AFF skydiving course near Gdańsk

AFF (Accelerated FreeFall) is the course that makes you a skydiver: training after which you jump on your own. On a tandem the instructor is responsible for everything. Here you have your own parachute from the very first jump and fly it yourself, while instructors fall alongside you and keep watch. If you are still choosing between the two, start with the tandem or AFF comparison.

What the course covers

• Ground school: how the parachute is built, procedures, emergencies and landing.
• Jumps with instructors who fall beside you in freefall and correct your body position.
• Further jumps with steadily more independence.
• Solo jumping once the programme is complete. That is the first step towards the parachutist’s qualification certificate, commonly called the licence.

The method: levels, not hours

AFF is not measured in hours. The course is divided into levels, and each level is a jump with a specific task, briefed on the ground before take-off and talked through after landing. You move on once the objectives of the previous level have been met. Every school trains to its own programme, so the number of levels and the details vary: the British Skydiving manual describes eight levels, while the American USPA programme takes a student through five categories with AFF instructors, A to E. The order, though, is much the same everywhere.

1. 01The first jumps with two instructors, who hold the grips on your harness from the moment you leave the aircraft. You practise orientation, watching your altimeter and reaching for the handle, and you open the parachute yourself.
2. 02The first seconds without being held: the instructors let go of the grips and you keep a stable position and heading on your own.
3. 03Turns with one instructor alongside: starting and stopping a turn, then full turns in both directions.
4. 04A solo exit from the aircraft, recovering a stable position after losing it on purpose, and moving across the sky, known as tracking.
5. 05In some programmes, a short delay at the end: leaving the aircraft and opening the parachute within ten seconds.

Nobody talks to you in the air, because in that rush of wind you hear very little. Corrections come as agreed hand signals, which you learn on the ground together with the rest of the jump.

The first AFF jump, step by step

The details depend on the programme, but the first jump has the same skeleton across AFF programmes. The difference from a tandem is that you do not watch the minute of freefall; you fill it with tasks.

1. 01On the ground you walk through the whole jump several times with the instructors, from the exit to the landing, and practise the arched position: hips forward, head up.
2. 02You leave the aircraft with two instructors holding the grips on your harness.
3. 03You check your heading, your altimeter and both instructors, then reach for the deployment handle a few times in practice.
4. 04You watch your altitude. At the agreed height, usually between 1,500 and 1,700 metres on the first jumps, you signal with your arms and open the parachute.
5. 05You check the canopy and fly to the landing area following the plan made on the ground, often with guidance over the radio.
6. 06You land it yourself, flaring the canopy just above the ground as you practised.
7. 07You debrief the jump with your instructor, and that conversation decides whether you move to the next level or repeat this one.

When a level has to be repeated

Repeating a level is an ordinary part of AFF. The programme moves you on only once you have met the objectives of a jump, because each level builds on the one before it. The British Skydiving AFF manual puts it plainly: a student who has not met the objectives of a level should repeat it. Sometimes students ask for a repeat themselves, because they feel a jump did not go well.

Breaks matter too. The same manual has instructors weigh the time since the last jump, and gives the example of a student who, after a month without jumping, is given an extra jump at a level already passed before moving on. That is why a course done over a few days close together usually moves faster than one stretched across a whole season.

What the course price covers when a level is repeated is worth asking before you sign up: write to us.

Price

The price includes VAT and covers ground school and the jumps with instructors.

Requirements

• 16 or over, with a legal guardian’s written consent under 18.
• Good health and no medical reason to avoid physical exertion. The situations worth checking with a doctor are listed in the safety guide.
• A willingness to study. AFF is training, not an attraction: there is theory, there are practical assessments, and repeating a level happens.
• Time, because the course takes several jumping days, not one.
• No experience. A tandem jump beforehand is not required, though it can help you find out how you react to freefall.

How many jumping days to plan for

The course runs across several jumping days, not necessarily consecutive. The pace depends on the weather and on your progress, so it is better to leave slack than to fix a single date. People who come regularly finish sooner than those who leave gaps of several weeks.

Students are held to tighter weather limits than licensed jumpers. American USPA rules let students jump only when the surface wind is 14 mph or less, about 22 km/h, and set no fixed limit for licensed jumpers. In Poland the conditions for each type of jump are laid down in the jump organiser’s regulations. A day on which experienced jumpers are in the air can therefore be a day on which the course waits on the ground.

Season and jumping days

We jump from April to October, at weekends and on selected weekdays.

Equipment

On the course you jump the dropzone’s equipment and need to buy nothing beforehand. There are good reasons not to: the right canopy and harness depend on your weight, your skill and the direction you take afterwards, and none of that is known before the first jump.

What happens after the course

The course ends with a solo jump, not a licence. For the parachutist’s qualification certificate Polish rules require at least 50 freefall jumps, adding up to at least 30 minutes of freefall, and a passed state examination. Until then you jump as a student, under an instructor’s supervision. That road, with the costs and your own equipment, is covered in the guide after the AFF course.

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