Today was pretty hectic. Two jumps and then a 16km run in preparation for the Ras Al Khaimah Marathon (RAK Marathon). I can certainly tell you that in October last year I was sitting on my butt watching Prison Break or The Sopranos all weekend. This year is kinda different.
Level 4 & 5 rocked. I really got the hang of staying stable and really hanging from my arms and extending my legs. I think I’ll eventually learn how to stay stable in the Mantis body position. Mantis looks a little different (and cooler) compared to the normal box man position. I really feel like my arms are too high. But JM says that is fine, I’m stable which is the main thing. I guess I can refine it a little as I jump more. By the way, the JM in my level 3 video is doing mantis.
Level 4: Exit was ok, but I would have flipped over backwards if JM wasn’t there. I’m getting into the arch just a little too early. If I keep my legs straight and wide for the first few seconds then I can have my whole body facing into the wind and then as I gradually fall forward I can then arch. Pull sequence needs work and JM suggested that I need to concisouly look through my left hand as I put it in front of me and deploy. I need to stop looking at my altimeter as if it is a watch. When I do this my heading changes very slightyly. Stand up landing in canopy today, and I still managed to miss the gigantic puddle.
Level 5: Within 20 minutes I was up again. Exit was much better, legs straighter and wider. I have a feeling though that when I do my first solo exit (if the exit is like this) that I’m going to flip. On this jump I faced JM and then did a 360. I remember facing away from JM on 360 and looking over the horizon and all I could see was the Gulf and blue sky. It was pretty cool. On the pull sequence I reached my left hand in front and saw the horizon through my fingers and deployed. My head didn’t dip forward. So pretty happy with that jump. I felt really stable too. Another standup canopy landing, I thought I would definitely land in the massive puddle lake thing. The wind had picked up since taking off and I did not get much wind penetration so it was looking soggy for a little while. The day before I saw one fun jumper land in the big puddle. She didn’t do a standup either and fell backwards into the ankle deep water. Poor thing didn’t feel jumping again.
As I said in the last few posts, there’s been, rain, rain and more rain in the UAE. Friday was sunny and back to normal and Friday was the day I started my AFF level 1 jump. You can see a photo of me below on the plane ride up for my first level jump. I’m trying to look cool, calm and collected. The JM2 behind me is doing a good job of doing that.
Overall I was pretty happy with my first jump. The fact that I actually got out of the plane was a pretty good start. I’m jumping from an A6-VAN and to exit this type of plane, the JM1 (jumpmaster) climbs out first and hangs on to the side of the plane on one side of the door. JM2 climbs out and hangs onto the plane nearer the wing. I then have to kneel near the door and reach out and up to grab the handrail at the top of the plane and sort of squeeze my way through their legs which block the door. Once that part is done and I’m hanging onto the side of the plane, I then have to initiate the exit sequence:
Look at JM2 on my left and give him a big nod.
Look right and JM1 and give him a nod to signify I’m ok, your ok.
Look at the antenna to give me a good heading
Swing leg out, then in, swing out again and let go. Arms and legs out. Chin up.
Pretty exciting I must say. You can see the video of this jump below (no your computer is not screwed, there’s no sound on the video). On this first jump I was required to do three practice deployments and maintain altitude awareness. One thing I needed to improve after this jump was my arm positions, as they were a little close in to my body. They should be more right angled. My legs too flapped around a bit and should have been extended a little more to stop me from backsliding.
Your may be wondering why I’m shaking my head near the end? Well, at about 7,000ft I’m required to signal to my JMs that pull altitude is coming up, and there is no time for more skills to be practiced. At 5,5ooft I deploy the pilot chute. Just before deploying, I felt the JM shake my rig a little, which was probably to wake me up. I remember wanting to pull at exactly 5,500ft and really waiting for the altimeter to reach it. Kind of odd, as they aren’t going to fail me for pulling a few seconds earlier (or late for that matter). I have heard that some students get brain lock when under stressful conditions like falling 120mph to to the earth. They get so stressed they don’t pull, so their JM has to do it for them. I didn’t want the JM to deploy my chute and thankfully he didn’t.
You can read a little bit more here about what is required for each of the AFF levels. It’s not strict procedure for each dive, as the JM often alters the program according to the students’ rate of progression. Next is level 2.
This is Basia’s reaction after her first jump on AFF level 1. The radio on her helmet (which is used to aid students with canopy landings) got turned off (accidentally) at some point during the skydive, so she had to do her landing unassisted. She landed right on the green grass patch and landed safely in a cross-wind!
Below is Basia minutes before going up in the plane for her first jump. Unfortunetely it was the last jump of the day so Prakash and I missed out on our level 1 jump
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