AFF7 Passed

I couldn't sleep for much of the night. I kept thinking about yesterday's poorly executed back flips and front flips, being stuck on my back falling at 144mph/230kph, and how the whole thing was caused by a complete lack of kinesthetic awareness. I was beating myself up all night for not doing what I had been trained to do. Then, I was beating myself up for not letting go of the stress and getting some good sleep so that I'd be well rested and prepared to today's jumps. So, around 5:30, I finally decided that the best thing I could do was get out of bed and get myself ready to go.

I looked out the window of my kitchen and it looked gray. The weather forecast had been suggesting around 50% cloud cover, but here in Leucadia, it was a lot more than that. On the other hand, it was still before sunrise, and Leucadia is often cloudy when other nearby locations are bright and sunny. So, I headed off to the office to check the computer. The forecast hadn't changed, but the report said it was clear and cold in Jamul.

At 8am, I called Skydive San Diego to find out if they were jumping, and I got an affirmative. I called Patrick J. and Divya R., two coworkers, to tell them that the jump was on. Patrick was excited and said he'd meet me there at 10. Divya, unfortunately, told me her husband was sick, and that she didn't want to go without him, so I wished her a good weekend and healing for her husband, and got off the phone.

I managed to get to Skydive San Diego just after 10. Steve, my CMG buddy, was also supposed to be there, as he was taking his AFF2 class, and Patrick was waiting by the office. I didn't find Steve anywhere, so I got Patrick all registered up, and got myself registered to retake AFF7. I decided I'd wait for my class until two loads after Patrick had done his jump so that I could take some pictures of him as he was landing. I had forgotten my camera in my computer bag which I had brought with me yesterday, but he had his iPhone, so he gave that to me and I went about clicking pictures. Then I saw Steve, who told me he had already done his jump, and had failed (sounds familiar...) I tried to encourage him to jump again, but he was worried about finances, so we just chatted while we waited for Patrick to return to the ground.

I had asked his instructor about the color of the chute, so I as soon as I saw the chutes in the sky, I started taking pictures. As Patrick landed, I noticed he was looking a little green, but he seemed ok. After talking with him, it turns out he was fine during freefall, but the carving corkscrew turns under canopy had made his stomach complain.

Patrick and Steve bid their fairwells, and soon after I was called by the instructor for my jump. We went over what I had done wrong on the previous AFF7 jump and on what I needed to do to have a successful jump. I felt confident that I would be able to do the flips without issue, and tracking and turns wouldn't be a problem for me. We went over the gear check, with me doing everything required without prompting. I suited up and put my rig on and waited for the call.

The ride up to 13,000'/4000m was uneventful. I got the usual quiz on hand signals and I watched as my altimeter rode its way upward. I'm trying to get an idea of what the gound looks like at different altitudes, but it's difficult when I'm in the plane because there's no good way to see outside. It will probably be better in the summer when I'll have the opportunity to be near or in the back and able to see out the door from a relatively close position. When we reached the spot, a group of four jumpers who had requested an early gree light went out the door together. They were followed by several others in smaller groups. Finally, it was my turn. I stuck my head out of the plane to spot that we were in a good jump location, and then got in position for the floating exit.

This time I was on the side of the door closest to the pilot, so I wasn't cramped for space as I had been on yesterday's attempt. I signaled OK then went through the step move and voila, I was out of the plane. I quickly got stable and then went into a front flip. For some reason I don't think I threw myself into it enough because I ended up on my back again. This time, I arched, and flipped right over. I then went to the backflip, which I nailed. It felt really good, and I nailed the restabilization too which felt awsome. I then did a turn to get into a northern direction for the track. Once I was stable in that direction, I started my track. I tracked for several seconds and then the instructor dropped down and called me forward. I kept tracking as he backed up. Then when we were done he went into a sit-flying position and transitioned to a higher position relative to me. I tried the move I learned while in the tunnel, but just as I did that I realized we were at 6000ft and I locked on and then pulled at 5000ft.

The canopy ride down was great. I had been informed to move to a specific location for my holding area to make room for an AFF 3 student. So, I flew the canopy south east from the normal holding area and hung out there checking out the different terrain and view. When the time came, I moved into position for the downwind leg of the landing pattern. At 500 ft. I did the base leg and then at 200 ft I went upwind and had a nice soft 3 step landing.

Everything about this jump felt awesome. I wish I had been able to do a forward flip, but I got myself out of it without any problem, so that was still OK. Really, the only thing that didn't feel good about the jum was that having to pay again for the class meant I didn't have the money for 3 C8 (solo) jumps. I guess it just means I have to deal with delayed gratification as I wait until the next influx of money.

The instructor's comments were all positive about the jump, so I passed. Now, though I have an added expense: I owe beer.