BM-I

[base570 1]

Just wondering the costs involved with getting this rating. Suits, class, jumps, travel, etc. When and where are classes held? What all is involved?

Jason

[base704 0]

Ya might wanna start buy purchasing a suit...

You can get a lot more done with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone.

[cpoxon 0]

I attended the class at the BirdMan offices in Deland. I don't think there is a regular schedule; you'd need to contact them to find out when the next one is. If you don't already have a suit then the prices for a new one are on the website, basically between $618 and $799, or you can get a second-hand one cheaper. If you don't have a suit then BirdMan could probably hire you one ($10 a jump I believe) but since there is some in-air evaluation you are certainly going to need to be familiar, which should probably mean you have your own, as you will certainly need it to jump with your first jump students.

I paid $150 for the class, plus slots on one evalation jump. May sound a bit steep but I got to spend a very full day (plus some time the next day) with the experts picking up all the tips. A lot of stuff was covered in the ground school and I learnt a lot. Also, there a few goodies thrown in with this, a 50% Wings voucher, a 30% SF3 voucher, a t-shirt and a couple of BM-I patches. Travel? Well it cost me $450 to fly from the UK, $250 for a trailer for 2 weeks, about the same for a rental car, plus petrol to get to Deland from ZHills, but then I guess it depends where you are coming from. Oh, and I think I spent about about $20 on food and beer in the Perfect Spot too :-P

What's involved? As I said in this post. There is a day of class work where the BirdMan Instructor checklist is covered in detail. You practice giving the brief to your fellow classmates and are assessed on that. Then you do an evaluation jump where you are expected to be able to give signals to your student in flight if they need them and assess them.

Conact Kim or Jari for further information.