I had a scheduled private training session at iFly for the morning, so I got things lined up for that. Coming off my last skydive where I didn’t advance to the next level, I wanted some time to work on my stability, arch, and control.

I got there a few minutes early, and my instructor Tyler was there waiting for me. It is really nice getting in there while it is not busy; that way fewer people see my wind tunnel fails 😉 I was geared up and ready to go in no time. First thing I learned was the proper way to enter the tunnel. Last time I was here (had 4 minutes total in the tunnel), I had just begun to learn moving forward and backward and didn’t figure out until after the fact that Tyler was trying to teach me to go up and down using my head position and amount of arch. I had more time to work on that now. I started with 6 minutes booked for the tunnel, but after that, I was like – “two more minutes”. I kept doing that until I was at 12 minutes total and other people had started to show up. By the end I was doing corkscrews turning as I went up. I don’t have turning while descending down just yet; I think that is because I’m more focused on the descent. It will come with time and practice.

Watching the videos it is clear I still have to work on my legs. My leg control is better, and I see glimpses of a good arch, but that darn left leg still goes nuts anytime I’m uncomfortable like when I get too close to the tube wall or feel the least bit out of control. I guess that is just something that I am going to have to continue to work on. Tyler is a good instructor and I like working with him; he’s always upbeat and supportive. And being an experienced skydiver with around 800 jumps, he knows what I’m looking to work on. After my 12 minutes were up, I went outside and looked up; seemed a little too cloudy to skydive, so I started the drive from Frisco back over to work. About 5 miles in, I decided to call the drop zone and see if students were jumping or if the clouds were getting in the way. They had a couple of students jumping, so it was game on! I exited the tollway, turned around and headed to the drop zone.

I got there and waited around a bit. That’s part of the game; you just need to chill and go with the flow as there are plenty of people needing attention, just not all about “you” :). Ultimately, Jocelyn came over and started running me through my Emergency Procedures. Jocelyn is definitely one of the instructors I like; she’s animated and doesn’t really use a filter – she says what she’s thinking. She went over the landing pattern with me, and then we got geared up for the jump.

One of the good things about going in on weekdays is that it is less busy. A little more room on the plane on the way up, and fewer folks in the air to watch out for on the way down. I was definitely more chill on the ride up than I had been my previous jump. Doesn’t hurt that I had warmed up in the wind tunnel too. On the way up we did the standard altitude checks/quizzes. Jump altitude came up and it was time to go – 2 skydivers in front of us, then I gave my best tongue out crazy face, swung to the outside of the aircraft, did my count, and off we went. Things went ok, it always takes me a bit to stabilize. Jocelyn did let go of me for a short bit, she didn’t do a second release because I destabilized and moved backwards a bit. We got to 6k, I locked on and pulled as always by 5.5k; a few seconds later I knew I had a good parachute above me. I had a little more fun with turning, etc on the canopy ride down this time.  You can tell that from my flight track pictured below. Jocelyn let me do my flare completely by myself; she said she’d tell me to flare via the radio only if she thought I was waiting too long. I did my first 2/3 flare about 10 feet too early, then did the last 1/3 pretty close to on time. I had overshot a bit and was landing in tall grass. I ended up needing to do a roll on this landing; a stand up landing just wasn’t in the cards.

Jocelyn went over the jump with me as we watched the video. I didn’t fully pass Dive flow 3, she put me on a modified level 3/4 jump. Basically, I could pass both on the next jump if I did well. Unfortunately, it was going to be over a 2 hour wait until the next plane. We needed to wait until the next group of tandem jumpers were in. It is understandable; they can’t put the plane up just for one person, that’s a money losing proposition. And if they lose money, they won’t be in business. If they aren’t in business, I can’t jump! I spent the next 2 hours chilling out for the most part. I almost slipped into a short nap on the bench in the student area while no one was watching.

Another student showed up just in time to do his emergency procedures, gear up, and get on the plane. He paired up with Jocelyn for this jump, and I paired up with Daniel, the lead instructor. Daniel had me do some practice arches. My legs still need work! We also did another check of my rig after it had been repacked. We caught a riser that had been put in twisted. It would not have caused anything critical, but you want everything perfect and clean as possible. That underscored to me that I should be checking my pack even if I sit there and watch the packer put the chute back in; I’m responsible for myself. We did some practice exits on the setups both inside and outside the hangar, then it was time to queue up and get on the plane.

We were going to be the first ones out of the plane on this jump; that was a first for me. I got the usual quizzing on the way up. We got to a little over 12k and it looked like we were going to get ready for our jump, but then the pilot started changing altitude. We needed some more room with the clouds. We ended up jumping at about 11.5k feet; this meant I’d have to get my tasks done with less time. First, I knelt by the door and spotted the drop zone with Daniel. Then I swung outside the plane, presented, did my count, and out we went. I felt us dip a little bit, arched hard, and it seemed to correct. Falling, we got stable, Daniel gave me the signal for a practice throw, which I did. He then released me and moved out in front of me. I was checking my altitude off an on as we continued to fall (of course); Daniel then gave me the signal to start my turns. I started with a right rotation, and ended up over doing it; I was only supposed to go 90 degrees, but ended up doing about 180. I did stop the turn however, and then returned back to point at my instructor. After that, we were about out of time, so he re-docked, I locked on at 6, and pulled my chute. Had a stable and controllable canopy above my head and all was good.

Daniel had said all things being equal (no real wind), he preferred us to do a north approach (remember, I had another student in the air with me who was on his level 4 jump). I saw the landing arrow slightly pointed south, so I set up for a south pattern. I really should have setup for north. Daniel saw the other student in the north, so he directed me over there via radio to get us in the same pattern. After that, I killed altitude till I was ready to start my pattern. I overshot again, but this time I at least landed on my feet. It’s hard getting good on target landings without a little wind to help slow your approach. That’s ok, I’ll get better with that over time.

We got back to the hanger, and Daniel went over the jump with me. The good news was I passed my level 4 dive, and was moving on to level 5. The bad news was that with the last minute change in airplane altitude, video didn’t get turned on. So I didn’t have any video of the jump. I also found out later, that I didn’t have video of the prior jump either (the wrong video got loaded in my folder, and I didn’t check it at the hanger (another lesson learned). I’ll take no videos and 2 level ups any day of the week.

Going into this day, I had 9 minutes of real free fall (including tandems) and 4 minutes of wind tunnel. Leaving the day, I had 11 minutes of real free fall, and 16 minutes of wind tunnel time total. That is pretty physically and mentally exhausting with the focus required, but well worth the results.

What I learned: chill out, don’t try to force things. I had been trying to apply this philosophy to my work during the week as well, and it appears to have had a positive influence. Taking a more laid back, go with the flow, let go attitude actually ended up with me getting more of what was on my to do list done. It seems when I was less stressed about interruptions and getting stuff done, I WAS getting more stuff done. I crossed off more in a couple of days than I have in quite a while. I hope that this trend continues. It is up to me to see that through. I’m just glad to see some progress on multiple fronts this week.

Here’s video of one of my wind tunnel sessions (we broke them up into 2 minute intervals):