AFF Skydiving: Become a Certified Skydiver

Introducing people to the adventure of skydiving is what we do. For some, the thirst for a thrill is satisfied with a tandem skydive or two. For many others, the first tandem skydive merely opens the floodgates of possibility. Interested in taking flight with your very own parachute? With the AFF program at Wisconsin Skydiving, you can go from neoflyer to a certified skydiver in no time. Here’s what you need to know.

The acronym AFF stands for Accelerated Freefall. AFF is a tried and true method of skydiving instruction that has been developed using the guidelines set forth by the United States Parachute Association.

Before making the first skydive in your AFF progression, you will go through a comprehensive ground course. This class lasts about 6 hours and covers all you’ll need to know for a successful first solo skydive. In this course, you will learn how to exit an aircraft with a stable body position, determine your altitude in freefall, deploy your parachute, and steer yourself under your parachute back to the designated landing area. You will also become familiar with the different components of the skydiving equipment that you will use during your student progression. 

After this course, it’s time to fly! Don’t worry though, you won’t be going it all alone. Though you are wearing your own parachute and are skydiving solo, in as much as you are not physically attached to anyone, you will be accompanied by two USPA certified skydiving instructors. They are there to help you maintain stability in freefall, and if needed, will assist you via radio instruction during your parachute flight.

Your AFF skydives are a mixture of training skydives completed with USPA Instructors, Coach jumps to perfect certain group skydiving skills, and solo self-supervised skydives. In order to receive your USPA A license, you must complete 25 total jumps, accrue the necessary body flight and canopy skills necessary to be a proficient and safe skydiver, and demonstrate that you can pack your own parachute.

In our AFF program, you will need to demonstrate altitude awareness, basic skydiving maneuvers, and body flight skills over the course of 8 training skydives before being cleared to skydive by yourself. In this way, we can ensure that you have the knowledge and the ability to safely skydive solo before clearing you to do so.

Being cleared to skydive solo is an important step, but it doesn’t mean your journey is over. Throughout the remainder of the program, you will begin to gain mastery over your skydiving abilities and learn techniques that will allow you to join in on group jumps once you are a licensed skydiver. Trust us, if you thought solo skydiving would be fun, just wait until you can skydive with your new-found friends!

Our goal at Wisconsin Skydiving Center is to empower you to achieve the dream of flight and equip you with the knowledge and skills that you need to become a certified skydiver and receive your skydiving A License. We’re the best dropzone in the midwest to make this a reality.

Even while your pride over this impressive achievement is still fresh, you’ll find getting your A License is just the beginning! From here, you can continue to grow. Who knows? Maybe one day you’ll be the instructor…

Check out the price of AFF skydiving training and take the first step on your solo skydiving journey!

Schedule your AFF ground course today!