I finally made a little more progress in learning the fine art of jumping out of airplanes. I spent last week camping out at the Mid West's premier drop zone, Skydive Chicago. Choosing last week to learn skydiving at SDC turned out to be a great (and by that I mean lucky) decision.
While I was there, SDC was holding a huge summer festival of freefall called, appropriately enough, Summerfest. Hundreds of sport jumpers from all over the world converged on the DZ to celebrate body flight and parachuting. At first I was a little intimidated. I mean, after all, I only had 6 jumps in my logbook, and there I was, right in the middle of a huge group of experts and super experts. Nothing like being the "geek of the week".
That feeling of intimidation wore off quickly as I realized that Summerfest would provide me with two incredibly powerful tools to assist my learning process. First, they were running loads to 13,000 feet every 10 or 15 minutes from 9:00 am till sunset everyday - there was never any waiting around to jump! Second, and most importantly, because I was the only student at the DZ, I had what amounted to private lessons with one of the greatest flight instructors in the world, a man named Dave Ciccaiarelli.
Dave and SDC have created an instructional program that goes far beyond the usual 7 jump AFF progression. Their Advanced Freefall Program (AFP) is a 17 level course that leads directly to a USPA "A" skydiving license. At the first few levels AFP focuses on the foundational skills you need to survive. The subsequent levels hone those skills and add new ones until you can safely jump on your own. Jump #18 is the graduation dive, where for the first time, you jump with other skydivers instead of your instructor. I was amazed that 3 very experienced jumpers happily joined me on a 4 way RW jump to celebrate my graduation. Of course I funneled the formation, but not before we actually turned two points!
After my grad dive I was free to manifest myself for as many jumps as I could handle for the last two days of Sumerfest. I left SDC with a total of 36 jumps and a brand new A license! Even better, I forged some incredible new friendships at SDC.
Roger Nelson had a motto: "Spread the Love", and at Skydive Chicago they completely live up to that saying. Everyone at the DZ was super kind and generous to me. Every single question I asked (no matter who I asked or how stupid the question) was answered in patient detail. STL was one of the best parts of the SDC AFP experience.
OK, here's the highlight gloat. 1. Tracking through the industrial haze with Dave tracking upside down underneath me. 2. A sunset XC flight where 20 of us opened at 12,000 feet and made a long glide back to the DZ in buttery smooth air as the sky turned orange and gold. 3. Making a 2 way jump with Brian White, my neighbor in the campground. I met Brain on Day 1 and basically never stopped asking him stupid questions all week. On my last day at the DZ Brian and I designed a very simple 2 way jump with 10 easy points - and we made all 10 because the Otter pilot decided to give us an extra 2,000 feet of altitude because someone on the load had bought her pizza for lunch! 4. Packing my own parachute for the first time and then jumping it at only 4,500 AGL! The low altitude jump is part of the training and simulates an emergency exit from the aircraft. It sure seemed low when I got in the door and prepared to exit. I tried not to think about the fact that an idiot (me) had packed the main. I was supposed to do a 3 to 5 second delay. Here's how I made the count: " One, Five, PULL!". Dave kept calling me "Quickdraw" for the rest of the day.
Thanks to Dave C and all the fine folks at SDC for making last week one of the highlights of my flying career. If you want to learn how to jump out of "perfectly good" airplanes and then save your life with a parachute, Skydive Chicago is the place to go - STL!
1 comment:
I didn't get to jump with Frank, but I did my level 3 dive with Troy Church, another of SDCs great instructors.
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