panic" is concerned, you'll have so much drilled into your head that when the time comes, it will all come back to you.

On my level 4 (IAF), I hesitated out the door, and opened a little lower than I was supposed to open. Had no idea where I was and was flying away from the dz. Radio guy yells, "I have no idea where you are, find a big opened area and stay safe." PANIC!!!!!!! all I saw were trees, telephone wires and a river. huhuhuhuhuhuh. deep breath. and everything Linda had taught me, all came back. then I saw the big farmers field. Landed right in the middle of it..5 miles from the dz! First time I ever hitch-hiked.

you'll do great. a little fear is a good thing. it keeps you from getting arrogant and will keep you doing the smart thing.

[DropDgorgeous 0]

I'm still busy with my AFF, and honestly, what the other guys say is true. You can wake me up in my sleep by now and and I'll be able to tell you the emergency procedures - It gets so drilled into you. Just do it, it' s a much more wonderful experience jumping on your own. I did a tandem again a week ago - at a different dropzone - and it just wasn't as much fun as I remembered my first tandem to be, because I had jumped on my own a few times.

[peanutgallery 0]

Thanks for all the encouragement, definitely makes me feel better. I'm going for my first jump course and first training jump sometime in the next 2 weeks! Very Excited!!

I used to have a handle on life, but it broke

[Melissa76 0]

I'm right there with ya! Doing my first AFF jump this Saturday after having 4 tandems during the past year. It seems there's a lot written about the freefall aspect and without at all trying to sound arrogant, I think I get how that goes. What I'm not sure about is flying my own parachute, but I trust the course covers that ;-) Feel free to email me after this weekend and I'll certainly be willing to share my experience!

[peanutgallery 0]

Good Luck! You must be stoked!

I used to have a handle on life, but it broke

[GaryRay 0]

that first solo jump is the best, everything just builds off of it.

JewBag.
www.jewbag.wordpress.com

[pinkfairy 0]

Your training is designed to prepare you for everery possible emergency, so that you respond correctly instead of panicking.

Panicking in an emergency situation could easily kill you, and since people make mistakes and are generally unpredictable, there is always a risk of that happening.

I'd say see how you feel about it after having done all the ground training. I'm sure you'll feel a lot better.

And after you've learned to pull your own handles, then you will probably not want anyone else (such as a TM) to do it. TMs are just ordinary people like you and me, only they have a few more skydives.

Oh, and a point to make as you have done tandems and want to jump by yourself: it looks easy to steer and land the canopy, and it is, but you need to pay attention and do it right, because it's very important. A safe landing allows you to go up again.

Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet.

I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

[DropDgorgeous 0]

During my first solo jump after the chute had opened, I got this surreal feeling - like, I'm actually here
Flaring is just supposed to happen much later than I originally thought it did. On my first jump I flared very high, but on subsequent jumps I realized you actually do it quite near to the ground - it's just frightening having to control yourself to wait that long to flare, but practice makes perfect - the last two jumps I actually landed on my feet - standing.

On my third jump, because of the direction of the wind, I had to play around in the corner of our airspace closest to the helipad - that was an experience - while you're flying around helicopters are taking off and landing right underneath you - that got my heart beating a little faster, but the more jumps i'm doing, the more confident i'm getting.

I actually found the first solo jump a bit disappointing - maybe because I barely remembered anything of it because of the sensory overload, but after that, I've been enjoying it more and more. The more aware you are of what you're actually doing, the greater it gets.

[Melissa76 0]

After the chute opens and you've checked it, what's next? Do you look for the DZ and just try to head toward it? I guess that's the part that's got me a bit bunged - I know I'll learn about it in training but I always like previews!

[DropDgorgeous 0]

Before I went up they showed me an airphoto of our dropzone, so you'll know what it looks like from the air. You don't really need it though because the plane usually drops you directly over the dropzone, or near enough to it (it has a set route back and forth over the dropzone). My instructor sometimes looks out the door before we jump to make sure we're near the dropzone, but it's not really necessary.

Otherwise, if you really don't see it, which is quite unlikely, you just start looking where the other people are landing - quite easy to see from the air since the chutes are normally brightly coloured.

At our dropzone we have four corner beacons to mark out the student landing area eg. a hanger, and then, depending on which direction the wind is coming from, you play around at one of the beacons. We have to go to the one from which direction the wind is blowing.

That's the time you can use to start getting comfortable with the chute - play around, do 360's, see how strong the wind is when flying forward, etc.

In your training they'll teach you your landing formation (it usually differs according to the dropzone) - ours is as follows: as soon as you get to 1000ft, you start flying downwind, at 500ft you turn to crosswind, and at 250 you turn upwind - that way you land into the wind and it also helps slow you down even more.

I'm doing level 6 and 7 on Saterday, and I can't wait - I have to do a forward dive out of the plane, and in the jump I have to do a backflip as well. The first few jumps we just stepped out and arched, so i'm a bit nervous about this one, but i'll think it'll be fun .

When are you starting your course?

[Melissa76 0]

Okay yeah...yikes....all that stuff about downwind, crosswind, upwind....I'm lucky if I know east from west much less all of that! I hope there is an easy way to determine such things! Anyhow, congratulations on your progression....sure sounds like fun to do all of those flips. Sure hope I get that far unless all of this directional stuff renders me hopeless. My first AFF jump is scheduled for this Saturday :-)

[DropDgorgeous 0]

There oughta be a few windsocks at the dropzone. Basically downwind means in the direction of the smallest side of the windsock, crosswind - you sorta do a 90 turn, but it doesn't have to be exact - I've never really concentrated all that much on it, and upwind is just to fly in the direction of the big part of the windsock again. At that altitude, you're already close to the ground, so you can get yourself beacons, like when you're going downwind, look to - say your right - maybe there's a building, and then when you do crosswind - just try to turn towards the building so that you're looking at it. But don't stress too much about that - I've done some landings where I totally screw up the landing sequence and then just look at the windsock to try and see in what direction I must land.

I've started looking at the windsock before we go up though - on my first jump, after my chute opened, I looked where I knew there was a windsock, and I couldn't see it. Kind of freaked me out a bit. I started looking at the other jumpers to see in what direction they're landing. When I got to the ground I realized there was no wind ie. windsock won't be lifted.

They'll teach you the order of importance for landing - Flare, land in an open area, and lastly - prefrably into wind, so if you screw up, not such a big deal, unless there's a VERY strong wind, but they usually don't let students jump then. My jump last Saterday was cancelled because of the wind. They're very safety aware.

[virgin-burner 1]

NO.

thats why most licensed skydivers jump together out of the plane. they're shitless scared and want to hold a hand..


j/k

“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
"No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

[pinkfairy 0]

Quote

NO.

thats why most licensed skydivers jump together out of the plane. they're shitless scared and want to hold a hand..


j/k

There's actually some truth in that. It is more dangerous to go out together, but you still feel kinda safer when seeing your friends around you. Oh, and it's about 100 times more fun than going out alone.

Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet.

I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

[SkyChimp 0]

Quote

Hey everyone, I am new to skydiving and new to the forums. I have made two tandem jumps in the last 3 weeks and am seriously considering taking the TAFF course at my DZ. I trust the tandem masters with my life (obviously) and I'm not sure if I will ever trust myself that much. It seems like most accidents are lack of quick thinking and decision making, I'm worried that I will panic during an emergency. Does that confidence get built with the training? Any advice?

You know what they say about FEAR......

It's a sign of INTELLEGENCE

Does anyone else find it funny that we made a SPORT out of an EMERGENCY PROCEDURE?!?!

[mikempb 0]

Does solo fear go away?

hope not!! whats wrong with a little fear?? the answer is Nothing!! Anyway dont worry too much about how you will handle your emergency procedures until you actually learn what they are. Remeber this, anticipation of something is worse than the thing you fear. So go have fun ( remember thats why your doing it) pay attention in class and go have some more fun!!