Tandem Pay...Own Equipment

[mbondvegas 0]

It seems that $30 is the going rate at US DZ's for doing a tandem? Is this with you providing your own Tandem rig?

Just wondering....would like to do the TI thing one day.

- - -
I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today.

[bodypilot1 0]

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It seems that $30 is the going rate at US DZ's for doing a tandem? Is this with you providing your own Tandem rig?

Just wondering....would like to do the TI thing one day.

No. The DZ's gear.


Be safe
Ed

www.WestCoastWingsuits.com
www.PrecisionSkydiving.com

[FlyinseivLP2 0]

We get paid $30 for a tandem with the DZ's gear. I think they like $25 extra if you use your own gear.
Keep in mind some DZ's may not let you use your own gear. Also unless you are doing a ton of tandems it is probably more cost effective to use the DZ's gear. Some tandem rigs can cost more than $13,000. Then you need to include maintence which tandem rigs need alot of. Then if you lose anything on a cutaway (freebag or main) you have to pay a ton to have it replaced.

[lisamariewillbe 1]

$180.00 bucks to do a tandem and all the TI gets is 30 bucks? I dont know the perticulars of taking a tandem but it seems they should get more then that. Considering they risk their life to do this, and the money it cost them to achieve their rating.

Wishing now I had tipped my TI back in the day.

Dont videographers make around 30? Without risking their life as much as the TI?

Sudsy Fist: i don't think i'd ever say this
Sudsy Fist: but you're looking damn sudsydoable in this

[lowpull 0]

OK, $30 a tandem may sound low, but, lets look at the math.

$180

minus 2 slots at roughly $22 each.

$136

take off $25 for the rig.

$110

$10 for the pack job

$100.

$30 for the Instructor.

So now we are left with the grand total of $70 for the dz as "profit"

Oddly enough, these numbers are what most dzs exist on, so I agree we probably are worth a bit more from time to time, but this is the way things are.


I know thirty bucks really doesn't sound like much, but even at a small Cessna dropzone, I have done 10 or 12 a day, so it helps offset the cost of jumps and gear and rating courses and the couple hundred bucks for the next thing we seem to not be able to live without.


Hope this helps



Ralph

[LouDiamond 1]

$30 for the jump, $30 for using my gear. If you can afford it, buy your own gear. I re-couped the money I invested fairly quickly, plus the rig is made to fit me. I don't have any regrets about buying my own tandem rig.

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[matthewcline 0]

I'll go with Lou on this one.

I used to get $25 ($35 if I pack it) a tandem using the DZ rigs. Now as a rig owner I get $75 ($65 if the DZO/packers pack for me). So now I can earn 3 times the income in a day.

In one day of work I have earned back 1/7th of my investment. In eight days I will be earning profit and setting aside maintenance funds (I use $10 a jump, better high than low).

You can always work out an individual contract with the DZO if the current offer is to low in the T-I's opinion, it might not work, but how do you know if you don't ask?

An Instructors first concern is student safety.
So, start being safe, first!!!

[stratostar 5]

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Dont videographers make around 30? Without risking their life as much as the TI?

So you don't think a video person is risking their life as much, eh. Granted we don't have a sack of meat on front to grab our hands or handles, instead we have shit on our head that can get grabbed and snap your neck or keep you from seeing or cutting away
and a whole list of possible things that can happen.
Do you even have a clue as to how much we have invested in order to the job and the risk involved?

1. two rigs in order to do back to back loads
2. price any real digital still cameras lately?
3. price any digital video cameras lately?
4. helmet costs.
5. additional tools like cameye, quick releses ect.
6. jumpsuits for different jobs
7. editing equipment, price any of that lately?
8. memory cards.
9. cost of cd's,dvd's , printer ect.
10.having to rush to meet loads (high risk)
11. flash
12. batteries
Just to name a few.

Last time I was at SDC, when I was in the video room I was told many of there guys had two hemets set ups, land hand one in take one out and go.
Have you ever shot video, do you even have a clue as to how much risk is involved shooting video?
I guess NOT or you wouldn't have said that.
They don't say it's the second most dangerous skydive for nothing.
We earn every penny we get and often don't even come close to getting back what we have invested, cost of a tandem rig and then some.
I bet your one of those jumpers who wants the photos,but then bitches about how much we charge for a print or video.

~

you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

[kelpdiver 2]

when I read of all the neck injuries that the cameramen get with routine no mal jumping, it certainly gives me pause. Who wants to fuse their vertibrae?

When the time comes that it's of interest for me, I'm hoping the pen cameras have moved further along in quality/price.

[NelKel 0]

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>>>Dont videographers make around 30? Without risking their life as much as the TI?


Thought it was more like 18 dollars.

_________________________________________

Someone dies, someone says how stupid, someone says it was avoidable, someone says how to avoid it, someone calls them an idiot, someone proposes rule chan

[stratostar 5]

It would depend on what dz your at, everyone charges different.
I normally make 35 for video and I sell my stills to the person on cd for 30 dollars and it's 40 to 60 photos sometimes more, if all you want is a 8x10 it it's 16.00.

~

you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

[bch7773 0]

My DZ pays $70 to the tandem master if he has his own gear.

After a year of doing tandems, he paid off his tandem rig plus some. So overrall its better to get your own rig

MB 3528, RB 1182

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

We get $30 with school gear, and $30 more to jump our own gear here at Raeford. I own my own tandem rig, but still jump school stuff about as much as my own when we are backed up.

[riggerrob 643]

Agreed!
Outside videographers are the poorest paid professional skydivers.
That is why I don't do outside video.

I do every other job on the DZ - packing, packing reserves, sewing, sweeping, teaching the first jump course, PFF, tandem, handy-cam, and I used to turn wrenches and fly the airplane before I got too busy ...

I could never see the profit in outside video.

[RMURRAY 1]

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Agreed!
Outside videographers are the poorest paid professional skydivers.
That is why I don't do outside video.

I do every other job on the DZ - packing, packing reserves, sewing, sweeping, teaching the first jump course, PFF, tandem, handy-cam, and I used to turn wrenches and fly the airplane before I got too busy ...

I could never see the profit in outside video.

just talking to a TM here in Ontario who basically set the price way back in the 80's. It was 100CDN (using their own gear of course). Today 100CDN is about 85US. He kept the same price all along. He is getting into video now because it is not worth doing tandems anymore (no one is willing to pay that much). In my mind, TM with their own gear (60US) are underpaid these days...

rm

[skydived19006 4]

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My DZ pays $70 to the tandem master if he has his own gear.

After a year of doing tandems, he paid off his tandem rig plus some. So overrall its better to get your own rig

You’re absolutely correct, figure an additional $30 or so per tandem if you own your own gear! That said, most DZOs would rather keep that $30, which would pay back a $9000 rig in 300 jumps (not figuring rigging/maintenance). It’s my understanding that generally if a TM owns his gear the DZO will allow him to use it (and pay him for his gear) only when the DZ is so backed up that they can’t keep up with the DZ gear. You may spend a lot of money, and end up with nowhere to jump it!

Then again, you could go the extra mile, but an airplane, rent a hanger, hang out a shingle, and do your own thing. That’s what I did! Now I jump my own gear, at my own DZ! I also work a 40 hour job, spend another 30 or so a week with the DZ, and my wife is a stay at home mom, so she “works the phone” all week! As DZO, and not figuring my wife’s time, I made a little over $10 an hour last year, and I do half the tandems, half the video, manifest, trash man, chief toilet swab, etc. etc. I think that in a lot of cases DZO is the poorest paid job on the DZ!

Man, I’m pissed now! I’m raising my prices!

Martin
Air Capital Drop Zone

Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else.

AC DZ

[NelKel 0]

>>>It would depend on what dz your at, everyone charges different.
I normally make 35 for video
----------------------------------------

Do you have to pay your slot out of that $35?

_________________________________________

Someone dies, someone says how stupid, someone says it was avoidable, someone says how to avoid it, someone calls them an idiot, someone proposes rule chan

[stratostar 5]

No. (tandem videos)

~

you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

[TheDonMan 0]

In suffolk we make $45 for video and stills and $35 for tandems. No one owns there own tandem rig so i have no idea how that would work.. i will have to ask the DZO this weekend. Maybe it will be worth my money to buy one....

Of course it would be a Sigma

The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.

[Peej 0]

Here in South Africa i make R280 per jump for video and stills. According to xe.com that's about US$46

Advertisio Rodriguez / Sky

[propilot 0]

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$180.00 bucks to do a tandem and all the TI gets is 30 bucks? I dont know the perticulars of taking a tandem but it seems they should get more then that. Considering they risk their life to do this, and the money it cost them to achieve their rating.

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pfffffffttt

Paaalease! Okay, Im sorry I have to say something.

IF anyone, by your math, should be getting more money it is the pilots! It costs 30,000.00USD+ to get the ratings/licenses and years to build the time to fly. Most jumpt pilots (C182) get around 6-10 dollars per load.

I got 6 bucks per load in a C206 in colorado flying to 18 grand (dz elevation at 6). It took 35-40min for a turn. I got 6 dollars per load. 6!


Now, Im not complaining, but christ. tandem masters make 6 times what most C182 pilots get paid.

the big plane pilots dont do that much better.


Plus, most DZs barely survive (or, heh, maybe most dont)....it costs a lot to run a dz. fuel is going through the roof. aircraft are expensive. etc etc


ugh, im done typing, you get the idea.

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[johnny1488 1]

Videographers make $50 at my dz. And no they dont pay the slot.
Tandem instructors get $30, $40 with the pack job.

Johnny
--"This ain't no book club, we're all gonna die!"
Mike Rome

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

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IF anyone, by your math, should be getting more money it is the pilots! It costs 30,000.00USD+ to get the ratings/licenses and years to build the time to fly. Most jumpt pilots (C182) get around 6-10 dollars per load

And THAT is why I will never consent to being a jump pilot. Actually, at most dropzones it's even worse than that when you count in all the time you spend washing planes and doing maintenance which you are, generally, not qualified to sign off on.

If you want to make money skydiving, then you are going to have to get some "real" ratings (AFF and tandem). If you want to make quite a bit more money, even when it's raining, then get a riggers ticket. Most people who fly jumpers NEVER go on to fly commercial cargo or passengers for professional carriers. Most will sure bitch about not making any money when they are on the DZ and working like indentured servants though. Your response was a perfect case in point. I never really got that. Thankfully, also, I never allowed myself to get forced into the dropzone jobs that I knew would keep me from actually skydiving, even though that's exactly what was intended of me as a second-generation skydiving son of a DZO.

Chuck Blue
D-12501

[propilot 0]

Its not all bad apples being a dz pilot, and I would for sure without a doubt follow my path again. I currently love my posistion and the multi turbine pic time that im building will propel my career past most of my fellow CFIs.

...just keep our pay in mind when ya start complaining about making 30-50 dollars per jump.

:}

[JohnMitchell 16]

It's easy to run the numbers and see that you can pay for a tandem rig in about 500 jumps, but it requires discipline to bank a little money each jump for the replacement rig. I know a guy who's made who knows how many thousand ( who knows) jumps on a old Vector, worn out ratty museum piece, but says he has no money to replace it. It may still be airworthy, but I wouldn't jump it on a dare.

Other tandem rigs have broken in service from too much wear with too little maintenance.