Introduction
I am a photojournalist who works for the Sacramento Bee in California. Eventually I want to take my camera to the sky.

In which country do you skydive? United States of America

What is the name of your home dropzone? Skydance Skydiving in Davis, California

What is the number of jumps you’ve done to date? 62

Tell us about how you got into skydiving:
I met and fell in love with a skydiver while on assignment about a year and a half ago - and thus became introduced to my newest passion. I made my first tandem jump in December 2006 and wrote about my experience in my newspaper. After that, I knew I was hooked, saved some money, took a week off of work, and completed AFF during one intense week in July 2007. It was one of the hardest and most rewarding weeks of my life.

What skills and techniques are you concentrating on now in your skydiving career? I am working on my sit-flying skills. I’m really interested in free-flying and later in free style. I’m also interested in eventually taking pictures in the sky so I need to learn solid flying skills all the way around. My biggest weakness right now is my landings, so I’m trying to figure out where that sweet-spot for my canopy’s flare is so I don’t fall down so much!

About your AFF and A license experience

What year did you complete your AFF course? Lucky day of friday the 13th, July 2007.

Which dropzone did you complete your AFF course and what is it’s location?
Skydance Skydiving, Davis, California, USA.

What was the most difficult aspect of completing the AFF course? Learning how to land. The landing area at skydance is nestled between a set of power lines, a road, a ditch and a gun range… I almost walked out during my first AFF class when I was shown the map of our landing area with the sound of gunshots punctuating the lesson every few seconds. I was so intimidated! To make it even worse, I had a hard landing on my second AFF jump. I made a low turn to avoid hitting power-lines and did a somersault on a concrete road into a ditch… Fortunately I wasn’t hurt - and obviously, I didn’t let it stop me. I have a great respect for the danger of the sport and am committed to safety.

What was the most difficult aspect of obtaining your ‘A’ license?
I’m pretty lucky because my boyfriend taught me everything I needed to know during that time. He’s got more than 2000 jumps and I couldn’t ask for better coaching. So, I guess the worst part of it was the dent in my check-book! Not only paying for the jumps, but I had to buy my own rig because none of the rentals fit me. I’m 5′1″, 110 lbs. NOT an easy size to fit. I had quite a bit of anxiety related to poor-fitting gear and ended up purchasing my own by 11 jumps or so.

What words of encouragement can you give a
student beginning their AFF course training?
Try to plan it so that you can do your AFF training all at once. It’s easier psychologically that way. Skydiving is a commitment that you have to be ready for. Don’t get hard on yourself when you make mistakes, be respectful of the danger and learn from them. Respect yourself and your capabilities, push yourself, but don’t be afraid to ask questions - a failure on this test can have serious consequences. Contrary to what you may have expected, going through AFF might not be a fun experience. It’s scary and exhausting both mentally and physically. You might get banged up. But it’s an amazing experience, so soak it all in, write about it, and remember it! It only happens once in a lifetime and the rewards are second to none!

Have you got a website address? http://www.autumncruz.com
(admin note: Autumn Cruz also has some videos on youtube)

Can you suggest any website links that a student skydiver would find of interest? My blog! www.autumncruz.blogspot.com Drop me a line! And all the usual suspects, uspa.org and dropzone.com

Blue skies everyone!

Basia is on level 6 now. I have yet to convince her to write anything down on here. She is doing great, and her canopy landings are excellent compared to mine. My Level 7 jump I managed to land in the massive temporary lake that has appeared since the Dubai downpours last week.

I have two solo jumps tomorrow on some AFF loads which means I can exit 12,000 feet. I’m looking forward to the day I can jump from 15,000 feetin the UK. Admittedly it will be -20 in the air

BTW, The AFF instructor Basia and I had is Stephan Lipp, with over 14,000 jumps. How can you not trust someone whose been jumping so long. He’s a great teacher and we feel privileged to have been taught by him.

I’ve written about all my jumps so far except level 3. You can go to the start of them here (there’s four posts so far)  At the top of the posts is the menu of the jumps so you can navigate easily.

…enjoy the view.
close your eyes and relax.
kiss your boyfriend on the head.
make bad jokes with Dan.
geek a camera.
give a thumbs up to a tandem student.
be excited.
be quiet.

But always be alive and in the present.

Then one last mandatory ritual.

Look each person on the plane in the eye.

To each one - give a high five or peace sign. “Have a good jump.”

www.autumncruz.blogspot.com

It all starts when the JMs are getting ready to exit. They’re tightening their leg straps, checking my rig, handshakes all round, that’s when the heart increases.

What can you do though? Once the JM is out there hanging outside the door, copping all the wind, you can’t really ask them to politely step back inside the plane.

One of the tandem masters told Basia that experienced skydivers also get butterflies, they’ve just taught them to all fly in formation. Below is something I found ages ago on the net. I forget where, but I kept it as some of it is funny. Some of it not.
Here’s 61 “Things to Do” on the ride to altitude:

1) Blow your nose and offer to show the contents of your kleenex to the
other jumpers.

2) Grimace painfully while smacking your forehead and muttering “Shut up,
damn it, all of you just SHUT UP!”
3) Whistle the first seven notes of “It’s a Small World” incessantly.
4) Sell Girl Scout cookies.

……more continued

(more…)

Below is an excerpt from the original feature discussing risk perception.

…Few of us think of ourselves as risk takers. Skydiving, bungee jumping or street luge are not in the vocabularies most of us use to describe our daily activities. Yet we live with risk all day, every day, without jumping out of airplanes or off bridges, or zipping down the street on our backs. Most risks we take are unseen among the minutiae of getting through the day. They’re there, but few of us spend a lot of effort thinking about them. Most of us live our lives as if we could escape from risk by being careful…

Table of contents: Liam's AFF

1. Freefall photo
2. Level 1
3. Level 2
4. Level 4 & 5

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.

Table of contents: Liam's AFF

1. Freefall photo
2. Level 1
3. Level 2
4. Level 4 & 5

Unfortunately I am way too tired now to write about the first three jumps I’ve done of the AFF course. I will have to do that tomorrow, when my brain is back into gear.

Below I have posted an image of my first unassisted freefall (well half of it was unassisted), This is a screengrab from a video taken of my jump and shows me trying to keep the same heading as the instructor in front of me. I was very happy with this jump, and quite surprised that I did not notice the other instructor had let go of me halfway through the dive. The main instructor is normally on my right, but he was actually doing the video for this jump and I was stable enough for him to let go of me . Anyway more on this jump later. I must go to bed. My eyeballs are hanging over my cheeks.

I have level 4 and 5 jumps tomorrow (Hopefully I pass 4 so I can go onto level 5)

I should also mention that Basia is on to her level 4 jump. She had a rough landing on her second jump (level 2) and her third jump (level 3) she had to redo because her legs were always going short. When she re-did her level 3, she nailed it with a great exit and great canopy landing. Anyway, more on her jumps later. I’m hoping she’ll write about her jumps tomorrow too.

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Above you can see all the lovely water that fell from the sky. Some people though they could drive their cars through this waterlogged road. Below is the dropzone when we arrived the first day the sky cleared. Boy were we happy.

Table of contents: Liam's AFF

1. Freefall photo
2. Level 1
3. Level 2
4. Level 4 & 5

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:

1. Look at JM2 on my left and give him a big nod.
2. Look right and JM1 and give him a nod to signify I’m ok, your ok.
3. Look at the antenna to give me a good heading
4. 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.

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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.

Table of contents: Liam's AFF

1. Freefall photo
2. Level 1
3. Level 2
4. Level 4 & 5

This jump was great, due to fact that I saw the plane on my exit and arch sequence. It looks pretty crazy as you fall away from it. Seeing the plane meant that I had my chin up which really helps in getting a good arch in and gaining stability.

After my altitude check, the JM on my left moved to the front of me, and I had to extend my legs to move closer to him. At about 8000 feet the JM moved further away and once again I was meant to move forward. But I chickened out. I actually had plenty of time, but instead I locked on to my altimeter at 8000 feet. You can see me shaking my head on the video (no sound on this video) which is me signifying to the two JMs no more manoeuvres. My canopy landing wasn’t the best, I flared too high, and fell down when landing. I passed this jump and onto Level 3.

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Below is a photo of me coming back from the jump. There’s salt dried on the ground from all the water evaporating from the recent downpours. Over the right hand side you can see a massive lake thingy. There are two in fact (I’m walking in between them) and so far we’ve all been lucky to land in between them or just next to them. I’m hoping by next week they’ll be dry. Other than the temporary lakes, there are no other obstacles. Except maybe the windsock.