:SKYDIVE BRISTOL: TRAINING

TRAINING COURSE

We arrange weekend training courses throughout the academic year, each with 12 wanabe-skydivers. The courses are held at Netheravon, our home dropzone on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire.

These are RAPS, or Ram-Air Progression System courses. This means that you will be jumping rectangular steerable parachutes, which give you a nice soft landing wherever you fly them to. This is opposed to the old round "military" parachutes, which flew wherever the wind took them and dumped you down hard into the deck.

However, a RAPS course is not the only way to get into the sport. Check out the solo courses page for more details on AFF, the alternative option. If you want to try freefall just once then a tandem skydive could be your best option.

Program

Each course starts on the Friday night. We meet at the Students Union at 6pm and travel to Netheravon by minibus. Friday night is spent getting to know everyone on your course, in Netheravon's on-site bar.

On Saturday, a whole day of training begins by your dedicated BPA (British Parachute Association) instructor, who covers everything you will need to make your parachute jump.

On Sunday morning, presuming the weather is good, it's time to skydive! Your first jump is from 3,500ft and is a static line skydive. This means your parachute opens automatically on exiting the aircraft. We can promise no greater adrenalin rush than the moment you exit that aircraft!

After your relaxing parachute ride down to the ground, then time-permitting, we'll get you back in the air for a second go!

The cost of the course is £170, which covers your transport and bunkhouse accommodation as well as your training and first jump. It also covers your required membership to the British Parachute Association, which provides you with 3rd party insurance for your jump.

Some of the survivors from a Skydive Bristol training course.
Loads more training pics in the photo gallery.

Continuing the Sport

We hope that after your first jump, you will want to return to jump lots more. You will need to do several more static line jumps, and then you will progress onto freefall and start deploying your own parachute (this is an even bigger rush than your first jump!) More jumps will get you larger freefall delays - up to 1 minute from 13000ft.

What's more, if you return to Netheravon regularly, then there is no need to pay any more training fees again in the future. And its gets better. As long as you make it at Netheravon and you obtain full BPA membership, the Club will pay for your first freefall jump! You can't say fairer than that.

Signing Up

To sign up for a training course, you need to join the club and pay a £50 deposit. The balance is due 8 days before departure. You can do this at any regular Tuesday meeting, or by emailing the Captain. Please note the deposit is non-refundable as we pass it directly onto the dropzone.

This year's training course dates can be found here.

Before you sign up, please read the medical restrictions, notably the weight limit of 14 stone 7 pounds, which has recently been introduced.

Once you've signed up, view the training course details, which gives some useful information about what you need to take along.

We hope to see you on a training weekend soon. If you have any queries, please contact the Publicity Officer as soon as possible.

Website by Mark Callaway