After the AFF course

AFF ends when you complete the programme and jump solo. It can be a disorienting moment: suddenly there is no instructor alongside, no next level to pass, and you have to decide for yourself what comes next. This guide is about what comes next. The course itself is described on the AFF course page, and if you are still choosing between a tandem and training, start with the comparison.

After the course you are still a student

Polish rules call you a student parachutist until you hold the qualification certificate. A student goes on an aircraft’s load manifest only under the supervision of the instructor running the training on that jump, and jumps a parachute packed by an authorised person. Jumping solo after the course therefore means independence in the air. The supervision stays: every one of those jumps has its instructor.

The first jumps after the course

Early solo jumps after AFF are mostly consolidation. You jump a lot and you jump simply: a stable exit, altitude awareness, opening on time, a considered landing pattern. There is no point rushing towards manoeuvres, because this is when habits form, and they stay with you for the rest of your jumping.

In practice that means regularity. A jumper who goes every fortnight makes progress. A jumper who goes twice a season starts each time by recovering what they already knew, and after a long break an instructor may ask for a refresher jump before letting them move on.

The certificate, or licence

What people call a licence is, in Polish law, the parachutist’s qualification certificate (świadectwo kwalifikacji skoczka spadochronowego, PJ). It is issued on application by the President of the Civil Aviation Authority (ULC), and the first threshold is the class B rating. You can obtain the certificate from the age of 16.

What it takes

• At least 50 freefall jumps across the whole training, adding up to at least 30 minutes of freefall. The AFF course is the first stage of that training.
• Learning to pack the main canopy, to judge whether a parachute is fit to jump and to check it before a jump.
• Controlling your body in freefall in every plane.
• Landing on a designated spot and working out the exit point, the place over which you leave the aircraft.
• Theory in six subjects: air law, human performance and limitations, general jump safety, parachute knowledge, and the theory and principles of a parachute jump.

It ends with a state examination in two parts, theory and practice, taken before an examiner from the examining board.

Thirty minutes over 50 jumps is an average of 36 seconds of freefall per jump. Short-delay jumps pull that average down, and then the certificate takes more than 50 jumps.

What class B gives you

With the class B rating you jump without an instructor’s supervision and pack your own main canopy. The certificate itself is issued without an expiry date, but it only works while a basic rating is valid. A basic rating lasts five years and is extended after an examiner has checked your knowledge and skills.

Medicals

Polish aviation law exempts parachutists, and candidates for the certificate, from aeromedical examinations. Fitness is confirmed by a written declaration that your health allows you to jump safely, or by a valid driving licence of any category. The examinations come back for anyone acting under an instructor rating, jumping with a passenger, or competing in events run by a Polish sports association.

The next thresholds: classes C and D

• Class C: after class B and at least 200 jumps, with at least an hour of freefall in total. It allows display jumps and, from the age of 18, acting as a jumpmaster, the jumper who supervises students leaving the aircraft.
• Class D: after class C and at least 500 jumps, with at least three hours of freefall in total. It allows you to organise jumps on your own.

What it costs after the course

After AFF the largest line stops being training and becomes the number of jumps. Each jump means paying for the lift to altitude and, until you have your own kit, renting a packed parachute. While you are a student there is also instructor supervision, which dropzones charge for differently: some include it in the price of the jump, others list it separately.

A single jump costs several times less than a tandem, but a few dozen of them lie between the course and the class B certificate. The simplest thing is to work it out yourself: the jumps you are still missing, multiplied by the price of a lift at the dropzone where you will jump, plus rental for as long as you need it. We will tell you how it works with us before the course: write to us.

Your own equipment

There is no reason to buy anything before the course, or straight after it. Rigs are rented from the dropzone, and people usually assemble their own gradually, after several dozen jumps.

A full rig is a harness and container, a main canopy, a reserve and usually an automatic activation device for the reserve. New, it costs about as much as a used car, which is why people tend to get there in stages, starting with the harness or the canopy.

The size of the main canopy is a decision of its own. A smaller canopy under the same jumper carries a higher wing loading, and USPA spells out what that means: faster forward speed and descent, quicker turns, steeper and longer dives out of turns, more violent malfunctions and a flare that takes more skill to get right. So canopies are downsized slowly, as your jump numbers grow, and not when a bargain turns up second-hand.

Which direction you can go

• Formation skydiving: several jumpers building shapes together in the air.
• Freefly: orientations other than flat on your belly, head-down included.
• Canopy piloting: landing accuracy and flying the parachute itself.
• Wingsuit: after the required jump numbers and specific training.
• The instructional path: instructor ratings require the class D certificate and an age of at least 21.

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