Stuck at AFF Level 4?

[Bye_gravity 0]

Asking for a friend.

He has been stuck at level 4 for about a week now - had to repeat level 3 once, and level 4 three times. On top of that he has spent over 45 minutes in the on-site windtunnel, in three 15 minutes sessions before each failed level 4... today he failed again because they used Skyvan, resulting in an extremely unstable exit, the pair tumbled&did not manage to recover until 9000ft...

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

You fly with the wind, or the wind flies you.

[SeanNolin 0]

There's really no advice someone on here can give your friend except that his instructor should be going over what he's doing wrong .

[kat00 11]

I like the skyvan exits personally. You can stand up rather than hunch over in the otter door. Regardless of the plane, you just need to arch hard on exit. Arch, watch the plane fly away and you will come off the hill really nice.

I personally had to repeat 2, 3 and 4 multiple times at perris. I had exit issues from the otter since I am tall. I would tumble and all sorts of stuff on exit. Once I started to trust the arch more the exits improved. Don't take it as a failure though. 7 jumps is less than 7 mins of total freefall time and 7 more jumps than most people will do. It will come so don't feel bad about having to repeat some levels.

[Bye_gravity 0]

I noticed some of the students like to kick their legs as they exit attempting to "get out" of that initial stomach sinking sensation, so that's when instability comes into play... no amount will windtunnel will prepare someone mentally for the freefall.

You fly with the wind, or the wind flies you.

[alopatenko 0]

I failed the first attempt of level 4
spend around 1.5hour in the wind tunnel
it helped a lot

failure https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCGojKcjQD4
after thw wind tunnel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Jol2sR6wn8

I asked the wind tunnel coach specifically to make me lose stability so i would work n how to restore stability and we work on turns back to belly and rollover so i felt confidence that whatever happen i can go back stable

[rmarshall234 14]

I would say tell your friend to shop around and travel if necessary to find an instructor that he/she likes and feels comfortable with. Sounds like a confidence / comfort issue as opposed to a skills problem. Making a student at this level feel comfortable and believing in themselves, is a real talent and there are guys and girls that possess that talent but one must look around to find them. Make sure he takes his log book with him as documentation of what he's accomplished already.

[Pit76 5]

Haha, I had that leg kicking syndrome till my 4th jump
First 3 times I jumped I was always so overwhelmt by the feeling of the velocity that I kicked my legs.

I think I even had it yesterday at jump 12, bit nervous for the first jump of the day, because I landed on my back after exit. Turned to basic position without any problem. Jump 2 and 3 that day where ok. Good exits.

Tell your friend not to give up. I never failed any levels but I was scared shitless the first jumps. However I had a coach who could calm me down on the ground and in the plane, so a good connection with your coach will be helpfull to perform better.

[Bye_gravity 0]

alopatenko

I failed the first attempt of level 4
spend around 1.5hour in the wind tunnel.

I asked the wind tunnel coach specifically to make me lose stability so i would work n how to restore stability and we work on turns back to belly and rollover so i felt confidence that whatever happen i can go back stable

Thanks for the advice! I will surely make him aware of the method. Never thought about induced instability recovery haha.

Pit76

Haha, I had that leg kicking syndrome till my 4th jump
First 3 times I jumped I was always so overwhelmt by the feeling of the velocity that I kicked my legs.

Same here! Did you pass your Lv4 ans 5 without having to repeat? And did you use tunnels within AFF?

You fly with the wind, or the wind flies you.

[VertexSkySports 0]

I'm not an instructor, but one of the most important things to learn during AFF is a solid basic body position, to be nice and stable. I don't think a slightly different exit should leave him out of control, but then we all had to learn! Some take to it a little slower which is fine.

Usually the answer is, goto a tunnel. Ususally 20 minutes is enough but apparently not. I'd say more tunnel, with more emphasis on being able to get stable reliably and quickly after becoming unstable which wouldn't be hard to practice. That way whatever the exit he should feel happy quickly getting into a nice stable body position.

Lastly is the on site tunnel upto scratch? I know our DZ has some crazy tunnel made out of old trick engines and such, and really isn't upto the job - so I assume this is a "proper" tunnel and not a fair ground ride type thing?

Anyway good luck to you and your friend!

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www.vertexskysports.com
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[alopatenko 0]

other things to get confidence- i am not an instructor but i felt it helped me
is
tell you friend
do back flying - even a little -- you'l know there is nothing terrible about it
learn how to get back from back to belly - so you know you can always get back to belly whatever happens to you
learn rolls so you'll feel very confident about your stability and ability come back to belly

[Pit76 5]

alopatenko

other things to get confidence- i am not an instructor but i felt it helped me
is
tell you friend
do back flying - even a little -- you'll know there is nothing terrible about it
learn how to get back from back to belly - so you know you can always get back to belly whatever happens to you
learn rolls so you'll feel very confident about your stability and ability come back to belly

I'm far from an instructor and I only have 14 jumps so far, but why would you want to start backflying if you don't have a stable basic body position?
We where only allowed to do other stuff, like back flying, flips etc if we mastered the basic position. We had one student in our group who was always spinning in basic position, so he couldn't even start his exercises. So they practised some more jumps just on his basic position. No shame in that.

[Pit76 5]

Bye_gravity

***Haha, I had that leg kicking syndrome till my 4th jump
First 3 times I jumped I was always so overwhelmt by the feeling of the velocity that I kicked my legs.

Same here! Did you pass your Lv4 ans 5 without having to repeat? And did you use tunnels within AFF?

I passed all my levels first time, however I wasn't the most elegant man in the air but I always managed to get back to a stable basic position.

My vid of my AFF is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXAkuQEWAGs

We're going to a wintunnel within 2 weeks to have some fun and practice the basic positions.

[Bokdrol 44]

If you can just relax while holding the b.b.p. in freefall, it helps a whole lot. When I did my AFF I often put too much effort/strain into arching after level 3. Nett result was FUBAR. Once I learned to relax, it all fell into place and AFF eventually went off OK.

[dthames 0]

Not so much advice but personal experience.

I had trouble due to poor/shallow arch. The instructor really couldn't let me go and I couldn't learn (very well) with someone hanging onto me. I quit AFF.

I had learned how to ride a bicycle by myself, the hard way...trying over and over and over.

I could repeat 2 Static Line jumps for less than the cost of one AFF jump and without putting so much pressure on myself.

Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”