I am writing this article for all the dreamers, adventurers and risk-takers who want to do the Sky diving courses and become a skydiver. Some people just want to get a taste of skydiving and feel the adrenaline while jumping out of an aircraft at 13000 ft or less? Some fancied it after watching videos of military paratroopers jumping off the military helicopter. So how to become a skydiver? Well, it starts with Accelerate Free Fall (AFF) and A license course. But before you enrol on the courses you must understand the ‘basic purpose for doing skydiving’ as skydiving is one of the world’s most expensive sports. Some people telling you about the high rush of adrenaline, and it looked fancy or you just wanted a feel of it are not the reasons enough to do the skydiving. Nobody briefed me on these things before I embarked on my AFF A license course and I ended up losing millions of rupees, let alone all the hassles I went through from making my Forex card to booking expensive flight tickets etcetera to reach the foreign country. So I hope my article will help you with a clear picture of Skydiving courses and save you from making the wrong choices. Let’s just start with a basic understanding of the skydiving courses.

Tandem Jumps

I would strongly recommend taking a Tandem jump with an experienced instructor before commencing any skydiving course. Skydiving is a sport and just like any other sport in the world, it is not necessary that you would like it. Frankly, the moment I jumped out of the aircraft for my first jump I realised I did not like the sport. Taking a tandem jump first(where you are tied to an instructor’s body) will not only save you millions of rupees but also a lot of hassle. In India, you can experience it at Skyhigh Narnaul Haryana at prices starting at 30000/- Rs

AFF (Accelerated Free Fall ) course

To become a skydiver one needs to complete an A license which is 17 jumps out of the aircraft after the AFF course which is 8 jumps out of the aircraft. Now here, it is of utmost importance to know the difference between AFF and A license to safeguard your interests. Most agents through which you are likely to go to foreign countries would choose to hide it from you. Like happened in my case, most of them might not tell you that the best is to enrol only for the AFF course initially and upgrade it to an A license course if you successfully complete the AFF course. This approach of only enrolling into an AFF course would save you almost half of your money.

A License

Once you successfully complete the AFF course you move to A license to complete the rest of 17 jumps to become a skydiver. Now there is so much difference between AFF and A license jumps. Every day is a new learning while your ‘flight and fright’ mode is on. Be it AFF or A license you need an absolute level of mental and physical fitness to clear the AFF course and if you dont have a good fitness level or you are obese I would suggest not taking up the sport.

Skydiving is just like a car driving in the air. It is just that instead of a car you will have a parachute to steer left, right, and centre to land at the landing area. While a lot of people say they find free fall difficult it was landing with the parachute that scared me. Here, it is of utmost importance that you hire the right team to fulfil your skydiving dreams.

The right people will always encourage you to take the tandem first, then suggest you to take AFF only and upgrade it to A license if you could complete AFF. Most importantly they will brief you nicely about repeat Jumps and other risks involved. If not, they are only focussed on the money they will make out of you. Remember at the end, it is not just an extreme sport but also a rich man’s sport.

Repeat Jumps

Even though the average cost of AFF- A license is approximately 4 lakh rupees around the world, the actual cost on the ground to do skydiving may range from 6 lakh to even 10-15 lakh rupees. This cost will depend on the number of ‘repeat jumps’ you will take during the course. Almost everyone is bound to do the repeat jumps. When in the course you need to pass level 1 to reach level 2 to reach level 3 and so on to finally clear 8 jumps for the Accelerated free fall course and eventually A license. Now there is a high chance of failing every level and doing the repeat jumps because even if you commit one mistake in the air during free fall (maybe one wrong hand movement or flat legs) your instructor will fail you for your safety and recommend you repeat jumps.

Now the catch is while you have already paid for the entire course, you need to pay each time for every repeat jump which costs around 20000 to 25000 Rs for one extra jump. I quit the course for exact precise reason when I saw the fellow students taking 2-3 repeat jumps for crossing one level to another. Frankly I dont have that kind of money.

Risks involved

I was told by my agent ‘that _{while there is danger even crossing the road, skydiving is the safest sport in the world and it is an easy breezy sport. You come over and we will see.}‘ I would strongly suggest you not to fall for such statements. When I reached the ThaiSky adventure in Thailand a lot of people told me about various accidents which have happened in the past including one student getting flipped over during a free fall. There is a reason why skydiving is tagged as an extreme-risk sport. My tandem instructor in Thai Sky Adventure Thailand Amy Valentine who is a diva in her own right in the world of skydiving gave me a clear picture and I am quoting here

“Sky diving is an extreme risk sport. I am jumping past 20 years but even my leg was fractured just three months back. There is indeed a risk and there is only one reason to do sky diving which is, you are passioante about skydiving. You must always ask yourself did you enjoy the sport when you took your first tandem? If you are confused about it or the answer is no. You are not cut for skydiving. This would only be your passion to push you to take risks with your life. There should be no other reason to do skydiving. “

As I mentioned skydiving is just like the car driving in the air. Remember how you don’t learn to drive in a day and it takes months to properly drive the car and you are prone to accidents, the same is true with sky diving it is just that in the air there is no margin to error. One smallest of wrong steering or wrong judgment and you can end up being a cripple if nothing. Saying that a lot of people make skydiving possible as well… the answer lies in why do you want to skydive? The answer should not be because you saw soldiers jumping off the plane or someone said you should try it. Also, ask yourself, are you a gutsy person? It is not easy to jump off that kind of void up high. It needs a certain level of courage.

Skydiving Agents in India

A few things you must check before selecting your skydiving agents

1. Has he briefed you correctly about the difference between the tandem, AFF and A license? Had he briefed you about repeat jumps? If any of the answers are no, run away!
2. Remember connecting with the drop zones (skydiving centers ) directly would always be cheaper as individual agents make money out of you and extract their commision out of your money only.
3. If there is any other cost involved the agent must brief you about that too. In my case, the agent demanded 7700 Thai baths (18000 rs approx) as the administrative cost which was basically the transportation cost to the sky diving centre for 21 days. 18000 rs just for transportation in a cheap country like Thailand (or any country in that manner) was an audacious price but since I had just landed in a foreign country I had no option but to comply with whatever he asked me for. He in fact charged the same amount from two other students with me basically we paid 50000 Rs in total as unaccounted cost.
4. These days, many people in India, mostly retired military veterans, would claim to facilitate your skydiving journey. These agents would collect a group of skydiving enthusiasts and take them to countries like Russia, Spain or Thailand. I would strongly suggest not to fall for their fancy military ranks. Once they leave the Army, they are businessmen doing it for profit just like any businessman. And it is right to ask them all the questions and join without any pressure only when you are satisfied because it is your money. The same chaps would quote you company policy later if anything goes wrong.
5. Always make online transactions while transferring that kind of money, not only it will give you proof of money but also transacting cash in a foreign country through a forex card results in extra tax. I remember paying 5000 Rs extra just in tax for taking cash out of the ATM.
6. If anyone tells you they are a legend in the world of skydiving, especially in India they are just boasting. Skydiving is a vast sport and there is no dearth of how many thousands of jumps you need to take just to be relevant. In India, we still have a long way to go.

Quitting the course in between

Quitting the Aff- A license course in between is a high probability. Not that it is a rich man’s sport and you need a fat bank account to complete the course it is also taxing. You also lose a lot of weight. There could also be other physical complications like nausea or nose bleeding depending on your body type. There is also extensive ground training that you need to go through to develop muscle memory and your mind would always be in ‘fright and flight’ mode and there is a lot of theoretical syllabus you need to study too. Quitting the course along with repeat jumps are high probability. Here, I would suggest not doing the course under anyone’s pressure but listening to your heart. Remember you dont have to prove anything to anyone. Secondly, don’t give all your money at once, pay money step-wise for every jump.

Returning of Advance in case of quitting the course in between

It is such a less talked-about aspect of skydiving. Most DZ and agents would deduct 30% or may even keep the entire advance in case you choose to quit the course. In my case, I was not briefed about this policy by my agent whom I depended on for my course and later when I decided to quit he almost kept Rs 1 Lakh citing company policy. He even stated that it was written on his skydiving website and It was my responsibility to read that. Later he opened the bottom-most of his website clicked on the ‘_{^{terms and conditions’}} written in the smallest of fonts and scrolled through the 4-5th paragraph to show the clause. Always ask about the return policy before you hand over all your money to them, remember chances are agents already know most would quit the course and look forward to the extra cut.

Vertical Wind Tunnel

When you embark on a journey of skydiving I would suggest, you take a tandem first and then try Vertical Wind tunnel training for 2 hours and then leave for your sky diving course abroad. In India, till now there are 3 VWTs two are with the Indian military and one GravityZip Hyderabad is open for all.

The end result of skydiving

All those people who take up skydiving do it mostly for these reasons

1. The military paratroopers jump for their nation and it is part of their job. In India, military para trooping has a long way to go and facilities like vertical wind tunnels etc have come up recently. It is easier to paratroop in the military relative to civil because you can focus only on the jumps not on the atrocious expenses. The military aircraft is free of cost and then there is no concept of paying for repeat jumps in the military. Also, the same courses in the military last over weeks unlike 21 days in civil which makes it pressurising. Still, it takes years to create one military paratrooper.
2. The skydivers in civil do it to establish a career in civilian drop zones across the world. All those tandem instructors who jump with tourists are qualified skydiving professionals and have reached that stage after taking thousands of jumps and many skydiving ratings of skydiving instructors like AFF I or coach etc.
3. You dont become a tourist jumper in a day. It is the hard work and passion lasting over the years. Also, the kind of money they had invested is unimaginable.
4. Some adventure enthusiasts like me do it for the feeling of adrenaline. I also wanted to do it because I am an author and write about the Indian Army. So I wanted to feel this technical and rigorous sport for authentic writing as almost every second protagonist of mine is a paratrooper.

What is your purpose? Be absolutely clear about it, it will save you a lot of trouble. Going to the moon is also fancy but should we do it just for that?

Once I returned from my sky diving stint I pondered whether I could have avoided all these hassles afterall I had made immense efforts just to reach Thailand but then I realised we have little awareness around skydiving or paratrooping. Many men and women in India want to experience it and perhaps my doing the course would provide them a different aspect. If my article liberates even one of you from all biases and helps you ‘pick the sport or not pick the sport‘ with an open heart I would feel the purpose of writing this has been fruitful.

In the end ‘ Do you think you can devote many years of your life to reach the end result of doing skydiving courses; an instructor from a civilian drop zone and do you have that kind of moeny to support this passion years after year? Remember this sport can be pursued not for the ‘feel’ but out of ‘passion.’

If the answer is No, go for tandem jumps and have fun!!