Instructor Responsibility

[Hooknswoop 19]

What do you think are an Instructor's Reponsibilies?

AFFI:

Tandem I:

S/L / IAD I:

Coach:

Derek

[Miami 0]

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AFF:

Provide ground and in flight training to student jumpers and act as a safety to those students who cannot correct or save themselves...thats a bit brief but I think that puts it in a nutshell pretty well. If I thought about it for a while I could probably give a better answer...

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Tandem:

Safely introduce new jumpers into the sport.

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S/L / IAD:

Give up the rating? I'm probably not qualified to answer this one, never had the rating and never will.

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Coach:

Jump with and observe jumpers in that grey area from graduation of AFF to the A license (and beyond) and provide them with instruction after the jump. Provide minimal, if any, instruction during freefall.

Miami

[Hooknswoop 19]

I'm surprised no one else wants to touch this one......

Derek

[Miami 0]

Don't know why not, it's not a hard question...just asking for an opinion...

Miami

[Deuce 1]

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I'm surprised no one else wants to touch this one......

Derek

It's too big, Derek. Provoke it by asking if a specific situation you probably have in mind is a discipline's instructor's responsibility.

I'm responsible for everything from providing confidence to my student's parents to pulling him out below the hard deck, and we all look at the responsibilities differently. Heck, just a thread on responsibilities of instructors to families would probably catch fire. All our responsibilities would fill and encyclopedia.

And you owe me a Rockies game.

[Hooknswoop 19]

Limit it to the training, jump and post-jump areas.

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And you owe me a Rockies game.

It would be my pleasure. C'mon up and we'll hit the slopes too.

Derek

[Miami 0]

Seems like you're reading into it a bit much...I mean personally I wouldn't necessarily consider providing confidence to a students parents a "responsibility" per se, but thats where differences in AFF instructors opinions lie.

And it's not what are the responsibilities as listed in the SIM or in the AFFCD's guide or anything else like that, it's what do you think they are.

This one has kind of piqued my curiosity, I'd really like to see some other responses...

Miami

[riddler 0]

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AFFI:
Tandem I:
S/L / IAD I:

No comment until I get there.

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Coach:

Responsibility: observe and give advice. You might demonstrate a few things, too. Catch something on a gear check and you save a bonus life - 1,000 points. Video helps - just don't upset the Vidiot Union.

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[BIGUN 1,053]

They all have the same responsibility. To provide the best quality of instruction and vary the time of instruction to fit the individual student; with the utmost sense of professionalism and safety; in a professional environment and to ensure that student has a safe and successful skydive and can deal with any emergency scenario presented.

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

[AFFI 0]

Derek, I am touching this one as soon as I have read it, sorry for the slow reply but I have been out of town.

Broken down into its simplest priorities as an AFF instructor there are 3, then the priorities branch out to the point the where I can (and have) write scores of pages and manuals.

Priority 1: Get a parachute over your head that is safe to land.
This means that the single most important event that must occur in order to survive a landing is to slow the descent rate from terminal velocity to standing unharmed on the surface of the planet. I have seen an unconscious skydiver have a cypress fire and land still unconscious without un-stowing the toggles onto a concrete surface. He got up and walked away with a broken bone in his arm and various minor injures. I wonder how high his body would have bounced off the concrete before it landed lifeless without a parachute overhead.
So it does not take a genius to figure out that getting a parachute overhead significantly increases the odds of surviving the landing for a skydiver.

Priority 2: Land your parachute safely in an area free of obstacles.
This one is pretty self explanatory and I believe is a skill that is over looked by many. This is apparent when I see “experienced” and conservative canopy pilots make mistakes that could have been easily avoided by continued training after obtaining their "lisence”. Learning how to safely change heading low to the ground in order to avoid hazards (slow flight flat turn) is a skill I wish a few friends of mine had learned, I sure miss them.

Priority 3: Don’t hurt yourself or any one else in the process.
It is hard to get on the next load with a femur (or other bone) broken or sticking out of your body. The skydive is not over until you are back in the hanger safely. Seeing contact between a skydiver landing and someone walking across the landing area back to the hanger that resulted in serious injury is a testament to that. I believe it happened to Eric Fradet in the 98 X Games.

Notice that the freefall skills are not even on my list of priorities? Of course I train freefall skills but I spend the least amount of training time on them and regaining stability and other related skills the pertain to safety (such as altitude awareness) are encompassed under priority number 1. My primary job as an USPA Solo Freefall Instructor is not to teach students how to skydive but rather to teach students safe survival skills. The when they are unleashed, the experienced jumpers will teach them how to skydive…

Mykel AFF-I10
Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

[Hooknswoop 19]

Thanks to everyone that replied. This has been a very thought provoking thread for me. I always thought I knew what my responsibilities were as an Instructor. I always thought that they weren't personal, but genereric to the rating. I realize now, they aren't. Maybe USPA should put in writing exactly what an Instructor's responsibilities are.

Derek

[livendive 8]

Off the top of my head

The responsibilities for an AFF-I, S/L-I, and IAD-I are the same:
- Make competent novice skydivers that understand the basics of all facets of a skydive, including gear selection and configuration, aircraft procedures, exits, freefall, opening, canopy flight, and landing, as well as the proper responses to problems with each of those phases.
- Remain objective and hold students to the same standards, whether you click with the student or not.
- Keep the students on an even keel, by instilling self-confidence where it's deficient and trimming it down where it's excessive.

Tandem-I
- on working tandems, teach the basics to keep the student intrigued and challenged while preparing them for hand-off to an I in another discipline.
- on "joyride" tandems, provide the customer a safe, fun introduction to the sport.

Coach
- take the novice that an I has handed you and continue their education to the point that they're ready to take care of themselves on a simple solo or 2-3 way

All:
Keep it safe.
Be self-critical
Strive for constant improvement in the instruction you provide
Know your limitations and the limitations of your students. Don't expect them or you to exceed your them.

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[riggerrob 558]

Whatever it takes to fulfill the day's end goal: happy, healthy students dancing back to the parking lot.
First responsibility is keeping students alive, closely followed by minimizing fractures and sprains, etc.

[GravityGirl 0]

>>Limit it to the training, jump and post-jump areas. <<

What level?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peace and Blue Skies!
Bonnie ==>Gravity Gear!

[Hooknswoop 19]

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>>Limit it to the training, jump and post-jump areas. <<

What level?

Any.

Derek

[AFFI 0]

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Whatever it takes to fulfill the day's end goal: happy, healthy students dancing back to the parking lot.
First responsibility is keeping students alive, closely followed by minimizing fractures and sprains, etc.

Rob, I do not know you but always read your posts carefully because you usually have very good things to say, worth reading and to take to heart - this time I disagree, not totally but partially. I am not training for that day only but rather endeavoring to develop safe skydiving practices that will stay with the jumper, a solid foundation of safe fundamentals that will be used for years down the road. Who knows, something I teach a student may save their life 5 years from the day I trained them.

That being said, I still think you are a great repository of knowledge and information and as always look forward to reading your posts….

Mykel AFF-I10
Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

[riddler 0]

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Maybe USPA should put in writing exactly what an Instructor's responsibilities are.

Well, I sit here with my shiny new 2006 IRM in my lap (I notice it's a little thicker than the 2003 model), and I read section 4 of the AFFI section, I notice the header is "Instructor's Duties". Duty isn't quite the same as responsibility, but it's kinda close. I suppose that the real answer to hook's question is the same as so many other answers - RTFM! Responsibilites are outlined there. Not following any of these could incite UPSA to suspend your rating.

Man, I'm reading this and the SIM, and I thought I understood the stuff that's in there pretty well, but there's a lot of good information I've forgotten.

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[NoShitThereIWas 0]

I responded to another similar thread. But looking back on some of the jucier skydive videos of 2004 and 2005 (one's that I had almost forgotten about), I would say my job is to save people from killing themselves while they experience the adrenaline rush of falling out of an airplane.

I go up, I come down. My intent is to do it again and again and my job is to do the best that I can to see to it that my student feels the same way and acts accordingly. I am not trying to say that if something really bad happened which was out of my control that I would be responsible or guilty of being a bad instructor. Shit happens and that is why I try and stick with a plan where prevention is the key.

Much of the time I feel like a carnival ride for students. The difference between skydiving and a carnival ride is that you have a limited amount of time to accomplish something very important on every skydive. And time nor gravity wait for anyone.

When students go awray (sp.?) what can you do? You do the best you can to insure everyone's safety. There is no blanket answer as far as levels of responsibility on every jump in that every skydive is unique.

Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires."

Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

[velocity-96 0]

thats a hard q's for me to answer. i did mine with billy rhodes, so thats all i know. he had his flaws but otherwise was a fair person. i could have done without the sometimes endless uspa politcal ranting and raving, but some of it was interesting to learn the flaws of our governing association.

[skydiverjerry 0]

how about this.

an instructors first and formost responsability is for the safety and controled learning of his student.

life is a journey not to arrive at the grave in a pristine condition but to skid in sideways kicking and screaming, shouting "fuck me what a ride!.