All 4 Skydiving Licenses Explained

[marcbrownmusic]

Cop on the ground yelling at the sky, “I need to see your license!”

[Lizardgrad]

All that’s required for skydiving is a distracted flight attendant.

[jakeyaboi]

To be fair, you should mention that this isn’t a government regulation and holds no legal weight. Only the operators enforcing it. There’s nothing stopping you from wearing a wingsuit with the camera on your first ever jump, If you can find a pilot to let you jump out of his plane.

[wolfrig]

You forgot to mention that these rules only apply commercially. None of this is required to jump on your own if you own the plane and employ the pilot. No license nor training to jump required in that case.

[jfpiv]

To clarify for anyone interested. This is not a legally required license by the FAA. It's essentially a club that allows you to have certain legal and insurance benefits of using their established drop sites.

[rosshugecaulk]

Dude flipping out of the plane caught some shit for no reason:(

[keeponwishin]

Licensed skydiving instructor with over 3, 000 skydives here to answer some questions.

The “currency period” refers to the amount of time a skydiver can go without making a jump before he/she requires recurrency training. So if you have an A-license, for example, you can do at least one jump every 60 days and still remain “current” and not need any retraining. Same goes with the other licenses and their respective “currency periods”.

Technically, you do not need a license to skydive. However, you do need an airplane and a pilot (unless you plan to BASE jump, which is far more dangerous/deadly than skydiving and can come with criminal charges in most areas). That pilot is ultimately responsible for whatever and whoever escapes from his plane while in flight. Realistically, you’d be very hard-pressed to find a pilot that is willing to risk his hard-earned and very expensive license to strap a parachute onto an untrained person and toss them to the sky completely unsupervised to probably cause death and destruction upon their landing. Even non-USPA dropzones have some kind of student training and license standard (which parallels the USPA) for this reason.

The USPA in the United States serves different functions, the largest among them involves setting training standards for both recreational skydivers and instructors as well as to provide third-party insurance in case you cause any damage to property while engaging in skydiving. It’s also run by its own members and serves as representation to the FAA. Additionally, while non-USPA dropzones are allowed in the USA, know that any instructor should meet training standards set forth by the USPA regardless if they jump at a USPA dropzone or not. It’s never a bad move to request to see an instructor’s rating card(s) before jumping with them, as there’s been higher numbers unfortunate accidents involving unqualified instructors at non-USPA dropzones. Tandem instructors must carry a valid certification by the manufacturer of the tandem parachute system in addition to an instructor rating card as well as a valid FAA medical certificate, where any other instructor or coach needs to only carry their rating card.

200 jumps is the requirement to do most of the cool stuff like flying with a camera or flying a wingsuit. Both of these pose elevated entanglement, malfunction and distraction hazards that have led to many injuries and deaths. This requirement is in place to allow for more experience to effectively deal with these problems.

You can pack a parachute without a skydiving license. You either have to be an FAA-certificated parachute rigger or be under the direct supervision of a parachute rigger.

[bleuoval]

Imagine explaining to someone you need a license to jump out of a perfectly good airplane.

[XChara]

You can always skydive. Make sure to bring the parachute to be able to do something afterwards

[InsomniacsAnonymous]

I’m more amazed that people jump out planes often enough to require hundreds on the licenses.

[gravity]

I hold an F licence (Australia). Minimum 1000 jumps.

(edit to add) Wow, so many people who don't understand numbers, or think I'm lying, or can't read the comments. No fucks to give. I did the jumps, for 30 years, I lived the life, I trained people who became Champions. I watched people die. I won medals, attended the World Championships. Made friends, had fun, travelled, and I literally DON'T GIVE A FUCK if people don't believe me. I won't be commenting further - read the existing comments for all the answers.

Have fun. LIVE. GO and do a Tandem jump, it's fun and mostly safe.

[crazyJman]

You require an entire seperate license to have a camera strapped to you while skydiving?

Okay. Didn't have that one on today's bingo card.

[clu]

To get your E license, the next highest, you must complete two of the following skills:
- Jump from a plane without a parachute and survive.
- Defy odds and become an astronaut and decide that you want to depressurise the space station so that you can do a solo jump from space (and land it).
- Land on the wing of a moving plane that happens to have a bunch of passengers whilst dressed as a gremlin.
- Successfully manage to land on a cartoon character who can clearly see your shadow closing in on you but no matter where it moves you move over it.
- Whilst acting as a tandem diver accidentally lose your partner and then claim that they just disappeared randomly.

[Zane_]

Now I want to get a c license just to glide around the sky felling like a squirrel in a wingsuit

[jacobpeacy]

Its something I never thought about but it makes total sense that skydiving without an instructor requires a license

[StrokerStevens]

I was a Parachute Rigger in the US Navy. That was so much fun, always regretted not getting my license. But I did end up getting my A&P Mechanic license.

[woody]

whos gonna stop me once im in the air?

[Great_Value_Ketchup]

Here is a a perfect tasty chocolate chip cookie recipe

Ingredients

3 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups butter, softened
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
4 teaspoons McCormick All Natural Pure Vanilla Extract
1 package (12 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts, optional

Step 1

Preheat oven to 375°F. Mix flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside. Beat butter and sugars in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until well mixed. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts, if desired.

Step 2
Drop by rounded tablespoons about 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.

Step 3
Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets 1 minute. Remove to wire racks; cool completely.

[itsnotborker]

Lake Elsinore looking extra radioactive from that height lmao

[timeglitch]

That feels like a real life grindathon