AFF Level 7

Yay the time had come to take level 7. We headed down on the Friday night, cut our original 3.5hr drive down to 2.5hrs having learnt the best route, had a few pints and made it to the B&B at a reasonable time to get some sleep. I was quite afraid but I also looking forward at the same time. Getting out of the plane was still the scariest bit but hey - that will pass with time. 

Sat morning came and I headed down to the club, met up with my instructor (Peter Breen) and ran through the brief. It was my first time jumping out of the new Porter so we did a wee run practice of the exit. My jump was to go as follows: hold onto ankles at door, fall out - holding the ball/tuck for 3-5 seconds, get stable, do a 4 second track and if i have time/fancied perhaps do a left and right turn. The day passed, and although i was load 4 it was about 3pm. I was bricking it - but excited all at once :) yay.

Got to 8 thousand feet and a static line student was doing her unstable exit - she fell out the door as planned, and everyone watched (except me) there were various intakes and sucking of breath. oh bugger i thought. We continued up to 12,000ft and everyone jumped out leaving me, Peter and Derek (who was going out last and pulling high to play with his new canopy). Got my legs out the door, noticed serious wind/prop blast, held onto my ankles - check out, out, in, out and go. In reality i probably had untucked and arched in about .5 of a second (I'm a bit of a puff really), flipped from my back onto my belly & got stable before 11k feet. love it, decided to go for a back loop - did that - didn't do a 360 so much as stopped on my back, ah well, arched, fixed it sweet, alti, did a 4-5 second track, class, left 180 (probably about 140o), right 180, seen pete - gave him a big thumbs up, smiles, 6000ft lock on, 5.2ft, wave wave arch reach pull, checked canopy - yay all good - scream, scream, feel sick, scream all good.

I played on the canopy on the way down, putting in some moderate spirals for me - scared the crap outta myself again. Played a bit long and ended up coming in a bit low, turned into wind and landed at the end of the field with the bulls and horses. bugger, quick dash outta there and back to see peter.

The jump went class but by this stage i was a bumbling adrenline filled idiot. Gave peter Timmy's log book to fill in (oops) and made various other mistakes the rest of the afternoon. Got various handshakes and congrats from loads of folk and pretty much felt on top of the world.

Timmy did his first 2 consolidation jumps and loved them by all accounts. I didn't fancy doing any more so we decamped to the boozer. We celebrated. Oh yes. Last out of a remote Irish pub is not always a good thing. Sunday came and although i had my gear on and was on the next load a quick vomit decided that i would need to leave it to another day before i do my consolidation jumps.

It will take a few days before it all settles in. The jump was fantastic - I actually opted to do the backloop for the hell of it - this coming from the guy that needed an instructor assisted pull a few jumps ago - shows that its all in the mind, when you listen to what your told - and more importantly finally do it - the basics are just as you were instructed - arch and relax.

I owe a massive thanks to Peter, Mons, Rodger and Ronin - like a massive thanks!! Peter & Mons for their relaxed, encouraging attitude - Rodger for probably saving my life on level 5, Ronin for the ground school and general abuse ;) and the everone else at the IPC for all their support and instruction, not just on technique but about relaxing and just going with it - so cheers lads.

We did the course at IPC as it offered AFF - we could go to clubs closer as I'm sure we will over time - but we will remain IPC members as its a wonderful place to be, great people, help, equipment and social aspects - what more could ya ask for.

Anyone thinking about learning to jump, AFF was great for me, there were highs and a couple of big lows, but the result is fantastic and my eyes have been opened for the better.

Final thanks to Tim for all his support (wee b******* got there quicker than me) and most importantly to Briony, my wife - who has let me move out of home every weekend for months. I love you and could not thank you enough.