{"id":20682,"date":"2019-05-21T12:12:14","date_gmt":"2019-05-21T12:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.flywheelsites.com\/?p=20682"},"modified":"2025-07-15T09:56:38","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T16:56:38","slug":"the-sta-and-their-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/blog\/the-sta-and-their-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"The S&TA and Their Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Skydiving\u2019s background is decidedly military, and nowhere does this become more obvious than in our (over?)-reliance on acronyms. In skydiving, we become solo skydivers when we graduate from \u201cAFF<\/a>\u201d (the accelerated freefall training program), we turn on our \u201cAAD\u201d before every jump (automatic activation device), we high-five the \u201cDZO\u201d (dropzone owner), we each have a current membership in the \u201cUSPA\u201d (United States Parachute Association), we fly with other parachutes in the \u201cCRW\u201d (canopy relative work) discipline, we grab each other in the sky to make shapes in another discipline called \u201cRW\u201d (relative work)…it\u2019s an alphabet soup, basically! There are many-many, but we\u2019re choosing one very important one to tell you about today: \u201cS&TA<\/strong>,\u201d or \u201csafety and training advisor<\/strong>.\u201d Here\u2019s your intro!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What\u2019s an S&TA?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Safety & Training Advisor at a dropzone is appointed by a USPA Regional Director in order to keep overwatch at their home facility. These folks are encyclopedically experienced — Our S and TA\u2019s (plural) have easily logged tens of thousands of jumps<\/strong> throughout their decades of combined years in the sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every dropzone\u2019s S&TA provides advice and training for the skydivers on the DZ. They\u2019re also called upon to plan extraordinary jumps (among them, night and demonstration skydives). They also verify rating renewal requirements, proctor skydivers\u2019 licensing tests and generally keep an eye on the hijinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a less-fun part of the job, too: In the event that something bad happens on the dropzone, it\u2019s the S&TA who\u2019s called upon to investigate the incident and report and safety problems and violations they may find. Often, they serve as the media contact as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the S&TA\u2019s Responsibilities?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To sum it all up, the S&TA\u2019s is on the dropzone to make sure that everyone is upholding the practice of safe skydiving<\/strong>. There\u2019s a long list of duties to align with that umbrella responsibility, which are set out on the USPA website in a way that conveys a pretty thorough idea of what\u2019s expected of your friendly neighborhood S&TA on any given day:<\/p>\n\n\n\n