I’ve decided that I’m not very good at skydiving! Watching the DVD of my AFF jumps again after getting back from my second session trying to pass the AFF course (check here for the first), it is clear that when my instructor (Andy) passed me and wrote the following in my log book…
“I passed you because of your good altitude awareness and excellent canopy control.”
He meant something more like…
“Your jumping is awful, but I’m sure you will pull the parachute in good time to stop you killing yourself! Oh, and you are excellent at canopy control.”
Ah well, it is fun what ever! Even the awful smell of aviation fuel and the curdling ride to 13500 feet started to become more of a prompt to build excited anticipation for the adrenaline pumping free-fall. By the end of these two days in Ocaña I’d passed my AFF (just) and completed three more solo jumps, bringing my jump total to 16. Now that really shows my complete lack of aptitude for skydiving. The AFF course should be just seven jumps – it took me 13!
Great fun – go for it – “Arch and Relax”!
Next? Well, the plan has always been to learn to skydive so that I could move on to BASE… I hate all that walking down hill after a long climb. At least Paula’s words as we left the DZ made me feel a little more confident that I’ll get to become a BASE jumper; “at least you don’t have to get stable before pulling the parachute on a BASE jump”.
Check out the Freefall University…