What actually happens in the AXIS USPA B-License course at Skydive Arizona? Spoiler: You get out of it what you put into it.
By Niklas Daniel & Brianne Thompson from Axis Flight School – our on-site partner for post-license skydive coaching
You achieved your A license... what's next?
If you just got your A-license—congratulations. You’ve cleared a hurdle that, statistically speaking, most skydiving students don’t clear.
But here’s the truth: the canopy education you received during your student progression was, by design, generic. It had to be. Every student jumps similar gear, under similar wing loadings, at a supervised drop zone. And that works…for a student program, for brand-new athletes, in highly variable-controlled conditions.
But, frankly, that does not describe the sport of skydiving.
The moment you get licensed, that changes. Now you’re free to rent or purchase equipment with handling characteristics that can be dramatically different from what you trained on. Without professional guidance, it’s not uncommon for newer jumpers to end up under canopies that are beyond their actual skill and experience level to control effectively, and to find themselves in situations that don’t match the cookie-cutter examples they wrangled during the A-license progression.
It’s a problem, of course. Luckily, it’s a known, solved problem. And the B-license canopy course is the solution USPA put in place to address it.
Here’s the issue: not all B-license courses are created equal. Most of what’s out there is designed to fast-forward a jumper through the minimums. Outside of trusted personal referral, there’s very little information available to help a newly licensed jumper tell the difference between a course that hustles you through to a B and one that actually makes you a better, safer canopy pilot.
Spoiler alert: the best one of all is right here at Skydive Arizona—and AXIS Flight School runs it.
Bold claim, yeah. But absolutely true. Here’s why.
Ask: are you instructing, or are you coaching?
At AXIS, we draw a clear line between instructing and coaching. Instruction runs down a checklist: did you turn left and right? Check. Move on. It confirms completion—not competence. Coaching asks a different set of questions: it’s not about doing the thing, it’s about mastering the thing. How coordinated can you make that turn? How does an optimal flare look with your particular setup, and how can you tweak it for the best results? How many different methods can you use to execute that turn? Do you understand the outcome of each input—and when to apply it?
As a newer skydiver, you’re best served by a course that does both. How do you know? Ask your mentors. Ask others who have taken the course before you. Better yet: you can observe a course underway and take note of the kinds of interactions that occur between the teacher/s and student/s. (To take our own example: at AXIS, we teach people how to think, not what to think.)
Reflect: How much bandwidth can I dedicate to this right now?
Make no mistake: leveling up from A-license to B-license takes a lot of mental energy. The best students make sure that they show up for their course with one focus: their (challenging!) learning experience. Do yourself a favor: do what it takes to put work, relationships and other personal stressors aside for the days you’re on the course. You’ll need all the clarity-of-mind you can get.
Aside from that, there are a couple of tactical ways to approach the tasks that one faces any given day on the dropzone. Here’s our best advice:
- If you’re not working with an instructor/coach that handles the logistics of manifesting and communicating with the ground and with pilots (an especially important task for the long spot), do your best to practice those skills on jumps completed before your course.
- We recommend that you do not pack while participating in any skydiving course. Even if you’re very comfortable with packing, by not doing so you’ll save precious time and energy for learning.
- Eat, sleep and hydrate like an athlete. Prepare accordingly. Doing this training when you’re hungry, thirsty, dehydrated, tired, hung over, and/or un-limber will make learning and performing the material much harder than it has to be.
Familiarize: The flow of the course day
We can’t speak for other B-license skydiving courses, so what we describe here is what we do at AXIS Flight School.
First, we start early—and you should, too. If you’re traveling to a new DZ to complete the course, even if your course doesn’t require it, arrive at least a day ahead-of-time to register, do a couple of familiarization jumps, sort out rental gear, arrange for a packer and get a lay-of-the-land.
On the day of the course, arrive slightly ahead of the start time. Get grounded. Settle. Have an unhurried coffee and observe the weather. Gather yourself: it’s about to get real.
At our course, that start time is the door to an intense experience. Over the course of the weekend, each student completes eight jumps—four per day. Every jump is briefed beforehand and debriefed afterward, with video, visuals and real-world examples.
Day one is centered on improving landings—making them consistently soft. After jumping wraps on day one, we move to the required water training. We begin with an hour-long presentation covering past incidents—and how water landing training has evolved. Then students take it into the water. Every participant performs a PLF into the pool, manages canopy fabric after water entry, and practices clearing their equipment. We also run extra-credit scenarios—diving under canopy fabric, simulating a landing on another jumper’s wing. (We’re lucky—our water training is done in a pool less than a hundred feet from our office!)
Day two takes day one’s soft landings and makes them accurate. This is where you get really clear on how your particular canopy behaves, and upskill your generic A-license skill set to the point that you become ready to join the fray at boogies, explore new dropzones with tighter landing areas, and grapple successfully with the squeaky situations we all face under canopy.
Of course, we cover what USPA calls Canopy Emergency Procedures—”CEPs.” Avoidance and recovery of low turns, rear riser and toggle stalls, long spots, and other critical skills that require genuine competence, not just exposure.
Study: Cracking the B-license exam
At the end of day two, students have the opportunity to take the USPA B-license written exam—administered on-site, with instructors present. Students use a personal device, log into their USPA account, and have up to two hours to complete the fifty-question exam. A grade of seventy-six percent or higher is required to pass. The review at the end naturally opens into a Q&A—and those tend to be some of the best conversations of the weekend.
Zoom out: Why this licensing requirement is actually a gift
We have done hundreds of B-license courses at AXIS. We do them monthly, year-round (when we ourselves are not in the middle of our intense competition season). And so we know what we’re talking about when we say that, as students work through each jump of the weekend, something else starts to happen: their awareness expands.
They begin tracking their position relative to classmates after exit and throughout the flight. They develop airmanship—creating vertical separation before entering the landing pattern, reading the winds, identifying who’s setting the pattern direction, and responding accordingly. When you notice that your awareness has expanded and your single-point-of-focus “A-license blinders” have come off, you’ll know you’re not just getting a B-license…you’ve earned it.
All skydives end with a canopy ride. Arguably, it’s the most important part.
The only question is: how good are you going to get at it?
AXIS Flight School is based at Skydive Arizona in Eloy. The AXIS B-License Weekend Intensive runs once a month, all year long. Details on what’s covered, how to prepare, and how to sign up are available through AXIS Flight School’s website, axisflightschool.com.