ACCELERATED FREEFALL
Adrenaline junkie, huh? How much can you handle? If the answers are ‘Hell, yeah!’ and ‘As much as you can throw at me!’ then Accelerated Freefall is for you. Each Accelerated Freefall (AFF) level is from the top, which at Robertson Skydive School is 11,000ft. The benefit of AFF is that it’s a much shorter progression than Student Progression because Accelerated Freefall is only 10 levels, then you become a graduate skydiver.
HOW DO I ENROLL?
To enroll you need to do our First Jump course and at least one static line jump. This does a number of things but mostly it lets you know what’s in store and it lets our instructors evaluate you and make suggestions. Once you’ve done your first static line jump, and you’ve decided AFF is what you want to do, talk to your instructor and let them know; they’ll then introduce you to our AFF instructors to set things up.
AFF LEVELS
Accelerate Freefall consists of 10 separate levels.
- Altitude awareness and three practice pilot chute touches – 2 instructors
- Two practice pilot chute touches, forward movement and stop – 2 instructors
- One practice pilot chute touch, turn right 90 degrees and stop – 2 instructors
- One practice pilot chute touch, turn left 90 degrees and stop – 1 instructor
- Turn 360 degrees left and turn 360 degrees right – 1 instructor
- Backloops and 5 second delta (Track forward) – 1 instructor
- Backloop, turn 360 degrees right, turn 360 degrees left, and 5 second delta and turn – 1 instructor
- Solo skydive; backloop, turn 360 degrees right, turn 360 degrees left, and 5 second delta and turn
- Solo skydive; Spin Test (Become out of control and regain control)
- Solo skydive; Low altitude skydive from 4,500ft
HOW DO I PROGRESS?
Whenever the dropzone is open we have an instructor and jumpmaster on duty, all you need to do is turn up with your logbook. When you get to the dropzone hunt down the duty jumpmaster and tell them what you want to do next. Then you’ll be briefed and asked to manifest yourself when you are ready. Depending on which level or test you are doing you’ll also need to make sure the jumpmaster is also manifested. Once you’re done, and you successfully did what you needed to do on the jump, the jumpmaster will sign you off in your logbook and you can get ready for your next jump. Student skydivers are only permitted to jump three times in one day, as a new jumper the adrenaline highs and inevitable drop in adrenaline levels become tiring so you’ll be limited to three jumps a day. You can help yourself by eating regularly to keep your blood sugar levels up.
When you leave, visit manifest and they’ll tell you how much you owe. You can either pay by cash or EFT. The benefit of doing AFF is that there are less levels so you graduate to being an intermediate skydiver sooner than with Student Progression.
STAYING CURRENT?
As a student you’ll need to stay current, which means jumping at least once a month although we recommend jumping at least twice a month if not more. With concurrency comes comfort in the plane and in the air, which means you’ll find each level easier than if you jump once a month. There are rules that say what happens if you are uncurrent by a month, by three months or more. If you become uncurrent three times in quick succession you’ll get what’s called ‘the golf speech’ where you’re told that maybe skydiving isn’t for you and you should probably be playing golf instead. Once you’re addicted like the rest of us, this rarely becomes an issue.
BOOK A FIRST JUMP COURSE
First Jump Course Standard
- FTJ Course with One Jump
- Student Price R1665
First Jump Course Deluxe
- FTJ Course with Three Jumps
- Student Price R2645
Skydiving is a very social sport, that’s why we encourage you to come to the dropzone for the weekend. The FTJ course takes up most of Saturday, by which time it’s too late to jump, so your jump will be on Sunday morning. There is plenty of space to pitch a tent, plus we have a clubhouse with a kitchen and showers. Everyone at the dropzone braais on the Saturday evening so come and spend the evening with our members and let them tell you about their skydiving adventures.