AFF Cert. Course at Skydive Arizona [Trip Report, long]
Barry Brumitt
I'm back!
I was fortunate enough to spend two weeks + at Skydive Arizona going
through their AFF Precertification Course and then through the Real
AFF Certification Course. To avoid any possible suspense in this
posting, I'll just say it now: I passed! I'm now an AFF I'95. And I've
already bought the beer!
This posting will be long, and will be interesting to those who are
considering getting their AFF rating or to those who are thinking
about making a trip to Skydive Arizona. It's going to ramble a bit,
include information about many random things, but should be generally
interesting, I hope.
===
I arrived late on a Thursday night to find the only people awake at DZ
firepit to speak primarily German. It was a very eerie experience to
wander into a DZ and *know* you're in the right place, but be largely
unable to communicate with anyone. I managed to get a couple beers
from them, and one of the German teams let me sleep on a spare bunk in
their team room. Mind you, it would've been nice to know that the
bunkhouse was only 10ft from the fire, but no one let me know... or
perhaps, could let me know given the english which was spoken.
Next morning, I figured it all out, and set myself up in the
bunkhouse at a mere $5 a night... the bunkhouse is adequate, but could
use a serious cleaning. I spent the next three days sitting through
FJC's and classes being run by the school at Skydive arizona. I needed
to get my AFF Precertification Card filled out, so Joey Jones (aka
Salad-boy, runs the student operation there) was kind enough to
introduce me to all the instructors who I pestered for a couple days
and watched over their shoulders. (Thanks Ken!) Pretty impressive program
there... thier preferred student progression is two-tandems then
2JM-AFF-Level-I then 1JM-levels-2-7.
Over the weekend, I also made a fun jump with Brent Finley (including
Vertical RW, though he was doing most of the W), and
met/talked-to/hung-out-with Brent Finley, Greg Gasson, and Tammy
Koyn. I'm afraid I didn't get to say G'bye to Brent and Greg, as they
were on a trip to Mexico sponsered by the DZ the next weekend... a
returned home before the weekend after that.) I made a few solo jumps,
a decent 4 way (20 points? Sidebody-Arrowhead-donut-bipole-star -- how
come I can remember that, followed out a couple AFF levels where I
fiddled with fallrate, and generally had a good time. I also ran into
*MY* AFF instructor from Ohio: Dean Gianntanio, and Diane
Hamlin (who was on my team at the collegiates a few years back).
The DZ is just amazing. Two super otters regularly on line, a Porter,
a DC-3 which flew a couple loads, and a totally unused Cessna :).
They do about 20-30 loads on a WEEKDAY. They put out about 25,000
jumps in January and February. People practicing there include Tammy
Koyn, Shafumi (*$%(@?, and Dale Stewart (top 3 female freestylists),
Olav Zipster, German national team, french national team, arizona
airspeed, rob harris (top skysurfer), random german/japanese teams,
etc. etc. etc. Pretty impressive.
Facilities include Bunkhouse w/ about 25-30 bunks, small kitchen (2
fridge, sink, microwave), pool, sand volleyball court, basketball
court, creeper pads, 4 otter mockups, laundry facilties, shower rooms
(acceptable - not - amazing), and a pretty damned good staff all
around. THe only person who ever irritated me the entire time I was
there was one exceptionally bitchy 'gal at manifest who is apparently
married to Larry Hill's son or something. She was outstandingly rude
to me a couple times, and was generally difficult. She also apparently
refused to take a message for someone who called for me... I can't
verify the last one, but I can't image Theresa, Lisa or Bryan refusing
to take a message! There's also a cafe which serves breakfast and
lunch. There are plans to build a bar which would REALLY be great.
Anyway, back to the story. During the Monday-Friday period, I made 15
practice AFF jumps with Joey (evaluator), Ken (I), and Bram
(evaluator) as student as part of the AFF pre-cert course. The
Pre-course went very well -- I *never* would have passed the AFF
course without it! Basically, I learned the game and the tactics
before I went to actually test them.
If you are thinking about taking the AFF course, find a local
evaluator (or 3), and make sure you do your practice jumps with
him/them. It really is essential to having any idea what is going to
happen when you get to the course. Email me for more detail. The only
complaint with the course was that there wasn't perhaps another
evaluator there. There were 5 people in the course -- one (Roy
Ritter) who travelled all the way from Israel for the courses!
The AFF course started Saturday morning at 9am. The course was run by
Billy Rhodes (I fall fas'!) The first 2.5 days are pretty much
lecture, and then the fun begins. For those who aren't familiar, you
have 6 jumps to make 12 points. Each jump is 0-4 points. Well, to be
fair, perhaps each jump is 0-3 points since of the *26* candidates not
even *1* 4-point-jump occured. I'd estimate also that there were
probably only about 20 3-point jumps out of about 150 jumps made.
My first 3 jumps were Level III's, and I earned (not "was given" :) a
2 on each jump. The first was with Don Yarling who is an excellent
evaluator and is also on the net. (Mind you, he's been a course
director for 6+ years (?) so he should be good.) My next jump was with
a new evaluator (Marcel) and was basically terrible. He made a couple
mistakes during the eval jump, and was hyper-critical of the
ground-preperation. I made those comments on the course-comments form
as well, so hopefully he won't be evaluating any longer. It's not a
personal comment - he's a nice guy, but with the massive stress the
AFF course causes, it's not really an ideal situation. My third jump
(one jump a day!) was with Geno, and it went very well. He's
appropriately critical, honest, and instructive.
Jump 4 is where things went downhill. It was a level IV jump with ABC
or Alphabet as the evaluator. He was pretty harsh on the ground prep
(perhaps justly!), and then we went to make the skydive. Had his hand
on the bar of the otter, and his feet backward on the door frame. When
I corrected him, he just fell out, with me (fortunately) hanging
on. After massive shaking, yelling "ARCH!", and shaking, we leveled
out. A quick legs out before transitioning to front, then release. Did
a 450deg. turn, kicking me in the head as he turned (fast!). I slid in
front an motioned for forward movement. Good, though e tried to go
under me, so I caught him by the shoulder straps, Phew! "YEs Turns"
and I release to watch him go into the patented "Alphabet-soup" which
involves dropping a shoulder, then knees and going into an inverted
spinning mess. I dove, caught, grabbed lift webs, flipped over
shouting ARCH!, transitioned to front and re-released at 5000ish. He
then went into a radical series of alternating arms-on-chest-legs-out
and arms-straight-out-legs-bent for the next 8 seconds, burning me
through the hard deck before I could catch him. * ZERO *.
That jump hurt, I was swearing up a storm under canopy, and the video
review and appeal didn't go my way, so the score stood. I *still*
think the manuever was a bit radical on an eval dive, but so be
it. Others who must remain nameless tended to a agree with me, but
that's the way it is. One thing which the process made me certain of
was that no one passes this course without the skills needed. They
definitely go *beyond* what is necessary to challenge and test you.
This left me Thursday night in the untenable position of needed 6
points in two jumps. So, I went out and has an absolutely amazing time
with some other candidates, Joey, etc. etc. Did you know Waffle House
has a great all-you-can-eat special for 4.59?! :) Plus, it *IS*
possible to put 6 people in the front of a Bronco.
Friday's first jump was with Don Y again, playing the part of Diego
the italian ex-race car driver, womanizer, and all around
good-student. Good skydive, level III main side, felt really in
control, got a 3.
So, 3 points for the last jump, ended up being with Shane, this time
reserve side. Tough skydive, but I stuck with it, and had my hand
signal been seen, might have gotten a 4 instead of a 3 -- which was
enough to pass! YAHOO!
The statistics for the course were:
26 candiates, 8 taking the course for the second time.
All 8 repeats passed. Of the 18 first-time-attendees, 8 passed, making
a pass rate of 38%. Of those who *didn't* pass, only about 50% made
it to their last jump before being eliminated. FYI, there were 3
females and 23 males. 1 female did not pass. (People have wondered
about gender bias during the course, I did not see any.) At least one
person flew to Hawaii for the course which started on Saturday!
A few course thoughts. Fair. Tough. Challenging. Come prepared. Bring
training aids for your own use -- DZ ones can be in short
supply. Don't try to cook your own dinners during the course, days
being at 8am and don't end typically til about 9-10pm. Summer courses
will be *WORSE* since daylight is longer! Big thanks to skydive AZ
for making jump tix for ACC jumps only $14.
I left saturday morning very early. A big thanks to Nick Sclafani who
drove me at 5am back to the Phoenix airport to catch a flight home to
Pittsburgh.
All in all, a great couple weeks, though very very draining, both
emotionally, physically, and financially.
A few thank-you's:
1) Brent Finley, for a great blow-off fun jump
2) Diane Hamlin, for cashing my checks when my wallet was stolen from
the bunkhouse (PROTECT YOUR VALUABLES), giving me and doing a
buncha pack jobs, rides to the supermarket, and generally
being a good friend,
3) George Foreman, for some AWESOME video of my AFF eval dives, and a
terribly amusing trip to see "The Hunted" at the local movie
theater which pretty much gives free passes to skydivers. And tell
him to go get the AFF rating if you see him! Plus, thanks for use
of extra dytter and alti... 3 altis & 2 dytters can be fun!
4) Ken (urk! Last name I forget!) for being patient whilst I watched
over his shoulder while he trained (and jumped) with a few real(TM)
students.
5) Pablo (?) for some fine video -- keep jumpin' man, you'll be
awesome if you keep it up!
6) Tammy-K, for some fun conversations,
7) Roy Ritter, for being a great partner during the course (If I'm
every in Israel, I definitely come by your Aerodium!)
8) Nick Sclafani, for, well, you know!
9) Bryan Burke for some GREAT beer and conversation out at the fire,
and particularly,
10) Joey Jones, for words of advice and general bullshit which made
these overly rough two weeks a hell of a lot more fun!
Blue skies all,
Barry
AFF Instructor '95
ps. Cost of the trip: Airfare (freq.flyer. tix = $0) +
Pre-course($300) + Course($295) + Jumps ($290) + packjobs ($60) +
bunkhouse ($50) + food&beer ($300) = 1295. (New Altimeter + mounts etc
was $205...) So about $1500, right at what I expected. At $25 a pop,
I need to make 60 AFF jumps to pay for it... :) :) :)
pps. If I missed anyone in here, please don't think your friendship,
advice, abuse, whatever went un-noticed, it's just my pathetic
memory... :)
--
Barry L. Brumitt | bel...@frc2.frc.ri.cmu.edu |99.9%| Disclaimer: Opinions
Robotics GradStudent |Skydive! D-15427,SL/AFF I'95|*PGP*| given herein may not
Carnegie Mellon |My now-functioning web page:|Savvy| be the opinions of
"Who is John Galt?" |http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~belboz/| FRC, SCS, RI, or CMU
Mary Haskett
bel...@frc2.frc.ri.cmu.edu (Barry Brumitt) wrote:
(description of really nasty AFF evaluation dive deleted)
> That jump hurt, I was swearing up a storm under canopy, and the video
> review and appeal didn't go my way, so the score stood. I *still*
> think the manuever was a bit radical on an eval dive, but so be
> it. Others who must remain nameless tended to a agree with me, but
> that's the way it is. One thing which the process made me certain of
> was that no one passes this course without the skills needed. They
> definitely go *beyond* what is necessary to challenge and test you.
You are going to have a very hard time convincing experienced AFF
jumpmasters that this was unfair. I came out of my AFF course (Don
Yarlings first one) swearing that real students would *never* be as bad as
my evaluators [after all, I'm a good instructor ;)], but I have been
proved wrong many times. If anything, it's impossible for evaluators to
really "forget their last 5000 jumps" and do the bizarre and amazing
things that real students do. You earned that zero! (I earned one too, but
went on to pass anyway). Congratulations on passing the course.
--
Mary Haskett
M-Ha...@tamu.edu
=========================================================================
"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." P.J. O'Rourke
Rmudge
that much about the past five years, boogies, competition, conventions,
Skydive U. instructor course and all the other jumps all put together...
but i do admire your writing ability and you made an interesting and
informative letter (imho)..a friend of mine probably said hi to you in the
way of mentioning that he ran into you here before participating in the
same AFF certification course...he and I, along with another friend will
be returning to eloy for the 1-2 april 100 way star we will be
building...with 90 other friends of airspeed! well, that's about all i can
ever write at one time, so see ya. ..
smudge
Rmu...@aol.com
Bert Robbins
: In article <BELBOZ.95M...@weevil.frc.ri.cmu.edu>,
: bel...@frc2.frc.ri.cmu.edu (Barry Brumitt) wrote:
: (description of really nasty AFF evaluation dive deleted)
:
: > That jump hurt, I was swearing up a storm under canopy, and the video
: > review and appeal didn't go my way, so the score stood. I *still*
: > think the manuever was a bit radical on an eval dive, but so be
: > it. Others who must remain nameless tended to a agree with me, but
: > that's the way it is. One thing which the process made me certain of
: > was that no one passes this course without the skills needed. They
: > definitely go *beyond* what is necessary to challenge and test you.
: You are going to have a very hard time convincing experienced AFF
: jumpmasters that this was unfair. I came out of my AFF course (Don
: Yarlings first one) swearing that real students would *never* be as bad as
: my evaluators [after all, I'm a good instructor ;)], but I have been
: proved wrong many times. If anything, it's impossible for evaluators to
: really "forget their last 5000 jumps" and do the bizarre and amazing
: things that real students do. You earned that zero! (I earned one too, but
: went on to pass anyway). Congratulations on passing the course.
I totally agree with Mary.
The evaluation jumps in my certification course were wild but they
don't compare to the things I have experienced with real students.
If your evaluator curled up into a ball. You lost the main side
jumpmaster because you kicked him off during the wild tumbling.
You attempted to get the evaluator to arch, and he never did. You
finally get to look at your altimiter at 5500 ft. and decide that
this ride is over. Then you go to pull the main ripcord and see
that its floating, remember we are still tumbling, and think I
should pull the reserve because it right in front of my face.
But you decide that the pulling the main is better and finally
get it pulled at about 4000 ft. The evaluator's canopy opens
and the canopy is ok. You turn, track and attempt to wave-off
and pull but your arms feel like 500 lb. anvils, you finally
get your main pulled and have to struggle to steer your
canopy.
An evaluation dive? No. A student dive? Yes.
--
Bert Robbins
D-12373
AFF-I-1995
S/L-I-1995