a little rant ...

[steveorino 7]

The last several weeks I have made some ‘good money’ doing tandems & AFFs. I have heard more than once, “I wish I could make that kind of money for a weekend’s work!” Well, you can! Do what I did.

Spend about $2000 to get your license and another $2000 to buy old used gear. Jump about 400 times (cost $10,000) At that point you MIGHT be good enough to start flying video as I did (okay, it was jump #385) Spend another $1000 on a camera helmet, $800 for still camera and $700 for video camera) $300 for wide angle lens and $250 on a camera suit.(total start up over $3000, not including tapes, cards, disk, labels, mailings, and editing machine) Do that and get paid! Of course you will replace your cameras 1-2 times a year at a cost of $1000 annually easily. You will need two rigs to really work it so spend another $2000 on a used back up rig.

After you you sit all day while two TMs do 22 tandems in 11 loads without video, you don’t whine, you go get your TM rating. I did mine for the BARGAIN price of $1500. Want to shoot handcam? More $ for handcam glove ($100) $300 for video camera. Of course they take a beating so I needed 3 at that price. GoPro came out and they are awesome at a price of $300 a pop. I made my first handcam glove for $25. Only cost me a camera as a student ripped it off my hand climbing out of a Cessna. So I bought two cameras ($600) and a real glove ($125)

Want to be the best? get your AFF rating. It cost me over $2000 for training jumps & examiner fees. Oh, speaking of fees? I pay that out the nose every year to USPA, not including my doc for a Class 3 Medical certificate. Speaking of medical ... have you seen my knees? Feel better now? I know I do! /rant! ;D

steveOrino

[BobMoore 0]

I'm glad I did all that 20 years ago. Either the painful memory has dimmed or it didn't cost me nearly that much. Whatever. I did have fun doing it.

"For you see, an airplane is an airplane. A landing area is a landing area. But a dropzone... a dropzone is the people."

[TaylorC 0]

Quote

The last several weeks I have made some ‘good money’ doing tandems & AFFs. I have heard more than once, “I wish I could make that kind of money for a weekend’s work!” Well, you can! Do what I did.

Spend about $2000 to get your license and another $2000 to buy old used gear. Jump about 400 times (cost $10,000) At that point you MIGHT be good enough to start flying video as I did (okay, it was jump #385) Spend another $1000 on a camera helmet, $800 for still camera and $700 for video camera) $300 for wide angle lens and $250 on a camera suit.(total start up over $3000, not including tapes, cards, disk, labels, mailings, and editing machine) Do that and get paid! Of course you will replace your cameras 1-2 times a year at a cost of $1000 annually easily. You will need two rigs to really work it so spend another $2000 on a used back up rig.

After you you sit all day while two TMs do 22 tandems in 11 loads without video, you don’t whine, you go get your TM rating. I did mine for the BARGAIN price of $1500. Want to shoot handcam? More $ for handcam glove ($100) $300 for video camera. Of course they take a beating so I needed 3 at that price. GoPro came out and they are awesome at a price of $300 a pop. I made my first handcam glove for $25. Only cost me a camera as a student ripped it off my hand climbing out of a Cessna. So I bought two cameras ($600) and a real glove ($125)

Want to be the best? get your AFF rating. It cost me over $2000 for training jumps & examiner fees. Oh, speaking of fees? I pay that out the nose every year to USPA, not including my doc for a Class 3 Medical certificate. Speaking of medical ... have you seen my knees? Feel better now? I know I do! /rant! ;D

make more than a jump pilot and you only payed half the price. Could go get a degree and pay about 100K for that and get payed less than i do as a TM. Start up cost to make money in skydiving really aint that high. Digital cameras dont break as often as tape ones. Going on almost 2 years with my Cx100 without needing a new lens or a new camera

[feuergnom 22]

you forgot the most important ingredients: grow thicker skin and stop bitching, cause it's the life you choose to live

The universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle

dudeist skydiver # 666

[steveorino 7]

Quote

you forgot the most important ingredients: grow thicker skin and stop bitching, cause it's the life you choose to live

I'm not bitching. I can make as much on a weekend SKYDIVING as I do in two weeks as therapist with a Master's degree. I love it! But for those who sit around or have other jobs such as packing, doing manifest, etc., who state they wish they could make what I do, I am simply stating they can. Al they have to do is pay the price. Few things earned in this world are free.

steveOrino

[skydived19006 4]

Damn Steve, I think that I bought a DZ (one airplane and a dozen student rigs) for about what you spent on ratings and gear! There's a way to make a fortune in the skydiving business for sure!!

Martin

Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else.

AC DZ

[steveorino 7]

When I got my TM rating, The examiner was cheap. Just a couple hundred bucks but I had to pay for full loads every time I went up (4 x $25) That's 5 jumps for course then 10 jumps with real skydivers before I could take paying customers.

AFF was similar. Typical price for AFF examiner, but I split two ways the jump plane cost for about 20 practice loads then the 3 loads of the course. It adds up.

As far as gear, few things wear out and are as expensive as camera gear.

steveOrino

[stayhigh 2]

You forgot to put down "how we get raped with 1099 every year"

Bernie Sanders for President 2016

[BIGUN 1,053]

Quote

I can make as much on a weekend SKYDIVING as I do in two weeks as therapist with a Master's degree.

On the right weekend and not every weekend all year long. They don't see all the weekends you just sit there staring at the windsock not making a dime.

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

[GLIDEANGLE 1]

And let us not forget the truthful little gem I was taught as a new AFF instructor:

Most of the time you will land and think "I can't believe that people pay me to do this!". After the rare difficult or terifying jump you will land and think "They don't pay me enough for this shit!"

So far, I have to say that this has been accurate for me!

The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

[TaylorC 0]

working a summer in AZ i am always saying i dont get payed enough for this shit :P

[champu 1]

I fully appreciate how much effort and money it takes to get ratings and/or to fly camera, how much can be made for a weekend's work, how much on average is made for a weekend's work, and how much it can erode your freedom to do what you want with your weekends...

...and that's why I don't have any instructional ratings and I don't fly camera for the dropzone.

[ChrisL 2]

Quote

The last several weeks I have made some ‘good money’ doing tandems & AFFs. I have heard more than once, “I wish I could make that kind of money for a weekend’s work!” Well, you can! Do what I did.

Good on ya. Enjoy yer life. I make a decent living too. Its good to be us.
So why are you ranting?

__

My mighty steed

[steveorino 7]

Reading compression problems, eh? ;)
A little rant directed at manifest whuffo who said "I wish I could make $1200 for two days work!" she or anyone else could if they are willing to pay their dues in time, $, and ratings. I didn't get paid $1200 for 'showing up' for two days. I'm a Cessna 182 clydesdale!

steveOrino

[ChrisL 2]

Quote

Reading compression problems, eh? ;)
A little rant directed at manifest whuffo who said "I wish I could make $1200 for two days work!" she or anyone else could if they are willing to pay their dues in time, $, and ratings. I didn't get paid $1200 for 'showing up' for two days. I'm a Cessna 182 clydesdale!

I hear you. Having someone dismiss everything you went through to arrive where you are like it was pure luck is irritating as hell. Like you tripped walking down the street and just fell into a good life by random chance.

I know the feeling.

I'd like to see someone stuff a Clydesdale into a C182

__

My mighty steed

[Rover 9]

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I'm a Cessna 182 clydesdale!

You lucky bastard! A C182, bloody luxury. 4000 of my jumps are out of a C172.

2 wrongs don't make a right - but 3 lefts do.

[BobMoore 0]

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I hear you. Having someone dismiss everything you went through to arrive where you are like it was pure luck is irritating as hell. Like you tripped walking down the street and just fell into a good life by random chance.

I'm a college dropout. I jump with more than a few PhD graduates. Sometimes I forget just how much effort it took them to achieve those sheepskins, and then I slap myself back to reality.

"For you see, an airplane is an airplane. A landing area is a landing area. But a dropzone... a dropzone is the people."

[freekflyguy 0]

Hey Steve,

i don't know how it works in the US, but here in the UK everything you spend to carry out your job is tax deductible, training jumps, courses, equipment, consumables can all be offset against the tax on your earnings.

Apart from the jumps you make before you decide to become a professional skydiver (which are for fun anyway), your expenditure should be covered.

Of course it may be different in the US, and if you don't declare your earnings then you can't offset them against the tax you aren't paying.

FWIW I am the CCI at a UK DZ, TI, Cameraman and I've definitely paid my dues ;-)

It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.