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AFF student with not so great success

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I know we have some instructors on here and was curious; I did my AFF and my landings were sheit unless I was on radio. I went over to paragliding and we did a lot of tow training first so went up and land, up and land, up and land. Over and over. Now Landings look pretty good. Is anyone tow-training in skydiving? I'm not sure the more inefficient glide canopies will launch but curious if anyone ever went that route?
Paragliding fixed my fear of landing, but not my fear of exiting the plane ;)
You are not the contents of your wallet.

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DrDom

I know we have some instructors on here and was curious; I did my AFF and my landings were sheit unless I was on radio. I went over to paragliding and we did a lot of tow training first so went up and land, up and land, up and land. Over and over. Now Landings look pretty good. Is anyone tow-training in skydiving? I'm not sure the more inefficient glide canopies will launch but curious if anyone ever went that route?
Paragliding fixed my fear of landing, but not my fear of exiting the plane ;)



Hop and pops all day long. 5 minutes on the plane, get out, land. It really does help. You can also usually find someone offering a canopy course. They teach you stuff you'll use for the rest of your skydiving career, you do a bunch of hop and pops and hopefully they video your landings too.
I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

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I really struggled with my landings and patterns when I first started jumping, and it didn't help that different instructors at the same dz had different ways of explaining things and different ideas of how best to set up my pattern [:/]

One of the things that really helped me to understand what height I should be flaring, was to start climbing the steps of the tower and have someone tell me when I was at about 15 feet. I then stood there, with my arms above my head and looked forwards, down and out to the sides, to see what it really looked like at the height I should start flaring. For me, it was a lot lower than I expected (more than one of my flares were started at about 30 feet!!). Before you jump again, get an instructor to show you how to do a PLF (parachute landing fall). As others have said, it is critical to learn how to do this properly (ask any older jumper who has jumped round canopies!)

Also, try to flare smoothly, it is fine to glide a bit before finishing the flare if you have enough height. It sounds like you might be flaring a bit late if you have so much speed under that size of canopy that you are skidding along the ground but the only way to tell is to have someone video your landings and debrief you. It does get better with practice but only if you know what you should be practising and you need an experienced jumper who can watch you land to help with that.

A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr

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ghost47

Quote

So the million dollar question is - do I have to give up and end my skydiving affair or to continue jumping? How should I free my mind from thinking about my crash landings and do the rest of the tasks good /in free fall I am not so bad, a bit unstable but ok/


Your landing experience is very like mine --- AFF 1, I flared too late, and crashed. AFF 2, I flared too early, realized it, let go, and then the canopy dove and I crashed. AFF 3 and 4, I forget when I flared, but I crashed.
AFF 5 I landed on my feet, and was completely surprised --- I hadn't known a landing could be so soft.

I wish I could say that AFF 5 flipped a switch in me, and I landed fine thereafter, but that didn't happen at all. It took many jumps and a canopy course before I even started figuring out how to land somewhat consistently. I still biff landings occasionally.

But I can say two things that might be helpful:

1. It does get easier. The more you land, the more you'll be able to judge how high you are, and when and how you should flare. Try to look at the horizon, and not the ground.

2. Learn to PLF, and prepare to do it every jump. In fact, perhaps intentionally PLF the next 10 jumps or so, just so you can convince yourself that doing a PLF can easily save you from injury you might otherwise have sustained. Once you know that you can safely PLF, then perhaps rough landings will scare you less, and you can start working on standing up landings again, always ready to PLF at the first sign of trouble.

Good luck!



Best advice I could give is the PLF. I started my jumping in the military and have done many jumps early on that would be considered a bit silly by civilian standards. Jumped a 60 kg pack on my 11th free fall. First night jump at like 20 jumps etc. also I am not the sharpest axe in the shed and made some stupid decisions at silly altitudes. Touch wood I have been lucky and walked of every landing so far all because I can PLF. you can get away with some amazingly stupid things if you have a good PLF up your sleeve.
The sky is not the limit, the ground is!

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During your down time, you may be able to benefit from a couple of Brian Germain's books- "The Parachute and its Pilot" and "Transcending Fear".

The first one gave me much better understanding of how to control my canopy, and it was only $8 for the Kindle version. I haven't read the second one, but that same concept is taught in military leadership courses, and by recognizing what your body goes through under stress, you can train yourself to react the way you need to through muscle memory.

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dont be a a pussy and just keep going - this comes from a student that was deemed "hopeless" even at ground-training. couple hundred jumps and i'm doing fine, even got into basejumping and am not too bad doing there.

do not let yourself be discouraged. for some it takes more, for some it takes less.

the REAL important question though is, do you REALLY want to be a skydiver? if your answer is yes, nothing will and can stop you!

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

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