AFF I rating course costs.

[SickMonkey 0]

Howdy,
This for all the AFF instructors out there. If you kind folks out there would give me an idea of what you paid for the AFF course and other related expenses that you incurred it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Watcher 0]

600 for the course, plus slots on the air plane for the eval jumps. If you are out of town factor in additional money for Hotel, unless you are staying on the DZ.

Jonathan

[lowpull 0]

Plan on spending $1500-$2000.
Pre jumps, pre course,missing a weeks work, the actual course, lodging if you have to go to another dz,lots of slots,plus, hope there are no weather days.....



But, all in all,,,,,,once it was all said and done,,,,,worth every penny to know you passed the AFF course........Good luck

[nightjumps 1]

I spent almost $6,000. I tracked every penny. I hired an AFF Evaluator to make jumps with me a month before the course, travel fees, course costs, packer fees, videos of the dives, meals, beer, every nickel. I spent $2,300 on the Tandem rating; travel, examiner fees, course costs, USPA fees, packers, etc. Hope this helps.

[JGarcia 0]

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I spent almost $6,000

DAMN! I don't think I spent that much $$$ for my complete skydiving carreer to my AFF rating(jumps 1 through 492.

I guess my advice would be to shop around and be at the right place, at the right time.

Cheers!

--Jairo

Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

[fred 0]

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I spent almost $6,000. I tracked every penny.

Isn't that like a year's salary for an AFF instructor?

[markbaur 0]

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I guess my advice would be to shop around and be at the right place, at the right time.

Can you tell us how you went about shopping, and how you got to be at the right place, at the right time?

Thanks,
Mark

[nightjumps 1]

I should mention that I drove from Tulsa to Dallas every weekend for six weeks (Travel Costs) and made 80 jumps with the AFF Evaluator as a Coach, plus paid his $100.00 daily fee + his jumps + his pack jobs, etc. 80+80= 160 jumps@$20.00/jump = $3200 right there. Adds up quick.Not saying that's what you have to do, but I like being prepared.

[SkySlut 0]

Spent about $1,600, but I had a lot of free help from instructors at my DZ...video for the slots...made it back in a few weeks though...

[JGarcia 0]

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Can you tell us how you went about shopping, and how you got to be at the right place, at the right time?

Different course directors have different policies and rates. Also, the number of participants going through the course has a lot to do with costs. The more participants, the lower the costs you pay for the director per day. However, you get to a point of diminishing returns because more candidates can also mean more days to get through everything.

I personally don't think it's necessary to do a bunch of work up jumps, especially if someones charging $$$ for an AFF pre-course . BUT that's just my opinion, and I know that a lot of these instructor evaluators make some serious cash holding these pre-courses. If you have solid flying skills, and have any teaching/coaching experience you should be fine.

When I went through it, our course director explicitly told us what he expected from us, and told exactly what to expect from him. If you stay aware and have quick judgement/reflexes in your daily skydiving, the AFF course shouldn't be out of your reach. Don't get me wrong, it is a difficult, sometimes exasperating process, but definately doable and worth it.

Cheers!

--Jairo

Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

I spent $800 on my AFF ticket, but I didn't pay for my jumps so I got over.

Chuck

[webracer 0]

I guess I spent about $2000 with practice, the course cost of $850, video, and the booze bought afterwards. I did take time off work as well (10 days).

Troy

I am now free to exercise my downward mobility.

[SkySlut 0]

Another fee that the USPA hits you with is $120 to actually get your rating. The MOST expensive shirt that I have bought (they send you a collared USPA AFF I shirt along with a certificate that you can frame, if you were so inclined). I was kinda bent about that fee.

[markbaur 0]

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Another fee that the USPA hits you with is $120 to actually get your rating.

Your voice has been heard! The fee is now $40, in line with the other initial instructor rating fees.

Mark

[Phlip 0]

Everybody seems to agree, spending a lot of money to get the AFF rating is worth it. But how many years do you need to get your investment back?

I have been thinking a lot about going to the pre-course and the course. I got the coach rating and I love it. In one hand I'd love to teach people and on the other hand it doesn't make sense financially.
Several AFF instructors even told me they spent a lot of money on the AFF rating, and they managed to pay it back thanks to their tandem rating.
Any comment?

Phlip

[SkySlut 0]

Whooohooo! Thanks Mark!!!!

[SkySlut 0]

I had NO PROBLEMS making my money back, but I was lucky. I was at avery busy DZ that had a extremely fair distribution of work system. As a fulltime Instuctor, I made about 300 AFF jumps @ $32.50 another 100 coaching jumps @ $25 this season (5-6 month season). You do the math...and that doesnt even count FJCs that I had done with was $50 per person and it wasnt unusual to have as many as 10 in the FJC. I dont have my tandem rating and dont plan on getting it. Making your money back can be difficult if you arent going to be a fulltime skydiver. The weekend warrior Instructors get put on the overflow students whereas the fulltime staff get at them first. If you are a weekend warrior tandem Inst. then you are going to get a lot of work because there are way more tandems than there are Aff students. So if you are in it for the money...get your tandem rating, but keep in mind the beating that your body will take. You have to really want to do AFF to do it full time if you arent going to get your tandem rating. I assumed the AFF instructors "postition" quite a bit this summer...my ass on the couch while watching tandems go up and down all day long because of wind conditions. The good thing is that when you arent jumping you can take your students aside and tell them more about spotting, packing, gear knowledge, canopy control, etc. So there are a lot of times where you are at the DZ and not getting paid but you are still working. But, thats part of giving back to the sport that has given so much to you...

[Shark 0]

Since I just finished... I did 27 work-up jumps which totalled $2,118.25. The AFFIRC including jumps were $684.00. I had video on all my jumps, so the grand total was $2,802.25, not including beer. Throughout the course I lived on water and hotdogs and cough drops. Now the real fun begins.
Shark
D-24499, AFF/I '03

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

I have $800 in my AFF ticket, but my jumps were free. I totally recommend having the course director show up early for a pre-course. There is absolutely NO substitute for doing practice dives with the person who will be grading you in the course.

Chuck

[riggerrob 643]

Can't give you an accurate figure on how much my PFF course cost, since my boss paid for it. Yes, it was big ego boost to finally earn that rating, but the main reason (excuse the pun) was because they needed someone to fly reserve side on weekdays.

If you want to earn serious dough, start with a tandem rating.

But remember that my FAA Senior Rigger rating has earned me far more money than any of my instructor ratings. The greatest thing about being a rigger is that I am making money rigging - on rainy days like today - when all the instructors are at their "real" jobs.

[wmw999 2,456]

One thing I'm wondering about the "jump with the course director" thing. Is this so you can learn how the course director flies, or so he can give you an idea ahead of time about whether your freefall skills are up to snuff, or just for practice with someone who can better simulate a student?

If it's to become familiar with the course director, I'm not sure I like that. Because there isn't time to get familiar with how each student is going to react in freefall. It seems like trying to learn the test, rather than learn the material.

Note I'm coming at this from the bad old days. Got an AFF rating in 1983 or so, and I'm sure stuff has changed.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[Shark 0]

Hi Wendy,

I worked with 7 different designated AFF evaluators prior to the pre-course week, which I only jumped for 2 days in. Yes, I was familiar with the fall rate, but trust me, they can make it as difficult as they want it to be, but within the standards. As you know, there are a number of exit problems that they can present you with. We also had a "break-in" evaluator who was sort of a wild card because nobody had any jumps with him. It was also nice that the break-in evaluator wore all student gear with the exception of wearing his own rig. Another reason for jumping with the course director is to see if you truly are ready to begin the course. A couple of guys did not adequately prepare and it showed. Those guys are great flyers and unfortunately were not successful. Again, I get the feeling that you might believe that the course is now watered down, but they, the CD and Evaluators have to adhere to a standard. If they want to lose you, they will. Just when I thought that they could not funnel me, they did.

Although I now have my rating, the real learning has just begun. Real world is very different than the course. For me I spent over a year with my Coach rating doing a lot of Cat. G/H stuff so I kind of knew how things "worked." I am a newbie. I am still learning and will always have that attitude to learn more.

Shark

Enclosed is a picture of a typical exit I was tasked with.

[Hooknswoop 19]

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Again, I get the feeling that you might believe that the course is now watered down, but they, the CD and Evaluators have to adhere to a standard. If they want to lose you, they will.

They lowered the standard whent hey changed the course.

2001 PIA, Don Yarling presented a discussion on the "Instructor Shortage". Then the course was changed so more people would pass. Only way to do thatis to lower the standard. I felt they should have created an "official" pre-course that trained people to be AFFI's, not make the course easier to pass. I have flown with some AFFI's that went through the new course, some of them would not have passed the old course.

Hook

[Shark 0]

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I felt they should have created an "official" pre-course that trained people to be AFFI's, not make the course easier to pass.

I worked pretty hard at it, starting two months prior to it. My evaluators not only worked with me on the skydives, but also how to be a better instructor with real world examples. So, I concur that there should be a course to train you for the real world. Like I said, I am learning more as I go along. I expect to do many Cat. A & B skydives before going on to the higher levels. I will always be open to suggestions and ways that I can improve on being a better instructor.

[wmw999 2,456]

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Again, I get the feeling that you might believe that the course is now watered down, but they, the CD and Evaluators have to adhere to a standard

Actually, I was wondering if it's harder. None of us had pre-jumps with the instructors, and most of us passed the course. Not that we did awesome on all jumps, but I think most of us passed the course overall.

We were qualified, and pretty good fliers. But unless a lot of weak fliers are trying now (why?), that shouldn't have changed. We had baggy suits even.

Of course, it was a long time ago, and I might just have forgotten something or other.

Wendy

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)