From your 50th to 500th jump there is no single path — there are six coherent technical routes. Each with its own milestones, coaches, timelines and cost.
The A license is not the end of a path: it's the beginning. The first 25 jumps taught you to survive on your own. The next 25 should consolidate — separation, landing pattern, decisions under pressure.
At 50 jumps you face the real question: what do you want to become? A team flyer, a freeflyer, a canopy pilot, a wingsuiter? The answer is not "all of them" — in the first 200 jumps, only one choice makes sense. The community talks about "vertical progression" (going deep in one discipline) vs "horizontal progression" (touching everything superficially). The first works. The second doesn't.
Below are six separate roadmaps. They're built on real USPA SIM patterns + cross-verified Italian community data: numbered milestones, conservative/ambitious timelines, incremental costs. No invented numbers: where the source is missing, it's null.
Non-prescriptive matrix: reflects common community choice patterns, not hard rules. Each profile admits alternatives.
Belly-down group flying. The first team discipline, foundation of all sport skydiving.
Vertical flying. Sit, head-down, transitions. The discipline that redefined modern skydiving in the 90s.
High-speed landings with competition canopies. The most technical (and riskiest) post-license discipline.
The wing suit. Prolonged glide, up to 3:1 glide ratio on competition suits.
Tunnel-only discipline. Choreographed sequences of rotations, lines, and moves at sustained speed.
Landing on a few-centimeter target with the heel. The oldest FAI discipline in skydiving.
After ENAC A license (~25 jumps) the priority is consolidation: landings, separation, deployment altitude. From 50 jumps up it's reasonable to start discipline-specific coaching. Below 50, high risk of locking in wrong habits.
Depends on the discipline. For freefly and dynamic the tunnel is almost mandatory — compresses time and reduces cost. For FS, wingsuit, canopy, the tunnel helps but doesn't replace freefall experience. A 1h tunnel : 8-10 jump ratio is a common community benchmark.
There's no single rule; USPA and BPA publish guidelines based on WL (wing loading) and jump count. Core principle: smaller canopies aren't won with luck, they're won with dedicated coaching and currency jumps. Forced downsizing without skill is the top contributor to under-canopy incidents.
Depends on discipline and pace. A conservative FS progression to amateur 4-way is in the €6-8k range. Advanced wingsuit or competitive canopy piloting easily exceeds €15k, mostly for coaching, tunnel and specialist gear.
Technically yes, practically no in the first 200 jumps. Better one discipline with high currency than three shallow ones. After 300-500 jumps, many skydivers add a second discipline (typical: FS + freefly, or freefly + canopy piloting).
When your home school lacks specialised coaches for your discipline, or when structured camps are elsewhere. Many Italian freefly jumpers go to Empuriabrava or Flying Circus Klatovy camps. It's not "abandoning" — it's how the international community works.