Tandem or AFF 1

[Kiakambala 0]

Hey, i made my first jump on April 12th 2007 at around 1pm. The jump was a tandem and definetly the best experience of my life. I knew from the moment i got back down i would have to go again and a few weeks ago me and a fiend started collecting money at school for a charity jump. what i cant decide is that now we have all the money and are ready to book should i do a tandem again or go for the AFF 1. 90% of me is saying go for AFF1 but the fear is pushing me away from it. I want to feel what its like to open the chute myself, i want to know what the sense of achivement is like after opening and flying back down safely a parachute myself but the fear of being alone up there with nobody to fix a problem but me is making it hard to chose. should i overcome the fear and go for it or just become another person who does tandems but never goes the full way?

[pilotdave 0]

Knowledge helps with the fear. Take the AFF first jump course and then decide. Chances are that after hours and hours of training, you won't be so afraid of being alone.

Dave

[skybytch 273]

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I want to feel what its like to open the chute myself, i want to know what the sense of achivement is like after opening and flying back down safely a parachute myself but the fear of being alone up there with nobody to fix a problem but me is making it hard to chose.

Do you want to be a skydiver or do you want to be a passenger? Skydivers deal with problems on their own. Passengers rely on someone else to do it for them.

Fear is good. It reminds you that what you are doing is neither natural or safe.

The exhilaration and sense of achievement you will feel after you land from your AFF jump will be exponentially bigger and better than anything you have ever felt before.

Don't be a passenger.

[Kiakambala 0]

i want to be a skydiver, i want to make the decision to take control. lately ive seen first hand how short life can be and i need to make the most of it while i can!

[degeneration 5]

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... but the fear of being alone up there with nobody to fix a problem but me is making it hard to chose.

All the places I've seen AFF being done (UK and Spain) have radios attached to the student so they can be talked through what they have to do if necessary. Granted it is only there as an aid which could fail (as it did on my AFF level 1 jump!) so shouldn't be taken for granted.

You'll do enough ground training before your jump that you'll probably not have as much of the bad kind of fear afterwards. Some fear is good as it will keep you on your toes, but mostly you'll be excited and nervous!

You know what a tandem is like, so why not try something new? At the end of hte day, choose whichever you'll be most comfortable and happiest with.

Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

[billvon 2,991]

>have radios attached to the student so they can be talked through what
>they have to do if necessary.

FYI, we (and most schools I have been to) will NOT tell a student to cut away over the radio, for a few reasons:

1) If the guy on final at 300 feet hears it, he might cut away with disastrous results.

2) We can't see what's going on. They might be spiraling because they have a nasty lineover, or they may be spiraling because they have released one brake and not the other (and are trying to puzzle out what to do next.) They may have a line around their necks; cutting away before dealing with that could be bad. I'll help however I can (i.e. tell them "check out your canopy" "do those control checks to see if you can land it" etc) but I won't tell them what to do.

[degeneration 5]

Sorry, my bad with the choice of words. Was only meaning it in the terms of guidance - on my AFF I got things like "turn 90 degrees left", "pull the right toggle, hold it, hold it and straighten up", "you're quite deep so pull your knees up to your chest" etc... that's the sort of thing I was meaning, not a full blown step by step instruction for every eventuality or malfunction.

Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

[skybytch 273]

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i want to be a skydiver

Then you know what the right choice is.

[Andrewwhyte 1]

There is no amount of training that can prepare you for the adrenaline rush that comes with the first jump. For that reason I am a big fan of starting with a tandem. In your case however, you have already experienced the first jump. You know how wild those first few seconds are going to be. Now go out there and take control of the situation.

[virgin-burner 1]

fucking do AFF already!

“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
"No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

[LloydDobbler 2]

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There is no amount of training that can prepare you for the adrenaline rush that comes with the first jump. For that reason I am a big fan of starting with a tandem. In your case however, you have already experienced the first jump. You know how wild those first few seconds are going to be. Now go out there and take control of the situation.

Well said.

To the OP, sounds like you know what you want to do...you're just trying to accept your decision.
Fear is natural. We've all dealt with it. You'll be surprised what you're capable of.

Signatures are the new black.