about to start... please help

[Olmed 0]

I have done both with some years between them. First was SL.

Compared to instructors I am not qualified to have an opinion about wether one method is better than the other.

The questions: Do you prefer the first jump to be a 50 seconds of free fall with 2 instructors at your side or do you prefer it to be a 5 second long intensive arch with a line pulling your cord?

Personally I prefer AFF.

But the best advice I would like to share is listen carefully to your instructors. What they say is for a reason

Have a nice jump

[dthames 0]

Reading all of this thread I feel like my learning path may have fallen (by chance) into some posters "ideal" training model.

Because of specific circumstances I introduced some static line jumps between some of my AFF jumps. Here is what I have done and where I am headed. The “days” is how many days since the last jump.

1 AFF
1 AFF 1 day
1 static line 4 days (new DZ starting here)
1 static line 36 days (weather)
1 AFF 0 days
2 static line 7 days
Future plans below (on jump vacation trip)
15 minutes wind tunnel 13 days
AFF 14 days
Finish AFF and work toward A license while on trip.

The jump trip was planned at a time when I fully expected to be finished with AFF by the trip date. But my AFF did not go quick and easy. The first static line jump was introduced by a series of unexpected events and I quickly saw the value of canopy work without “pass or fail” pressure at the rate of $180 per jump. So, I have been doing some static line jumps as refresher and just for fun learning. I have done those while waiting on the trip and being able to get in the wind tunnel before more AFF jumps. On my next AFF jumps, I should be able to focus on the free-fall aspect, because the canopy work will now be a repeat of what I did on the static line jumps. Well, up through category D, anyway. My new DZ instructors have been great to allow me to adjust my path, while also going above and beyond with training.

Merry Christmas
Dan

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