Cayce

Well, I got back up there, passed my AFF-3, and satisfied my beer debts. Thanks for the support from everyone. It really was surprising how that next jump messed with my head. It was difficult going out the door. I set up for a pinch exit on the Otter and I realize that my main side JM is tapping my right hand. I guess I had a firm grip on the overhead bar and didn't want to pull it down to pinch the door. It was sub-conscious so when he pointed it out it kind of made me laugh and the rest of the jump went fine. I satisfied my requirements for level 3 and I'm off to do level 4 and possibly 5 this coming weekend. Thanks again. CJ

Hey Speer, You know, you said something that made me think a little. You knew that you were over the LZ when you jumped. I was also right over the LZ when I was coming down as I was in the middle of the line-up and we made our second pass and I was the first one out. Thing is I'm only putting that together in retrospect, at the time it wasn't a consideration while I was doing the spin thing. So the problem then becomes that had I been off of the LZ I could have been over one of those hills that boarder the LZ. That could have taken away 500-800 feet (just an estimation) So, had I been a few hundred yards from where I was I may not have had the margin for error that I thought I did. In which case I definitely stayed with the main shoot for too long. Lesson learned; pay more attention to where I am in relation to the LZ before I exit, compress my evaluation period and cut away as soon as I know it's a Mal.

I guess I'm running at 50% of the time right now. Of course I've only had two jumps so I'm expecting the ratio to even out here pretty soon...

Well, I couldn't get down to the DZ in time as they stopped early today. I did get over to Perris so I could watch some landings and get reminded that people have fun doing this. So that was a good thing! Below is a picture of my Mal. Jim, who was just watching the jumps on the ground pulled his camera when he saw me spinning and snapped a shot. What do you guys make of this. To me it looks like a line over that is folding over the left third of the shoot. That would be consistent with my looking up and thinking the shoot is too small. Also, it looks like there is some line or something trailing me in the spin. Any thoughts on that one? You can see it has me at a pretty good angle so I must have been going around fast. Damn scary to see the picture!

I feel better now after sleeping and going over the jump in my head a few hundred times. I really appreciate the feedback from everyone, this is a great community and it helps to get a sounding board to hear from others who have more experience. Freeflydrew I appreciate what you're saying. I probably did stay with a malfunctioning canopy for too long. I estimate it was about 15 seconds of tugging and kicking. Then maybe 2 seconds where I took a deep breath and realized I had to cut. It's kind of tough to know what's normal at this stage. The instruction said that if your not under a functioning canopy in 6-8 seconds then you should cut. This was a partially functioning canopy and kept expecting to pull the magic riser and it would right it self. I did assume that a spiral was a slower descent than freefall so I had a few extra seconds. I checked my alti once at maybe 8 seconds and was still in the high 3000s so I tugged some more. Anyway, probably should have cut sooner, but I’m not complaining at the moment. I’m not into the blame thing, I’m sure the riggers did their due diligence. There’s too many other variables to point fingers. I did drop the rig and reserve in the master riggers space so he could go over it, I still had the two handles, I guess that’s something. The main canopy landed near the runway on a hill and I think they sent someone out on a quad to find it. I’m sure it will go back to the master rigger for a once over. At this point, all I know is I did what I had to and it worked. I learned a hell of a lot in a very short time. And I’ll be stopping by the store to pick up a cooler full of beer on the way to the DZ today to take my do my third level.

Okay, I'm still shaking here a little but the beer is starting to work... I wanted to get this on the net while it's fresh in my mind so I can learn from the experience. I did my AFF2 today in Skydive San Diego. Really nice people, awesome Jump Masters, all is good on the orientation and the practice. Checks in the plane on the way up, all good, dry run the jump, no problem. Myself and two Jump Masters exit, I go through my checks and turns and tacking without too much of a hiccup. 6000 I lock on and pull at 5500. Problem! The canopy goes up, starts to open but it's too small, not a full opening. I immediately go into a left hand spin which kicks me out to maybe 45 degrees and I’m spiraling down and pulling some Gs. I'm looking up trying to see if I have twisted risers or something. I can't tell if I have a twist because I'm being spun around and it's hard to focus on the canopy and risers. I grab the risers and pull them apart and kick, nothing happens. I try pulling hard on one riser and then the other one, still in a serious spin. I remember that they said not to pull the control toggles if you have a twist because it's a bad thing. I can't really remember ever hearing why it's a bad thing but I don't pull the control toggles. Anyway, I can’t discern weather I have a twist or not all I know is I can’t land this thing and I’m nearing my decision altitude. At 3000 I go into emergency procedures and cut away. I go into freefall for a little while and I’m going to the reserve handle. I guess the RSL pulled before my handle did because all the sudden I’m under a canopy that is stable, has good shape, and turns when I want it to. I stand the landing and all is good… Now, in the debrief the Jump Masters both said I did the right thing. I’m alive, I cut before I got too low, all is good. One said it sounded like a line over because the canopy wasn’t fully inflated. I don’t know, I had a hard time focusing on the canopy when I was in the spin. My nagging question is, did I mess up by not releasing the control toggles? I guess you could say I tried everything else so why not pull the toggles and see if it fixed itself. The other side of me says that it could have cost me 6-10 seconds to find out if it was going to fix it and that might have put me past a safe reserve deployment altitude. I don’t know, I mean really, it’s my second jump… Anyway, I don’t want to let this go by without leaning from the experience. So please give me some feedback. And what’s the norm here, how many people do I owe beer? Thanks…

N/A

First off, this is a great community, I have really enjoyed reading the discussions over the last two weeks since I jumped. My question is this. After completing my first level AFF I'm looking at getting licensed and I noticed that some DZ's do AFF in 7 and some in 8 jumps. What's the difference?