When Can You Skydive Solo?

Once you’ve gotten a taste for flight with a tandem skydive, you may find yourself wondering how to turn a one-time thrill into a full-time hobby skydiving solo. Skydiving by yourself can happen after only two tandem skydives. As the premier skydiving training center of Western New York, at WNY Skydiving, we offer a comprehensive training progression to get you off the ground and in the air skydiving on your own as a licensed skydiver.

First Steps

To begin your skydiving solo progression, you will first complete two tandem skydives. The first two tandem skydiving levels introduce the fundamental elements you will need as you progress toward skydiving solo. With these two levels, you will learn the basic body position for a stable freefall, experience canopy flight while attached to a licensed skydiving professional, and will be introduced to a few key pieces of equipment: the altimeter and the ripcord. Upon the successful completion of Tandem Skydive Level 2, you will graduate into the student program.

First Jump Course and Parachute Packing Class

We won’t send you skydiving by yourself without first making sure you have a thorough ground training. Before scheduling your classroom training, WNY Skydiving will provide you with the information and materials you will need to prepare. After you have become familiar with the basics, it will be time to schedule your in-house training. During the 8-hour First Jump Course, you will receive classroom training and hands-on learning from a certified USPA instructor. During your course, the instructor will expound upon the basic information you have learned on your own, will cover any questions you have, and will help ensure you have all the knowledge you need to make your first solo skydive with your own parachute. Your course will familiarize you with your skydiving equipment and how it works. At this time, you will also learn how to pack your very own parachute.

On the first skydive of your progression, you are essentially skydiving by yourself, as there is no one attached to you like during your Tandem Skydive Level 1 and Tandem Skydive Level 2. However, you will be accompanied by two instructors who will exit the plane alongside you, holding on to grips on your jumpsuit, to help you maintain stability. These instructors are there to provide feedback via hand signals to help you know when to adjust your body position. These instructors remain with you until it is time to deploy your parachute. 

Accelerated Free Fall

Before we can send you out skydiving completely on your own, you will need to learn the fundamental skydiving skills to keep yourself safe, and this is what the 6 jump AFF course aims to do. During the 6 jumps of the AFF course, you will learn how to maneuver your body in freefall, honing in on body flight characteristics to develop the skills to move forward and backward, complete turns, and regain stability after instability maneuvers. You will also learn how to exit the aircraft in a variety of ways and consistently develop your canopy flight skills. After you successfully complete the 6 levels of the AFF progression, you will transition into the Skydiving Coach Program.

Skydiving Coach Program

The skydiving coach program is the final section of training to help you achieve your USPA “A” License and allow you to skydive with other licensed skydivers! This part of the progression teaches you more advanced freefall skills and better prepares you to participate in group skydives by developing essential group freefall skills. The last step is the “A” license check dive, where you show off your skills and officially graduate from the student program! 

The truth is no one really likes to “skydive solo” because it’s much better to skydive with friends! 

Interested in learning to skydive by yourself? Check out the skydiving progression at WNY Skydiving!