looking to learn skydiving, any info much appreciated?

[artistcalledian 0]

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Hi Akey,

I have just done the maths

The course if booked for spain before febuary 31st 2006 is

£823 including VAT, no hidden charges, and you get videos of all your dives.

10 consolidation jumps is infact £130

3 day course, 2 nights at a hotel leave on end 3rd day (last day of course) of your course, cost for 2 nights at a cheap 3 star hotel is £28 per night x 2 = £54 including breakfast, eat out for lunch and dinner or take pack lunch. Spain is cheap, i've been there you can get good lunch and dinner for less than 10 pounds per day.

so 2 days x £10 (lunch and dinner) = £20

spending money for trip = £100 for 2 days which is enough, really you don't need it.

return flights from british airways is £125 including VAT and surcharge.

total cost

£823
£130
£54
£20
£100
£125

total cost £1,252

and now your back in the UK to enjoy just renting gear and paying for jump tickets at your local dropzone.

If you don't use the £100 spending money on your trip which you really don't need as i already included money for meals.

then it's £1,152

but obviously you would need £30 for taxis (possibly cheaper) to and from the hotel to the skydiving site, you can get a hotel near the dropzone so possibly you could take a short walk 20 minutes there.

Now as you can see my prices are far cheaper than what your considering.

oh and go with a differnt air line than british airways and you can save pounds depending on the month and how long in advance you book the trip, all in all i wouldn't be suprised if you could get the price down to £1,050 in total including VAT.

LOL

there is a saying in life "if something appears to be too good to be true, it probably is"

how about this?

i did my AFF in September last year at Langar in Nottinghamshire, they charge £1450 for the course. Included in that price is a made to measure new Symbiosis jump suit, an altimeter, helmet, goggles and log book. If you have to retake any levels, you only pay for the slots on the plane for yourself and the AFFI.

They charge £25 for a consol jump, and normal jump prices are £19 each or a block of 10 for £180. packing is included in the price of the AFF and consol jumps. They charge £4 per pack job for a normal jump.

You get to train at a BPA drop zone, eliminating any hassle during, and after, your training trying to convince a DZO your spanish course has trained you ok

I've so far spent £1650 to completing my AFF and i'm working my way through my consols. Plus i ordered a complete new rig, so i've spent the thick end of £5.5k so far in total, but once the consols are complete, i'm all set up to jump my arse off in my own new equipment.... do it all in the UK, makes much more sense

________________________________________
drive it like you stole it and f*ck the police

[honeyjigga 0]

Hi artistcalledian

thanks for your opinion

But what you don't understand is that the prices that i have posted the actual cost of the sky diving course £823 is if you book before the 31st feburuary 2006. And they go by the UK syallabus, it's actual british instructors that teach you, so it's exactly what you learn in the UK but in spain as it's cheaper over there. And the company that teaches this in spain has another company that teaches in the UK. Infact it's even some of the same instructors they travel from the spain dropzone to the UK one and teach. It's all above board and great for the price.

[simulacra 0]

I payed SEK 5900 (431.237 GBP)
for my S/L training here in sweden, the AFF equiv. would be SEK8900 (650.510 GBP
) for instruction, ground training and 9 coached jumps.


But then again, in sweden skydiving is relatively cheap.
I made my first tandem in early august 2005, 3 weeks later I was in ground school and now I'm 1/3 through the training, why be in a rush?

[virginflyer3 0]

You could always do a tandem or your AFF1 in the UK first for a charity dear to you to be sure this is really what you are hungry for. I had always liked the idea of skydiving but never got around to it. Then my daughter got sick and I wanted to raise some money for the hospital she was treated at, so I did the standard tandem (raised shit loads of cash doing it at the same time!) and had the time of my life! Bargain.

Now I know in all probability I won't be wasting my money going to Spain in March to do my AFF. The course is dead cheap and even with retakes I will still be under my initial budget leaving more cash for a first rig. I decided to go abroad as weather is a huge factor and in the UK I feel I would be more distracted by the day to day grind of life rather than just knuckling down and focusing on learning to skydive. You can optimise your time whilst abroad by learning to pack at the same time as you won't have to suddenly dash off to do this or that, or maybe give up as easily when the smell of fear gets too much as there will be a certain amount of momentum in your training that you might not get over here. Saying that, there are progression weeks in the UK that you could get onto, ask your local DZ or the one you are likely to jump at if they have any planned.

Good luck!

[TrickyDicky 0]

Be careful when doing AFF abroad. I dont think 3 Days is enough time to get it done. Spain can also have as bad weather as we do in winter/spring. A group from uni went to spain last april for a week and only got 1.5days of skydivable weather.

Also, if you go abroad and dont finish, its one hell of a hassle finishing it back here, and more expensive. If you go back to spain to finish, then you need tog et back quick (difficult if ou need to take time off work/earn airfair etc) else you'll prolly go back some levels.

UK Skydiver for all your UK skydiving needs.

[nickh 0]

It looks to me like you're you've asked for opinions from other skydivers, but you're not listening to what's being said.
This course in Spain probably is as it says, but what happens in the highly possible event that you fail an early level? Your finely tuned budget goes right outta the door then doesn't it ( no pun intended ).

I personally had my budget worked out to the pound, went to DeLand, no repeats, finished consols, got A Licence, had a blast, bought gear, and massively overspent. ( i still can't work out where! )
My point is that you ask for advice, take it on-board. You don't have to use it but lots of us have been in very similar situations and have an idea on the subject.
Don't be in such a rush, find your nearest dz and go hang about there, talk to people and get as much information as you can.
Finally ( sorry to drone on ), skydiving is like having kids, if you worry whether or not you can afford it, you'll never do it ( although having both costs shitloads! ). Just try it and see if you like it!

Where are you anyway? Your profile does't say.

SHIT HAPPENS!

[virginflyer3 0]

I totally agree that the weather won't be guaranteed and it is wise to allow for this in your trip time, but the chances of good weather between Spain and the UK, I would put my money on Spain anyday. (I hope I am not tempting fate by saying this!)

I have booked myself for 9 days with a day for travelling etc added on, so if I don't get to complete I will have to be really unlucky. And to top it all off all of this with accomodation, fares, spending money, packing course, DVD of the course and so on, it still comes way under my initial budget (£2.5K)! I am well happy with my choice.

I think if you plan as much as possible and maybe talk to a few DZ before going and see what the ground will be like on your return even if you are part qualified, half way through consols etc you can maybe eliminate some of the hassles. Also most of these AFF schools have excellent links with UK DZ's anyway or like it has been said their own instructors are out there if you are lucky.

At the end of the day it will be a gamble going away and the weather might throw it's Agincourt salute at me but it is a risk I am prepared to take.

[Joellercoaster 6]

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If you have to retake any levels, you only pay for the slots on the plane for yourself and the AFFI.

This is an amazingly good thing, and bears repeating.

In my very short jumping career, I have already watched people retake AFF levels until they simply ran out of money and gave up twice. In both cases, they were at places that charged the full rate for repeated levels.

Sure, you could fly through AFF without breaking a sweat (many do) and have this not be an issue, but if you don't, and money is a factor for you, it could throw a massive spanner in the works. And unfortunately, the only way to know if it will be you doing level 5 half a dozen times is to do AFF and find out.

I learned in Spain and it was fine. Loved it, would recommend it to anyone. Plus you're in Spain!

But don't embark on AFF without considering what the impact of repeating levels will be at the DZ you're at.

Langar's repeat policy gives me a warm fuzzy feeling about it, and I'll be sure to visit it one day.

--
"I'll tell you how all skydivers are judged, . They are judged by the laws of physics." - kkeenan

"You jump out, pull the string and either live or die. What's there to be good at?

[Katzeye 0]

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I am thinking of starting with a tandem skydive, and then take a course.

Excellent idea, to see if skydiving and you are a fit.

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So my question is how many skydives does the average skydiver make per year?

The average fun-jumper makes between 100-150 jumps a year. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

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And how much money does the average skydiver spend each year?

ALL OF IT.

Is a chicken omelette redundant?

[bagwarrior 0]

Your post's stinks of a certain you know who advertising ....

In 10 days you have gone from ' can I do AFF in spain with no stigma.... ' to talking the ' ding dang + vat ... '

Just where do you get the info " Wow !!! "

Bagwarrior
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