Randy_H

I attempted my AFF Level 4 jump twice this past Saturday and got a big fat failure on both of them. On the first attempt, I was jumping from a Porter which I have never jumped from before and didn't like the idea of placing one foot out of the aircraft onto the step. I did the hotel check okay and my exit was good, I arched and ended up in a good belly down position. I did my first COA and kept getting the extend legs hand sign from my instructor. I extended my legs and he gave me the thumbs up and cut me loose. Thats when all hell broke loose. I lowered my hands and was pushing the air and retracted my legs and they were practically touching my ass. I was extremly wobbly and sliding backwards. My instructor approached me from the front and kept telling me to extend my legs but it felt like they were already fully extended and no matter how hard I tried, they wouldn't extend any further. Then his eyes bugged out at how out of stability I was . That made me laugh and the dive was pretty much over after that since I couldn't do much of anything else other then altitude awareness. I was able to wave off and pull on my own at 5500. Line twist! (probably from a dropping my head and twisting my hip during the pilot chute throw). I kicked out of it and had a good canopy ride down. I had my first standing up landing on this jump so that was a positive. On my second attempt, I had a different instructor and we went over the dive flow on the ground which I did with no problems. Everything was perfect. Good arch, good body movements for turning and sliding forward. Good altitude awareness and I felt ready to go. Then comes ANOTHER new aircraft to me! Now, I am jumping from the Otter. I was taught to place my entire body outside of the aircraft, stand up outside the aircraft and hold on to the door frame. Well, I wasn't crazy about this idea either. Once we got to altitude (13500 ft) the first group left the aircraft, then another, then it was my turn, I psyched myself up and went to the open sliding door. Now the aircraft is out of position and we have to close the door and circle around for a better spot. The aircraft is banking and I am losing my balance. And now I have more time to think about going through that damn sliding door. We finally level out, the door goes up again, I take my position outside the aircraft, hotel check, prop, up, down, arch and away we go. Good exit, good arch. I did my first COA and again, the instructor kept giving the extend legs hand signal. I would correct my legs, but they would go right back to the touching my ass position as soon as I got the thumbs up. I was signaled to do a practice pull, I did it and got unstable by looking down and did a nice dip. My elbows were being pushed in front of me and they dropped down. Now I am pushing the air again! My instructor tried to grab my arms and bend them into proper position but said they wouldn't budge. He also tried to get my legs bent away from my ass and they wouldn't budge either. When it finally comes time to throw the pilot chute, I wave off and go for the pilot chute and grab at my ass instead. I start patting all around my ass in a mad grab for the pilot chute. In hind sight, I know it was there but at the moment, my brain had other ideas! The instructor tried to grab my hand and place it on the pilot chute handle but he later said my hand was going so fast that he couldn't catch it. He deployed it for me. Again, I had a nice canopy ride down, good approach and a stand up landing within 20 meters of the target. I cannot figure out why my position has been so good when jumping from the Skyvan but not the Porter or the Otter. On the ground, everything is rehearsed perfectly and I have no problems with body position. I can only think of two things which may be causing this. First, I don't think that I am breathing in free fall. I'm not sure about this but I may be holding my breath. The other factor could be the anxiety of having to jump from two aircraft which are new to me on the same day. I'm sorry for the long post, but I really need some help with this. My bank account and myself thank you for any replies!

excellent idea.... we can discuss issues such as skydiving and the effect on premature baldness or the effects of legstraps on future fatherhood!

Chris Knight: "If there is anything I can do for your, or more importantly do to you, please let me know" Sherry Nugil: "Can you hammer a six inch spike through a board with your penis?" Chris Knight: "No" Sherry Nugil: "A girl has to have her standards." Excerpt from "Real Genius (1985)" Val Kilmer & Patti D'Arbanville 010010010110010101100001011101000111000001110101011100110111001101111001

hmmm... and Donald Trump says what??? 010010010110010101100001011101000111000001110101011100110111001101111001

make the audit as difficult as possible for them and maybe they will go away? Probably not, but good luck. 010010010110010101100001011101000111000001110101011100110111001101111001

How about those stupid "parachute pants" with the zippers all over them which were popular when I was in high school in the mid 80s. The halls were filled with "swish, swish, swish" between classes. 010010010110010101100001011101000111000001110101011100110111001101111001

only a 63%... I obviously need to work on something.. Hmmm.... my signature is soooo appropriate here! 010010010110010101100001011101000111000001110101011100110111001101111001

He will end up in a Taiwanese rubber room doing the Haldol shuffle if he isn't careful. What a crazy asshole! 010010010110010101100001011101000111000001110101011100110111001101111001

hmmm... if you have cats they might get confused and ruin the party! Nice Recipe though, I'll have to print it out! 010010010110010101100001011101000111000001110101011100110111001101111001

Get rid of IE as well and install Firefox, that will eliminate much of the spyware, pop-ups and other internet garbage. It worked for me. I didn't even give IE w/SP2 a chance, MS had their chance as far as I am concerned. 010010010110010101100001011101000111000001110101011100110111001101111001

Sore arse? I can relate, on my AFF Level 2 jump, it was early in the morning this past Saturday and there was lots of dew on the grass. I came down for what I through was a good landing, started to turf surf on my feet for about 5 feet and then *BAM* another 10 feet on my arse. I am just now being able to sit halfway normal again! Still hurting but I am going to jump again on Saturday. I FEEL your pain! 010010010110010101100001011101000111000001110101011100110111001101111001

I am going through AFF right now and IMO it is the best way to learn. From day one you are getting adjusted to the idea of extended freefalls and consistant altitude awareness as well as maintaining a stable arch. You get to deploy your own pilot chute too (unless you miss it or pass the hard deck for your level, in which case, one of your instructors will deploy it for you). The satisfaction of throwing your own pilot chute is awesome. I would recommend AFF to anyone who is starting out. It is pricey and you may have to repeat levels, but I don't want them to pass me when there are issues which could affect the safety of myself and other skydivers. AFF all the way! 010010010110010101100001011101000111000001110101011100110111001101111001

QuoteAhhhh...I gave my mom her own account on my computer. Could that be it? If you are using Windows XP, yes!

First, try using CWshredder from here.. If that doesn't work, start windows in safe mode by pressing [F5] while the machine is booting up, then run Adaware and CWshredder again. Sometimes you need to be in safe mode for the .dlls to be removed unless you manually unregister them. CWshredder ususally removes the spyware that other programs cannot. Also, assuming that you are using windows. If you have seperate user accounts, you must log in as each user to remove any spyware which they may have installed. I hope this is clear to you and good luck!

save the money and do it yourself, you'll have more jump tickets that way or better yet, more money for upgrading your gear. But you do need to take care of it. Sand it down and use some body compound then prime it. You wouldn't want to get tetnus while spying on your wife, it could prevent you from jumping for a while! 010010010110010101100001011101000111000001110101011100110111001101111001

I am an AFF student and on my level 3 jump I pulled and went into a very large cloud. It scared the hell out of me! I still did my contolability check and then remembered what my instructor had told me to do and pulled hard on the right toggle to spiral through the cloud. It seemed like time stopped when I was inside the cloud and it took what seemed like hours to make it through. I know this is kind of off topic but I needed to share this experience. It wasn't fun and I don't think I'd like to do it again. BTW - there was a rather large fly-in going on at Deland Airport that same day which didn't help matters and I could hear the air traffic! 010010010110010101100001011101000111000001110101011100110111001101111001

I am a student and was never aware how important flat turns are. I will definitely be practicing them, at altitude, on every jump. Question for all, is a flat turn the same thing as a brake turn? 010010010110010101100001011101000111000001110101011100110111001101111001

Cool! It is like a big family there! I've already met (through here, but not personally) two skydivers who are out of DeLand. Having the Skyvan is very nice! Good luck up in Atlanta and be safe! I'll see you at the DZ!

Hi Catherines, I too am a total newbie, and I am also taking my AFF in DeLand, since I live in Longwood. The past two weekends have been beautiful weather for skydiving in DeLand!

Hi everyone. I just wanted to drop by and say hello and thank everyone for the excellent posts on this site. I am brand new to skydiving. I went to Skydive Deland for a tandem jump two weeks ago and was "bitten by the bug!"