Testimonials

It is an absolute breath of fresh air to find a course in the skydiving world that is run like a well thought out course with a focus on actually getting the students to perform. Right from AFF I have felt like I have moved on in the world of skydiving essentially by “Accident, Rumour and good luck” all too often it has seemed like the instructors are just filling slots rather than making sure as a student I was properly informed and organised. Given that it is such a potentially hazardous activity it has never ceased to amaze me.

I come from a world of coaching and have ploughed my way through various coaching schemes and I would say that your course certainly falls into the category I feel comfortable with. Thought out, clear aims, well put across and above all centred on the students progressing safely. Great – I certainly will spread the word and would be very happy to repeat the course as I think in many ways I am only just beginning to cotton on to things.

Dai R

Just to say thanks for the course at Weston despite the shite weather. The thing that suprised me the most was that those with thousands of jumps, (John and Vicky), had been taught in the same way and were making similar mistakes as those with about fifty. You are one of the few people I have met that naturally hold an audience really well, making technical classroom stuff interesting. I’m definately going to sort some dates and finish it off with you rather than making it up as I go along. It was worth the price of the course for the first half an hour on landing profiles alone.

Sean A

Just wanted to drop you a line to say thanks for the training course. I learnt so much I didn’t imagine, and feel much more confident under canopy (whilst still maintaining a healthy respect for all things bigger than me, like the ground!). With just 100 jumps I was the least experienced there but I think the timing was excellent to hopefully get it right now and not get into bad habits!

My landings are much better (still need to focus on leaning forward more!) but the most fun is slow flight – I was recently in the Slovak mountains – stunning to just sit there in deep brakes and take in the view – I was always one of the first out of the plane yet the last to land! I’m going to start looking at downsizing over the summer to make the harness turns sharper – with 75kg under my Sabre170 there is a lot of grunting as I try to harness turn! (do enjoy FR+harness though!)

Gavin B

I thoroughly enjoyed the safe flight school in spite of the weather conditions. Many thanks for an intersting, informative 3 days and for giving us the grounding and knowlege for becoming safer pilots.

Steve B

Just to say thanks for the course at Weston despite the weather. The thing that suprised me the most was that those with thousands of jumps had been taught in the same way and were making similar mistakes as those with about fifty. It was worth the price of the course for the first half an hour on landing profiles alone.

Sean A

I would like to thank you for the training last weekend. Your encouragement, patience and knowledge shared with each one of us, was simply impeccable.

Daniel F

Thanks for the course last week. I thought it was first class,given the amount of jumps i have the course gave me so much confidence to be a good and safe canopy pilot, and not to be scared of what i was flying..

Seanan D

Just a quick line or two to tell you how much I really enjoyed the course. My expectations were high and I wasn’t disappointed. You will be please to know that I was at Langar yesterday ( with Mark and to the puzzlement of most ) practising my progressive flare and I’m happy to say I’m finally getting it !

Tom S D

Just wanted to say thanks for a great course over at Cark last weekend. Everyone on it was buzzing and everyone, without exception, said they now had more confidence under canopy. The overwhelming feeling was that everybody should have to attend a canopy course at some point, and I don’t think you will have too much difficulty in finding 12 willing volunteers if you come back to Cark.

Thanks again for a really enjoyable 3 days.

Alister B

Just thought IÕd drop you a quick line to say a big thank you for your excellent coaching the other week. IÕve been practicing! I dropped my landing pattern onto Sibson as discussed and it is working very well. I even had to land off last week (wingsuit rodeo going in wrong direction to DZÉ) but thanks to all the stuff we discussed I felt fine about it and landed well (Éof course under a level wing, avoiding obstacles, steady and even flare and even into wind!!).

Everyone was very shocked to hear me asking to do hop and pops (on reserves) the other day Ð IÕm a new woman!

I’ve learnt so much and it has really sparked my interest in learning more about flying canopies better. IÕm recommending your course to everyone!

Jo H

Just thought I’d drop you a quick line to say thank you for the canopy course in Empuria last week, it was fantastic – I didn’t realise quite how much there is to learn about Canopy flight!
It is going to take another 30 jumps just to consolidate what was taught in the course, let alone put it to any use.
After the course I now feel safer and more comfortable under canopy, my range of inputs has increased hugely and I feel much more prepared for flying and landing in diferent conditions. I will definately do this course again!

Richie D

What a fantastic course! I am relatively new to the sport and probably wouldn’t have considered attending a safe flying canopy skills course save for the fact I was lucky enough to win my place as a prize in last year’s Jump For The Cause raffle.

I attended Brian’s course during the first weekend in March and still haven’t stopped grinning. Not only was the coaching first-class (well he is one of the world’s foremost canopy competitors), but the easy charm and humour that Brian employed throughout the course ensured that both I and my fellow students enjoyed a fantastic learning process.

Experience within our group (who by the way were a fantastic bunch) ranged from 40 to 1000+ jumps and yet everybody was similarly enthusiastic about what they had learnt and couldn’t wait to put into practice the new skills Brian had taught us. As is often the way, the weather prevented us from practicing all of the new skills we had learnt, however I shall be looking to re-read the excellent course notes again and again so that as soon as I get to the next good weather weekend I can continue to develop my skills.

Whether you are a newbie like me or have a good deal of experience, I believe that everybody can benefit from attending this course. Learning so many new canopy skills gives me an opportunity to now get two experiences for the price of one each any every time I jump. Coupling this with my improved knowledge, objectivity and new skills, means that I am also significantly more confident in my ability to fly safely, accurately and to get the most performance from my canopy.

Great work Brian, thanks for all of your help and support. Rest assured that as soon as I have put into practice all my learning from this course, I will be back to enrol for the next one.

Mark H

After 13 years in the sport and over 2700 jumps on all kinds of canopies I thought I could fly a canopy pretty well. I couldn’t be more wrong. Though I wasn’t flying badly I now realise how much better I CAN fly a canopy. I wasn’t even tapping into 50% of my Stiletto 107’s capabilities, but now, after only a few days instruction on the Advanced course my swoops are longer, more powerful and much safer.

Believe me, this course will open not only your eyes but also the door to true high performance canopy flight.

Max

Just a quick line to say thanks again for a great canopy pilot course … you made the classroom and training days a pleasure to attend.
Since the course we have thoroughly enjoyed every skydive opening and journey back to the DZ. It’s amazing how confident and safe we now feel under canopy knowing we have been taught the safety elements and landing skills.

We honestly believe that this canopy piloting course is a must for everybody. Thanks again!

Steve & Lynne

Brian`s canopy piloting seminar last weekend was a blast! We all got a lot of information and learned to understand how everything works. The weather did not allow us to make so many jumps that we wanted, but even with the approximately 10 detailed briefed and debriefed jumps everybody made a huge improvement. I think I have so much information now, that it will take a while to completely convert the therory into practice. I was not sure what to expect from the seminar at the beginning, but it opened my eyes to a completely new discipline. Why did I waste the time under canopy in the past so much????

Brian`s smart way to explain everything in a very ‘understandable’ way is fun and informative at the same time! I hope, I can convince others to join this seminar, with it’s help everybody (I mean EVERYBODY) can improve performance and SAFETY a lot!

Alex S (Tandemmaster, Germany).

Full credit to you on an excellent course! You’ve improved my awareness and given me a framework on which I plan to build from this weekend onwards.
I wish I’d done the course a year ago – around 50 jumps – so that I wouldn’t have spent 100 odd jumps dreading touchdown. I’d often sought advice, but most people just told me what not to do and I couldn’t persuade any one to watch and give me direct feedback.

Richard L

I really enjoyed the canopy course at Old Buck. I think it was exceptional value for money and I got way more out of it than I expected to. It has added a whole new dimension to jumping for me – I’m looking forward to making use of the drills both to improve my ability and to find out which things I enjoy most under canopy.

The course content was really interesting and informative. Your teaching method is professional, whilst also being friendly, relaxed and fun. This makes it easier to absorb the information and enjoyable. Your enthusiasm for, and love of canopy flying is unmistakable.

I will be telling new and experienced skydivers about this course.

Simone P

Even though I never got to put any of the exercises into practice because of the weather, I feel I learnt more in the two days with the Safeflightschool than I have over my whole time in the sport. I’m looking forward to getting in the air and performing the drills taught on the course.

Chris K,

Brian’s passion and enthusiasm for canopy piloting was evident throughout and i got much more out of the course than I expected! I would recommend this course to anyone, it was tailored so everyone learnt loads, regardless of jump numbers.

Jill D

Caz, Kris, Rai and I went out as we were all having trouble with our landings.
We are all around the 50 – 150 jump numbers, all jumping quite large canopies and we were fed up with hurting ourselves and getting our jumpsuits dirty.
We did the three day course with him and it covered absolutely everything we needed to give us a very firm foundation for learning how to fly our canopies and landing them more safely.
I got a lot more out of it than I expected to.

Brian is a self-confessed canopy course junkie. He is passionate about canopy flying and passes it onto his students.

Sarah N, March 2005

I really do believe that the course was the best thing I have bought in skydiving since my AFF a couple of years ago… absolute 100% value for money.

If even some of what you teach was included in the AFF programme I think we would be producing much better and safer skydivers. Personally, my awareness of the whole canopy element of the skydive has increased immensely which can only be a good thing.
Knowing now, how to plan the flight and how to slow the whole experience down makes me focus more on what is going on around me, and I feel much more like I am the one in charge up there rather than the parachute.

Chris G

I thoroughly enjoyed the course. I learnt an incredible amount in 3 days, and now have much more confidence in my canopy control, landings and safety. This was demonstrated back at my home DZ yesterday!

Kristina Y

I am relatively new to the sport and although there were members of the course who were far more advanced than me, I felt that Brian’s course was structured in a manner that suited all of our needs perfectly.

By the end of the course, I felt that I had achieved the goals I had set myself for the course. My accuracy improved somewhat during the course, and through implementation of the advice from Brian, it has continued to improvein the weeks that have followed.

Perhaps the most noticeable improvement I have found since the course is my overall safety and awareness under canopy.

Fenton M

I attended the course in the hope that I would become a safer/more proficient canopy pilot and to learn more modern landing techniques. I achieved this and more.

Conor K