Instructor pay?

[DAMO 0]

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There really isn't much point in debating the issue of compensation for 'skydiving professionals'. As an industry, skydiving is still in the dark ages. As a career, anyone who thinks they are going to make a good living is fooling themselves.

Definition of a good living?

[sergant 0]

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Definition of a good living?

$100K+/year?

[jcecil 0]

StaticLine instructors at my home DZ make either 40 dollars per class or 15 dollars per head, whichever is more. I think then they get 3 or 4 dollars per student they toss, but I don't think most of the instructors ever report that. Honestly, most of the instructors at my home DZ do a lot of the instructing for the love of the sport, and it's pretty common for them to donate their services.

[klingeme 0]

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Hey Rob, don't forget volume.

If you are teaching a small class, $50 would be about right but if the DZ isn't Tandem heavy and most are doing IADs, $50 is ridiculous.

At many small DZs, the lion's share is IAD students and a class of 20-30 students is not abnormal.

That would mean that at $50, you'd expect to be paid $1000 - $1500 for a class. How many people can say they make that type of money for half a days work? If that was the case, every Tandem Master I know would quit to become an SSI [;p]

At Tandem heavy DZs, I'd say you're right. If you had to drive to the DZ and spend half the day training 3 jumpers, you would certainly need more money per head. Gas to the DZ alone may cost $20.

FJC rates can be like apples and oranges DZ to DZ, it depends on the volume. Having taught classes anywhere from 1 to 73 students (yes I said 73) I can tell you that 75% of the class workload is independent of numbers and it would be unfair to make peanuts for a small class but just as unfair to expect thousands for a large one.

I'm not trying to start anything here. I come from Florida where SL just does not exist, but are the students charged less in a big class?

If the DZ charges $100 a head to 1 student and the same $100 a head to the class of 30? If the DZ is making 50$ a head regardless of numbers basically for providing a room for you to instruct in, why should you not expect the same profit margin per student?

Mark Klingelhoefer

[teason 0]

A fair question if work load increased proportionately with the number of students.

An Instructor should receive a fair wage for time spent. 6-8 hours of work training 30 jumpers (and that is how it was back in the day and still is at some smaller DZs), the instructor should be compensated for travel to the DZ, and work done. $150 plus another $150 for dispatching is $300. As it would take about 9-10 hours to do, you can see that $30+ an hour is quite fair. (I used to get $150 for classes up to 50-60 in the early 90s!)

Now, if you have a heavy Tandem operation and very few are doing the FJC, $10 a head for teaching and dropping would be unfair to the instructor. That is the reason the price per student has been raised to allow teaching a class to still carry a fair monetary value.

Another way to look at it is like this. If you wanted 1000 brochures made, it would cost you, say, 10c a brochure.

Now imagine you wanted 200 brochures made! Obviously the printing company would have to raise the rates to cover the costs of setting up, running the machines and printing material. It may now cost 50c a brochure.

That is what has happened in the past few years, the number of FJC students DZs are asking instructors to teach has gone down and the instructor must now be paid a higher wage per head.

I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

[skypuppy 1]

An Instructor should receive a fair wage for time spent. 6-8 hours of work training 30 jumpers (and that is how it was back in the day and still is at some smaller DZs), the instructor should be compensated for travel to the DZ, and work done. $150 plus another $150 for dispatching is $300. As it would take about 9-10 hours to do, you can see that $30+ an hour is quite fair. (I used to get $150 for classes up to 50-60 in the early 90s!)

I think it's highly doubtful the FJ instructor who taught the class would drop all thirty students. Therefore he is making less than the $150 quoted for dropping, but is still probably there until all are dropped (or sunset, whichever comes first). Therefore he should be getting a higher per head fee for teaching.

In my experience it DOES take longer to teach more than, say 8 students then to teach 4-6 or less. Not double, but certainly 1-3 hours more some days is not unheard of, depending on class sizes.

If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead.
Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

[teason 0]

At the DZ I grew up at, it was mandatory for the FJC Inst. to drop all the FJs. Although I have worked at some DZs where the work is divided up, when I did 40-60 first jumpers, I dispatched them all (although usually from a 206). The most dispathching I did in a day was 85 IADs from a 182 at a satellite school in T-Bay. I have had lots of other days where I dropped 60-70 from the 206.
Also, if you teach alot of large classes, you can develop a style that plays of the strength of having a large number of people. You also have support staff assist the FJCI with climbouts, arches and reserve procedures to speed up the process. If the instructor was left to do it all, he'd be pretty burnt and probably pissed off by the end of the day. I've actually taught sections of the FJC so my instructor could go do a jump with his buddys. Fairness is a 2 way street, if you give a little, you get a little, everybody is happy and you get a very positive work environment. (then again, I'm a DZO who'll pack gear, put it in the container and then tell a packer to close it so he can get credit for the entire pack job)

At our DZ, the FJCI gets first dibs on the students for two reasons: 1.) He spent the time on the ground with them, unable to do anything else all day and 2.) the students just do better when they go with their FJCI.

If the FJCI doesn't drop them all, that is his choice at our DZ. Often, if the FJCI doesn't drop them all it is because he opted to leave early.

If I had a DZ where the FJCI didn't have the option to drop all the FJCI (like if we had a large pool of instructors) then yes, you're right, the pay schedule would be adjusted as you said. The underlying belief I have is fair pay for the work done. If I didn't give fair pay I'd have poor instruction if I had any at all! As it is, all my JMs and FJCIs can handle 30+IADs without breaking a sweat. They've had to because I have an extremely small instructor pool and I try my best to make them feel appreciated.

Wage demands vary like in any business. What determines pay is the supply of customers, supply of instructors and conditions/benefits of the work environment. It's the reason why construction workers get paid almost twice as much in Fort McMurray than in Edmonton. Supply, demand and work environment.

I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

[elias123 0]

at our dropzone instuctors can make the jump with the student for free and get another jumpticket extra, manifesters are paid in jumptickets to, our club never pays in money

"In a mad world, only the mad are sane"

[openingshok 0]

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The Drop Zone i work for keeps Qouting industry standards for jump prices and cost to the drop zone for running operations and in turn keep raiseing prices of everything from jumps to repacks without paying more to staff. I do not think he is taking into consideration the cost of liveing across the nation. I am a static line instructor with over 17 years of service and i am wanting to know what other S/L Instructors across the nation make, i get paid $15 a student with only the following jump as a bonus,I do not get paid anything for taking up a load or any other benefits. Can anyone tell me if i have a good deal or if i am getting screwed?All truthful feedback is appreciated.

Sounds like your doing alright to me. I was working for the same arrangement a couple years ago (I am wondering if we are from the same place) and I couldn't complain. I talked to some other instructors at various dz's around the country and they were making maybe $10 a head. You got it alright. The only reason I stopped training is I had an "Event" with a student, saw the human side of what it was I was dealing with, and I guess lost the stomach for it. That and I prefer to be in the air flying video and didn't have the opertunity at the dz I worked at to fly camera. Anyway, $15 bucks a head is really good considering the overhead a DZ has with Fuel costs and what not. For those of you who are planning on making a living teaching SL/IAD, forget about it. I did it to finance my addiction. I didn't pay for a single jump in 3 years. The downside is your in a class room for 8 hours. At least with other disciplines of working the trade you are in the air making money.....that's were it's at!!