Dodge trucks, the biggest peril to an aspiring Sky Diver?

There’s a post that’s supposed to go between this one and my last one, which I will finish writing soon, and when I do this little bit will be deleted, but for now this little disclaimer is required so that everything makes some form of contextual sense.

Last night whilst me and Bryce were carpooling home, we were speaking about when to schedule our next jump. Now that I’ve been mildly bitten by the bug, I want to go again as soon as possible, however, finances aren’t superb at the moment so I have to be a little bit cautious. After a little bit of calculating expenses and schedules, we decided that Saturday or Sunday at the very beginning of February would be the best time. As we decided this, I have to say that I had a few of the small tremors in my stomach again, the mixture of excitement, fear, apprehension and nerves. We spoke a little more about it, whether we would be able to fit in 2 jumps, if we might be able to complete AFF levels 3 & 4 in the same day (unlikely but definitely worth an attempt), what time we would need to get there to be able to spend some time in the wind tunnel before hand, then we settled into our regular crap talk for the homeward commute.

As we were cutting through L.A., a minor disaster struck. Bryce’s 4 year old, perfectly running truck stalled, dead. We managed to make it to the side of the road where there was a gas station and sat there for a few moments. The truck fired up again and we made it through the rest of LA and back onto the freeway. Unfortunately as we were driving down the freeway, the truck stalled again. With myself hanging out of the passenger side window, waving my arms at the cars in the lanes next to us to show we needed to come over, we made it onto the shoulder. Anyway, to cut a boring storing short, the truck kept stalling and we limped home (the remaining 30 miles) using surface streets and the occasional hard shoulder.

So, what does this have to do with Sky Diving? Unfortunately Bryce now needs to buy a new vehicle, and, factoring in all the expenses, all of his toys and fun budget is likely to be eaten up for the foreseeable future. This leaves me in a bit of a awkward situation. I don’t want to continue on my AFF by myself, there’s a comforting feeling being able to look over at someone who’s doing the exact same thing as me, with the same amount of experience. Also, I would feel bad saying the next week about how much fun I had, knowing he couldn’t do it. I guess over this weekend I’ll have a little think on it and see if I can come up with any possible plans. But for now, Sky Diving is on indefinite hold.

AFF Program - Stage 2/Jump 2 - 13,000ft

It’s time for jump # 2 of the day. As you may have read, all went very well on my first jump and I’m feeling very confident. Besides not “Bouncing”, our main objective for this jump is to track and move forward. This is done by pulling your arms in towards the sides of you body and then straightening your legs.

On this jump most of my nerves are associated with who my new JM is. His name is Jim Wallace. He is the owner of the skydiving center we are training at and something of skydiving zen master. A legend if you will (but a very humble and nice person). So I’m nervous that I will screw up (which I end of doing). I’m a very competitive person you see as well as a perfectionist. Yes one of those.

Pretty much the same drill as the first jump except this time I go first and Seri goes behind me. We jump out and I proceed to count to 5 then breathe and report in my altitude. 11,000Ft! I get the sign to do test pulls (3 this time). Those go off without a hitch. Report my Altitude again. 9,000Ft! Jim gives me the signal to begin a forward movement. I straighten out my legs and count to 5 (actually at first I totally forgot to start counting so I really counted to 3 after what I had figured had already been 2 seconds), then report altitude. 8,000Ft!. I get the signal to begin forward movement again. They had warned us that if we are doing well and have enough altitude they may have us do the maneuver again. I straighten my legs and begin moving forward again. This time I take a moment actually look down. This is going to amaze some people, but during my first two jumps I only looked down at the ground twice and only for a couple of seconds. I count to five again and report altitude. 6,000ft!. I shake my head indicating no more maneuvers and lock on waiting for the altitude at which to pull. This is where things start to go sideways. I seemed to have gotten fixated on the altimeter and when it hit 5,000Ft I had to do a double take. This meant that I also brought my arm in closer, which made me slightly unstable and wobble a bit. I recovered from this, but stumbled when reaching to pull the chute. This meant that my JM had to pull it for me. F%$K!!!!!!!! I scream as the chute deploys.

After my screaming I began going through my checks on the chute. I saw this time that I had a little line twist. It was not too bad so I just reached up, grabbed the risers and pulled apart. This cleared up the line twist. The rest of the jump was uneventful. At my debriefing Jim said up until that point everything was going well and that he would just make a note in my logbook, but that I was cleared for level 3.

At this point I’m not sure if I will ever jump again. I’ll wait until this adrenaline high wares off before deciding.

AFF Program - Stage 1/Jump 1 - 13,000ft

Ground Training

We started the day off early, kicking off our ground training at approximately 8:30am PST. There would be only three of us in today’s class, Seri, myself and Ryan. Ryan works as an instructor at the wind-tunnel, but up until this point had never jumped out of the plane.

I won’t bore you with all the details associated with the training, but rather just give you a quick summary. The entire training took about 4.5 hours. Our instructor, Mary, was great. At this point in her jump career she’d jumped 2000 times and had not yet had to deploy her reserve chute. Needless to say they drill safety into you from the get go, especially how to pull your reserve chute. That was probably the most intimidating thing about this type of first jump. Once you pull your main chute you are on your OWN!.

The Plane Ride

SO we board the plane ad you are literally packed into it like sardines; there are about 20-25 people total on the plane. During the ascent our Jump Masters (JM) have us basically do the jump in reverse telling them at set altitudes what we will be doing. This whole time I’m going over the canopy deployment checks in my head and for some damn reason I keep forgetting one of the checks (float). I ask on of my JM’s to go over them one more time, ok all set now. I look over at my friend Seri and he is sweating like crazy from being nervous. As we get closer to our jump altitude we put on our goggles. Seri is sweating so bad that his goggles keep getting fogged up.

We’re at our jump altitude and everyone starts jumping out. I see Seri and his JMs get into position at the door (Seri and I played a few games of darts to determine who went first. He lost). Then just like that he was gone. I say to myself, holy crap he did it… oh crap now it is my turn!

The Jump

All right then, it my turn now. I move into position, trying not to look out or down mind you. I report into my main side JM (main side refers to the side from which you pull your mail chute Your other JM is called your reserve side JM referring to to the side from which you would pull your reserve chute). Checkin! Ok! she replies. I look forward, then rock Out, In, Arch, and with arch we have now left the plane. Looking back on it I found the hardest part was moving to the door way. You have rehearsed the actual jump so many times by now that it something that you just do and don’t even think about it.

So were out of the plane now and falling fast. I must admit that for about two seconds I totally forgot what the hell I was suppose to be doing. Then I remembered. I count to 5 then take a deep breath (yes, you can breathe while falling to the earth at 120MPH!). I check my altitude and report to my main side JM. 11,000 Ft! (they can’t really hear you, but just want to ensure you are aware of what is going on and where you are at). Next I do a practice pull. Then report altitude again. 10,000Ft!. I continue shouting out the altitude every 1,000Ft (about every 4-5 secs) until we get to 6,000Ft. During the plunge to 6,000Ft my JMs proceed to spin me around in a 360 twice. When they do this it feels incredible fast, however, when I look at the video it is pretty slow. I get down to 6,000Ft and shake my head indicating no more maneuvers (except falling of course!). Once we get to 5,000Ft I wave off and pull the chute. I struggle for just a second to find the pilot chute ball, but was able to grab it and pull without assistance (once on the ground I’m told that while I was pulling the chute I punch my main side JM in the face).

After I’m safely on the ground the next 5 minutes I’m in another world. you fee so many emotions. The one thing I distinctly remember is a overwhelming since of pride for what we had just done. During the debrief, done by my reserve side JM, I’m told that the jump went extremely welland that I had done everything I was suppose to do. He said that it was the first time that he had actually enjoyed a stage 1 AFF jump.

Now on to jump # 2

Oh my god, I’m going to die - Jump 1: AFF Level 1

I find it almost impossible to accurately describe how I felt in the lead up to the first jump. I could say excited, terrified, nervous, hyper or a hundred other adjectives, but non of them would really do it justice. The nerves and the excitement started a few days before, right around the time that I hung up the phone with the sky diving center and told Bryce it was all booked. That was when the reality set in, that in less than a weeks time I was going to voluntarily throw myself out of an airplane with little other than a piece of fabric to save me.

With hindsight, I would probably recommend to people that are thinking of doing their first jump that they get someone else to drive them to the drop zone. With the adrenaline, caffeine and nicotine going through my system, I think I did the whole drive at nearly 120mph, it would have been faster but the cars governor kept kicking in. I was partially in a daze as I drove us both to the sky dive center, although, it was early morning, and as numerous friends, acquaintances and employers will testify, I am not a morning person.

The approach to the Perris Valley airport was a strange one, I don’t know what I expected, but this place was not it. We turned off from the nice regular paved road onto what was effectively one big dirt track leading to what seems to be fields and nothing more. My initial thought was “Holy crap, I’m going to die, I’m trusting my life to a sky dive center that’s probably a tin hut and a jump master called Bubba”. It turned out my initial impression of the place was inaccurate, as out of sight from the road their was a whole nice area with a few sky dive centers, a bar, restaurant, shop, swimming pool and children’s play area, but still, it took a while for my initial thoughts to subside to the voice of reason.

Training:
The AFF Level One instruction was pretty simple, there wasn’t a large amount of ground to cover and most of the focus was simply on covering what limited material there was, again, and again, and again, and again, and again until it became so firmly rooted in our minds that it almost became second instinct. For a little bit more information about what was covered in the AFF Level One training, then I recommend you head over to the Jim Wallace AFF1 Guide here, but in short, the focus was how to pull and how to cut away, or to put it another way, how to not die and what to do if that part goes wrong.

In the class room environment I was fine, I remembered the processes, how to perform the various checks, the sequence of maneuvers when leaving the craft, in short, everything I needed to be able to take my first jump. Unfortunately all of that left my head when I sat down with the exam paper in front of me. But, never less, I passed and was officially allowed to make an attempted suicide attempt, oops, skydiving jump. It was now time to get fitted and kitted ready for big moment, and this is when the nerves started kicking in. Now it was time to kill a little bit of time until our flight ticket was called.

The Jump:
We were fitted into some snazzy jumpsuits, furnished with chest and wrist altimeters, handed some goggles that immediately started steaming up (I was told that was due to how much I was sweating), given a helmet that looked like it would be as much use as a paper pirates hat if something went wrong, and finally strapped into a big heavy parachute. (As a little foot note, for people looking to get into the sport of Skydiving, parachute refers to the entire thing, the harness and rigging, the main canopy and the reserve canopy, what most people call a parachute is actually called a canopy).

At this point I was in a daze, the nerves had fully kicked in and I was fairly oblivious to most things going on around me. We were led to the dummy aircraft to perform a final practice of our exit and dive positions, which we had to do a few times to show we had it locked in, and then it was onto the plane. At this point I am honestly surprised I didn’t soil myself, even writing this I can feel again how terrified I was, I had sweat rushing out of every pore, I was shaking a small amount, I wanted my mummy.

As the plane started rising, I was aware enough to look around and take in how full it was, it was a lot bigger than I expected, accommodating about 30 people in very intimate proximity, certainly no place to be shy and need your own personal space. At 2500ft I was expected to turn to my main jump master and report the altitude and the significance of this altitude (2500ft, the final time to ensure you have a safe, land able, controllable canopy, and if not to cut away), I then had to wait and report in at 5000ft with the altitude and significance (5000ft, the point at which you have finished free fall and perform your pull), lastly my main jump master had me run through my jump procedures and checks (crouch in the door way, perform my hotel checks, exit the aircraft, get the correct body position, count to five, breathe, check and report altitude, perform three practice touches to the pull ‘dongle’, report altitude, smile, keep reporting altitude and breathing until 6000ft, signal no more manouvers, lock onto the altimeter, at 5000ft wave off and pull).

I was starting to calm down a little at this point, but then around 5500ft, they opened the aircraft door for some low altitude jumpers (which I later discovered was called a hop-n-pop), this was an unnerving experience for me, being on an aircraft with an open door, being able to look out of it and see land, not something which my brain was fully prepared to deal with. Anyway, the hop-n-poppers left, the door was closed and once more the aircraft started gaining altitude. Once we reached 13,000ft the remaining skydivers took their positions and exited the aircraft. Showtime!

I’ve already said quite a few times how scared I was during the training and in the run up to jumping, but for all the times I’ve tried to describe how scared or nervous I was, none of that compared for how I felt when I had to stand up and start walking down the aircraft to the open door. I’m actually surprised my legs moved, I felt sure I was frozen in place and wouldn’t be able to get out of the seat, I wanted to hold onto anything I could, but the jump masters wouldn’t allow that. I will say though, at no time on the first jump did I consider not doing it, I think that because I was jumping first with Bryce following after (something decided by a few games of darts the day before), I knew I had to do it.

Once I was in position in the door, the actual process of leaving the aircraft was a lot less stressful than I expected. I bent down with my elbows resting on my nears, turned to my main jump master and shouted “Check in!” (hence why it’s called the hotel procedure), I then lent out of the aircraft, rocked back in and then out again and I was gone. Unfortunately it all went down hill from here, my body position was terrible, I tucked my knees up into my chest, had terrible back arch, everything was wrong. As my instructors wrote in my log book “Body position: Knees up butt down. Notes: Body position needs work, lots of signals + some improvement. 6000 no more, pull a bit high”. Once I pulled the cord and the canopy inflated, the sense of relief was amazing, it took me a few moments to remember that I had to run through my checks. The rest of the jump I went through in a daze, I had trouble locating the holding area before landing, and the landing itself was guided through completely on radio. The only part I really remember clearly is when my feet met the earth and I fell forwards flat on my face, I actually stayed in that position for a few minutes, thankful to have completed it without hurting myself.

I have to say, I was shocked when I discovered I had passed, I wasn’t complaining but I knew my body position was terrible. It turns out the most important things they’re looking for on your first jump is that your are aware of your surroundings and requirements, you maintain awareness of your altitude and that you successfully pull, the body position can be worked on in later jumps.

Now it was time to prepare for jump two.

The beginning

So the whole idea for skydiving started this past holiday season (2007) when my wife was asking me what I would like for Christmas. Being a fairly blessed family with few needs or wants I was unable think of any material items that were of interest to me. I’ve always been into alternative type sports, some would say extreme (not me though), like surfing, snowboarding, wake boarding, motorcycles as well as an on and off hobby of flying, so I decided to try and think of something in these areas that were of interest to me.

First I’d set my eyes on taking an acrobatic flight or taking part in simulated air combat in old Air Force training jets. Unfortunately these items were a bit on the expensive side. Next I thought about bungee jumping and skydiving. I quickly chose skydiving over bungee jumping as it interested me the most and I felt it was the safer of the two. This may sound strange to some, but as you read my future posts I will explain why this is true (in my humble opinion).

Now that I had this set, and my wife had agreed (my wife is incredibly supportive of the crazy things I like to do and seldom worries for my safety) it was time to find someone who would want to do this with me. Right off the bat I went to my good friend Seri. Without hesitation he agreed to accompany me on the journey. From the beginning Seri and I were in complete agreement that we didn’t want to do the tandem jump. We starting researching and decided to do at least stage one of the Accelerated Freefall (AFF) program. Time permitting we would also try and attempt a second jump, hopefully of stage two in the AFF curriculum.

Next we began our search for a good school and dropzone. A good place to start a search in your area would be http://www.uspa.org/. If you are in the Southern California area I highly recommend the Jim Wallace skydiving school (http://www.jimwallace-skydiving.com/). I must admit that our jumps might not have happened had Seri not taken the reins to workout all the details.

Jumps are all scheduled for January 12th, 2008