AFF & wind tunnel time

[Whamie 0]

Quote

I'm sorry to invade upon the instructor forum but I think this is the best place.

What has been your ovservations involving AFF students who have a significant ammout of tunnel time; specifically those who are resonably capable of the six directions of movement in the tunnel before doing AFF.

What techniques/habits learned in the tunnel are bad for AFF? Which ones are good?

Does relaxation ability in the tunnel lead to the same in the sky?

How much of an impact does the large & heavy student rig have on stability & body position?

btwitche,
If i may please add my 2 cents to your tunnel questions. I'm certainly no expert as i just finished all my AFF. This is just my experience using the tunnels and transitioning it to AFF.

For every minute I spent in freefall (or each jump) i spent 8 minutes practicing in the tunnels. Usually i'd practice in the tunnels the day before an AFF level qualifying jump so that i'd retain some muscle memory.

The techniques I learned in the tunnel were the same techniques I flew in AFF..i just needed to let the tunnel instructors know i was practicing for an AFF jump...They even gave me the same hand signals and made sure i checked my wrist as if i were wearing an altimeter.

A bad habit in the tunnel, that the tunnel instructors kept reminding me of, is that i kept my knees bent too much. I told them i wanted to make sure i wasn't touching the walls. So in AFF i had to consciously make sure my knees were not bent so much.

As slotperfect mentioned i do agree the tunnel is relatively harder to fly. However, that being said, from my experience if you can hold a stable position, for example, in the tunnel, it will be much easier in AFF.
slotperfect also mentioned "The biggest thing I notice is that when the students are in free fall on their release dives they spend a jump or two moving around the sky quite a bit because they don't have the walls of the tunnel as a lateral reference." This held true for me too as evident on my debrief videos. The first 2 release dives i was moving around the sky. HOwever, on the 3rd release dive i was stable as a rock. Don't know why this is true, but as slotperfect mentioned, the first 2 release dives for me were spent flying around.

From my experience the more time i spent in the tunnel or jumping the more relaxed i got. I guess it comes naturally after awhile.

Overall, for me, i think the time I took in the tunnels helped me pass all AFFs. It was either practice first before performing an AFF jump or just make an AFF jump. I thought of each AFF level as the final test to move on to the next level or as the qualifying jump. For me an AFF jump was not the time to learn but to perform.

Hope to see you out there soon, good luck, and Blue Skies.

[Whamie 0]

I just realized the OP's post is from 2006!

DOH!

OP must be licensed by now. oh well,,,tunnels have helped me out!

[Joellercoaster 6]

Nah, more information is always better! It was good to hear and think about your experience too.

--
"I'll tell you how all skydivers are judged, . They are judged by the laws of physics." - kkeenan

"You jump out, pull the string and either live or die. What's there to be good at?

[andym148 2]

I know of a tunnel instructor who is a trainer and examiner with all the IBA ratings, went to a foreign tunnel and was running a tunnel instructors course. One weekend he was bored and decided to go with the "students" to their DZ and do his AFF cse as one of his students was an AFFI. I think level 1 and 2 was normal, then level 3 was head down carving with his instructors!

I always advocate tunnel time to my students, you can do soooo much more with students in the tunnel.

At long last the light at the end of the tunell isnt an on coming train!!!