New A license jumper

[jdewey95 0]

Hey everyone, my A license is hot off the press. Where do I go from here?How do I go about moving forward?

[jbscout2002 1]

Get out your seat and jump around.....jump around....jump up and get down......jump......jump....jump.....

[peedeepalmer 0]

For starters, start looking into a canopy course. The B license canopy course requirement was designed to mitigate the most common canopy accidents. Get your water training requirement done. Seek out a mentor at the dropzone. Start jumping (within your comfort zone and skill level) with other jumpers. Start small...3 way then 4 way. Also don't just jump with out freshly minted A license jumpers. Remember, I said find a mentor...jump with skydivers that have more experience. Lastly, remember your proficiency card, you had an objective for freefall AND canopy. Plan a dive flow and canopy skills on each jump.

I know this is simi vague, but without knowing your goals in the sport it is limiting. At the heart of you moving forward is for you to mature in the sport. Learn your canopy, learn to fly your body, surround yourself with individuals that will help you in both of these areas.

[jdewey95 0]

Thanks, will do. Just moved to Boston, so in the process of looking for a new home now.

[GoHuskers 0]

jdewey95

Hey everyone, my A license is hot off the press. Where do I go from here?How do I go about moving forward?

I'm going to assume you are talking about moving forward in the freeflying discipline since you asked in the freeflying forum.

There are plenty of articles about starting in freeflying. The common themes are:
1) Don't backslide on the line of flight while learning how to sitfly.
2) Ensure your rig has adequate bridle, pin, and riser protection to freefly
3) Don't freefly without an audible altimeter.

My suggestions:
1) Get a jump partner. I'll be a contrarian to what most other people will tell you. Get someone who is roughly at your skill level (once you can hold a sit from exit to breakoff altitude). Jumping with people who are significantly better than you robs you of the opportunity to do a lot of necessary work such as level changes, big forward movements, etc. You need to be able to make level changes and large forward movements to get you into the same time and space as your jump partner. Jump with your jump partner as often as you can. You don't want to be jumping with different people at different fall rates etc. You want to preserve working time and know the habits, routines, expressions of your jump partner. It maxes your learning. Keep the group small, 2 ways are great, 3 ways are the largest group you will need for a very, very long time.
2) Get video of your jumps. What other people recall from your jump together is a very poor substitute for you studying video of your body positions. The majority of the learning you will do is after your day of jumping has ended.
3) Breakoff high: 6k feet is good. Freeflying is fast, you need to be able to do a count of 8 breakoff sequence and ensure that you SLOW DOWN and cook off all forward drive from the track before you pull. Freeflying exceeds the speed you should deploy at, delta tracking exceeds the speed you should deploy at, get back to flat flying speeds or you'll do some damage to your gear and your body. Its hard to stay close to your partner throughout the skydive for your first couple hundred jumps so if you set break off altitude higher, you're probably not taking useful time away from the skydive anyways. Don't move your breakoff altitude lower until you are efficient at breaking off and slowing down.
4) Always be a student: There is no end to the freeflying skillset. There is always something else. If you ever get big headed and cocky and think you know everything and everything that doesn't go to plan is someone else's fault you are only holding yourself back from areas you could improve and being an unpleasant jump partner.
5) Figure out how serious you are: Some freefliers are completely progression oriented. They're not happy unless they are in a group dedicated to learning and irked when someone is not in the dive flow. Some freefliers are progression oriented and then mix it up with no plan dives, belly dives, wingsuiting etc for fun. Some freefliers just like to fly around and have fun. Do your best not be critical when you are more/less progression oriented than your jump partner. Their reasons are just different from yours.
6) Tunnel: Its expensive but it will teach you a lot of skills that take a long time to learn in the sky. Its not a requirement, you don't HAVE to learn anything in the tunnel but it is there.

[jdewey95 0]

GoHuskers

1) Get a jump partner. I'll be a contrarian to what most other people will tell you. Get someone who is roughly at your skill level (once you can hold a sit from exit to breakoff altitude). Jumping with people who are significantly better than you robs you of the opportunity to do a lot of necessary work such as level changes, big forward movements, etc. You need to be able to make level changes and large forward movements to get you into the same time and space as your jump partner. Jump with your jump partner as often as you can. You don't want to be jumping with different people at different fall rates etc. You want to preserve working time and know the habits, routines, expressions of your jump partner. It maxes your learning. Keep the group small, 2 ways are great, 3 ways are the largest group you will need for a very, very long time.

Thanks for all of the advice. I just moved to a new city so I'm looking for a new home DZ, and once I do, I'll work on finding someone that wants to work on the same stuff.

[chemist 0]

tunnel.

after about 5 hours of tunnel you'll be one of the more solid sit flyers at most dropzones cause you'll be able to take multiple docks and look good doing it

After about 10 hours you'll be in the top ~20% of free flyers at most dropzones since you'll be able to fly head down well and possibly transition from sit to head down