If you are a think that the sport of skydiving sounds
exciting, and you want to become certified, there are a few
steps that you will have to take before you reach your
goal.
When you take these steps, you will be able to get your
certification.
1. The first thing you are going to want to do is to do a
tamdem skydive so that you can try skydiving. Skydiving is
an expensive sport and you want to make sure that you are
going to enjoy doing it before you invest a lot of time and
money.
With a tamdem skydive, you are attached to your instructor
with a harness. Do some research and find a dropzone that
is near you and affiliated with the USPA.
2. One of the first things you will have to do in order to
become certified in skydiving is to complete the
Accelerated FreeFall, or AFF, course.
The requirements for the course can vary depending on the
dropzone, but usually there are seven levels. There are
maneuvers that you will need to do for each level.
3. Before you do your first AFF jump, you have to go
through and finish a First Jump Course, where you learn
about gear, hand signals, emergency procedures, and
malfunctions. These and other things will help you stay
safe during your jump.
4. In levels 1 through 3 of the AFF course, you wear your
own parachute when you exit the airplane, but exit with two
instructors that will hold on to you. They will give you
hand signals to tell you directions and if you need to
correct the position of your body.
They are making sure that you know how to do things. The
two instructors stay with you until you pull the parachute.
If your parachute isn’t pulled by the time you get to a
certain altitude, they do it for you.
They break away from you after your parachute deploys, but
there will be one that is on the ground that gives you
directions so that you land safely.
5. During the last levels of the AFF course, you will be
exiting with one instructor. They won’t be holding to you
unless there is a problem, and you’ll need to do maneuvers
that are harder than the first three levels.
6. Once you complete your course, you are ready to go out
on your own. It’s not a bad idea to work with a coach for a
bit before you go out with your friends. You can join the
USPA member and get your license.