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popsjumper

Rate the AFFI Course Directors

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I received a letter from USPA stating that Billy Rhodes' rating have been pulled. I just took Jay Stokes AFFI course a couple of weeks ago and loved it. It was not easy so you must be ready for it. He was a great teacher as well as by the book. Not only is he a great teacher, he is also a great person to hang out with.
Chris Scaife

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I took Randy Schroeders course in October. It was good and Learned a lot. I did not finish because of weather. I just got back from Florida finishing up with Bram Clement . He was great Very professional and I would recommend him to anyone wanting to get a rating in skydiving.
Never give the gates up and always trust your rears!

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I just finished my course with Jay Stokes and Kelly Wolf.
Jay is fair, consistent, and everything is "by the book." He sets you up to succeed, and gives you every opportunity to do so, but is also fond of saying "I'd bust my mother if she didn't meet the criteria..." and it's clear he would do exactly that.
Kelly is a newer I/E, and she was tougher (at first) than Jay. I had to chuckle, she offered to wear lead (she's tiny) and I asked her not to. I had three suits, but opted for freefly pants and a longsleeve T-shirt. Another guy in our class was wearing 22lbs to stay with her, while yet another wore 10 to stay with her. The point is, she did what was necessary to help you succeed within your range.
Each day was fairly equally divided between classroom and air time. Although I took lots of notes, Jay's handouts, videos, powerpoints, and discussions provided everything necessary.
The evals were tough, but I think they were very fair, nothing given away. I recommend several practice dives; it was obvious that no matter how many jumps one had, it was worth doing a few practice dives to get a feel for what the evals might be like. Evals were different on each skydive from the practice dives. I've heard of some examiners that simply do "one dive type." While that might help you learn the moves for your rating, it surely won't help you with all the various student moves.
A word of advice, don't tell Jay to "step it up." He will. And if he does, you'd best be ready for that nine on a scale of ten skydive.
Thanks Jay and Kelly....

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A word of advice, don't tell Jay to "step it up." He will. And if he does, you'd best be ready for that nine on a scale of ten skydive.



Doug, if you said that to Jay you did not heed my advice. Remember I told you I asked Michael Wadkins if he was taking it easier on me because I was old and ex-airborne ... BIG mistake! :$:):)

steveOrino

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I know. I made the mistake of saying "That wasn't as difficult as I was expecting." Said this on the third practice skydive.
BAD mistake. Note to other candidates; DON'T ask the evaluator if it's going to get harder. It will, but that may come across as a challenge. On the other hand, I gained valuable information in that "stepped up" skydive...

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Steve Hetrick at orange, VA, is great. I did the Coach course with him and it was completely fair. I am doing the AFFI with him in May. Knows hiS shit and does not play games.
Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208
AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I
MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger
Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

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I just took Jat Stoke's Course down at Skydive Elsinore. I have to agree with DSE 100%, Jay will provide you with the tools needed to be successful in the class. His documentation and presentations are out of the approved manuals by the USPA. He will challenge your flying skills as well as his other evaluators (During one of my cat C practice dives, Keri Bell sent me across the sky on an attempted spin stop, for those whom know me I'm pretty stocky and I swear I saw a grin as I tumbled away as my partner docked and gave a sign). But to reiterate what DSE also said, Jay would bust his own mother if she did not perform satisfactory on the evaluation jump. Jay will explain what you as a candidate need to do to be successful in getting your license to learn!!


Fire Safety Tip: Don't fry bacon while naked

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I just earned my AFFI rating at Orange, Virginia, with CD Steve Hetrick. I had the benefit of great AFFI's who helped me prepare for the in air skills in advance of the course. That informal "precourse" was critical to my success because our three days of Pre-course were essentially rained out and all four evaluees decided to go "hot" when the weather turned favorable. As has been alluded to above, being prepared for the flying skills is essential to be successful in an AFFI rating course. I paid for alot of slots for practice with video to learn how to do it right. My "precourse" AFFIs gave me very challenging circumstances to work and when I got to the evaluation skydives, I was ready and not too stressed. Steve's course provided plenty of "teaching," excellent debriefs, and quality evaluators. The evaluators were fair and positive in their outlook and mentoring. The atmosphere was positive and conducive to learning, even when I found myself with an auto-Unsat on a mental error. The evaluators and CD all were part of a team that was designed to help the candidates succeed, assuming the candidate met the standards. Mine was a very positive experience and I am now enjoying my "breaking in period" making CAT A and CAT B reserve side no release jumps and learning to emulate the guys (and girls) who trained me not so long ago. Talk to Steve Hetrick if you want a positive experience in a fun environment to earn your AFFI rating. But come prepared!
Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208
AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I
MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger
Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

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I know this is an older post but I still feel the need to comment.

I took my Coach Course with Bram and Ellie at Z-Hills and I just completed my AFF Course with Kip Lohmiller at Endless Mountain in PA.

I highly recommend both for either course.

Bram did an excellent job covering all of the course material and spent a lot of time covering some of the "how to's" getting into depth on what makes a good coach.

Kip's course was awesome as well. What I really liked was his passion for teaching and his ability to focus in on what each person's weakness was and help make them better. I also liked that he did not teach you how to pass the course; instead, he taught us to be excellent AFF instructors. If you do that right, which I think he did, then passing the course is second nature.

A note on Kip - he didn't seem to be about the money. He'd spend as much time with you as he had available AND you only pay for his course once. If you fail too many eval dives, he'll work with you some more, then when you're ready to come back - he doesn't charge you an additional eval fee - just jumps. Seems Ok in my book.

Katie
Get your PMS glass necklace here

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Me and my wife Melissa just completed the AFF-I course with Kip Lohmiller. It was an awesome course. extremely challenging and intense. We did about 15 practice jumps before the evaluation jumps, which I highly recommend to anyone considering getting an AFF rating. The flying techniques taught during the pre-course jumps, if mastered, will make it possible to pass the eval jumps. We are both pretty experienced skydivers with 1000+ jumps and 12ish hours tunnel time each, and we still really learned an amazing amount about how to fly better. You will definitely have to EARN your rating in this course, but you will have a great sense of accomplishment when you do pass. ;)

Keith
"Jump to Live!"

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Kip’s Lohmiller's passion for skydiving and teaching is incredible and addictive. My husband and I took his AFF-I course this past week. It was exciting, very intense, challenging, educational and fun. Kip has the unique ability to recognize exactly what each candidate needs to succeed. He constantly challenges flying and teaching skills, evaluating at all angles. His approach is about furthering the sport and bringing fresh ideas and techniques to student programs. His knowledge of the manuals and years of expertise and analysis are very evident. We highly recommend this course to anyone interested in obtaining an instructor rating.

Our many thanks go out to Kip who gave us exactly what we needed to find in ourselves just what it takes to be an instructor.

Blue Skies,
The Flying Majeroni's
aka Melissa & Keith
~ Melissa ~
"Life is too short to walk the same cautious path as everyone else."

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I took my AFF course with Kip in the first week of September 2009. I came from a unique background in that i had witnessed a lot of Kips courses as a newbie. I had 120 jumps the first time i saw his candidates go through and at the time, i was in awe. Watching the critique and debriefings made me think that i wasn't going to be able to cut it for a looooong time. Fast forward about 3 years, 500 jumps and a couple hours of tunnel time, a coach rating (also taken with Kip) and i was ready; i hoped.

There were several options for AFF courses in my area, but i knew that if i wanted respect from my peers and the best instruction available, I needed to see Kip. I took a week vacation and traveled 850 miles to Florida .

The week started with Kip putting us through some pretty "normal" exercises. It got progressively more difficult throughout the week. There was some extra tunnel time during the week and I got to practice spin stops and super-positioning DURING the week.

The most impressive part of Kip's instruction is the fact that he has no problem telling you that you aren't ready to be there. He will not waste your time if he doesn't think you can cut it. If he can tell that you do have the ability, he will do everything in his power to help you develop the skills; be it flying skills or ground instruction.

I will admit that I failed one ground prep and one ground evaluation. I thought that I could half-ass some of this but Kip recognized what I was doing and he called me on it. With one fail each, I had to be perfect on the re-tries. This gave me renewed focus and a drive not to screw up again.

Seven long days later, my partner and i completed the course.

I am now 100 percent sure that i can handle what future students will throw at me. I know that the reason people get "bad" students is because they half ass the ground preps (hmmm kinda like what i failed)

You can go to an AFF course that will be easier
You can go to an AFF course that is cheaper
You can go to an AFF course that is closer

But you wont be half as good of an instructor than if you see Kip Lohmiller at Air Rage Skydiving Services

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I am now 100 percent sure that i can handle what future students will throw at me. I know that the reason people get "bad" students is because they half ass the ground preps (hmmm kinda like what i failed)



Be very careful, You have no idea what is ahead of you and thinking you are 100% ready might get you in trouble, biting off more than you can chew.
Remember as good as Kip may be he can't come close to throwing at you what you will really see out there.
Good Luck.

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Ditto!

I've done about 1,300 AFFs and been an evaluator at five courses, and every time I think I'm within sight of having seen it all, I see something new. Some are scary as hell (like the Level 1 who reached UNDER her main lift webbing and almost got the handle before I stopped her), while some are funny as hell. The other day I had a Level 1 climb out just fine and then go: "Prop! Up! Down! Uh, prop! Up! Down!", then he crouched down, looked at me and asked "Should I go now?". :)
But to get to the original question, I've worked with three different AFF I/Es, and while they all teach pretty much the same material, their personalities and techniques vary, so different candidates will have different experiences with the same I/E. Personally I prefer Bram's approach, but your mileage may vary.


"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

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I know that the reason people get "bad" students is because they half ass the ground preps (hmmm kinda like what i failed)



Another fallacy, IMHO. Certainly, ground preps should be thorough, and certainly there's a correlation between training and performance, but it's not 100%. I've seen a number of students do flawless ground preps, then have complete meltdowns in he air. I've also had students who were marginal on the ground and near-perfect in the air. As I tell all the AFF-I candidates, "AFF is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you're going to get!".

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

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After seeing his "products" working, I am not sure I agree with you. AFF is NOT; "Hold on and Right them till deployment time", it is teaching and instructing BEFORE you board the plane. I did not like the old scoring system when I got my rating, but it did have its upside, you didn't get the rating for paying for the course. There are far to many I/E's trying to make a living and to many "I" wannabees who only go to the "guaranteed to pass" I/E.

Jay and Kip are the only two I have seen who are holding the old standards and maybeeven making them better.

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Jay and Kip are the only two I have seen who are holding the old standards and maybeeven making them better.



After having shadowed Jay, Kip, and a couple others, I'd agree with this statement, based on my "gossip" knowledge of the old course.
Had a long conversation with Mr. Stokes last night on this subject. Without going into the details, one thing that was made obvious is the new scoring system is harder on the evaluators but more fair for the candidate, yet also gives the candidate more opportunity to make a mistake. Breaking the dive down into so many categories vs the old system seems to be the most fair way to do this. One other comment was that the failure rate hasn't changed much.

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