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First, let me explain what AFF is. It stands for Accelerated Freefall, and it’s the program most people go through on the path to getting their A-license for skydiving. It consists of 8 different jumps, and a ground school. The jumps include two instructors to begin with, and then eventually just one instructor, and you have certain tasks to complete each time. When you come in for landing, you have someone guiding you on the radio, though their guidance becomes less and less as you progress through the levels. These tasks range from things as simple as “stay stable” to “do a backflip and some 360s.” The most frustrating part about being a student, is that you have to wait for wind. If it gusts above 14mph, you wait. Otherwise you run the risk of being blown into the trees, and as frustrating as waiting can be, I think falling through a tree would be worse. In any case, last Friday was a perfect day and I was able to knock out my last three jumps for the AFF program, and do my first solo jump – that means I jumped out of the plane by myself, had no one beside me the entire time, and I landed unassisted.

The first solo jump was great. Thanks to some friendly advice from a recent graduate (who has since gotten his A-license, so congratulations to Dan Congdon), I had planned some things for myself to do during the jump. Otherwise you sit there and watch your altimeter tick away while you get closer to pull altitude, and it can be quite boring (yes, even though you’re plummeting through the sky, it can be boring). So, I practiced some backflips, some tracking, and doing fast spins (360s and 720s). I practiced some flares with the canopy after I opened, burned some altitude by doing some diving turns, watched some of the instructors swoop around me and scare me a bit. I had previously been coming in too low on my downwind leg, so I started a little higher this time. Came in, went a bit further before doing my crosswind leg, and came in for final – what’s that? The winds changed?! Yep. I was about 300 feet high passing over where I wanted to land and ended up at the very end of the runway (pretty damn far from where I wanted to be) and almost in the woods – close one. I landed standing up at least, which is my only saving grace, really. I guess I’ll have to work on a) judging which way the winds are blowing before heading to my holding area and b) getting that downwind leg locked down. Either way, it was a successful day of jumping. I’ll go into more detail soon about the specific levels for any other students out there doing AFF and are curious about the challenges and want to know what to expect.

My AFF Graduation Gift to Myself