Mid-tour leave A-License venture

[hookerp 0]

A-license plan, pipedream or do-able?
My history.
About 5-6ish years ago I did a tandem jump at a DZ near my home in Florida and was instantly hooked. I saved up a little money and came back a little while later and started their AFF program. I accomplished about 12 or so jumps getting released to solo status. Shortly thereafter, being the poor struggling college student that I was, I could simply no longer afford my endeavor. Eventually I finished school and ended up joining the Army and for one reason or another (time, training, money), between then and now my path has not been able to lead me back to the DZ. Most recently the needs of the Army have resulted in my residing in central Texas with plenty of skydiving opportunities. Unfortunately about 6 months ago the Army decided to send me on a one year long paid vacation to Camp Taji, Iraq. Before I left, when I was home visiting Mom and Pop, I decided to head back down to the same DZ and go for another jump. Needless to say the fire was rekindled and I have spent the last six months pouring over my copies of Parachutist and Skydiving magazines, reading the SIM and constantly surfing skydiving sites on the web dreaming of, first being anywhere but here, as-well-as finally finishing what I started 6 years ago. This deployment has been somewhat of a blessing in disguise because it has allowed me to save more than a sufficient amount of money to do all of the training and purchase my first rig.

The Plan.
Well in about 2 and a half months in February I will be taking my mid-tour leave and heading back to Jacksonville FL for 2 weeks. In this time my pseudo hope/goal/plan was to get my A-license while I was home and hopefully get pointed in the right direction to a rig. Now to accomplish this hope/goal/plan I need to pick a DZ that is open 7 days a week year round due to the fact that I will want to do this during the week so that I can spend the weekends in Jacksonville with my family and friends. My first thought was either Deland or Skydive City, both are in relatively close proximity to the parents and Orlando, and from what I can tell they both seem like awesome places to jump. What I’m not sure of, is which DZ I would have a better chance of scoring some used gear at and which DZ might be willing to accommodate my timeline. Now I fully expect to start from scratch due to the amount of time that has elapsed since my last jumps, if some of my old jumps count towards my 25, then cool if not, oh-well. Now this is also where I was really looking for some feedback, but what I was “thinking” is that I would maybe do three to four 15 minute sessions in the tunnel with an instructor on the first day or so and then head to the DZ all day everyday (well weekdays) until I met the requirements and they were ready to sign me off (hopefully before I have to go back to the desert). By the time I get back to Iraq my unit should only have about 2 and a half months left so when we finally get home I will hopefully be able to maybe take a refresher and then be able to hit the ground running at the nearest Texas DZ.

Any insight, knowledge, comments, suggestions or words or wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

Jason

[DiverMike 5]

As long as you correctly logged your jumps and had them signed off, they never expire and will count towards your 25 for an 'A' license.

For the same reason I jump off a perfectly good diving board.

[KermieCorleone 0]

Quote

As long as you correctly logged your jumps and had them signed off, they never expire and will count towards your 25 for an 'A' license.

2 weeks is more than enough, there's a dude from Michigan who came down to our DZ and went from AFF lvl1 to A license in a week but he lived at the DZ for the week.

- Neil

Never make assumptions! That harmless rectangle could be two triangles having sex ...

[davelepka 4]

I vote for Z-hills. Last time I was there they had trailers you could rent real cheap and stay on the DZ for a few days and just jump.

I would hold off on the tunnel time. Unless you want to just for the fun of it, but otherwise see how the jumps go. If you have trouble, you can always make a trip to the tunnel. They do alot of tunnel training in the evenings, and sometimes you can find a group or coach to drive out there with.

Also, I wouls suggest holding off on a rig until you get back for a longer period of time. There's a lot of good used gear out there, but it may take you a coulpe weeks of searching to put something nice together. You can start looking online before you get back, and pull the trigger on it when you're back in the states. Besides, the rig will just sit while you're back in Iraq anyway.

Above all, contact Z-Hills and explain your situation with your jump history and what you want to accomplish while on leave. The guy who runs the show at Z-hills posts on here as 'tkhayes', and you can send him a PM, and see what he thinks.

[cstaffa 0]

Jason! I personally know of quite a few soldiers from Fort Hood that have accomplished AFF during their mid tour leave.... check out Skydive Temple at www.skydivetemple.com or fb friend request Skydive Temple... if you let them know your goals they will do their best to assist you. It's a small, cessna dz so getting on a load is much easier than at a dz where they have to fill up an otter with tandems before the plane flies! Just something to consider.

They are open 7 days a week and weather permitting you should be able to get it done...

Good luck & Blue Skies

Christie Staffa
aka: Thumper MOFO

[hookerp 0]

Christie,
I've definately been checking out Temples website. Theyre about 10 min from my house in Harker Heights so I plan on doing plenty of jumping there when I get home in May. The thing is in February I will spending my mid-tour in Florida and was hoping to do some skydiving then, hopefully finishing up my AFF and A License.

Jason

[napaguy99 0]

I would say it's worth calling Art and Jeff at Skydive Palatka if you are in Jacksonville. Oftentimes they'll fire up the 182 on weekdays if there are people to jump. If you work it out beforehand, you might be able to have the airplane and DZ to yourself. That way you can save money on the hotel and be home every night. They have a great facility. Also, they are about 2 hours or so from the tunnel if you wanted to hop down there for a session at night. PM me for a good tunnel coach.

I have to echo Dave on waiting to buy the rig as well. There is so much stuff out there. No reason to rush into getting something you can't use for a few months anyway. Rigs aren't a monetary investment- they don't appreciate in value.

"Let the misinterpretation and attacks begin."

[hookerp 0]

Thank you all for the info but Ive had a recent change of plans and I will be heading to Australia for my midtour R&R. I plan on finishing up my AFF at Skydive Temple when I get back in May.