AFF is an intensive course, more expensive but allowing rapid progression in skydiving. Your first descent is from 12,000 feet accompanied by two highly specialised instructors who will guide you in freefall by way of hand signals and under canopy with radio communication. You will experience 40-45 seconds of freefall before you open your own, ram-air canopy at 5,000 feet. This is the real sport!
Your first AFF jump is part of a week’s course of 8 levels and a minimum of 10 consolidation jumps which will qualify you as a skydiver in your own right. If you know you want to take up skydiving, this is probably the quickest and most motivating method by which to do it. Once qualified you can move on to learn the skills required to jump with your friends and to learn new disciplines.
So you’ve completed a tandem or seen some exciting videos of skydivers and you want to take the next steps in becoming a skydiver. Enjoyment, exhilaration and limitless challenge are available even to the absolute beginner. And at its highest level, skydiving is an intensely competitive sport that requires finely-tuned skills, intimate knowledge of the air and perfect body control.
There are 2 main routes into the sport, AFF and Static Line, whichever training method you choose you will embark on a structured program that will teach you all-round competence to perform with freedom and safety.
Whichever method you choose for your first skydive, there is an organised structure for you to learn about the sport and advance at a safe pace. You will be assessed by British Skydiving instructors, they will progress you to the next stage when you are ready. The two systems are identical, only your equipment differs.
To skydive, a person must be aged at least 16 years. People aged under 18 must have their parent’s or guardian’s written permission.
Analysis of statistics compiled over many years indicates that incident rates tend to increase as student jumpers get older. This may be due to slowing reaction times and sometimes less acute senses as the years go by. Risk assessment suggests the tipping point to be when a person reaches their mid-fifties. On this basis, to avoid increased risk, the maximum age at which even a hale, hearty and healthy person can be admitted to start training under British Skydiving rules for solo parachute jumping is before they reach their 55th birthday, although some Affiliated Parachute Training Organisations (PTO) may set a lower age limit than this based on their own risk assessments. This restriction does not apply to tandem students, where the descent is in harness with a qualified instructor – although health requirements continue to apply.
Weight limits apply to parachute descents for safety reasons. Each Affiliated Parachute Training Organisation will have its own weight limits derived from risk assessments of factors including the type of jump, the equipment used, and the gender of the jumper (statistics show different rates of injury for men and women, which may be to do with body shape and weight distribution).
Maximum weights are typically around 15 stone, but a few centres may sometimes be able to take jumpers weighing slightly more than this. British Skydiving does not maintain a list of current weight limits by each Affiliated PTO, so please contact PTOs direct.
Health restrictions also apply. Further information is set out on the ‘Declaration of fitness to parachute’ form. Click on link for Form 252 Asthma and skydiving.
