CSI candidates must teach lessons from the ground school syllabus and RAPS progression briefs. If you can’t teach to the desired standard, or if you fail a closed-book written exam on the Operations Manual, then you will be on your way home before Monday is over. On all three versions of the second course (CSI, TI and AFFI) your instructional technique is assessed in the classroom first and foremost.

“It’s the little things that make you smile… the fond memories and constant ‘thank yous’ from eternally grateful students” I have heard more than one examiner use the criterion ‘Would I let this instructor teach my daughter?’. The examiners have to agree that you are responsible enough to be trusted with a full instructor rating. There is ‘no more Mr Nice Guy’ – you are here now to prove yourself. Although a whole five days are still put aside for it, it may finish in as few as three. The second course is usually shorter than the first. Instructor Medical – Frequently Asked Questions If, like most, you only jump on weekends, then expect the majority of them to be dedicated to working towards your second British Skydiving course. It’s not so much that any part of it is particularly difficult, it’s more just the sheer volume of work to be done. This is a task generally agreed to be hard work but very rewarding. You’ll spend a minimum of six months (this can be less for tandem) practising your new skills and fine-tuning them back at your home DZ. You’ve jumped through whichever of the hoops in the last paragraph applied to you, and successfully completed whichever BI course you chose to take. “You’ll be helping many new skydivers to take that first leap and achieve something they dreamed of.” If you will be talking down students rather than strapping them to the front of you, you will also need to learn how to use a radio correctly, plus take a test to gain a parachuting radio operators certificate of competence from the Civil Aviation Authority.ĪFFI candidates must also hold a British Skydiving Canopy Handling Coach qualification, and this is a useful step for CSIs too. You also need a British Skydiving C Licence to become a static line or tandem instructor, a D Licence for AFF, and a packing certificate and two years in the sport for all three ratings. These are 800 jumps and eight hours for tandem, and 1000 jumps and ten hours for AFF. As an added quirk, you can also go on an AFFI course as a CSBI or CSI (ie, not necessarily an AFFBI), and on a TI course from any previous instructional rating, provided you meet the jump number and freefall time requirements. You can find the full details of what can and cannot be done in the Operations Manual and the Instructor Manual.Īs you would imagine, you can go from a CSBI rating to a CSI course, an AFBI rating to an AFFI course, and a TBI rating to a TI course. However, the TBI cannot take students on real tandem jumps, and the AFFBI cannot jump with real students doing AFF levels. So a CSBI or AFFBI could teach a ground school or do student talkdown, and a TBI could brief a tandem student and fit their harness.

On successful completion of the BI course, the new instructors will be able to teach real students under supervision back at their home drop zone. The BI courses are run together during the same week, so CSBIs will train alongside AFFBIs and TBIs. Tandem gives us TBI and TI, while Accelerated Free Fall gives us AFFBI and AFFI.

Accordingly, the two instructor courses are Category System Basic Instructor (CSBI) followed by Category System Instructor (yep, that makes it CSI). Static line progression or RAPS (Ram-Air Progression System) is referred to as the category system. Just as there are three ways into the sport, so there are three types of instructor rating.

Gradekeeper for instructors