Day 4
Woke up this morning feeling fine. Got something special on my mind, last night I learnt to hover, in a wind tunnel, oh yeah. Something tells me I'm into something good.
We all met up at 9am in the TV Room in the hanger for a debrief from Steve and Rod. We all agreed that though we are all at different levels of experience, the wind tunnel helped us all massively, as there isn't that much time to refine things when you're up in the air. You have to concentrate on everything at once and that makes it difficult to learn. Tunnel time should me mandatory on all AFFs and I can recommend it to anyone who is thinking about learning. (Oh that'll just be you then Scott;)
Zak sat in and we went over the correct body position again before running over this mornings dive. HIPS! ARCH! Got it. I was good leaving the plane. I got stable pretty soon, checked with Zak all was OK, 360 to the left, 360 to the right, extend legs to go forward and dock. I was travelling at 200ft per second downwards and I'd just pulled off a bunch of maneuvers that sent me into a spin the other day and I was grinning like all my birthdays and Christmas' had come at once! I did another left hand 360, stabilised at 7000ft, grinned at Zak (who was grinning back) until 6000ft, waved off, pulled at 5,500ft and let out a WHOOO-HOOOO!!!!! as my chute opened and I began my canopy decent.
This is Zak talking me down on the radio, he has a smaller, sportier canopy so he's generally on the ground while i'm still mumbling 'Square, Yes. Stable, Yes....' (The first pic is Zak on final approach)
I had a bump on landing as I was trying to put my foot down rather than letting the floor come to me and so I landed on my bum after glancing off my feet, but I didn't care! I was on cloud nine. Actually, I went through cloud 9 at about 3,500ft and I'm now on the other side!
JUMP 2
Rob, James, Me, Zak, Steve and Rod
We decided jump 2 was going to be a diving jump rather than a prone position exit. As part of the qualification, I had to do a backflip in order to put me out of control and then stabilise. What a difference a day makes. Yesterday the idea would've terrified me. As I exited the plane, I should've bent my legs up to my bum so I didn't catch the relative wind of the prop. I did it in my head before I left the door but it turns out my legs didn't do it quick enough.
When I exit a plane, my brain seems to adjust from 'Standing' mode to ''WhatTheFuck?' to 'OK, fair enough, lets do something to control it.' On my first jump, the 'WhatTheFuck' stage lasted most of the way down, I wasn't so much in control as just doing what I was told. The more I knew what to expect, the lesser the 'WhatTheFuck.' As I tumbled from the exit, after only a second or so, my brain switched to 'OK, fair enough, lets do something to control it.' I almost regained stability, then lost it, then went onto my back, then just arched like I had in the wind tunnel. I brought my right hand in over my chest which flipped me over. I put it back and wobbled as the airflow stabilised, and grinned again.... Christmas, Birthdays + The Cat whos got the cream.
Check Altitude, Still at 12,000ft, 180deg turn, tracking (legs straight, hands at shoulders to go forwards) for 5 seconds. Stop, Check Alt, 180 turn, grin at Zak, track forwards for another 5000 count, this time, as planned, with my arms outstretched like delta-wings behind me. I'M FLYING! The sensation of forward speed was amazing. This is what it feels like to be Superman!
Stabilise at 7000ft. 6000, 5,500 pop chute. YEEEEEE-HAAAAA! A little later at 2000ft I saw a bird flying below me, I thought it was cool at the time but didn't know why. Now I think about it, I've realised its because usually I look up at them and think 'You Lucky Bastards.'
Again, my landing was a bit hard as I flared a little late, but hey, that'll come with practice too.
That was enough for me for one day. I'd gone up two levels in one morning and i've only got one more to pass the AFF and move on to the required solo jumps. It seems strange, and its taken me a while to realise it, but the secret to skydiving is being relaxed. Breathe. Slow is Smooth. Smooth is good. Good means you learn faster. That and ARCH!! HIPS!!!