AFF-6 Flim Flam Flummox

[skylord 1]

I actually had this ready to post last night, but when I hit "Post" I got a strange error message and lost the whole thing.

Oh, well. Doug was my JM for Level 6, too. It is a blessing to get someone like him who loves skydiving and instruction. We spent about a half hour between the Level 5 and 6 jumps going over pattern work. He advises me this will be a solo floating exit.

We go over the dive, get into the plane, and off we go. I felt good on the ride up. At jump altitude, we take our turn spotting the DZ. Got it, there it is. Thumbs up from Doug, and out into the slipstream. I don't know why, but I was apprehensive this time. I got six out of seven exits rated good or great, and one OK, so I should have this down.

Doug is ready, I'm a bit tense, but I figure it will clear up in freefall. For whatever reason, I looked down at my leg during the exit count. Out I go, head down.

Shit! This is a bad exit! I thought, "Oh oh, I'm headed into uncharted freestyle territory!", and there I went. Front loop, back loop, turns, barrel rolls, the hokey pokey, funky chicken, everything you could imagine. I had completely destablilized. I think I met, inadvertently, all the technical learning objectives for AFF- 7, 8, and some levels that haven't been invented yet. The new objective for this jump was "Let's Figure This Out Now". I had thought if this happened to me I'd be a quivering blob of panicked protoplasm. Now I'm on my back.

My training kicked in. Freefall was not foreign to me. I flailed for a second or two, and then thought I can get out of this. Believe it or not, I was relatively calm. Arch hard, and like magic, the sky returned to its rightful place, along with earth. Stable, on heading, no idea where my JM is, but I'm doing good. Continue the skydive.

Doug had told me if there was a problem, just to get stable, he would find me, I didn't have to go looking for him. Now I start to think how pissed Doug is at me for screwing this up. He'll probably come down, give me the "take up bowling" sign, pull for me, speedbag my head under canopy, and then finish kicking my ass on the ground afterwards for scaring him.

Doug comes into view right in front of me. Dammit, he makes it look so easy! To my surprise, he is smiling at me. I smiled back, after my little extra curricular trip. I check altitude, and I'm at about 10,500. I thought my improv routine lasted longer than that. Anyway, we lock eyes, and he gives me the turn sign. Wow, we're going through with this. I turned right 360 degrees. Roll out. Left turn sign. A little faster than I wanted, but I stopped on heading. Relax sign from Doug, but no legs out. I feel my body relax into a more stable arch.

At 6,000 I note the altitude and remind myself to maintain my arch through the pull. 5,000, wave off, good stable pull, and canopy check.

I came down and landed within 50M of the target, but I was disappointed in my performance on this jump. Doug was really upbeat, which surprised me, and he pointed out the improvements I made from my AFF-5 jump. Then we talked about the exit. He commented I made a good recovery, and that I did exactly what I was supposed to do. But he wants to see a cleaner exit, and more relaxation in the turns.

So AFF-6 will be a repeat, but that's fine by me. I remember thinking under the canopy that probably no student ever screwed an exit up like that before. Doug really put it in perspective for me in the debrief, and told me if I re-did this level, 7 and 8 would be a snap. He's got one bajillion jumps so I trust his judgment. I didn't scare him, and I didn't hurt him, so by all rights it was a good jump.

What did I learn? I learned that no matter how unstable you get, you can recover. I can't say I "enjoyed" the experience, but the training I got from the beginning enabled me to fix a problem exit. I learned how IMPORTANT it is to relax, get your chin up, and arch hard on exiting the airplane. Physics will keep everything else as expected.

I also learned that for me, personally, I probably need time to "digest" each of these early training jumps. In other words, probably one a day for me works better.

To Javier and Darcy, all my best this weekend! Best of luck with the jumps. Arch hard!

Bob

Bob Marks

"-when you leave the airplane its all wrong til it goes right, its a whole different mindset, this is why you have system redundancy." Mattaman

[skyyhi 0]

Hey Bob. . .great to hear your story. . .thanks for the luck. . .I think I may need it. . .lol. Enjoy Hawaii. . .see you soon.

________________________________________
Take risks not to escape life… but to prevent life from escaping. ~ A bumper sticker at the DZ
FGF #6
Darcy

[Shark 0]

SkyLord,

Nice story... next time we jump I going to have you fill out the logbook. Anyway, you already know what your homework is. Too bad you'll be practicing on the sand or some terrible hotel pool on Waikiki.

Shark

[Shark 0]

Quote

. . .thanks for the luck. . .I think I may need it. . .lol.

Or maybe I'll need it...

[skylord 1]

Quote

. .thanks for the luck. . .I think I may need it. . .lol.

Or maybe I'll need it...

[VanillaSkyGirl 6]

Skylord, I read everything that you write. You seriously crack me up. I'm so glad that you have such a great attitude! I'm sure that you will pass your next level. It sounds like you learned how to recover from instability. Nice job! Have a beautiful time in Hawaii.

[vonSanta 0]

Heh, you have a very cool writing style
Don' feel too bad about the exit. At least you didn't get a brain lock. I forgot to arch on an exit because "it didn't feel right". Spent 800 meters with my brain saying "nope, YOU left the plane, stupid body, but *I* am still up there". Got pissed, arched and completed the dive. Even passed.

Sounds to me like you're doing very well. A couple of more jumps and you'll be out there flailing all by yourself

Santa Von GrossenArsch
I only come in one flavour
ohwaitthatcanbemisunderst

[newsstand 0]

You quickly recovered from a bad exit, made all of the required moves of the level, kept altitude awareness, waved off and pulled on time and FAILED the level! man your instuctors are tough.

"Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening."
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes

[Brian425 0]

Stick with it. The exits will come. I have recently graduated AFF and my exits are still iffy. Some are great some are an adventure.

It seems that you identified at least part of the problem on that particular exit. Exits seem to be hard for us newbies. The good thing is that you have learned that you can get stable. Take it step by step and learn from them.

Be safe and have fun!! You'll do great.

The only time you should look down on someone is when you are offering them your hand.

[skyyhi 0]

Oh I got Shark back but good yesterday. I jumped with him on both of my last two AFF levels. On AFF 7, the sit exit, he expected me to flail out of control and quickly flip to my belly. To his amazement I held it steady and he had to CHASE me because I was falling fast in that sit. And at the end of the dive when I was tracking, I started to turn slowly to the left, I raised an arm to compensate for the turn and was a little too agressive, flipped myself over on my back, rolled back over onto my belly just in time to wave off and pull.

I behaved myself on Level 8. . .I didn't want to freak him out a 2nd time.

________________________________________
Take risks not to escape life… but to prevent life from escaping. ~ A bumper sticker at the DZ
FGF #6
Darcy

[skylord 1]

Thanks, Rosa! I'm having a great time out here on Kauai. But I want to jump. Care to take my place??

Bob

Bob Marks

"-when you leave the airplane its all wrong til it goes right, its a whole different mindset, this is why you have system redundancy." Mattaman

[skylord 1]

Santa,

Thanks. I don't know what happens sometimes. I feel relatively calm, very excited, about an exit, and then sometimes I'm all balled up inside. That kind of tension isn't good.

The jumpers with us on my last jump had the metric altimeters. Very different. It looks like you recovered as I did altitude wise.

I'm looking forward to flailing out there by myself. Much of this sport is mental, and performance anxiety is by far the worst I've ever felt, even considering my career is air traffic control. NONE of that is any of my instructor's faults, it is me. I'll get there!

Bob

Bob Marks

"-when you leave the airplane its all wrong til it goes right, its a whole different mindset, this is why you have system redundancy." Mattaman

[skylord 1]

Quote

You quickly recovered from a bad exit, made all of the required moves of the level, kept altitude awareness, waved off and pulled on time and FAILED the level! man your instuctors are tough.

Hmmm. I think the most telling thing, and I did not make this clear enough in my original post, was Doug looked at me in freefall and could tell I was not comfortable on this jump. He was right. Even after all the things accomplished, including a recovery quickly from a botched exit, and meeting all the technical learning objectives. In the long run, I think this will make me a better skydiver faster.

Also, I think it is a repeat of the level, as mentioned in another thread, as opposed to a failure. That's my take.

Bob

Bob Marks

"-when you leave the airplane its all wrong til it goes right, its a whole different mindset, this is why you have system redundancy." Mattaman

[skylord 1]

Quote

Stick with it. The exits will come. I have recently graduated AFF and my exits are still iffy. Some are great some are an adventure.

It seems that you identified at least part of the problem on that particular exit. Exits seem to be hard for us newbies. The good thing is that you have learned that you can get stable. Take it step by step and learn from them.

Be safe and have fun!! You'll do great.

You know, I really had the thought cross my mind to just give it up, and always brag at least I did 8 jumps. I'm glad to hear your experience on exits. It is better than before, but I still have some issues deep inside about the start of the jump. As usual, I'm getting past that and looking forward to jumping again. Plus I can't let Darcy kick my ass in AFF

Bob

Bob Marks

"-when you leave the airplane its all wrong til it goes right, its a whole different mindset, this is why you have system redundancy." Mattaman

[skylord 1]

Quote

Oh I got Shark back but good yesterday. I jumped with him on both of my last two AFF levels. On AFF 7, the sit exit, he expected me to flail out of control and quickly flip to my belly. To his amazement I held it steady and he had to CHASE me because I was falling fast in that sit. And at the end of the dive when I was tracking, I started to turn slowly to the left, I raised an arm to compensate for the turn and was a little too agressive, flipped myself over on my back, rolled back over onto my belly just in time to wave off and pull.

I behaved myself on Level 8. . .I didn't want to freak him out a 2nd time.

Good for you! I'm glad you got even with him!!

Bob

Bob Marks

"-when you leave the airplane its all wrong til it goes right, its a whole different mindset, this is why you have system redundancy." Mattaman

[newsstand 0]

Quote

... could tell I was not comfortable on this jump. He was right. ...

Also, I think it is a repeat of the level, as mentioned in another thread, as opposed to a failure. That's my take.

Bob

being uncomfortable certainly makes a difference and I like your outlook.

"Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening."
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes

[skyyhi 0]

Quote

Plus I can't let Darcy kick my ass in AFF

You know that "door of death" thing? Well, it doesn't exist for me anymore. . .I think that once I did level 7 and figured out that its okay to kinda flip out of control just correct it - then I was okay. Now if I have a poor exit and get unstable, I can correct it and continue my skydive without worry. . .besides, I have decided that there is no such thing as unstable, it is only a temporary lapse of conscious thought that causes an unfavorable body position - which is easily corrected by just thinking again. . .lol.

You will get it and have a great time with it. See you in the sky my friend.

________________________________________
Take risks not to escape life… but to prevent life from escaping. ~ A bumper sticker at the DZ
FGF #6
Darcy

[benny 0]

Quote

Much of this sport is mental, and performance anxiety is by far the worst I've ever felt, even considering my career is air traffic control. NONE of that is any of my instructor's faults, it is me. I'll get there!

Bob

To me it helps to assure myself that if all else fails, never be afraid to pull and at least I'll stay alive in order to get myself over the performance anxiety (wondering whether or not I'll be able to stay stable, do my turns, etc.). Now, the thing that sucks is that I'm on a very tight budget. I can't afford to fail. (Knocking on wood). This has to be a good release form the stress of ATC huh?

Never go to a DZ strip show.