The gap between AFF graduation and the A-license is where most new skydivers leak out of the sport.
You've finished your last AFF jump. You're cleared for self-supervision, the dive flows stop being handed to you, and nobody is waiting on the ground to debrief you. The next fifteen-odd jumps are, in a meaningful sense, yours to waste.
This is a working guide to that stretch. It isn't USPA doctrine, it's what experienced jumpers actually tell new graduates the week they get cleared.
The path described here is the USPA system. Other countries (BPA, APF, CSPA) follow similar arcs with different jump counts and license points; the spirit transfers.
First, You Are Still a Student
This is the thing new graduates consistently get wrong, and it changes how you should behave.
Under USPA's Basic Safety Requirements, all student training must be conducted under the supervision of an appropriately rated USPA Instructor until the A license is issued. "Cleared for self-supervision" means you can plan and fly your own jump, it does not mean you have left the student program. Through jump 25 you're still a student, which also means the student equipment requirements still apply to you: rigid helmet, AAD, RSL, and a visually accessible altimeter.
There's also a currency rule that catches exactly the erratic-schedule jumper this article is written for: if you haven't jumped in the preceding 30 days, you should make a jump under the direct supervision of a rated USPA Instructor before you go do your own thing.
What the A-License Actually Requires
Most guides list two of these. The real list is longer:
| Requirement | The standard |
|---|---|
| Membership | Current USPA member in good standing |
| Jumps | 25 |
| Progression card | Every item on the A-License Progression Card, signed off |
| Written exam | 40 questions, 75% to pass |
| Oral exam | At least 20 questions, 100% required |
| Practical exam | The check dive |
| Packing | Pack and prepare your own equipment, unassisted |
Packing is not optional. It's on the practical exam, and packing your own main is a defining A-license privilege. If your DZ has been packing for you, start learning now.
And one detail that can cost you a jump: the check dive must be conducted by a USPA Instructor, S&TA, Examiner, Judge, or board member. A Coach cannot sign it off. Coaches are invaluable, they just aren't on that list. Book the right person.
The Drift That Kills Progress
The most common pattern at jumps 9 through 15 looks like this. You show up. Manifest asks what you want to jump. You say "solo." You go up, do a lap, deploy, land, feel great, and drive home having spent a couple hundred dollars and learned nothing.
The fix is almost embarrassingly simple, and nearly nobody does it unprompted:
Write a dive flow before you get to the DZ. Every consolidation jump gets a specific objective. "90-degree turn left, 90 right, three forward-movement drills, sit up and track at 5,500, deploy at 4,000." Show it to a coach or an experienced jumper for a sanity check before you board.
A jump with an objective teaches you something. A jump without one teaches you that you can survive a jump, which you already knew.
What to Work On
Jumps 9–11, heading control. Solo. 360s left and right, stopping on heading. Altitude awareness: check your altimeter roughly every five seconds. That cadence sounds excessive until it's automatic, which is the entire point.
Jumps 12–15, movement. Forward drive, tracking, pull turns. Confirm you can flatten out and cover ground at break-off. Start building a consistent deployment posture, the same body position, every single time.
Jumps 16–20, get coached. Two-ways with a USPA Coach: docking, fall-rate matching, basic formation work. A few coached jumps at this stage are worth five to ten solos. Budget honestly, though: a coached jump usually means the coach's fee plus your slot and often the coach's slot, commonly $80–150 out the door, not the $40–60 fee alone. It is still the best money you'll spend in the sport.
Canopy Work Matters More Than Freefall Work
The most important sentence in this article: most skydiving injuries and fatalities happen under a fully functioning canopy, not in freefall.
So spend the consolidation period on your canopy, not just your belly:
Flat turns, practiced every jump at safe altitude, the technique that lets you correct heading when low without diving. Toggle stalls up high, so you learn where the edge is before you find it by accident. Rear-riser turns and flares, practiced at altitude before the day you need them. Pattern discipline: pick your downwind, base, and final before you turn in, and fly the same pattern every time. And the rule that saves the most lives in this sport: no low turns. If you're low and pointed wrong, keep the wing level, fly it straight, flare, and PLF.
A canopy course between jump 25 and 40 is the second-best money you'll spend. Eloy (Skydive Arizona), Perris, and DeLand all run one-day intensives several times a year with top canopy coaches.
When to Buy Gear
Strong opinions abound. The pragmatic answer:
Don't buy a canopy until a canopy coach has signed off on the size, and don't buy a complete rig until you know how you actually fly. Rent while you accumulate jumps, most DZs charge $25–40 per jump, and put the money you're not spending into coaching instead.
On sizing, be careful with the "1.0 wing loading" advice you'll hear repeated. 1.0 is a ceiling, not a target. USPA's own guidance classifies a 190–229 sq ft canopy loaded at 1.0 or above as high performance, and treats any canopy under 150 sq ft as high performance at any loading. Fly the big one. Most DZs and S&TAs will hold you at or below 1.0 as a new license holder, and they're doing you a favor.
A used, inspected rig runs roughly $4,000–6,500 (new is $8,000–14,000). Buying too fast or buying wrong is a four-figure lesson.
The Two Habits
Take a full gear check before every jump, including the third of the day, when you're tired and everyone's rushing. The temptation to skip it is exactly the thing that eventually catches someone.
Debrief every jump. Yes, even solos. Five minutes with the video and a notebook: what was good, what was off, what I'm working on next jump. Without this, jumps 9–25 blur into a number. With it, you arrive at your check dive with actual skill.
The Check Dive
Jump 25, give or take, with a USPA Instructor. Solid exit, heading control through assigned turns, a dock, tracking at break-off, clean deployment, a planned pattern, and an accuracy landing.
If your previous fifteen jumps have been intentional, it's straightforward. If they've been "eh, I'll just go have fun," it can become a multi-attempt experience.
What A-License Life Actually Looks Like
The A gets you three real things: you may jump without supervision, pack your own main, and do formation skydives with other licensed jumpers (plus water-landing training).
Here's what it does not get you, despite what you'll read:
Camera flying. USPA recommends 200 jumps before you jump with a camera of any type or size, plus at least 50 recent jumps on the same equipment. And there is no "USPA camera rating", that isn't a thing. A GoPro on your helmet at 30 jumps is a snag hazard and a distraction, and the sport has buried people over exactly that.
Coaching others. The USPA Coach rating requires a B license and 100 jumps.
What A does open is the rest of your progression: freefly, angle flying, bigger formations, and eventually the disciplines you came for. Wingsuit is gated at 200 jumps and stays there no matter how good you feel at 40.
The Thing That Actually Determines Whether You Stay
The jumpers who make it past the A-license overwhelmingly do one thing: they find a small group of people they bond with and progress alongside.
The sport is solitary in freefall and intensely social everywhere else. Learn the names of the people on the packing mat. Ask the questions that feel dumb. Find the one experienced jumper who'll let you pester them, and buy them a beer occasionally.
Stay for the people. The jumps will take care of themselves.
If you're picking a drop zone for your post-AFF jumps, browse the drop zone directory: operator details include AFF programs, coach availability, and student-progression structure.
