Office with a view
Name: Samuel Bishop
Job: Tandem master and camera flyer
Q
What jobs did you do before this one? I worked in the goldmines in Western Australia to make money and to work out what I really wanted to do for a career.
Q
Why did you choose this job?
Because it was a really cool way to meet lots of people and have a lot of fun.
Q
How did you get into it and when?
It started out as a sport, but once I worked out I really liked it I decided to make it my career.
Q
What qualifications and training did you need?
Most of it is experiencebased or jump numbers; to become an instructor in New Zealand you need to have done about 750 skydives but there are also exams, tests, theories and practicals. Q What sort of training do you do? Jumping. When you do it as a sport you are constantly learning and progressing and that is all training to help you in the future if you want to progress further.
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What personal skills do you need? Good communication, understanding and confidence.
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Any physical requirements? Just general fitness.
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What do you do on a daily basis?
We have two aspects to the job: the first is tandem skydiving, where we have a customer strapped to the front of us, and the other aspect is camera flying, in which I use my own camera equipment and I fly around solo taking photos of tandems.
I average about eight jumps a day.
Q
What is the most challenging aspect? I can’t think of anything, this job is just fun.
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Are there any particular health and safety issues?
No more than any other job. We follow safety protocols and we commence training just like any other profession. Q What is the most interesting assignment you've had? Probably in Australia where I did a few things for comedy talk shows: for one of the jumps I had to wear a sack over my head, have my hands tied behind my back and be pushed out of the plane so I was virtually blind. We carry equipment that tells us what our altitude is so once I got to the right altitude I just ripped the hood off and carried on as we normally do.
Q
How has the job changed since you started?
Skydiving has grown a lot in popularity but the bare bones of the job are exactly the same.
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What is something people generally don't know about the job?
How much experience we need before we can do the job and how many jumps we do in a year. Once you are in the industry 1000 jumps a year is pretty common.
Q
What are the highs of the job? Helping people have potentially the time of their
life.
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What age is the oldest person you have ever taken?
A 93yearold man, so you are never too old. I think he said something like better late than never.
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What is the youngest? A 6 year old.
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What are the lows of the job? Sometimes we have to wait around for the weather, we can only jump when the weather is good.
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What's the strangest thing you've had to do?
There are quite a few but I’d say one of the funniest is having to carry the customer’s false teeth in my pocket, I’ve done that a few times. There are lots of other funny things, but I can’t talk about them.
Q
How do you cope with being strapped to someone you have only just met? You can’t have any personal space issues.
Q
Does the customer ever have those issues?
No, they prefer to be close and safe, as opposed to loose and notso safe.
Q
What about jumping out of the aircraft. Is that a tricky time?
That is when the adrenaline is at its most for both the customer and the tandem master and it is quite often the most fun part, too.
We get a range of emotions from the customer from too cool to say anything to absolutely screaming and dragging their fingernails down the plane holding on to the aircraft and crying.
Generally, we can be quite convincing, reassuring people of the safety involved and showing them that we are confident and competent in our abilities and what we are doing.
If they go through with the jump, they end up having the most amount of fun and being so proud of themselves. I see that all the time. Q Do you talk to the customer during the skydive? In the plane and under the parachute, but during freefalling we can’t talk because there is too much wind we can’t hear anything, although I can hear the customer screaming because I am right above them.
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What is the most dangerous part of the job?
The ground.
Q
What is the salary?
It varies depending on weather conditions through the year, and on tourism numbers.
We have the camera flyers and they have a set wage, the tandem masters have a set wage, but someone with a 1000 jumps makes the same money as someone who has done 10,000 jumps.
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Where will you be 10 years from now? Who knows? Maybe skydiving.
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Would you recommend it as a career? Absolutely! My office is 12,000 feet above Wanaka, it is beautiful up there, it is so special and I never get sick of the view.