Skydiving Instructor : Adventurous Career Option
Can you think jumping out of an air-plane just for an adventure can be an interesting career option? Yes! You can become a skydiving instructor and pursue an adventurous career that will also take care of your daily expenses. Skydiving is a sport in which the participants fall or jump from an airplane flying at high altitude. This sport is also called as parachuting. People with different physical fitness can take part in skydiving if they are willing to experience a sport that gives them an adrenaline rush. Out there in the world, people do it every day and find it exhilarating. However, one can’t just attempt skydiving without any training sessions from a skydiving instructor.
Skydiving instructor
A skydiving instructor teaches people the basics of skydiving. Proper precautionary measures are taken to make the skydiving experience quite safe. To become a professional skydiving instructor, you need to undergo training at a recognized skydiving school and learn about the equipment, drop zones, free-falls, airplanes, canopy flights, and landings. You will also need to earn a skydiving license, which will certify you as a skydiving instructor. To earn the license, you have to be a member of the United States Parachute Association and perform a minimum of 500 jumps and 3 hours of free-fall. There are various levels of skydiving professionals — coach, examiner, instructor, judge and pro. Every certification checks your knowledge, skills and experience. Skydiving instructors mostly work from sunup to sundown teaching, packing parachutes and skydiving. Salaries depend on where you are working and number of dives you do. Few drop zones do pay on an hourly basis, but most of them pay on the basis of the number of jumps.
Things that should be known before opting career as ”Skydiving Instructor”
Job Duties
Skydiving instructor’s major job duties are to help the immature jumpers learn the safety measures and procedures which are needed to take during their first jump. The instructors also look after teaching courses, which will help the jumper learn to pack their own parachutes and jump unsupervised.
Education and Training Requirements
No formal education background is needed to become a skydiving instructor. A license is offered by the United Parachute Association (USPA) which includes the ratings for skydivers with the experience of performing certain types of jumps. Achieving any of these credentials would help the instructor in demonstrating to potential students that they have undergone proper training and are aware of currently followed safety standards. Before a person earns instructor’s rating, they must achieve a C class license from the USPA. To achieve these credentials one needs to complete 200 jumps. Some of these must be landed within a set distance to meet aerial performance requirements. Candidates need to also clear a written exam. Those who achieve the C license are only eligible for the instructor ratings course. The USPA-APPROVED training course is completed on clearing an open-book test on the safety procedures, before starting with the instruction.
Career and Salary
This job profile is mostly seasonal or part-time. The salary can’t be exactly predicted but there is an increasing growth in the jobs, and it is considered as one of the very popular careers. Approximately a full time skydiving instructor can earn between $20,000 and $40,000. It has been noticed that many of the instructors perform about 1000 dives yearly for $25 to $35 per drive.
The skydiving industry is booming as it offers people all the opportunities to satiate their hunger for adventure. If you have a worldwide taste for adventure and excitement, you can take skydiving from a hobby to a respectable career. This career offers you with international forecast and many more opportunities for advancement.
