wormly81 0 #1 March 24, 2009 Many thanks to John for answering a hundred questions and to Carol for a great video. Looking forward to learning more in the IAF program. Best, Jeff Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skymama 35 #2 March 24, 2009 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 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jsreznor 0 #3 March 24, 2009 s'up dude. i did the IAF at the Ranch last year. you'll have a blast with pete and linda and marius and tanya. safety weekend is this weekend, so lots of people will be about. schedule your tandem 2 and 3 and ask for linda about the 6 hour course you'll have to take. cya! Victor Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
piahenzi 0 #4 March 24, 2009 John rocks! One of the most patient TMs I know. Congratulations!! See you around the Ranch! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
airathanas 0 #5 March 26, 2009 I learned through IAF at the Ranch 10 years ago. Carol and Marie were my instructors. They were awesome and I had a great time learning there. I highly recommend it!http://3ringnecklace.com/ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wormly81 0 #6 April 28, 2009 Im going to update as to my progress because I know that all of you out in cyberland couldn't go on without knowing whats happening in MY life... Tandems number 2 and 3 were done the weekend following my first jump. I was fortunate to jump with Kevin who is remarkably personable and fun to shoot the shit with. CJC with Linda the following weekend. We were the only ones at the DZ and the 50mph wind gusts made sitting around without jumping bearable as I would have probably just freaked out if people were running in and out of the room grabbing gear to jump. Then came the winds. BOOOOO. That Sunday was no good. The next weekend no good. I took a trip down to the New River Gorge for some climbing (but still the weather was no good). This weekend the school was in full swing. Saturday I did my level 4 and hit everything right on and finished up with a stand up landing. Sunday my level 5 didnt go as well. I didnt perform well at the door (looked to my instructor before being ready which precipitated some bad communication). My practice touches SUCKED! I was so focused on the maneuvers to follow that I didnt even touch on my first try. Flight was good but my arms were down too low and therfore I wasn't spilling air very well; nothing an exaggerated arch couldnt handle. A weak throw and some line twist that pinned my head forward but quickly worked itself out. Another stand up landing! Level 6 was my best jump so far. On exit I felt like I was being flipped over from my instructor side. I arched like crazy and got my left arm way out to try and grab some air. Turns out that my instructor had ended up with her head underneath me and was carefully extracting her helmet from near my handles. Practice touches and we were good to go. I was flying much more stable with my arms back and head up. Still had some instability on my altitude checks due to bringing my arm in to read the altimeter but it was better than before. Turns went like a dream and then came my only hiccup. My 360 went slow as I wanted to make it deliberate and was focusing on being as close as possible to an exact 360 degree turn. In doing so I lost more altitude than I had expected so when I finished and looked back I was just slightly below my 6k lock on. This precipitated me to rush my wave and pull which meant that I faked going to my main handle and then did my wave and then had a good throw. Anyway, I now know that when I start going for my handle nothing should ever stop it from being pulled. Followed this up with some more agressive canopy flight and a last minute wind shift (and subsequently flight patter) still had me down on target with my best landing yet. Looking forward to my solo exit w/ barrel rolls and then my first solo jump next weekend! I will be accepting non-denominational prayers for good flying weather for next Saturday. Anyway, now that you all know whats going on with me you can stop waiting by the computer and get on with your lives. Blue skys! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mwise 0 #7 April 30, 2009 Hey Jeff! Nice to "see" a familiar face on here! :)Life is short. If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
