first post, my introduction.

[LookUpHigh 0]

whats up guys and girls. My name is Brandon. I'm 23 years old, I'm a Barber for a living and I'm a new AFF student in Ohio, the Cleveland area. My home dropzone is Canton Airsports, and although it's the only one i've been to I gotta give props and say how much I love the place and most the people working there. Anyways, like I said I'm a new AFF student, meaning i just got released from my Tandem progression. I have 3 Tandem jumps in which I did well in. I'm VERY excited to get up with my own parachute now with every intention of learning to be a safe skydiver so I can do this for YEARS to come. I absolutely LOVE skydiving now!!! I used to say I would never ever do it and i took my first jump on July 1st and loved every second of it and never once felt any fear. Anyways thats probably the only part of my story worth telling since this is a Skydiving forum, lol, so good to meet you all. I hope to learn alot here.

[dthames 0]

Welcome to the forums and the sky. It is always nice to hear the excitment of new jumpers. When is your first AFF jump?

Be sure to report back afterwards.

Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

[LookUpHigh 0]

Thank you. I'm going on monday. i have ground school in the morning then hopefully get a couple AFF jumps in. I'm really really excited. plus i really miss the air.

[gregpso 1]

Enjoy it mate !! Great time ahead for you

I tend to be a bit different. enjoyed my time in the sport or is it an industry these days ??

[LookUpHigh 0]

thanks bud!

[LookUpHigh 0]

O.K. finished my Cat. A. and Cat. B. yesterday! wow That was a WHOLE new experience and an AMAZING one!!! I'll take you through it.

First jump: I'm on a 280 main. jump was at 10.5K. single-side AFF. good exit, got stable right away, 3 solid practice touches, had to extend my legs a few inches, good pull at 5.5K had a good canopy right away, although the chest strap was all the way up by my chin and my helmet was hitting the top of my container making it difficult to see the back 2 corners of my canopy so luckily i had a good one lol. and now to bring it down, I can't hear a f**king thing but static here and there, i kept stalling my canopy to see if I could here anything but nothing, so i hung out in the wind and waited to lose altitude came in at 1000' for my pattern which wasn't very good lol but i made it down safe in a sliding landing since i timed my flare wrong.

Jump 2: same rig, I tightened up my leg straps hoping to keep my container from riding up so high. Same thing good exit, got stable, checked altitude, forgot plan for a second but I knew i had to do rotations so I start my right turn as to not hesitate and waste altitude, stopped at 90 degrees remembering I had to do 2 practice touches so I did those, i hit his hand on the first but the second was fine, did a left 180 then another right 90. checked altitude, 7k, counted to 4 then locked on at 6k waved off and pulled at 5.5k. good canopy with 2 line twists, no big deal i undo them and realize the container is still riding up high which pissed me off. but this time my radio might as well have been off because i didnt hear a sound from it, so i did my best and had a little fun, came in at 1000' and didn't quite make it to the hangar, landed down the run way but this time i landed on my feet so i was happy since i had no radio control.

So i passed both, next time we need to try another rig or make adjustments, I definitely need to work on my canopy control, I was a little lost as far as what to do and where to go but I always knew where the DZ was so I just need a little work. Overall I'm happy and so is my instructor, felt safe and confident other then my container being a little high, but i had a blast!

[rach72 0]

I can completely relate to the container riding high, but I don't really have many options with the student rigs. At 4'9 even the smallest one they have is huge on me. I also spend a lot of time under canopy.
Congrats on levels 1 & 2. I am on level 3 which I hope to get done this weekend and maybe get a couple more done. I'm not sure how many I would want to do in one day. I've been a little sore after the last 2.

Good luck with the rest of them.

[LookUpHigh 0]

lol well i'm 6'2 so we need to make some adjustments. But you sound just like my friend Molly who is doing her AFF right now. Shes a tiny little thing and it's causing her problems. I feel bad because she knows what shes doing but she reaches for her pilot the rigs shift over to the left and make it really hard to reach which is a HUGE problem. She doesn't give up though which i love about her.

But yeah, my hips and buttcheeks are sore from landing on my feet while coming in pretty quick lol, but i held my self up, had to take a couple strides but no big deal. 2 or 3 in a day is probably all i could do mentally and financially for now lol. But one thing i learned in Road Racing, when you're doing something dangerous at high speeds, it's best to pull off if you are mentally or physically taxed. Cus you're chances of making a tragic mistake are MUCH higher! And as my friend Molly says "it's better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air then to be in the air wishing you were on the ground".