Surferd00d

You know that is so weird, I actually have Skydive Coastal Carolinas bookmarked because its the closest DZ to Camp Lejeune... more than likely they will be the first DZ I check out and hopefully they will be able to work with me.

Well thanks for all the info, I checked out the USPA site, found 6 DZ's in North Carolina and they are all a drivable distance from Lejeune so I have a few options. Well thats one less worry in my mind thanks again!

Well I'm fine with sitting through a FJC all over again, after a month of not skydiving and me being a beginner I could sure use a refresher, but will I have to do AFF LvLs 1-8 all over again is what I'm worried about.

I passed AFF LvL 6 last week but failed 7, was about to do 7 this weekend but stuff came up so I rescheduled for next weekend. Anyways I'm in the military about to do a change of duty station and I have about 2 weeks left here in California, if everything goes well I will have completed AFF LvL 8 and have a few solo jumps under my belt before I leave. Anyways I am headed to Guam for 3 and a half weeks, where there is no USPA approved DZ's (There is only 1 over there and all they do is tandems, non USPA approved and heavily overpriced) After that I am headed to North Carolina, so it will probably be about a month and a half to two months before I get the opportunity to Skydive. My question is I know there is like a 30 day rule between jumps, what happens if I cannot make that? Do I start from AFF LvL 1 all over again?

Hang in there, I know the feeling, I failed my AFF LvL 7 jump last weekend, did everything I was supposed to cept I got unstable and started spinning around in the end and ended up pulling below 5000ft thus being an automatic failure... I would've retaken the jump as soon as I landed except I was a little shook up because I had a line twist so I decided to call it a day. Quite frankly I really suck at Skydiving, I can do the turns, barrel rolls, back flips, etc. But it just looks sloppy as hell, not to mention the fact that out of my past 7 jumps only 3 of em where within 20m of the landing spot, and only 2 of em were standing up... But I'm gonna keep on trying, hopefully I'll pass 7 this week, if I dont, then hell I'll try again, cuz in my point of view... hey your still jumping out of an airplane right? My dream is to someday have a Skydiving related job when I get out of the military :)

Well I appreciate all the support here, I'm definitely jumping again this weekend, hopefully I'll get LvLs 7 and 8 out of the way :)

Yeah that makes sense, I've gotten over the jump now, cant wait to try again next weekend, I get the feeling I'll be a little bit jumpy until I pull again next week and see a chute that is There, Square, and Controllable :)

The post above is correct, I didn't haven't a problem with the initial track, but as soon as I was in the tracking position I realized I had rush through all my maneuvers and I didn't check to see if I was tracking either towards or away from the Ocean (which would make me go perpendicular from the plane) So yeah I get back to my arch position and I start turning around doing 360's like a major retard and I didn't have enough common sense to counter the turn, and yeah lost track of my altitude for a second and when I checked my altimeter I was pretty much done... Auto Failure :( But yeah its a learning process, and like my instructor said, you can always learn from your mistakes. Still annoyed of the fact that I had pretty much completed like 95% of the level... I'll get it next week :)

So I passed my LvL 6, went back up to do my LvL 7, I jumped out, the backflips and barrel roll were surprisingly easy, I then attempted to track, all of a sudden I was like WTF? I didnt check which way I was going, I'm supposed to track perpendicular to the plane, so I get back out of the track position, and I find myself spinning in circles and I'm like alright WTF relax... Arch... and due to a serious brain fart not once did I realize maybe I should COUNTER my turn by lowering my opposite shoulder... so yeah I'm spinning around like a retard, I glance at my Altimeter and was like WTF I'm below 5000ft, at that moment I pull right before my instructor pulled for me... So yeah I'm kicking myself while I'm up in the air realizing that pulling below 5000ft is automatic failure, and that I am usually really good at altitude awareness, hell if there is one thing I am good at being a newbie its altitude awareness... then I look up at my chute and notice my lines are twisted like its cool... so I all of a sudden panic for a split second, I am about to cut and pull my reserve, but I decided to kick my legs and pull on the lines thumbs down just like I was taught... so yeah I eventually untangle myself. I finally land... my instructor was like 'You know you were pretty much done at 7000ft, but since you pulled late I'm gonna have to make you retake 7 right?' I'm like yeah I'm an idiot, I tell him that I'm confident I can retake 7 and pass it since I did everything right BESIDES the easiest thing of pulling your chute at 5000-5500ft, I also tell him I'm a little shook up from the tangle and that I was gonna call it a day... And now I'm back home, I am no longer shook up, and I am pissed off that I drove back, should've hung out there for a couple hours, regain my composure and pass 7.... Oh well I'll probably jump again next weekend... I might even jump tomorrow if I wake up early enough. I am pissed off that I failed, yet at the same time I have learned from my mistakes, and retaking a jump is not like retaking a pop quiz... cuz hell I'm still jumping out of a plane hahaha!!!

I just started my FJC 2 weeks ago, and this weekend I am gonna attempt to complete AFF LvL 6-8, when I did my first jump 2 weeks ago it was just the weirdest most unexplainable feeling ever... It was like a mixture of pure awesomeness and weirdness at the same time, especially the first 2-4 seconds after you jump off the plane, I'm guessing my brain just could not register just WTF I had just done... Then when you find yourself free falling its just... exhilarating, and finally I was surprised by the utter peacefulness after I pulled my chute, its just so damn quiet and the view was breathtaking... What I'm trying to say is that its gonna be FREAKING AWESOME!!!

So Saturday I did the wind tunnel and an AFF LvL 5 Jump, the wind tunnel was cool, we broke up the 15min section into blocks and initially I was just bouncing all over the place during my first session but after a few tries I finally managed to control myself, and I got to work on my turns, and overall it helped me out a great deal, at the end of my 15minute session my arms were pretty sore! Did my AFF LvL 5 Jump afterwards, I passed but I wasn't too happy with my performance, I dearched BAD upon exit, I was on my back for like a good 5-6 seconds before I had enough sense to arch and stabilize myself, the freefall portion wasnt too bad, did sine decent turns, and my landing was probably the best one I've done so far, landed like 5 meters off where I was supposed to, and even compensated for the wind. I was gonna do LvL 6 and 7 this weekend but I was just too worn out from the wind tunnel, and I've been averaging like 3 hours of sleep all of last week so I just wasn't feeling it. Overall I was pretty bummed out about my exit, I had just gotten the hang of exiting at LvL 4, and they throw in a new way of exiting in 5 and all of a sudden I suck bad all over again. Hopefully I'll do better next weekend, I'm gonna try and do 6,7 and 8 and pretty much try and get as many jumps as I can.

N/A

Well I passed levels 2 and 3 today, overall I felt satisfied with my performance, jumping out of a perfectly good Airplane now feels a liiiiiitle bit easier hehe... Lvl 2 - Started off pretty sloppy when I de arched upon jumping, took my a few extra seconds to finally get in a good body position and maintain control, my left and right turns went well, had enough time to do one more right turn, and I started to feel myself spinning a little and by that time I was about 6100ft so I just locked on till 5500 and pulled, had a really smooth and soft landing. Lvl 3 - Great jump, I really stressed my hips to get a good arch, when the instructor let go things went pretty smooth, I started to get a little wobbly, the instructors said my form was good but I was still pretty stiff and I just need to relaaaaax... my landing wasn't too good though, landed about 100meters north of where I was supposed to land, and I flared a little too early so I had a little bit of a drop hehe... I was gonna do 4 today but my instructors suggested the wind tunnel, they said it will help me out a great deal because its a relaxed atmosphere and if I do well there then I can go straight to lvl 5, plus there was a student who just got back from the wind tunnel and he was all stoked about how much more confident he felt... so I figured what the heck, I need all the help I can get. So yeah next Saturday is the wind tunnel session, and hopefully by Sunday I will be done with Lvl 8 and then some :)

I'm jumping tomorrow, gonna do my AFF lvl2, and since I'm starting waaay early in the morning I'm gonna see how many levels I can knockout in one day :)

Summer Ale has my vote, I dig the slight citrus taste it contains!