AFF Program - Stage 6/Jump 6 - 12,500ft

So I’m really nervous about this one, and pissed that we’re unable to get some tunnel time before. See our first jump was delayed, so we had to reschedule our tunnel time for another day. Remember how on the last jump I said that I may not have what it takes to jump out of the plane. This time I was thinking that this might be my last jump. I was really scared!

This jump will require the same exit as jump 5, only this time the JM will not be holding on at all. If all goes as planned the JM will never touch me during this jump. The rest of the sequence is as follows: Exit, back flip (yes this scares the hell out of me), change heading to the east, do a 360 degree turn in opposite direction that it took to face east, then track forward.

For this jump I will have the same JM as on my 5th jump, James.   

We exit the plane, and for the first time I do this without anyone holding on to me.  It’s funny, after my 5th jump I asked James if he had in fact held on to me because it felt as if he hadn’t, but he assured me that he did.  After this jump I know for sure that he was speaking the truth because you can definately tell when they are no longer holding on to you.

It feels like it takes longer than the usually 5 seconds to get stable (my instructor would later tell me that it still just took about 5 seconds and that I must have been counting too fast). So I’m stable now and I check my altitude, 11,500Ft.  Ok, now is the time to try the back flip.  Here goes. I go through the motions necessary to pull off the back flip.  Only one problem.  I straighten out about 1/4 of the way through and just like that I come right back to my original position. Crap!  I check my altitude again.  10,750Ft.  Ok let’s do this again, we have enough altitude.  I go through the motions again, this time I get about 3/4 of the way through before staightening out, again to early, and the next thing I know I’m falling with my back to the ground.  What was awesome next was that I instinctively when into my arch position and was quickly flipped back over ,falling face down.  I must say that while I was only free-falling for a second or two with my back to the ground it was quite a pleasant experience.  It was much more calm and quite than when facing down, but back to the jump. Crap again! Ok, let’s see what we can do to salvage the rest of the jump.  I check altitude, 9,000Ft.  I find my heading and turn to my right to face east.  All that is required is about 90 degree turn.  Next I begin my 360 degree turn in the opposite direction.  James says that he gave me the signal to turn after I hesitated to initiate it, but I told him afterwards that I didn’t see this signal and that I was merely sorting out in my mind which way I needed to turn. I make it through the 360 degree turn and check my altitude again, 7,500Ft.  I look ahead and see James give the signal for me to begin my track forward.

Up until this point all of our forward tracking exercises had been done by straigtening your legs just a little and moving your arms down just a bit.  This produced a slow track forward.  By contract the one we will do on this jump will require me to straighten my legs entirely and pull my arms all the way down to my sides.  As I adjust my body into this position I can feel my speed rapidly increasing (my free-fall computer in my altimeter would later tell me that I reached a maximum speed of 150MPH). During this rapid decent I make one small mistake, and that is for some reason I turn my head slightly to the right, which results in a turn to the right, but it feels I suppose much like a turn in a car would feel when you are going 150MPH. After a second or two of this it’s time to go back to the neutral body position.  I check my altitude, 6,000Ft.  I signal no more manuevers and pull without issue at 4,500Ft. As my chute deploys I can feel a bit of line twist however by the time I get to this check (#4) on my list it has already corrected itself.

Now it is time for the landing.  I’m anxious to redeem myself after my poor approach on our first landing. The winds are still a bit screwy through and I follow the pattern set by a skydiver below, which ends up being a downwind landing.  See, just like in an airplane, you want to land into the wind.  This allows your canopy to produce the maximum amount of lift at the slowest ground speed.  As I begin my final approach the winds are variable and mostly from the side.  So far so good as I’ve judge the distance just right and will land within the landing area.  Unfortunately, at about 25Ft above the ground the winds shift and are now at my back.  I flare at my usually height, but find with the wind at my back my ground speed is incredibly fast.  At the last moment I decide to lift my legs and come sliding in on my butt.  It was actually pretty fun landing this way.  I also realized that if I had tried to run this one out, I would have definately fallen on my face and sprained an ankle. 

Even though I didn’t complete my back flip, my instructor still cleared me for level 7.  He said the main objective of the back flip at this stage is to get the skydiver unstable and to make sure he/she can get back to a stable position.  when he saw me go on my back and then immediate get back stable and then resume the rest of the skydive he was satified that I had completed the objective.

After this jump I’m definately spent and need to hit the bar for a drink.  I decide to buy a few rounds as this was my “First” back flip.