Reasons Northern Virginia, Washington DC, and Maryland Skydivers Skydive at Skydive Orange, VA

Our skydiving school uses the most recent official instructional program -
The Integrated Student Program, (ISP) the United State's Parachute Association's (USPA) newest instructional program, was invented and first used here at Skydive Orange. It addresses many areas that skydiving center operators felt was not adequately covered in the old student progression, with emphasis on teaching parachute canopy control to minimize landing injuries. Pricing and an explanation of what you will be doing on each jump is on http://www.skydiveorange.com/repeat.htm#a-h Many other skydiving centers still use the obsolete AFF Level 1-7 program.

The ISP includes 8 categories, A-H, each item to be marked off a check off card as you progress, including an oral test at the end of each category. Once the card is completed, we fax it to USPA and it becomes your A license. The ISP is an outline of what you will learn and can be found in the Skydiver's Information Manual (SIM). Copies of the ISP & SIM are available for sale at student manifest. See more about why it is better than the old AFF level 1-7 system on Skydiving Instruction Terms

We update and change our program constantly to take advantage of the latest United States Parachute Association recommendations. We are probably the most up to date skydiving center in the US, owing to our efforts and outstanding instructional staff.

Looking for a skydiving place that "Specializes" in first jumps, or Tandem skydives?
Numerous skydiving places proudly proclaim that they "Specialize in first Time Tandem Skydives", or "Specialize in first jumps". What they are really saying is they do not have the staff, experience, or airlift capacity to accommodate any further training beyond a simple first jump. Considering that Skydive Orange does more of each kind of first jumps and AFF program training jumps than many drop zones for hundreds of miles around, I think it is realistic to say, by comparison, that we "Specialize" in all kinds of first jumps, progressing Skydiving certification training, as well as specializing in accommodating the needs of licensed, experienced skydivers with hundreds or thousands of jumps. We've been making over 17,000 jumps ever year here at Skydive Orange for over 6 years now.

Skydive Orange is a relatively busy East Coast skydiving center-
An August 2002 survey of skydiving centers in the United States has shown other skydiving centers' business decreasing 20% - 30% in 2002. But here at Skydive Orange, our business increased by 33% - from 10,082 jumps in 2001 to 15,035 jumps in 2002 during the same time. (Update - over 18,000 skydives were made at Skydive Orange in 2003.) While we are not as busy as the major Drop Zones in Florida or Crosskeys NJ., there are several reasons why this should matter to you:

1) Since we are busiest skydiving place around, we have more to lose if something goes wrong, so we are extremely careful about safety, we value our reputation, and we make the investments to maintain the best facilities. We plan to build ourselves a brand new 12,000 sq foot commercial hanger specifically for skydiving in the next year.

2) More activity means we are the most experienced skydiving center, with current active instructors.

3) It is not just first-time skydivers increasing our business. We attract many licensed skydivers from other skydiving centers who have traveled around and compared. Having seen what each skydiving place has to offer, they switched to Skydive Orange. Some student skydivers start elsewhere, then hear about Skydive Orange and come here instead. One major factor in their decision to switch to jumping with us has been:

Our Dedicated Personnel! Our staff includes-

     4 former &/or present USPA Safety & Training Advisors
     1 AFF Course Director (trains and evaluates potential AFF jumpmasters)
     2 Tandem examiners (qualified to rate new tandem instructors)
     2 persons qualified to run a USPA Coaches' Course
     2 Former DZ Operators
    18 USPA Coaches
    10 AFF Instructors
    15 Tandem Instructors

See some of them on our staff page

The most amazing thing about our personnel is that they have a way of staying here at Skydive Orange almost forever! We pay well, and provide an excellent teaching environment. From what we've seen at other drop zones, they have a high turnover in staff. A successful skydiving operation requires an exceptional environment that both the staff and students as well as experienced club members are happy in. For the most part, students want to learn, and teachers want to teach. That is what we do. (And have lots of fun doing it, of course!). See help wanted.