AFF I rating course costs.

[NoShitThereIWas 0]

I did my course in July at Skydive Chicago with Glenn Bangs, Range and Dave Ciciarelli. All in all I spent around $2000 to do it right. I did about 10 practice jumps with GOOD instructors which was very costly but well worth the money. $20 for my slot, $20 for their slot, $30 for their time and $20 for the video guys slot plus another $20 for the video guy. Basically $110 for every practice jump and then about $850 is what I believe the course itself cost. The course also included a full day of practice jumps WITH the evaluators before the actual evaluated real jumps and the 2 practice jumps you could elect to take if you didn't go hot for your eval jumps. This of course does not include beer, food or any travel expenses.

Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires."

Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

You paid a LOT of money for your practices. Lucky for you, you didn't learn any bad habits and passed the course. I have, unfortunately, seen plenty of people waste their money by making practice jumps with former AFF evaluaters (not on the "current" list) who have been doing AFF forever, but not with "approved" doctrine. While they could stay relative and deal with the maneuvers, their "bottom end" technique was flawed and they failed the course because they blew off the pre-course and assumed they had it dicked. Unfortunately for them, the course director briefed a different dive flow than they had practiced (over and over) and both people "took the short course," which is to say they failed. They were PISSED to say the least, but attention to detail is what gets you through the course. USPA doesn't care how you do it on your dropzone; they are going to test you to course standards. Bottom line here is that if you are going to have to spend money on train-up jumps, make damn sure it is with an AFF designated evaluater who is current and is up on how the course is currently being run.

Chuck
AFF-I (among other things)

[NoShitThereIWas 0]

I did just about all of my practice jumps with a gal named Nanette. She is not an evaluator but she has tons of experience and taught me most of what I needed to know to get through the course. I showed up 1 week early for the course and was like Hi, my name is Jen and I want to be an AFF instructor. I know nothing about teaching AFF so can we start from the beginning?

You are right, I paid a lot of $$$ to get trained, I sure as heck didn't get any breaks financially but I maximized my efficiency by choosing someone I knew I would work well with, had an awesome reputation and who was committed to teaching me what I needed to know. (I think Nanette has like 6,000 or more AFF jumps). It worked. If you want to get your rating my advice is to listen to what your evaluators tell you before and during the course. I showed up with 360 jumps under my belt, by far the least experienced person there, scared s___less of my evaluators. They were all excellent and taught us what we needed to know. The rest was up to us. Get as much practice as you can with "qualified" people. They don't necessarily NEED to be evaluators but they should have a ton of experience. Nanette was awesome and brought me up to speed in 10 jumps.

Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires."

Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

Getting an AFF ticket with 360 jumps is phenomenal; you ought to be proud.

[NoShitThereIWas 0]

I guess I should correct that. I actually passed my last eval. jump on my 400th! But I was close. Thanks for the compliment.

Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires."

Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

[NoShitThereIWas 0]

And I guess I should also give my AFF partner credit too. I wasn't totally correct when I said I had the least amount of experience there. (Sorry Troy) My AFF partner during the course was Troy Church. We became totally bonded like brother and sister by the end of the course (even though we wanted to kill each other through the first half). The coolest thing about it all is that he too finished his last eval jump (the Level 4) on his 400th. We had a great course celebration when it was all over. The candidates and evaluators were a gas. Looking back it was probably the scariest, most exciting, fun things I have ever done.

Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires."

Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."