Having just recently graduated and completed my USPA A Licence while on holiday in the US, I rocked up to the DZ around 5pm on Saturday as the cloud was looking to break and I was hoping to get a jump in before sunset (they advertise that loads operated until 8pm or sunset) I entered the office for a gear and document check, where I was greated and told I would have to pay a BPA membership, which was expected, but when I presented my USPA A Licence Proficiency card (which had been completed, stamped and validated correctly) the immediate reaction was that they could not recognise this as it is a temporary licence to be used until your official USPA licence is received in the post. Kinda defeated the purpose of having the temporary licence I thought, but then the reason for their reluctance became a little clearer when I was told I would have to jump as a student at £35 per jump which was almost double the normal slot price. Upon my questioning as to the reason the licence was not being accepted the instructor then commented how he would have to read the licence I presented as he cannot read without his glasses! They had already refused to accept it at that point! I returned the next afternoon and the weather was great, they had large numbers of tandems so after waiting over 60 minutes to get the OK to manifest from an instructor I left. Over the two days I felt that my presence as a qualified sport jumper, who was only there to jump and had no need for training at the time was unwelcome or a hinderence. I also appreciate the need for rules and regulations within the industry, but I felt that they were being over implied to justify additional charges.
