We give a warm welcome to Saskia from Germany who travelled to Greece for a skydiving weekend. Saskia wanted to learn how to skydive in only a few days and booked herself into one of our AFF courses. As planned, Saskia graduated from AFF, managed a few solo jumps and leaves with 11 jumps logged after the weekend. Great success for her and us of course! Thanks for the visit and congratulation for being a new skydiver now!

We are pleased to see our German skydiver friends and former Students Marcus and Stephan back in sunny Greece. Both enjoy taking a trip down south as the weather and the attitude suits them. Besides having fun, the guys trained hard and have set the new Greek Freefall Record with 25 jumps in only 2 days! And this happened despite almost 40°C temperatures! Well done!!

One of the requirements for the USPA B-license is the Live Water Training which is a fun but very important and live saving training. Organized with the Greek Freefall Club, we conducted our live water training in Athens gathering a group of 8 skydivers for their training. All of them passed the course and enjoyed the cool refreshment on a hot summer day! Thanks to the pool host Pavlos and thanks to all the participants for joining!

Achieving the USPA D-License in Europe is not always an easy tasks as one of the requirements to get it are the night jumps. Night jumps are not often allowed or offered in most countries. Three of our Greek skydivers did not spare the hassle in travelling to Hungary, where they managed to organize the night jumps. Upon return to GFFC, they took their license exam with Marcus and we are pleased to get them signed off for their D-license achievements. Well done: Nikos, Ioannis and Costas!

We congratulate Andreas Barbetseas from Greece for becoming a new USPA Coach during our training at Greek Freefall Club near Athens. Andreas just started skydiving last summer and has now about 120 jumps and some tunnel time already. He is very straight forward with his goal in becoming a AFF instructor eventually. For now, the first hurdle has been taken. Congratz to you Andreas and all the best!

We are happy to announce that our team member and AFF instructor Julian Barthel now also became USPA and UPT tandem instructor. Julian visited us at Greek Freefall Club in Greece and passed his coursewith flying colours under the examination of Marcus. Well done Julian and congratulation from us all!

After the course, Julian already did his first “real tandem with real passenger” at GFFC! Good start!

The worldwide leading tandem manufacturer UPT (United Parachute Technologies) have updated their website and provide now clearer outline and information through internet. For all of you interested in becoming a UPT Tandem Instructor, you can find all the course material (manuals, exams etc) through the TANDEM / CERTIFICATION information, following also this link. Check it out and let us know if you need further assistance.

Escaping from cold England, we were happy to meet instructor Herve, student Joseph and funjumper Moira who booked themselves into a skydiving weekend in sunny Greece, at the beautiful DZ of Greek Freefall Club. The mission was to get Joseph through his AFF program with Herve and Marcus on his sides. The plan was nice, the days great and the jumps good! Overall, the guys had a fantastic time and we say thank you for your visit and hope to see you all back soon!

While again in sunny Greece, we were pleased to see Dimitra back for her Coach Evaluation process after having the Coach Course started a few weeks back. Marcus examined her performance and we can proudly present her as the new USPA Coach as everything went well. Congratulations to you, Dimitra! Have fun with your upcoming coaching jumps!

For the USPA Rating Courses, each participant must possess either USPA or FAI license which brings a lot of confusion and misinformation – especially in Europe. Many countries are listing “affiliate” or “member of the FAI” on their cards. Being a member of the FAI does not automatically make the license an internationally recognized COP. Also many countries issue FAI Sporting licenses to their members. FAI Sporting Licenses are not accepted by USPA towards any license or rating. FAI COP (Certificate of Proficiency) – commonly called a license in the U.S. – This is issued in 4-levels (A, B, C & D) and represents level of skydiving proficiency. This is the international standard that participating countries pledge to follow, if they wish for their COP/license to be recognized internationally. The FAI COP must include among others: the FAI Logo, the title “International Parachutist Certificate” and “Federation Aeronautique Internationale”. For more information, please contact our Office.