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RN87

FAI license worldwide?!

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Hey guys.

I am a beginner in Skydiving. I have the USPA Aff with 5solos. Unfortunately after covid my license expired. So not giving so much money a guy told me that in Bulgaria where is a skydive school in Montana that gives a FAI skydiving license. Also told me that is worldwide and I can jump in every dropzone.

My dream is to jump in countries such as Dudai, Spain, France, Us, Canada.

So Does anybody knows if the Bulgarian FAI license is worldwide recognized?!

Is there a way to check which licenses are for real FAI?!

General I will have some kind of abatement?!

thanx

Edited by RN87

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Pretty sure the FAI license is just for competing. You still need the license from your national organisation and when you go to Australia the APF will give you the equivalent APF license, in the US the USPA will give you their equivalent and so on.

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Sorry just want to understand your question a bit more -

You state " I have USPA AFF with 5 solos"  that suggests to me you didnt complete your qualification for being awarded your A licence.

You then appear to be looking for information from a forum of mostly licensed skydivers to help you find a place that will grant you a license you arent qualified to have so that you can travel the world and put us all at risk.

I may have misunderstood you of course.

 

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(edited)
1 hour ago, MickPatch said:

Sorry just want to understand your question a bit more -

You state " I have USPA AFF with 5 solos"  that suggests to me you didnt complete your qualification for being awarded your A licence.

You then appear to be looking for information from a forum of mostly licensed skydivers to help you find a place that will grant you a license you arent qualified to have so that you can travel the world and put us all at risk.

I may have misunderstood you of course.

 

that's right. I don't have the A license ....and because of I have too many months to skydive I must do again the last 2 lessons. So I find a cheaper license in Bulgaria with also the coaching very cheap.

So I am looking for some info for the bg license.

Edited by RN87

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Ok. If you get a license in Bulgaria that covers the same material that the US license covers, you should be OK to jump here in the US, and cover the same material. 
One thing to consider is that the cheapest place to skydive sometimes isn’t the best — aircraft maintenance and skydiving equipment are not cheap, and poor quality of either of those can kill you. 
You would probably need to find a jumper in the US who could translate your logbook, unless it’s in English. 
Wendy P. 

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As noted above, you need the license from the national organization where you live.

 

For example, I live in the US and have a USPA license. I can take that license and visit other places and jump. As another example, Canadians with CSPA licenses can come to the US and jump on those. 

You seem to be from Germany. I don't know what organization oversees Germany, but you'll need a license from them if you live there.
If you go to, say, Spain (where the weather is really nice and they have some great DZs and excellent instructors), you'll get a license from them. 

You would then go home and work with a local DZ to get a license from your national organization.
Typically, converting a license from one organization to another is mostly paperwork. 

I would talk to your local DZ to find out what they would require to convert the license from somewhere else. 

 

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(edited)
24 minutes ago, MickPatch said:

Many countries dont actually have their own and instead are affiliated with and issue USPA licenses.

Germany does however. German licenses, dropzones and the sport here in general are overseen by the Deutscher Fallschirmsportverband. A few dropzones "double up" as USPA member dropzones simultaneously. Either way, you'd have to convert the mentioned Bulgarian license to a DFV one if you live in Germany once you got back. I'm not an instructor or administrator of any kind, so I can't say how involved it is with a Bulgarian licence - it might just be some forms and a small filing fee, or there might check jumps or a written test involved - I really don't know - but whatever is involved, it almost certainly would have to be done.

Edited by drdm

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Thanx guys.

thanx a lot. So if somebody have A kind of license He must covert it?! And that’s depends from the country?!

And what is covert about?! Only just paperwork?! Does need extra money?!A check dive or some  lessons?!

Thanx

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20 hours ago, RN87 said:

Thanx guys.

thanx a lot. So if somebody have A kind of license He must covert it?! And that’s depends from the country?!

And what is covert about?! Only just paperwork?! Does need extra money?!A check dive or some  lessons?!

Thanx

That depends. You certainly need to do paperwork and no doubt there would be a fee. Someone with an A license might be required to do a coached jump to confirm they're safe whereas they might not require that for a D license holder.

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I think there's some confusion here (either with my interpretation of the answers or from others' interpretation of the question).

1. You can jump with basically any license anywhere. With national license from Serbia I jumped in Serbia, US, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Slovakia... You do need to have a logbook with you though. You don't need to convert your license to USPA license to jump in the US. Some DZs might not allow you to jump with A license if they don't know you or might require you to take a jump with a coach/instructor to asses your skills and safety.

2. You cannot take the A license you got in Bulgaria and take an exam for B license in Germany. For getting ratings elsewhere, you need to have your license converted. So you would need to convert the Bulgarian license to the German national license (as others stated, that's mostly likely just paperwork plus maybe some sort of exam, depends on the national governing body regulations) and then take the exam for B, C, D licenses or any other ratings.

So to sum it up, you need to convert your license to get new ratings (or you can get them at the same place where you got your A license without any conversion) and you don't need to convert your license just to jump somewhere.

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My understanding (and I welcome correction if I'm wrong) is that jumpers are generally required to have a license from the organization overseeing the country they live in. Those licenses are usually accepted by DZs in other countries when visiting. 

As a US resident, I need a USPA license to jump in the US. 
As a German resident (according to his profile), the OP would need a German license to jump in Germany.
Neither of us would be able to jump in our home countries with, say, a Bulgarian license.

I don't know how it would work for, say, a German resident to jump in the US with a Bulgarian license. 

I looked in an older copy of the SIM and can't find where (if) it addresses this.

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(edited)
7 hours ago, Binary93 said:

1. You can jump with basically any license anywhere. With national license from Serbia I jumped in Serbia, US, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Slovakia... You do need to have a logbook with you though. You don't need to convert your license to USPA license to jump in the US. Some DZs might not allow you to jump with A license if they don't know you or might require you to take a jump with a coach/instructor to asses your skills and safety.

You certainly ain't going to be jumping in Australia without being a member of the APF which requires you to get the equivalent licence based on your home organisation. I've also had to do the same in the US back when I lived in the UK and was a BPA member.

From the APF: A visiting overseas parachutist who holds a valid parachutist's licence issued by an FAI-affiliated organisation may make parachute descents after becoming an APF member and having their experience and competence assessed by a Chief Instructor.

Seems to be not required in the US anymore but some DZs may make it necessary through a requirement for insurance: USPA Group Member drop zones may require jumpers to be insured. Check with the drop zone you’re visiting to find out for sure. USPA membership provides the necessary insurance; if you’re not already a member of USPA, you may want to join.

Edited by base615

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(edited)
3 hours ago, base615 said:

Seems to be not required in the US anymore but some DZs may make it necessary through a requirement for insurance: USPA Group Member drop zones may require jumpers to be insured. Check with the drop zone you’re visiting to find out for sure. USPA membership provides the necessary insurance; if you’re not already a member of USPA, you may want to join.

Some (but not all) DZs in the US might require you to have USPA membership. You can buy a week-long membership online for $30 (I'm making up numbers here a bit, but it's something similar). However:

1. The only thing required for this is the moneyz.

2. This is a membership, not a license. If you want license with ratings, you need to go through the conversion (including exams, etc.).

Not sure about APF though, but it could be an exception to what I've said of course.

Edit:
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Edited by Binary93

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19 hours ago, wolfriverjoe said:

As a US resident, I need a USPA license to jump in the US. 

At our DZ we will honour USPA licenses issued to Canadians. They are FAI credentials and as such are supposed to good in any organization that is a FAI member. Some dzs here will require a CSPA membership, but that is related to 3rd party liability insurance.

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20 hours ago, wolfriverjoe said:

As a US resident, I need a USPA license to jump in the US.

That's mostly true, but not entirely. There are non-USPA-member dropzones in the US, and they are not obligated to require USPA membership or licenses.

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12 hours ago, nwt said:

That's mostly true, but not entirely. There are non-USPA-member dropzones in the US, and they are not obligated to require USPA membership or licenses.

Even further, I jumped at an USPA-member DZ without USPA membership/license (with only my Serbian national license).

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2 hours ago, Binary93 said:

Even further, I jumped at an USPA-member DZ without USPA membership/license (with only my Serbian national license).

Were you a US resident at the time?

Honest question, not playing 'gotcha'.

My understanding is that US residents at a USPA DZ need a USPA license. Non-residents (even US citizens) can use a license from the country of residence. Some DZs require some sort of USPA membership (temporary is usually fine), but that's to get the 3rd party insurance coverage more than anything else.
I could be wrong on that, and I welcome correction if so.
Again, I thought this was covered in the SIM, but looked and couldn't find anything on it.

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18 hours ago, wolfriverjoe said:

Were you a US resident at the time?

Nope, but it might've been "we'll let this one slide" case.

18 hours ago, wolfriverjoe said:

Some DZs require some sort of USPA membership (temporary is usually fine), but that's to get the 3rd party insurance coverage more than anything else.

I fully agree with that.

The main point here is, you don't need to convert your national license (in terms of getting equivalent ratings) to jump in a country (not sure about APF). 3rd party insurance might be needed either through USPA temp membership in the US or from a standalone insurance company (as they required in Slovakia for example).

Getting your license converted with equivalent ratings is required only to gain new ratings (or to work in the industry I guess, like instructor/tandem).

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If you are from and live in Germany and you also plan to jump there, you'll need a German license sooner or later. It is possible to convert a foreign license to a German one without a lot of issues. Expect to do a written test on air law and maybe one or two check jumps. Also keep in mind that licenses from countries where people would suspect less "safety-orientedness" might trigger alarm bells in many instructors and dropzones. Sidefact - there is nothing like a B, C or D license in Germany. One level for everything.

A German license is usually recognized without many problems worldwide. Anyways if you plan to jump more internationally a USPA license might be the way to go. It is known in almost all places. Just be aware that in some countries you'll need additional third-party liability insurance on top of your USPA membership.

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I have a FAI Bulgarian skydiving license license but I'm not from Bulgaria and I didn't have any issues jumping abroad. And I got it from the place the OP wanted to go or has been don't know the post are old.  

I have FAI certificate of proficiency/skydiving licence issued by the Bulgarian natioan aero club. It is written in 4 national languages and it is equivalent to USPA license. Whole deal was with FIA was to make a standard for ratings and license that should be recognised worldwide wide. 

People's some times mistake a FIA certificate of proficiency or FIA skydiving license for FAI sporting license. FAI sporting license is not a skydiving license and it is only valid with your your national skydiving license.FAI sporting license can not be issued to a foreign citizens and can only be obtained from your national organisation. So me as a Serbian I can't get Bulagrian FIA sporting license.

Now the thing I actually made me reply is that's you first thoughts on Bulagria that is cheaper and not safe but don't know anything about the place and that DZ. Bulgaria doesn't have that great standard and it's cheaper becouse instructor's don't overcharge students. But the jump is the same price like in Europe 5e up or down. Instructions are very professional and with a lot of experience they all have military background. The drop zone is in Erden next to a town called Montana(Bulgari). 

That drop zone haves it's own harness sistem manufacturing company its Advanced Parachute Sistem or APS for short it employs more that 60+people in production it's cheaper than moust popular brands. Harness are great with all the standard it's used in skydive Dubai,Bovec etc. You can find it on YouTube. That drop zone haves it's own accomodation on the airfield, restoraunt, a swimming pool. They use green energy and supply them selfs mostly from solar panels. They have organized multiple world cup tournament in multiple skydiving disciplines. Bill Booth was jumping on that DZ and I meet Cheryl Stearns last time I was there the woman haves more then 23k jumps and more then 24k flight hours. And the most important thing is that DZ haves it's soul. Great time, great food awesome people all over the world and you can feel you are welcome. Very few DZ are left thet mekes you feel like that and not it's only business. 

dropzone-erden-800x500.jpg

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The FAI sporting licence is what you need if you want to participate at international competitions and official record jumps. 

What you are looking for = a FAI certificate or FAI licence :==> Certificates of Proficiency | World Air Sports Federation (fai.org) 

You only can obtain a FAI certificate via a national skydiving federation. Look at the link for more information.

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