mzanghetti

Congratulations on getting your A license! I wish you all the best in your endeavors in skydiving, stay well.

Juiceman, How are things with you? Has any part of the conversation helped you toward making your first jump? I am sorry if my jumping into the conversation (if you will pardon the pun!

Good point and one that was raised by a friend who said he would take me, but he raised another idea as well, take a trip up there to talk face to face with the DZ owner/operator and work some things out and go from there. I have talked to them and that is also where the DZ owner/operator seems to be at, they will make no commitments until we can meet face to face. This seems to be the best course of action all the way around, and a logical next step. I am not dissuaded easily and I agree that skydiving may not be for me, but I won't accept that until I have tried everything I can and have still failed, I am nowhere near that point yet. H**l, at one point someone said I would never walk again and I can walk today because I wouldn't take no for an answer.

My apologies for hijacking the thread and I hope the information was of some help to you, good luck with AFF next spring!

Thank you, all this information helps quite a bit to heighten my chances of success when I do finally get into the air for a jump, that is very much appreciated. BTW, my apologies to the OP for hijacking their thread!

*^%$**!! My Mom asked me how I planned on getting to the drop zone since I don't own a car and I told her my Aunt was going to give me a ride and she asked to go with the two of us, now the two of them got to talking and my aunt backed out! So now I am back to square one with no way to get to the drop zone. This is just turning into one road block after another. The drop zone closes November 7th and it doesn't look good for being able to get something set up before then, so I don't know what is going to happen, I just know I am not giving up. I wonder if I can find somebody that lives near me to bring me along with them to jump and I will buy gas and lunch.

Where did you find the right stretches to do?

That is exactly what gives me pause, my Dad is deeply opposed to my jumping at all and has asked me to justify my trusting a tandem instructor over myself but at the same time they say they don't trust me either so I am in a catch-22! I am going to jump but now am facing several days of foul weather to get past! This has not been easy and it has only been my determination that has kept the process moving forward. I am approximately sixty years old and living in a nursing home due to disability, any other questions?

Hi! I understand what you are going thru and sympathize with you but patience is your best friend right now. I am much older than you and have to juggle transportation and weather to make my first hopefully within the next three weeks or so or have to wait until next spring which I don't want to do! Hang in there and know that you will get thru the wait I promise. But use the time wisely and get some money but aside, the DZ closest to me https://www.skydivedanielson.com/
and they estimate about 3,000 dollars to get your A license so be prepared for that. Those are not my numbers, follow the link and see for yourself. I want to at least do one tandem to see what it is like before I commit to spending that kind of money. Just my $.02 cents!

Juiceman

Just want to say hello.

Not been on here for a while. I have been to the wind tunnel. Really enjoyed it.

i will be booking my first tandam jump out of a plane in the next few days.

Is it natural to feel worried about the jump? Worried i may bottle it and not jump out of the plane. Anybody got any advice?

You sound just like me! I think we are both pretty "normal" for skydiving newbies. Just not sure how normal skydivers are?

Bgross

Naturally there is a small chance that I’ll hate the whole thing. However, there seem to be a lot of you who managed not to run screaming from the LZ after your first landing.
So I’m wondering if my thinking is flawed?

The AFF 1 costs about twice what the Tandem costs, but IF the sport turns out to be anything like what I imagine, is skipping the Tandem “honeymoon” and starting with AFF an alternative?

My budget won’t allow a “fast track” AFF schedule, but starting there makes sense. I think?

A bit of background: I’m retired, in good health, and I’ve been riding motorcycles on the street for decades. (Yeah, the laws of physics and safety always take first place over thrills.)

What say ye?

Thanks for starting this thread! I am in a similar situation and have learned much from what has been posted.

AtrusBatleth

For what it's worth (rookie jumper speaking), I recommend doing a tandem first, and NOT wearing an altimeter and deploying. Soak in the experience. It can be very overwhelming and disorienting. Even if you do a tandem but you deploy, you will likely "miss out" on most of your jump (at least the freefall) because you will be too distracted reading your altitude and remembering what you need to do. What pushed me to finish AFF was the memory of that first tandem where I could just enjoy the view and have fun. Not to say AFF jumps were not fun in their own way, but they are more focused on accomplishing goals, and they can be hard work. Let yourself relax and truly enjoy a jump before you dedicate the next 24 jumps and a few thousand dollars to completing AFF.

Thanks Max for your input, I did not start this thread but have learned much from it. I am just about to do my first jump and have decided to do one or even two tandems for just these kinds of reasons. I am very nervous about having the abilities to do an AFF jump first time out. I almost think the tandem jumps should be required, but understand I could be wrong and will come back to this thread after my first jump. This board has answered a lot of my questions and helped me overcome my fears so thanks to all of you for that!

DjangoWorldWide

Got my A a few days ago. What a blast!
Aff2 was my only has-to-repeat
CheckD was awesome.

Thanks for the insights though!

Haha! The bowling joke! I've heard that! In one of the rainy days all the staff went to...Bowling!

Living in the dz really made the difference. From sunrise to sunset (and even after) I was surrounded by skydiving. That was an awesome expirrience and so much fun, beyond the jumping part.

Congratulations!

You should sleep better, sounds like you did the right thing!

"I got the skydiving speech... And here I am."

I don't get the connection between bowling and skydiving, can you explain? Why did your next option then become skydiving? I am really curious about this as I have a friend that is really into bowling.

I have lost quite a bit of weight over the last few months/years and am having quite a bit of trouble adjusting to my new size, I can only assume you and I are normal in having trouble dealing with being a different size, I don't know if that changes with time. I do have one other suggestion, have you considered getting some counseling? I don't make this suggestion in order for you to continue skydiving, but in order for you to deal with any body image issues and to avoid PTSD or similar issues going forward. Yes, I do have a Psychology degree if you must know, just a suggestion for your mental health!

Thank you for the update, I am a 59 y/o male with left sided weakness due to a cervical spinal tumor surgically removed and contemplating a tandem skydive. Nice to know I am not the only one to have to deal with these kinds of questions!

Blue Skies!