Tag Archive for ‘Basia’ at AFF Student Skydiver

Tag Archive for 'Basia'

I’ve finished my AFF course!

Published on January 27, 2008 in AFF and Skydiver blogs. 1 Comment

Since I’m unemployed at the moment, I’ve been able to finish my AFF course relatively quickly. I’ve yet to write about my Level 6 or level 7 (or first solo jump!). That will come later when I have the time to sort out the videos to attach to the posts. I also need to post another interview online which was completed by Autumn Cruz.

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.

Managing fear on the way up

Published on January 23, 2008 in Humour. 0 Comments

The plane ride up to altitude makes me n-n-n-n-nervous. But not as much as it used to. Now I start breathing deeply and really trying to chill myself out near the jump run. I visualise what I need to do on the jump at hand. I really see it happening in my head. It seems to work so far. I normally do this at least three times. In between doing this, the JM will ask me what I’ll do at 5500 feet. Why pull of course….

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

Continue reading ‘Managing fear on the way up’

Freefall photo

Published on January 19, 2008 in AFF, Photo and The jumps. 1 Comment

Table of contents: Liam's AFF

Freefall photo
Level 1
Level 2
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)

Yeeeeha

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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