2009-01-31 Belated Birthday Skydive Party - AFF3 & AFF4

I hit up the Pannikin for some tea and a sweet and then headed over to pick up Peregrine. While I was there, various discussions happened, and it was soon determined that it was best for him to drive on his own so that neither of us were hung up on the other's alternate schedule. It was silly on a fuel consumption basis, but it made a lot of sense on a logistical basis since I was planning on doing two jumps which I estimated would have be leaving around 2pm.

So, we jumped in our respective cars and drove to Skydive San Diego in Jamul. Along the way, I received a text message from Hanh to tell me that she was running a bit late and would be there around 10.  When I arrived, at just about 9, I was greeted by my buddy Steve. Peregrine was already getting registered for his jump and after a few moments of greetings with Steve, I headed in to get registered for AFF3.

There's a certain level of chaos that goes on at Skydive San Diego. Everything seems to work fairly smoothly, but it seems like there are things that fall through the cracks. In any event, for the first jump of the day, this time, the chaos was managed well.

Since Steve had arrived earlier than the rest of us, he had already gotten himself signed up and was manifested on the second load. Perigrine and I got manifested on load three, and Hanh, who arrived just about 10, got manifested on load four. It worked out nicely because it allowed pictures to be taken of everyone.

While I was registering for my jump, I encountered the DZ owner, Brent, and mentioned to him that I had spent time in the tunnel at Perris. He immediately started to badmouth the operation there, saying that they didn't turn the wind speed up to real conditions. Therefore, he speculated that I had wasted my money and time, and should have gone to the tunnel in Hollywood.


I had a few minutes to talk with Steve before his instructors called him away. He seemed to be very much at ease. He said he had gone through the jump about a million times in his head over the past week since he took his ground school. We bid him good luck and watched him head out with his two flight instructors to the plane.

When he finally came back to earth, it was just about time for me to head out to the plane, so I didn't really get a chance to talk to him about his jump. Even though his landing was a bit hard, he had a big smile and had that look of "I want to do that again!"

I was suited up and ready to go at that point, and Hanh grabbed the camera and started to snap some pictures before I was escorted to the plane by my instructors. I was feeling very confident that I would do well while at the same time uncertain of myself because of the comments made by Brent regarding the tunnel. In any event, I demonstrated to my instructors what I was going to do on the jump and after some initial confusion as to who was going to be my jump instructors, I headed out to the plane. Peregrine was on this load as well, so he was in the group, but as seems to be the case this early in my jumping career, I was so focused on my jump that I hardly noticed him. I'm sure it was the same for him, but he seemed to be fairly stress free.

The climb to 13000 feet seemed to take forever, but when we got there, I was really ready to go. When it was my turn, I got into position in the doorway with my instructors holding on to either side of me. I did my checks with the instructors, and then just recited and acted "prop, down, arch".

This was the first time that no one shook me to relax, so I felt good about that. I performed my altitude check and practice handle touch. In no time at all, I noticed out of my peripheral vision that the instructors had let go of me and I was flying on my own. At some point I noticed that I was turning, so I refixed my heading and stuck to it. I continued to perform altitude checks and at 6000' I locked onto my altimeter and at 5500', I waved off and threw my pilot chute.

The canopy flight was pleasant and smooth right up until the very end. Because there was almost no wind, my upwind section was at a much steeper angle than I had ever experienced before. As a result, I flared a bit too late and had a somewhat hard landing, sliding on my butt.

After I landed, Hanh headed out to the plane and before I knew it, she was gone. Peregrine, Steve and I chatted for a while about our jumps. Peregrine then bid us farewell and Steve and I continued to chat. Before long, Hanh was back on the ground, all smiles about her jump. We all chatted for a bit and then the two of them also left, and I went to register for my AFF4 jump.

While I was waiting to find out which load I was going to be on for AFF4, I stopped by the Gravity Gear store, and purchased a helmet, analog altimeter, sun glasses and an audible altimeter/digital logbook. After a bunch of time, I headed back to check on which load I was on, but I couldn't find myself on any manifest. So, I went to inquire at the manifest window about what was happening.

It appears this was one of those places where things, in this case, me, fell through the cracks. After getting everything squared away, and giving myself enough time to figure out how to use my new audible altimeter, I finally met my AFF4 instructor: A fellow by the name of Nix White. He was an affable man, who just today had officially retired from the Marine Corps. He'd been jumping for 14 years. We shot the breeze for a while, went over the jump and then I learned that I wouldn't be able to use my own helmet because it didn't have a way to connect the radio. So, I grabbed my audible altimeter from the ear pad, stuck it in my pocket and stored the helmet in my car. We then proceeded to the practice area where I showed him my turns and then we got the call to head to the plane.

I was in the third group to leave the plane at 13,200'. The first group of two were fun jumpers. The second group was a fellow doing a coached jump for his A license, and then came Nix and I. I went to the door, got into position, checked in with Nix, and then jumped.

I immediately felt stable in the wind and after an altitude check and a practice handle touch Nix let go and moved out in front of me. I then proceeded to perform 90 degree turns. First to the left and then back to the right. I felt really good, and at one point I wanted to just do a 360! (but I knew that would probably get me a fail, so I just did the 90-degree turns.

7000' seemed to take quite a while to reach as I was somewhat bored with just doing turns, but when it did, I stopped my turns. Then as usual, I locked on to my altimeter at 6000' and at 5500' I waved off and pulled. I felt really good about the freefall, and while I was under the canopy, I let out a hoot of excitement.

The canopy ride was pleasant, and thanks to some wind out of the west, the upwind approach was much more gradual. As I came in, I flared at just the right moment and landed softly on my feet.

I ended up being on an adrenaline high for the rest of the day, and wished that I had enough money to just do the rest of my AFF jumps. But, those will come in short order, hopefully by the 21st of Feb.