iranianjumper 2 #1 Posted March 11, 2023 is there any recent change on minimum jump number requierede for taking part in Sigma Tandem IRC ? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
riggerrob 558 #2 March 11, 2023 (edited) 13 hours ago, iranianjumper said: is there any recent change on minimum jump number required for taking part in Sigma Tandem IRC ? Last week I sat in at USPA Examiner Standardization Meeting immediately after the Parachute Industry Symposium in Reno, Nevada. The room was pretty "heavy" with UPT Sigma Examiners, but I seemed to be the only Strong Tandem Instructor Examiner in the room. Civilians still need a minimum of 500 jumps, 3 years in the sport, USPA Coach rating, etc. before they can attend a Sigma Instructor Certification Course. However, the US military is training military tandem instructors with as few as 200 solo jumps. I first heard of the practice with Alaska Air National Guard search and rescue jumpers jumping with tandem bundles 20 years ago. Mind you, the military has a mentoring program to get their skills up to speed before the Tandem Instructor Certification Course. IOW prospective military tandem instructors must complete a series of exercises before ... I suspect that "200 jump wonders" are restricted to jumping with 500 pound bundles for "X" number of jumps before they are allowed to jump with humans strapped to their chest. The USPA meeting also emphasized the importance of mentoring junior tandem instructors during the first 150 jumps after they earn their ratings because it can take up to 150 jumps before they develop their own "flow" and get comfortable in the tandem instructor's harness. It looks like the good-old-days of simply assigning a TI rating, then sending them off to work alone are falling out of fashion. One advantage these days is the proliferation of video which makes monitoring TIs in Fiji much easier. The disadvantage is that examiners don't have to travel to Fiji for a week. Hah! Hah! May I suggest that you contact my old friend: Niklas Gummeson in California (Gummeson Consulting, [email protected], telephone 386-848-8547)? I have known Niklas for 30 years and our paths have crossed many times. Niklas is a Sigma Examiner often trains military tandem instructors in both the wind tunnel and freefall? UPT can probably recommend another half-dozen Sigma Examiners who also train soldiers how to jump with tandem bundles. Does that answer your question? Edited March 11, 2023 by riggerrob 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
