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There are 3 ways to start skydiving. Tandem skydiving is very popular and gives you the chance to experience freefall and canopy ride with the knowledge that you have a fully qualified instructor strapped to your back along with a large parachute that will be operated for you by the for mentioned instructor. It is ideal for those who want try skydiving as a 'do it before you die' one off experience it all in one parachute jump. Unfortunately the minimal training required does not qualify you to continue skydiving / parachuting on your own. If you wish to continue then you must either go on a RAPS static line parachute jump course or do AFF skydiving (Accelerated free fall).
The static line parachute jump course involves about 6 hours skydive training followed by a parachute jump from 3500 feet. There is no free fall involved as the canopy is attached to the aeroplane by the static line that automatically opens the parachute. The AFF skydiving course involves the highest level of skydive training as you will be jumping from 14000 feet and will be responsible for opening your own parachute at deployment altitude. Initial jumps are made with two skydiving instructors in free fall with you to keep you stable during the skydive and to deploy your parachute if necessary. In either case static line parachute jumping or AFF skydiving you will need around 20 skydives to become a qualified skydiver / parachutist (skydive category 8). If you want to skydive call me on my mobile 07799 671047. I like to provide a personal service and will answer any questions you may have on a one to one basis. If you want to have a look around other places, most of the skydive centres in the uk are advertised on both sides of this web page or use the skydive DZ search tool below.
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Skydiving is free for those of you who like raising money for charity. Although you may find it hard work. It is generally accepted that you may use up to half the money you raise to pay for your skydive / parachute jump. Tandem skydiving normally costs around £230 depending on where you go. Therefore you should be looking to raise at least £460 and your skydive is paid for and therefore free. The rest of your money is sent to a charity of your choice. I have met people on the drop zone that have raised many thousands of pounds through skydiving. Often motivated by the bereavement of a relative or some other form of adversity. Many people who decide that they want to parachute jump on their own also use this method to fund a first skydive and training by way of the RAPS (static line) parachute jump course.
The RAPS parachute jump course costs around £180 again depending on where you go. If you intend to become a 'serious' skydiver you will find that this is the most economical route. After your first parachute jump the cost drops significantly. You now pay student rates until you qualify as a category 8 skydiver. You will be paying around £35 for your skydive which will include parachute hire and parachute packing. Here is how you can get the rest of your student parachute jumps for free. Once you do your first skydive you need to go on a packing course. Your drop zone will normally provide a course for about £10 for a days training on packing the parachuting equipment. Shriek! I hear. No worries. After the course you will be supervised during the packing of at least 10 parachutes and will be required to pass a number of tests including a tangle test. Once your instructor is happy with your ability you will get a parachute packing certificate that once authorized by the British Parachute Association (BPA) is valid anywhere as far as I know. Now that you can pack your parachute you can earn money at the drop zone to fund all your skydiving. Rates for a parachute pack job are about £4-5 for student kit and about £8 for tandem skydiving equipment. Not a bad hourly rate as a parachute pack job takes about 20 to 30 minutes. Hard work when the drop zone is busy. So it is therefore possible to qualify as a category 8 skydiver with a parachute packing certificate and the whole process funded by your own initiative and effort.
If you are fortunate enough to have cash to burn you can take the AFF skydiving course. This skydiving course involves several days of one to one training with your skydiving instructors who will teach you all you need to know to exit the plane from 'the top'. After completing a minimum of 8 skydives with one or both of your skydiving instructors, you are on probation until you have completed all the required exercises to allow you to qualify as category 8 skydiver. Clearly the best way to do it but very pricey. You will initially need to shell out about £1000 to complete the first 8 skydives. Student rates there after until skydiving category 8 has been achieved.
Once you have reached category eight and have a parachute packing certificate, it is time to buy your own skydiving equipment. Parachutes (known as rigs for a complete unit with reserve ready to skydive) can be purchased from about £600 second hand up to £3,500 for new skydiving equipment complete with AOD (automatic opening device). You will also need an altimeter, and probably an audio altimeter as well. Skydive jump suit, gloves, goggles, jump knife and a skydiving helmet. All this can add up to another £500. However you will probably be able to make good acquisitions on the drop zone or on Ebay. Each skydive will now cost about £20 depending on where you go.
Once you have got your skydive category 8 you need to take your CH-grade 1. The Canopy Handling Manual is free and available from the CCI (Club or Centre Chief Instructor- Advanced instructor) at any drop zone. You can also download the manual here: The Canopy Handling Manual. The test is simple because you must copy the answers word for word out of the manual. However to do this you must read the manual which is what is required. Low turns are a cause of unnecessary accidents in parachuting. This test is aimed at preventing parachuting accidents happening due to ignorance. When you have passed your test. I.E. had it marked and signed off by a suitable parachuting authority like a club CCI, you can send an application complete with passport photos to the BPA and receive your skydive FAA Licence. If you parachute in other countries you will be able to prove your experience with this booklet and your log book. It looks a bit like a passport.
As with CH-Grade 1, CH-Grade 2 is an open book test on the second half of the manual. As before you will need to get the test paper from the CCI and have it marked and signed off. In addition you will need to get the JM-Grade 1 sheet too. This sheet can be downloaded here: The Jump Master Grading System Record Sheet. Each section including briefings and practical exercises in the form of pre-declared parachute landings and avoidance maneuvers under canopy. On completion you may send your FAA licence along with an application form to the BPA for the B certificate stamp. All paperwork and application forms are available from any parachute centre office.
I am not sure if there are any other grade 1's left other than the FS1 but you do need this for your skydive category 10 and is often necessary to do stuff like free flying. A discussion on this is beyond the scope of this article and completely unnecessary as it is fully laid out in the FS (Formation Skydiving) Manual here: The Formation Skydiving Manual. It is all practical skydiving ending by successfully completing a '4 point' 4 way. You will need to talk to an FS skydive coach to get started. Your CCI will be the person to point you in the right direction. C licence is an important miles stone as this gives you the necessary basic qualification to do most things including skydive camera flying and becoming a skydive basic instructor.
When you are ready for D licence you will know more than me so I wont teach you to suck eggs! :) but you will need this if you want to become a basic accelerated free fall skydive instructor for example.
The ultimate skydiving authority in the UK is the BPA who produce the skydive operations manual that details every aspect of the sport and the rules and qualifications. See this link: BPA Operations Manual
If you are curious see this article: How safe is sport parachuting /skydiving?
All BPA Training manuals can be found here:BPA Skydive Training Manuals
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Thanks for visiting. I hope that you enjoy my skydive video collection. Also thank you to all those who take part in making these videos. With out you the free fall footage would be pretty uneventful! |
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I started skydiving in November 1981 when things were quite different. We used round canopies for about the first 50 skydives then another 5 parachute jumps on high performance rounds like the PC before we were allowed anywhere near a square parachute. I did about 120 parachute jumps then packed in to have a family. Around 3 years ago I decided that I wanted to start skydiving again. I wish now that I had never stopped parachuting as I am back to being a relative novice again. However, since I have been able to produce skydiving video, I have decided to share my experiences with any one who is interested by posting my skydiving video footage on this web site. Parachute jumps are not cheap and fuel burnt skydiving could be considered wasted by some so to me it makes sense to record each valuable free fall moment into a skydiving video archive for others to enjoy and for me to re-live my mini adventures. This is my skydiving log book on-line. I make no apology for my level of experience as it is also intended to show my progression and the learning curve needed to hopefully become really good camera flyer. Who knows one day you may come here to watch the best skydiving videos on the net! But for now for those new to skydiving this should be an interesting resource and a good place to see what it is really like and to learn some tips. If you are a sky god then call me up because I want to get some awesome skydiving video footage on here. Lets do some interesting stuff! I am an affiliate of Amazon uk who provide all the offerings flashing around this web site. I have tried to select things interesting to skydivers from the Amazon range. Any shopping you do is processed entirely by Amazon so you can be assured that you will receive your order on time and at a good price. | |
Just to let you know that by clicking the button below you can easily bookmark this page or share with facebook/myspace friends and other methods too. Just click it and you will easily figure it out. I would greatly appreciate you telling a few interested friends. Thanks in advance. | |
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31-07-2008 Short skydive article on camera flying safety
01-08-2008 PRLog.Org skydive website press release
02-08-2008 pressbox.co.uk skydive website press release
02-08-2008 Starting Skydiving and your first 1000 jumps
02-08-2008 Tandem skydiving
08-08-2008 Static line(RAPS)course
15-08-2008 Altimeter sales and service
