Today was my fourth AFF jump, and it was by far the most fun yet!
It was a beautiful day, light winds out of the west, not a cloud in the sky. As the first jump of the day I had quite the audience of tandem jumper, including a bachelorette party, watching on as I came in for a smooth landing (no pressure).
So smooth in fact, that I probably should have stood up rather than PLF, but given that I landed in eight or so inches of brush I took the safe route.
But let’s back up to the free fall for a second, shall we?
Today was my release dive. I went out the door as usual, Dan on my right, Tom on my left.
We exited together, took a few seconds to level out – arching hard to get belly to Earth – and went right into my first circle of awareness.
Only a couple hand signals and minor body position changes before I found myself in free fall alone. Officially my first solo free fall.
Surprisingly, I kept it cool and stable. A few minor, unintended turns, but I waved off at 5,500 and deployed the pilot chute. And that’s when I realized it….I completely forgot about practice touches after the circle of awareness.
Before the jump we had modified our routine to allow as much solo free fall time as possible, and in those modifications we decided on just one practice touch. Regardless, I was still released, but when I reached for that hackey to deploy it hit me, “holy crap! This is the first time I’m touching this… I completely spaced on the practice touches.”
Minor mistakes aside, I felt great about this skydive, and my instructors seemed pretty proud too.
This was the first time I felt like I had more fun than I did stress. Each time I jump I become more aware of just how much I was meant to be a part of this sport.
What has been one of your best jump experiences?
Blue Skies!
Ashley
Hi Ashley,
For me the same. 4th jump of my AFF. One instructor and for about ten seconds it was me alone freefalling with him in front of me. Awsome.
And like you said that it was meant to be to start skydiving. Same here, and also in your last post about the diversity of the sport. Just so many things to learn and try out.
Blue skies, and don’t forget to pull
Peter