Hello everyone, I'm new to this forum, and just started my AFF course. My instructor suggested that I do 2 tandem jumps first and practice pulling (thus the pilot chute handle would be placed on my hip instead of my back). To make a long story short, I failed to do this simple task in 2 tandem jumps. I truly enjoy the free fall and think my arch is alright, however for some reason my hand can't feel the handle. I'm guessing a few factors could be at play here (excuse my neuroscience background): 1)The positioning of the handle on my hips makes it close to a lot of the strapping, which makes me not sure what exactly I'm touching. 2)My hand's touch sensation is overwhelmed by all the air forces and so my brain is unable anymore to perceive the contour of something comparatively subtle; the handle. 3) For obvious reasons, I can't look where my hand is going, which makes it more difficult for my brain to perceive the handle, using only one sense modality (touch without assistance from vision). My instructor doesn't seem convinced and thinks that I'm just nervous and suggested that I take a week or 2 off, do 15 minutes of wind tunnel, and then come back. Anybody has been through something similar or has any idea of how I can overcome that problem? In other words, how do I become able to perceive that my hand is actually grabbing the handle? Would that problem disappear in AFF Cat A once the handle is actually behind me? I'm guessing in that location, it would be far from any strapping, and my hand would be behind my body where there is relatively low air resistance. I appreciate any advice.
