StinkyPete

SO, little update. First, thanks everyone for the words and encouragement. I did three jumps today. My instructors insisted on going out with 2 instructors today and do nothing but PRCP, slow, controlled and smooth on the first jump. That went really well, everything was great! 2nd Jump, one instructor, work PRCP with no one holding the harness, slow controlled and smooth. went pretty good, got wobbly once, stopped and immediately went back to my arch. 3rd jump, Solo exit, 1 instructor. Exit was great, no flipping, came off the hill great and stayed on heading pretty much. We worked on legs legs legs. He was in front of me, would have me track forward to him. He would back slide, we would do it again. It was to help me get my legs working, in unison. It went great as well. Nothing bad, little wobbly at times but never out of control. all in all, today went great. Still haven't gotten past cat D but as everyone here as assured me, it will come! I will be back out there tomorrow, 3 more jumps, maybe more? hopefully, we can work legs some more, relax (lol) and get some damn turns in!

So, my experience so far, and my abilities are starting to be doubted by me. I started AFF, and have made 12 jumps to date (all in a very quick succession). I am in an AFF program that was designed to be 2-3 weeks long, 0 to A license. I know it isn't preferred but it has been free so i cant complain at all. For the last 7 years all i have wanted was to be a skydiver. When this opportunity arose i jumped on it. Now I am stuck. I just cannot get my body to fly. Everyone keeps telling me to relax and that it will eventually just click. Here i am at 12 jumps and stuck on Category D, while my peers in the class are on H and above already. Every day for the last 2 weeks i have tried so hard to get everything to come together and just work but it just isnt happening. Today, I had a Cutaway. It was a bad spinning malfunction that is completely due to my poor body position during pull. I started to get squirly at about 6,000 ft lock on, i was what i thought stable pretty quickly but that was not the case. When the main deployed the bridle caught my arm, causing the bag and right side suspension lines to wrap the canopy somehow and only the left side of the canopy opened and it turned into a very violent spin. I tried to pull the risers apart, shake them and anything else i could but after about the first 1,000 ft of this i knew there was no saving it so I initiated emergency procurers and luckily my reserve opened perfectly with no twists. I continued my landing pattern and landed on the DZ, no problems under canopy from there on out. But now, i am wondering, are some just not cut out of skydiving no matter how bad they want it? I mean, how many times can i do a category D jump? Ive tried and tried and i just cannot get my legs to stop moving. I have been in the tunnel, flew fine. My brain just wont "shut off" during Freefall. I have zero "fear" of exiting the air craft. I want this. Theres the occasional nerves of course still, but in flight and free fall especially i am trying to think, whats my right hand doing, oh, hows my legs, let me make sure my right foot is good. Its seriously holding me back and i cant seem to get over it. Sorry for the long post, more of a rant. Any advice other than "just have fun, relax" Honestly I have heard that probably 100 times this week from dozens of instructors.

Hey everyone, This is my first post on here and I am hoping everyone can help, i think i am being ripped off. I live in Alaska and there is only one DZ in this state so i am kinda forced to jump with them, I just stop jumping with the military (Static line) so i thought it would be a good idea to step it up a notch ;-) Anyways, they are charging me roughly 3000 dollars for all of my training and jumps up to 25 to get my A License. Which is cool i think, i am doing a Tandem progression and I am loving it, i am about to move into AFF next week, starting at Level 4. Thats all good and cool but my friend who is a very expierenced jumper has done some research and said that they are not USPA certified. He told me i may be getting ripped off and the "A license" they give me may be an A license, but there wont be any number or anything on it to make it a true license. Could this really be hapening??? I really want to get my license but if in fact they are not USPA will i still be able to get it? I just dont want to waste my time with these people, as much as i enjoy it, i would rather save up my money so when me and my wife PCS (get stationed somewhere else) we can both get licensed and have money for gear (she is in the military and jumps static line also and loves the idea of skydiving since she is a parachute rigger) Thanks for anyone who can shed some light on this! Pete