AFF Ground School
In the middle of April I figured it was time and contacted the DZ to see about starting AFF classes. They were having their first class the last weekend in April but our kids had stuff going on that weekend. Then the next one was May 13 when we had a wedding. Memorial Day weekend we were free so I asked about that weekend, got an OK and signed both my husband, Boomer, and me up. Then I just had to wait for the days to go by. At first it seemed like it was taking forever but then all of a sudden it was there! This DZ starts the ground school the night before to get a lot of the classroom stuff covered so that jump day you can have plenty of time to practice everything in the morning and can then jump in the afternoon. They were having some problems with the town and could only use the big sandy bowl landing area (where students landed) on Sundays so class started on Sat. night.
So on May 27th I found myself on the way to the DZ around 4:00PM (even though it was only a 35 minute drive and class didn't start until 6:00PM.) We were just too excited and wanted to get there. We figured it would give us time to watch some others and check out the landings. On the way out I was kind of nervous but not too bad because I knew I wasn't jumping on that trip... just going to the class, which I was excited about. When we pulled in though I started having some doubts creep in. Did I really want to do this? I felt awkward... out of place. I felt like an imposter. Maybe I wasn't really meant to be a skydiver. Maybe I'd just been kidding myself.
We climbed out of the truck and just then you could hear the plane engine start up. Ahhhhh what a sound! I love that noise as it's revving up. It immediately brought back good memories. And then the smell of jet fuel drifted over. Ahhhhh what a sweet smell! I breathed it in. It, too, brought back warm memories. It made me relax a bit and feel excited rather than scared.
When the first load of skydivers came in for their landings the first few came swooping in fast looking like they were going to wipe out but ending up just fine. I thought, "Oh Geez... no way... I can never do that!" Then the next ones came in slower and easier and I thought, "Ok... MAYBE I could do that." Then some tandems came in and I thought, "Now I KNOW I can do that!" Maybe I should just keep doing tandems. I told my husband that and he goes, "WHAT???? I can't believe you just said that after you've talked about nothing else all winter!" lol I knew better than to take myself seriously. I know I'm neurotic and worry about stuff too much and I also knew I was going to take this class and JUMP!
Six o'clock rolled around finally and they called us into the video room to sign the release papers and watch "the video". There ended up being 5 of us in the class. We were very quietly sitting there filling out the forms and half watching the TV when a little girl came in, looked at us all, looked at the TV and goes, "Boring!" and wandered out. Soon she was back and went over to the collection of videos and pulled one out and holds it up and says, "Funny!"... points at the TV and says, "Boring!" ... "Funny!" pointing at tape (which we saw said Tom Green on it)... "Boring!" pointing at TV. Then walked out again. We all cracked up!
That got us all talking and we found out we all had jumped at least once before. Jen had done a tandem there last November and loved it and wanted to start AFF right away but it was too late in the season. Bob had started AFF last year and was on level 5 but because 90 days had gone by since his last jump because of winter he had to take the class again and do a level 3 jump and then could continue on with level 5. Ron had done 50 jumps back in the 60's on surplus military chutes. He had started s/l last fall but decided to try AFF. Boomer, my husband, had done 6 static lines back in college about 20 years ago.
After we finished filling everything out the little girl came back in and popped the Tom Green tape in the VCR so we watched that a bit until the instructor showed up and brought us to the classroom. His name was Bob and it turned out he started skydiving back when Boomer had done his few static lines and at the same place. They knew a lot of the same people and chatted away a bit about everyone. Bob now had 4700 jumps!
Bob started going over all the stuff we would need to know for our first jump. He said others called them the Safety Nazis because they were so safety conscious and that made me feel good. He covered a lot of material and was very thorough. I have always been amazed that a person can show up who is a complete whuffo knowing zilch about skydiving and can jump later that same day. It seems to me that there is so much info to learn. I have been reading everything I could get my hands on all winter and I think if I hadn't I would have gotten lost even though Bob did keep everything very simple and basic. Maybe I'm just denser than most. But anyway I was glad I already knew a lot of basic terminology like pilot chute, bridle, sliders, risers, cells, plf, toggles, air speed, ground speed etc. which made it much easier to follow along and I had no trouble understanding what Bob was teaching.
I had also read all I could on malfunctions and possible causes and suggested ways of handling them. I thought Bob did an excellent job presenting this subject and after going thru all the cards he had showing them I felt pretty confident about being able to recognize different scenarios and knowing what to do. We talked about the different canopies and Bob was telling us how safe ours were going to be. He said it would be like driving our parents' station wagons while he drove something like a Ferrari. Then he talked about the 3 different size student canopies. Boomer weighs 205 so he told him he'd get the really big one... called it the bus! lol Jen would get one that was smaller than normal because she was so small. She joked ... what was hers then... a Ford Escort?? Some people might think the classroom part is boring but I loved every minute of it! Around 10:30 we had covered all the material he planned on so we ended class and planned on meeting around 8:30 the next morning to go thru the different harness (freefalling and canopy handling)drills, the exit and landing practices. I left feeling much better about really jumping. I still had butterflies but at least they were flying in somewhat of a formation!
I was happy to find Boomer was really pumped up about jumping on the way home. I had been worried he was doing this for the wrong reasons... because I wanted to, not because he really did. But now I could tell he was really excited about this, too! We got home and immediately checked the weather forecast. Earlier in the week they had been saying very cloudy with chances of rain for Sunday but slowly it had gotten better and we were psyched to see it say ..MOSTLY sunny ... low 70's! We checked the mail and found Joe Jenning's latest video, "Good Stuff" had arrived! What timing! I had only ordered it Tues. or Wed. so I was thrilled it was there already! We decided to watch some even though it was late because we figured we were too pumped up to sleep anyway. We were disappointed to find out I had a defective tape... no sound... but you could still see the video and it was so cool we watched most of it anyway! (Joe's sending a new tape).
I thought I'd never be able to fall asleep but I surprised myself and went right out. I did wake up around 4:00AM though and never got much sleep after that. Daylight finally came and it was pretty cloudy out but the forecast still said MOSTLY sunny so we didn't worry... figured it would burn off. I knew Boomer was really pumped up to jump because when I got out of the shower he was up having a big breakfast of ham and eggs. He is NOT a morning person and the ONLY time he ever gets up early is for golf. I even have to drag him out of bed for skiing! I made an english muffin and managed to swallow about 2 bites before chucking it.
We headed out and in the car I started getting the shakes. A really bad case of nerves was getting to me. Boomer kept asking me if I was OK. I told him I knew I'd probably be like this.. that's just me. But don't worry... I'd deal with it. After we got to the DZ and met up with the other students I began to relax. We started off trying out the horizontal harness to practice freefall. I was the lucky one chosen to go first. But I didn't really mind. In fact, I was excited to try. I had been practicing this part all winter on my livingroom floor and in my bed before falling asleep at night. I think I did pretty well. Only thing I really did wrong was not make eye contact with the jumpmaster once during the COA. I wasn't used to really looking at someone! I made the same mistake later during the exit drills but because of that I'm pretty sure I'll remember now during my actual jump! We went thru a bunch of different scenarios... losing one JM, losing both, all the hand signals.. especially the finger pointed straight at you, which means PULL! Sometimes Bob would shake the harness all around like you were unstable and you'd arch harder until it stopped. I thought it was great fun except I did feel a little bit like one of those flying monkeys from "The Wizard of Oz"!
Every once else in the class got a turn and everyone had it down pretty good. So then we moved onto the vertical harness to practice being under canopy. This was really fun, too. We'd start at pulling the ripcord, arch and do our count to 4,000 when Bob would hold a card above our head showing a different canopy (or none at all!) and we'd have to decide what to do. The first time I did my emergency procedures I did it all correctly but had screwed up saying it. Bob asked me if I was dyslexic... lol I had said left for everything on the right and vise-versa. I told him I have trouble with left and right and can never get it right when I try to think fast. I asked if I could just say red and silver instead (that's how I had been practicing at home anyway). So I did it that way from then on and had no problems.
At first there was just a red pillow for the cutaway that wasn't connected to anything but then Bob would replace it with a different one that would drop you down a few inches when you pulled it. I hadn't been paying attention when he switched mine and I was really surprised when I dropped. I think I did pretty good here, too, except for the first time I flared. I could tell right away by the way that everyone was staring at me I had done something wrong but I didn't know what it was. I had jumped the count. I flared right away after hearing 3, 2, 1 BEFORE he said flare! Oooops... not a good mistake to do! Boomer was the last one to have a turn. He did pretty good except EVERY time he threw his ripcord after pulling it and we'd all yell "$10.00!" lol Might as well just pay for that up front now!
Then when he went thru the emergency drill and pulled his breakaway handle that dropped him down, the whole ceiling shook and this eyebolt dropped down from somewhere. There was also another class going on in that room for instructors and we were all staring at the ceiling waiting for it to all come crashing down on us! lol Then someone figured that the bolt must have just been sitting on a beam up there and fell off. The beam was originally installed to take engines out so they thought it should be able to hold up anyone... even Boomer!
After the harness drills we went out to practice parachute landing falls (plf). I was a little nervous about this because I had sprained my left ankle 5 weeks ago and it was still a little tender. I was afraid I'd hurt it practicing my landing and never get to actually jump! I slipped off to the truck during our break and wrapped up my ankle to give it a little extra support. First we jumped off the lower level of the platform working on keeping our feet and knees together as we landed and then rolling off to one side onto our calves then thighs then butt and shoulder. No problem on that one. Well, in regards to my ankle. I did screw up again and jumped before the actual FLARE. But now that I messed that up TWICE I am very conscious about it and I don't think I'll make that particular mistake again. (Wrong! I later learned ... what you do on the ground you usually repeat in the air!) Then we went to the high platform. I was a tad scared when my turn came but it ended up going really well! Guess landing that way really does protect your ankles! I'm glad we did it because now I feel a lot better about the actual landing! And it was kind of fun rolling around in the dirt!
Right before we left that area I went to untangle Bob's dog who was tied out there. I didn't see this crossbar connecting these two polls and whacked my head wicked hard on it as I ducked under it. OUCH! I felt like an idiot. Just my luck to hurt myself doing something stupid like that instead of skydiving!
We only had 2 things left to do... the exit drills and the written test. First the exits. The King Air that they usually had was down in NC being worked on so they had a Twin Otter up for the weekend. Since the weather was NOT looking any better... still heavy cloud cover, Bob decided to teach us both exits. The exits weren't too much different... mostly the position you are in (standing vs. kneeling) and which JM you look towards first. My only problem was again just kind of going thru the motions but not really looking the JMs in the eyes and waiting for their response. Guess it's from too much practicing at home with imaginary JMs. But like with the flaring too soon I'm very aware of this now and hopefully won't repeat my errors on the actual jump.
Then we went in and took the written exam. I thought it was pretty easy ... well not like in TOO easy... but easy as in we had covered all that material well and we now knew the answers. Everyone passed and we were cleared to jump except it was still way too cloudy! Bob said the forecast predicted it staying that way and having more of the same tomorrow. He said we could hang around and hope or we could head home and try coming back tomorrow (Memorial Day) or next Sunday. He gave us the phone # to call to check on the weather there. Since the forecast was so dismal the DZ sent the Twin Otter home so Bob took us out to the Cessna to run thru a Cessna exit in case we got a chance to jump the next day because that would be the only plane available. I wasn't too wild about the idea of hanging out on a wing of a plane but at that point I wanted to jump so bad I would have tried anything. Kind of funny since a year ago I'd have said ... No way would you EVER get me hanging out off the wing of a plane 13,000 ft. off the ground... now here I am praying for the right weather so I can do just that! (Guess ever isn't as long as it used to be!)
Anyway, we headed home and spent the rest of the afternoon staring at the sky and occasionally calling the DZ weather number just to make sure nothing had changed there either. At 6:30PM we finally gave up. We were both extremely disappointed and kind of strung out from all that built up adrenaline that had no place to go. Ah well, at least I could finally eat something! Also managed to get a good night's sleep that night since ALL the weather reports we could find said Monday was going to be a repeat of Sunday :-(
Surprise, surprise! The cat woke me around 5:15 am trying to get in my window (yes, I have a good supply of them for any cat tossing experiments I might want to try someday)and as I was opening the window to let him in I saw a tiny speck of blue in the early morning sky. I hated to get my hopes up but I couldn't help but get some of those jitters back already. I made myself NOT think about it and go back to sleep. I woke up about an hour and a half later to bright BLUE skies!! Boomer had already been outside to check them out. (I KNEW he was going to like this better than golf! hehehe)
We check the weather channel. It calls for MOSTLY sunny skies! Well... there go all thoughts of breakfast! But... wait a minute... Boomer calls the DZ weather and it gives a cloud ceiling of 2500 ft. Hmmmm clouds must be moving east-west today. We have our town's Memorial Day Parade to go to first anyway to see our daughter march with The Brownies. By the time that's over we are sure the sun will be shining everywhere. We live in a small town that has Memorial Day Celebrations just like you'd see in a Norman Rockwell picture. The old townies get dressed up like Minutemen and set off the old cannon and the "big" parade consists of a few veterans, the police chief in his cruiser, the Fire Dept. (minus me... I absolutely refuse to march!), the high school band and then the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Brownies and Cub Scouts (I think they are invited because then their parents have to come watch them and therefore there are actually people watching this parade).
We tell Colleen she can march in the parade but that she can't stay for the ceremonies and speeches at the end (because of course by then it will be OK to jump). While everyone else is watching "the parade", Boomer and I are watching the sky. First a few big, white, puffy clouds roll in. Then a few more. Then a few dark ones. By the time the ceremonies start it is not looking good. Colleen has been chosen to hold a flag so we let her stay. As we listen to all the speeches, including one from some old chauvinist who just talks about all the MEN, and BOYS, and LIONS who have served our country (while I loudly whisper and WOMEN, and GIRLS, and LIONESSES) we search the sky for blue. We pacify ourselves with the thought that the blue skies we had earlier are now over the town the DZ is in. We call for a weather report there... ceiling of 3500 ft.
We debate whether to go to the cemetery to plant flowers on our daughter's grave (an hour and a half in the opposite direction of the DZ). We check the weather channel again. It has changed to "more clouds than sun". We decide to go and bring the DZ weather phone # and just keep calling from the cell phone. As we head east the skies get bluer and bluer but every time we call Orange is still cloudy. The whole way there I keep closing my eyes and going thru my whole jump from exit (the Cessna one) to landing (making sure to wait to hear Flare! Flare! Flare! BEFORE flaring!) By the time we get to the cemetery there isn't a cloud in the sky. We plant the flowers and fix up the "rabbits" and "raccoons" we have around the headstone and visit the graves of the other children that are near by. Still not a cloud in sight. Boomer and I look at each other. We decide to forget about our plan to eat at this little restaurant in the area and just get it to go instead. We call the DZ. Still cloudy with a ceiling of about 4,000- 6,000 ft. We need 10,000 to jump. But maybe by the time we get there... right??????
We head back and for the first half hour things look good. Then we start seeing clouds ahead of us. By the time we get home we are under completely cloudy skies again. We call the DZ... same story. We give up and eat lupper (meal between lunch and supper). Hey... at least I can eat! Around 6:00 the skies start to brighten again. We call the DZ... still 6,000 ft. ceiling. By 6:30 here it is gorgeous out again.. lots of blue! We call the DZ... still 6,000 ft. Since they told us 7:00 was the latest we could go on a load and it takes 35 minutes to get there we finally admit defeat.
I wake up Tuesday morning. Not a cloud in sight. I call the DZ just for the heck of it. Skies.... clear! Figures!! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
All I can say is next Sunday it better say that!! But then since there is a big competition being held at the DZ starting the next day there were rumors we might not be able to get on a load anyway. :-(