A guide for those starting a parachute club or drop zone from scratch
APF ©2020; Free to APF Members
Introduction
This page is lists the requirements, procedures and problems associated with starting up a parachute club or drop zone from scratch. It may be useful to two groups of people:
- those who want to set up an organisation which will conduct parachuting operations at a drop zone, and
- those who wish to set up a “social organisation”, connected with parachuting but not actually running a drop zone.
It does not attempt to go into details – for which reference to APF manuals or discussions with officials may be necessary.
Terminology
In the early days, most parachuting was conducted by clubs – groups of jumpers who banded together to form clubs. When the APF Constitution was written, it referred to “clubs”. Since then, commercial organisations have sprung up, and use US terminology, “centres”. They've also been referred to as “Member Organisations” and the Regulations have introduced the term "Operation Centre". All very confusing! The Constitution refers to "clubs" and so clubs is the correct term. Clubs can be either a "training organisation" or a "non-training organisation". See Regulatory Schedule 50 for definitions.
APF membership
Classes of membership
The APF has two classes of membership: individual Members and Clubs. Most parachuting organisations in Australia are Clubs of the APF.
Do you need to be a Club?
If the DZ is going to deal with students (including tandem passengers), or novices (Certificate Class A holders) - Yes, membership is mandatory.
If you are not going to be running a drop zone, or if the DZ is going to be dealing with Certificate Class B holders and above only, membership is optional. There are certain advantages to having membership, and you should weigh these against the disadvantages (the membership fee!)
Advantages of membership
Parachute Council membership.
Membership of the state/area Parachute Council. Each Club is a member of the area Council and is entitled to send one delegate to Council meetings and to vote on the issues that the Council considers. Influence in the conduct of affairs on a local level or in selecting local representatives to the APF Board may or may not be important to you.
Insurance
In recent history Australia has been embroiled in problems with insurance, litigation etc. At present, APF, and its members (including clubs) are covered by insurance (details available from the APF Office). Apart from any other cover you might need, if you will be running a drop zone, it is likely that the land owner will insist that you do have adequate insurance cover. Membership of APF may be a simple (and cheap) way of achieving this. However, you should check carefully to what extent the APF insurance covers all the areas in which you need cover. There is no guarantee that APF will be able to maintain its insurance cover in the future.
Listing by APF
Clubs are listed in the APF’s database. The database is used to create lists of clubs on the APF web site and in the APF’s publications. This may be important if you are hoping to attract members of the public to your organisation.
Procedures for becoming a Club of the APF
Who may become a Club?
Any legal entity other than a natural person. In other words any legally constituted company or association, but not a person. The applicant must provide an ABN and the legal name of the entity. This is so that the APF has a record of what entity its insurance is covering.
Trading name
The trading name of the club is frequently not the same as the official name of the legal entity. The APF will accept (almost) any trading name notified to it by the legal entity, and will use this name in dealing with the club/centre. A trading name which is obscene or confusing (perhaps too similar to the name used by an existing Club) may be rejected by the APF.
Nominated person
The legal entity making an application for membership must nominate a person (the “Nominated Person”) to be the person with whom the APF deals on business relating to the club. (Where the club has a Chief Instructor, the APF will deal with the CI on appropriate matters.)
Making application for membership
Application must be made on the appropriate form:
Form CL1 New_Club_Application_Form
The form must be signed by the Nominated Person and Legal Entity representative and sent to the APF Office.
If the club intends to be a Training Organisation, the Chief Instructor and Senior Pilot should also sign the form.
DZ Approval and Classification
The membership of a new Club is conditional on the approval of the APF.A new Club must meet certain criteria, such as:
- documented landowners permission
- accurate coordinates and physical address
- inspection and approval by a Safety and Training Officer
- other requirements as set out in RS58
Training/Non-training organisations
These terms are widely used. A training organisation is one which may train students and novices (Certificate Class “A” certificate holders). These people are required to jump only under the Chief Instructor of a Club. They cannot jump under the control of a non-training organisation.
Essentially, a training organisation is a Club which has a properly appointed Chief Instructor and provides facilities for training parachutists. A non-training organisation is a Club which does not have a properly appointed Chief Instructor and provides for parachuting by holders of at least a Certificate Class B. (More about the appointment of Chief Instructors later.)
Many people think that there is a formal designation “Training Organisation” which the Club must attain before a Chief Instructor may be appointed. This is not so. It is simply the appointment of the Chief Instructor (and provision of training facilities) that allows a Club to deal with students and novices.
Rules relating to Clubs
If you are setting up a new parachuting operation, you should read and understand the following documents. They contain many details not covered in this document.
- APF Constitution
- Operational Regulations and Regulatory Schedules (particularly RS 58)
- Training Operations Manual
- etc
Club fees
Basic fee
The basic fee for membership is: Training Organisation $650.00 per year and Non-Training Organisation $250.00 all inclusive of GST.
Audit fee
Each training organisation may also be charged an additional $250 per year for each drop zone which is required to be audited (these are essentially DZs used for students or novices). Periodic audits will be conducted of Training Organisations.
Chief Instructors
The Chief Instructors collectively are probably the most important people in the APF’s safety and training procedures. They are highly qualified and experienced people who are required to be approved by the APF and the Safety and Training Manager, in consultation with the area Council before they make take up their duties.
If no Chief Instructor is in place, a club cannot deal with students and novices (Certificate Class “A” holders). It may deal with jumpers with Certificate Class “B” or higher.
The APF has published rules and procedures for the appointment of Chief Instructors. They can be found at in the APF Operational Regulations and Regulatory Schedules
The APF holds the Chief Instructor responsible for all matters of parachuting safety and training. It is the Chief Instructor that APF and Council officials will contact first to resolve any problems in these areas. The Nominated Person is deemed responsible for other dealings between the Club and the APF.
Finding a Chief Instructor
If you intend to deal with students or novices, finding a person to be your Chief Instructor will probably be one of your most important jobs. There are not many parachutists qualified to be a Chief Instructor who are not already acting as a Chief Instructor of a club (because few instructors bother to attain the Senior Instructor rating required in advance). The APF Office will be able to supply a list of qualified instructors. Note that attaining a Senior Instructor rating usually takes some months for an Instructor starting from scratch. Getting a qualified person appointed as a Chief Instructor can take some time too.
Chief Instructors supervision more than one drop-zone
It is possible to come to an arrangement with the Chief Instructor of another club under which he/she agrees to operate your training operations under his/her auspices. However, note that the Chief Instructor is required to be present on the DZ for at least one third of operational time when training operations are being carried out. This limits the number of DZs which a Chief Instructor may supervise. Questions may be asked where a CI appears to be spreading him/herself too widely to exercise adequate supervision over all the operations he/she is responsible for. Some Councils do have local rules about the supervision of multiple DZs. Where these are known, the APF may publishes them. If you are setting up a new drop zone you should seek advice on such local rules from the area Council.
Audits
Before any DZ may be used for regular student/novice operations, it is subject to a safety inspection by the Safety and Training Officer of the area Council. You should expect that the DZ itself will be inspected for hazards, size etc, and that your facilities and equipment to be used for student training will also be checked.
Additionally, each drop zone used for training operations will be audited by APF officials each year, to ensure that parachuting operations are being conducted in accordance with APF rules. A copy of the pro-forma used by the auditor may be obtained from the APF Office.
Relation with area Council, APF and other bodies
Powers of the area Council
The area Council oversees parachuting operations within its area of operation. It appoints people to a number of official positions. Significant here are the Safety and Training Officers (STO) who have quite powerful privileges to ensure that operations are conducted in a reasonable degree of safety, and the Safety and Training Manager (STM), who oversees instructional matters. There is a wide degree of overlap between the two functions. Other officials who may impinge on the running of parachuting operations include the National Rigging Officer and the National Aviation Officer.
APF and CASA control
The APF exerts control over parachuting operations through the Operational Regulations, and a subsidiary document, the Regulatory Schedules and the Training Operations Manual, and to a lesser extent through various other manuals referred to in the Regulations. The APF’s regulations are largely mirrored by CASA Instruments, including "Authorisation and Specification for Parachute Descents” and "Conduct of Parachute Training Operations", which have the force of law.
Generally, CASA delegates its powers of enforcement in parachuting matters to the APF, and will not usually be involved in the surveillance of the day-to-day conduct of parachuting operations, although it has the right to do so if it sees fit.
The Board of the APF appoints National Officers to be in charge of areas such as Safety, Instruction/Training, Rigging, Aviation etc. Although these Officers oversee their areas of authority nationally, in most cases where any intervention by APF is necessary, the first approach would be by an official appointed by the local Council.
Some aspects of Parachuting aircraft operations are overseen by the APF. More information on this area can be found at: Aircraft & Jump Pilot Information
Relation with APF Office
Student Membership
Each jumper is required to be a member of APF, so every new tandem passenger or AFF or static-line student must complete a student membership application and waiver. For new student applications, nearly all clubs these days use the APF form CL8 (club membership/APF waiver). The waiver affords some protection for the APF against litigation. The standard club membership contains a waiver statement for the new member to sign. It has been tested in court, and shown to be effective, although it is not totally litigation proof.
Incident Notifications and reports
Incident Notification reports are available on the APF website. It is the CI/DZSO's responsibility to ensure that a notification is made of accidents and injuries. Incident notifications must be reported to the APF Office within seven days of the occurrence. Notification of certain incidents must be within a shorter time frame and these are identified in APF Regulatory Schedule 55.
Calendar of Events
APF publishes a Calendar of Eventson it’s web site. You can organise an entry in the Calendar by contacting the APF Office.
Use of APF logo
The APF logo may be used by clubs in their promotional material, but not in any way which is misleading or that could be construed as implying a relationship which does not exist. Consult the APF Chief Executive Officer if in doubt.
APF’s function
APF’s main function is to set and maintain standards. A secondary function is to help individual members and clubs in other ways. Note that the APF has little expertise in business planning etc, and you should not expect a great deal of help in matters of taxation, employment law, dealings with town councils and neighbours, or which are the result of poor business practices, etc.
Club listing
Clubs are listed in the APF’s database. The database is used to create lists of clubs on the APF web site and in the APF’s publications.
Setting up a new DZ
If you are not an experienced skydiver, you will need advice on a myriad of details if you wish to set up a new DZ. This document can only point to some of the main areas.
Safety factors
If your dropzone will be used for students training, it will be subject to inspection by the Training and Safety Officer before you start operations.
During the early stages of starting up your DZ, it would be wise to consult the Training and Safety Officer, so that any problems may be discovered and rectified well before your start-up date.
Land owner’s co-operation
The land owner will almost certainly require you to have adequate insurance cover. The cover you get with APF membership may or may not be adequate. APF can provide a copy of the cover document on request. It covers parachuting operations, but may not cover all the areas involved with a group of people occupying the land owner’s land. You will also need the land owners permission for use in writing.
Neighbours and town councils
Constant aircraft noise can be a worry to many people living in rural areas. You will probably need to spend a great deal of effort in ensuring good relations with neighbours. The footprint of noise from an aircraft operating up to many thousands of feet is large, so there may be many people to keep on side. Possibilities to keep them on side include:
- Invite them to the DZ
- Money coming into the town
- Airstrip available to flying doctor
- Free displays into local events
The Town Council may also require you to submit a Development Application before establishing your DZ. This might be a major task.
Airport users’ groups
If you will be operating where other airspace users are operating, you can expect that there will be problems to be overcome. This is especially so it you will be operating on an airport. Antagonistic neighbours on an airport constitute a problem you do not want. Many other airspace users do not understand parachuting, and need help in understanding how predominantly vertical parachuting operations can be integrated with their predominantly horizontal operations. Being involved in an airport users’ group is usually a good way of sorting out some these problems in a co-operative manner. Once problems get to a more bureaucratic level, there is the possibility for less co-operation and more hassle in making the solutions work.
Nice-to-Have things:
- Close to population centre (say not more than one hour’s drive)
- Shelter from elements
- Creeper pad
- Reasonable toilets
- Range of accommodation options: camping, bunk house, local motels etc
- Good quality jumping resources:
- Right aircraft
- Right people
- Good instructors
- Good coaches
- Good vibes!
Must-have things:
Size
Your DZ must have a clear landing area at least as big as required by the regulations for the class of jumpers who will be jumping there. If there is the possibility of providing student training in the future, it should be big enough for them.
Free of Hazards
There are legal requirements for landing areas to be free of hazards described in the regulations. Additionally, you will need to avoid things that may not legally constitute a hazard such as rocky or uneven ground, dangerous stock in nearby paddocks, fences, turbulence-causing things, etc
Airspace
Check out the airspace with an experienced pilot with skydiving knowledge. There are many areas where the airspace structure will make it difficult to conduct parachuting operations effectively. Specific problems with airspace use may be resolvable by talking with the officer in charge of Air Traffic Control for the area.
Equipment & staff
Apart from parachuting equipment and aircraft, you will/may need
Business aspects
This document does not intend to cover the business side of running a dropzone. A few points only are mentioned here.
Small business is governed by a multitude of Local, State and Federal regulation. If you do not have a business background, you will need to consult someone who does.
- Employment matters
- Employees or contractors
- Payroll and tax matters
- Superannuation
- Worker's compensation
- Leave, sick leave, long service leave
- Development applications
You may also need help with:
- Accountancy
- Cash flow management
- Insurance and asset protection
- Contracts
- Risk management
- Advertising
Note that you will almost certainly need a contract of some sort with your clients (the jumpers). The APF CL8 form waiver is designed to cover the APF and its subsidiary bodies. You probably need something similar for yourself and your staff, not only for first jumpers, but also for all your other jumpers.
Advertising
It is the domain of each club to determine where they will advertise their product. Setting up a web site is the key.
Parachuting flying operations are presently classified as “Private”, despite considerable opposition from various parts of the aviation industry. CASA made this classification on the basis that the flying is an incidental part of learning to parachute, and that the people undertaking parachute training were taking an informed risk. Were the flying operations to be classified as “Commercial”, much more stringent conditions would apply.
One consequence of this “private” classification is that the flying part of the operation must not be promoted as any part of the reason to undertake the activity. If you advertise the flight up as a “joy flight” or refer to “scenic views”, etc, you run the risk of falling foul of CASA and having your flying operations grounded.
You should also avoid anything in your advertising which may be interpreted as misleading under the Trades Practices Act. People have rights under this Act which cannot be removed by waivers or disclaimers. The words “safe”, soft landings”, etc, may be construed as misleading by someone who breaks an ankle on landing.
Operational aspects
This document does not intend to cover the day-to-day running of a dropzone. A few points only are mentioned here.
Jumping through cloud
Until 2002, it was illegal for a parachutist to pass through cloud. This rule was widely ignored, because it was seen as using a tank to kill a mouse. There were good reasons for forbidding jumps through thick unbroken cloud, but a parachutist inadvertently passing through a thin wispy cloud did not deserve the same prohibition.
There is now provision for parachutists to jump through cloud, under defined procedures. DZ operators and safety officers need to be aware that the new procedures are strictly defined and should be adhered to. They need to be aware that the attitudes prevailing before 2002 are still there, and there are many experienced skydivers at all levels who cling to the old assumption that uncontrolled jumping through cloud is OK provided you don’t get caught.
Note in particular that there is a requirement for a DZ-specific manual of cloud jumping procedures which must be approved both the APF before any jumping through cloud may happen. Details about the requirements for this manual are in Regulatory Schedule 60 or on the APF web site at Cloud Jumping Procedures.
DZSO, GCA. Every operational DZ must have a DZ Safety Officer (DZSO) and a Ground Control Assistant (GCA) appointed before any jumping occurs. These officers must be present while the DZ is operating.
The DZSO is appointed by the CI of a training organisation. If it is not a training organisation, see APF Operational Regulations, Part 6. The DZSO has quite wide powers, defined in the regulations.
The GCA is responsible for communicating with the aircraft. Note that if radio communications in the aircraft frequency range are being used, the radio operator needs an appropriate operator’s certificate.
Some important facts which are not always obvious
- All jumpers who do not hold at least a Certificate Class “A” are students (in the sense used by the Op Regs). This includes tandem passengers. There is sometimes the mistaken assumption that tandem operations are not subject to the full range of regulations which apply to AFF and static-line operations.
- All students require a CI; All displays require an DO (Display Organiser). It is often stated (erroneously) that a tandem jump made as a display jump does not need to be under the supervision of a CI. However, a tandem jump is a student jump, and it does require the supervision of a CI. So a tandem display jump requires the supervision of both a CI and an DO. The CI and the DO may be the same person.