leonard

Yeah, this is what I thought too. Like I said, I was afraid before, but the panic thing was new. Well, I'm totally confident I know what I'm supposed to do, I was never confident on my execution. I mentioned this in another post, but all my dives so far have been belly to earth, no out of control spin, everything went perfectly, and even though I've been told "arch fixes everything", I haven't seen it through experience, so I do have anxiety about things not going according to plan. I've also been having a tendency to start the first stage of the flare too early (causing the instructor on the radio to help me finish the flare), so I'm not yet confident that I can judge my height well. One instructor has, however, taken me to the side after my last actual jump, and just shown me around the DZ different things at different heights that I can help use as a reference. They did, right before the next jump attempt. Like I said, they're safety conscious people. They also recommended doing an intermediate dive where we exit together, with the instructor linked up again, just for fun, no objectives, to see if it helps get over the fear. It's gotten to the point where I'm equally afraid of leaving with somebody holding on than I am on my own, so I think I'm going to try pushing through one more time, though. We don't really have a hanging harness at my DZ, unfortunately. We just practice the cutaway and reserve deployment movements while standing up. Thanks for all the comments.

I wish I could say that was the case, but I'm definitely at the point where I don't know enough to know what I don't know, and that includes most of the risks. I think that might be true for that first AFP jump after the tandem: there's something to be said for jumping out of an airplane after taking a 6-hour course most of which is spent on how to recognize problems and what to do if they arise :) Thanks for the visualization advice, and especially thanks for sharing your story about your student days. It's good to know people who feel this way in the beginning still go on to get to the D license level. My instructors have told me to visualize the dive, exactly as you've said, and it worked beautifully in the beginning, because it kept my mind busy. This last time, it worked itself in panic feedback loop: I kept visualizing the dive, and then visualizing what would go wrong. I think part of the problem may be that thus far I've had real stable dives, so I'm not real confident in my ability to recover if I ever do go unstable or end up on my back. This will probably work itself out the first time it happens :) Thanks to advice there, guys. Yeah, I'm not an adrenaline junkie, I'm the mellow nerd who nobody believes has taken up such a sport. It's the only thing I do (other than driving) that can really be qualified as a risky activity. That said, I think you're right. The key should be to learn to enjoy that aspect of it, like you guys do. I'm pretty sure pyrotech is right, when I beat my fear, that sense of accomplishment is going to make the dive awesome. Thanks for the support there guys. Good to know this is a thing which other people deal with successfully, and that's what I intend to do. Next weekend, I'm going to take a breath, suck it up, and dive out. Maybe write a will beforehand... :)

Hey everyone, Just wanted to get an opinion from the more experienced people here. I've browsed the forums for posts related to handling fear, and saw some great advice, and similar stories to my own, so it's good to know that I'm not a unique case. That said, I figured I'd start a new thread, as all the ones I've seen before were from a few years back. I'm currently an AFP student, having a lot of fun once I'm out of that airplane, and a real hard time on the way up. The strange part is that I really can't predict how afraid I will be on any given day. First time I jumped, I did a tandem, and was completely calm, no fear at all. So I thought skydiving was for me, and started up the AFP course. Was completely surprised at just how afraid I was for that first AFP jump: cold sweats, hands trembling, the works. Got out the door anyway, had a great time. I had a similar reaction on subsequent jumps, but every jump seemed to be just a little easier. Got to my AFP 5, first solo exit, and actually wasn't really afraid at all, just apprehensive. Got out without a problem, thought I had licked that issue. Talked to my instructor about how that dive gave me new confidence, and got on the plane on the same day for a AFP 6. Got to the door, had a panic attack, and stayed in. Never had one of those in my life. I've been afraid many times, never to the point where I couldn't push through it if I reasoned out that the fear was out of proportion. Plus, I don't get it: why would the fear get worse as I jump more often? The instructors were great, told me it's something that happens, and that they'll help me get over it. I figured it was a one-time thing, returned to the DZ the following week. This time around, I started having the panic attack before boarding the plane. Got in anyway, but didn't get out again. Once again, full support from the instructors, I really have no complaints at all about any of them. They work with me until I feel comfortable with the dive flow, they're really safety conscious, and they've given me good advice on trying to handle the fear. In the past, it has worked well, but I seemed to have hit a wall here. I was going to try again this weekend, but got a cold, so it'll have to wait until next week. Any advice anyone would like to share? Right now I'm feeling pretty good about my chances to just suck it up and dive out, but apparently things change once I get up there.