Accelerated instruction

[vans2 0]

Is any one aware of a program that can get a jumper from an A rating to instructor/ tandem in a short period of time?

[piisfish 140]

The program is called : jumpalot & stick to th sport long enough

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[BIGUN 1,409]

http://www.uspa.org/Portals/0/Downloads/Form_TandemProficiencyCard.pdf


Sticky little part here...

18. Has a minimum of 3 years of experience in parachuting.

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

[Deisel 38]

Yeah! Um, no. Why on earth would you want to jump in to something you know nothing about? Do you not understand the responsibility that a TI takes on? Are you that comfortable with handling emergencies that you are willing to risk someone else's life? Would you take your mother up? There's a good reason you need no shit time in the sport before even thinking about doing tandems.

Keep jumping bro. Just keep jumping.

The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

[GLIDEANGLE 1]

In the US there is no way to accelerate the 3-year clock for a tandem rating.

However, there are lots of other instructional ratings that have no time clock... just do the jumps required. Your budget, time available, and weather will dictate how fast you can qualify for them.

If the goal is to make $ jumping, generally you can qualify for a camera flying job long before you have enough time for a tandem rating.

Of course, to fly camera or earn AFF-I rating... jump numbers alone are not enough. You must develop the necessary air skills. Everyone learns those at different rates. You might be ready for AFF-I at six hours and one minute of freefall time... or you might need/want a couple hundred more jumps to be ready.

If, as your profile suggests, you jump in Michigan; those long winters may slow your pace of gaining jump experience.

BTW... Earning a senior rigger rating along the way will help you tremendously with understanding gear and give you another way to make a buck or two in skydiving.

The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

[riggerrob 643]

It is rumoured that Alaska para-rescue jumpers (United States Air Force or Alaska Air National Guard???) jump tandem bundles with only 200 or 300 jumps.

Mind you, that requires enlisting for 5 or more years, passing an exhausting training regiem, being willing to deploy to Syria, Mali, Afghanistan, Iraq, or whichever shit-hole country starts the next war ....

[DSE 5]

riggerrob

It is rumoured that Alaska para-rescue jumpers (United States Air Force or Alaska Air National Guard???) jump tandem bundles with only 200 or 300 jumps.

Mind you, that requires enlisting for 5 or more years, passing an exhausting training regiem, being willing to deploy to Syria, Mali, Afghanistan, Iraq, or whichever shit-hole country starts the next war ....

Delete a zero there. Some are jumping tandem bundles by 25 jumps.
To the OP; it's not about how fast you reach the goal, it's about the skills and knowledge you acquire along the way. Be aware as well that even after 3 years in sport, many DZ's won't hire anyone with less than 500 tandem jumps in addition to their 500 skydives (1000 jump minimum)

[vans2 0]

Hmm...I am a commercially rated instructor pilot, have 6 yrs + in the sport, was trained by halo/haho jump master instructor, just need the number of jumps with the aforementioned training. What I should have prefaced my info with is that in the pilot side there are programs available where in a person can go from no flight time at all to instructor within a minimal time frame.

[vans2 0]

Indeed. Being a pilot that hangs around jumpers(and drops them out), may give me an advantage with the local dz owner, as how I already work for them.

[BIGUN 1,409]

vans2

Hmm...I am a commercially rated instructor pilot, have 6 yrs + in the sport, was trained by halo/haho jump master instructor, just need the number of jumps with the aforementioned training.

Oh, well that makes all the difference in the world. By all means your pilot skills, having been trained by a HALO master instructor and your 96 jumps in 6 years more than qualifies you to step to the head of the line. Just fill out the paperwork and send it up to Jay Stokes and he'll probably apologize for your having wasted this much time.

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

[diablopilot 2]

3 years in sport is required for a Tandem Rating.

Quote

What I should have prefaced my info with is that in the pilot side there are programs available where in a person can go from no flight time at all to instructor within a minimal time frame.

And because of the oh so wonderful quality of pilots and instructors that sort of program puts out, congress raised the minimums to be an airline pilot.

Think Colgan, Asiana, etc......


Slow down and remember the rules are there to build experience and save lives.

----------------------------------------------
You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[DougH 270]

BIGUN

Just fill out the paperwork and send it up to Jay Stokes and he'll probably apologize for your having wasted this much time.

"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

[NWFlyer 2]

vans2

Hmm...I am a commercially rated instructor pilot, have 6 yrs + in the sport, was trained by halo/haho jump master instructor, just need the number of jumps with the aforementioned training. What I should have prefaced my info with is that in the pilot side there are programs available where in a person can go from no flight time at all to instructor within a minimal time frame.

You could start by averaging more than 16 jumps/year. At your current pace you could go for that tandem rating in 2038.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[GLIDEANGLE 1]

Regarding the three years experience for tandem instructor rating:

1. This is an FAA rule, not a USPA rule.

2. My view is that there ought to be an alternate path to the tandem instructor rating which looks at measurable skill and knowledge, not calendar pages. I figure that if a jumper had the 500 jumps AND a PRO rating (canopy skills) AND an AFF-I rating (freefall skills) AND a rigger rating (gear).... that ought to be acceptable in lieu of the 3 years experience. What I like about my alternate path is that is is about MEASURABLE KNOWLEDGE & SKILL, not simply the passage of time (with no measurable outcome). I figure that at least we know what the multi-rated guy knows and can do.... "3 years experience" tells us nothing about skills, knowledge, and attitude.

The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

[riggerrob 643]

Tee!
Hee!

Why not just send him to do 404 hop-and-pops in Lodi?
That will get his jump numbers up in short order.

Hah!
Hah!

[theonlyski 8]

diablopilot

3 years in sport is required for a Tandem Rating.

Quote

What I should have prefaced my info with is that in the pilot side there are programs available where in a person can go from no flight time at all to instructor within a minimal time frame.

And because of the oh so wonderful quality of pilots and instructors that sort of program puts out, congress raised the minimums to be an airline pilot.

Think Colgan, Asiana, etc......


Slow down and remember the rules are there to build experience and save lives.

This.

Tandems aren't just another jump, while I've only got a few hand fulls of them, I wouldn't recommend it for everyone and surely not for someone that's trying to get there the shortest route possible.

"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

[DiverMike 5]

I wonder what the FAA means :

Quote

Sec. 105.45 (a) (i) Has a minimum of 3 years of experience in parachuting

My first static line jump was in 1978. My next jump wasn't until AFF in 2009. Does that mean I currently have 35 years experience, or 4 or 5? Do you have to have 1 jump a year to count that as a year?

For the same reason I jump off a perfectly good diving board.

[excaza 1]

DiverMike

Does that mean I currently have 35 years experience, or 4 or 5?

I wouldn't think it really matters, provided you meet the other requirements you cut out:

Quote

(ii) Has completed a minimum of 500 freefall parachute jumps using a ram-air parachute, and
(iii) Holds a master parachute license issued by an organization recognized by the FAA, and
(iv) Has successfully completed a tandem instructor course given by the manufacturer of the tandem parachute system used in the parachute operation or a course acceptable to the Administrator.
(v) Has been certified by the appropriate parachute manufacturer or tandem course provider as being properly trained on the use of the specific tandem parachute system to be used.

It is an interesting question though.

[GLIDEANGLE 1]

DiverMike

I wonder what the FAA means :

Quote

Sec. 105.45 (a) (i) Has a minimum of 3 years of experience in parachuting

My first static line jump was in 1978. My next jump wasn't until AFF in 2009. Does that mean I currently have 35 years experience, or 4 or 5? Do you have to have 1 jump a year to count that as a year?

Your question is exactly what I was referring to about the weakeness of the 3-year rule. No, I have never seen any definition of what a "year of parachuting experience" consists of. I agree with you that at an extreme definition... it could mean very little.

The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

[JohnMitchell 16]

I find the 3 year rule interesting too. Of course, the hope is that someone would absorb a large background knowledge of our sport during those 36 months while also making 500 jumps (on a ram-air main, btw.)

Some may benefit from the extra time; some may not. Some can spend a decade or more at the DZ and still not have the mind set to do tandems well.

I'm reminded of what Hugh Hefner wrote, supposedly in a school essay at the age of 14:

"What constitutes knowing someone? How much time you've spent with them or what you did during that time?"

Food for thought.