Skydiving

Skydiving is explored in depth in this website. Everything you need to know about skydiving is explained in 9 points.

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Skydiving Overview
Skydiving is an activity involving the breaking of a free-fall from a height using a parachute. The history of skydiving began with a descent from a balloon by Andre-Jacques Gernerin in 1797. Skydiving has been used by the military since the early 1900s. Early competitions date back to the 1930s and became an international sport in 1951.

Skydiving safety
Despite the seeming danger of the leap, fatalities are rare. However, each year a number of people world-wide are hurt or killed parachuting. About 30 skydivers are killed each year in the U.S., which works out roughly to one death every 170,000 jumps.

In recent years, one of the most common sources of injury is a low turn under a high-performance canopy and swooping. Swooping is the discipline of making a high performance landing. Changing wind conditions is another risk factor. In strong wind conditions and hot days with turbulence the parachutist can be caught in downdrafts near the ground. Shifting winds can cause a crosswind or downwind landing which have a higher potential for injury due to the wind speed adding to the landing speed.

Equipment failure rarely causes fatalities and injuries. While approximately one in 400 jumps results in a main parachute malfunction, reserve canopies are packed by an FAA licensed rigger and are designed to be highly reliable.

Because of the potential physical and mental stress involved, you may wish to get the prior approval of your physician.

The Learning Steps
For safety reasons, learning how to skydive is an involved process:

During the initial training, you will be on the ground as you learn the basics of skydiving, including how to exit a plane, freefall through the sky, how to land, and other necessary skills.

The first jump is a tandem skydive in which you will be physically attached to an instructor by a harness.

Depending on the school or skydiving program you choose, you may graduate to a tandem jump with a relatively short freefall. Though physically connected to an instructor, you will be the one to pull the ripcord.

Some schools offer the option of then jumping at the same time as two instructors, but not being physically attached to them. You will experience some freefall time in the vicinity of the instructors but you will land your parachute yourself. During these jumps you will work on basic flight maneuvers with the help of the nearby instructors.

Subsequent jumps entail improving forward flight, turns, possibly loops and emergency recovery training.

Finally, you will experience your first solo skydive.


What should you look for in a skydiving jump school?
Finding the right skydiving jump school is important. Keep these things in mind when shopping around:

Inquire about the programs they offer to beginner students. Different schools use different approaches. Make sure you are comfortable with the program.

Are the teachers United States Parachute Association (USPA) certified for skydiving instruction, and do they have ratings for the types of jumps you will perform?

Do they have a refund policy?

Is videotaping available, and if so, is there an additional charge?

How long has the company been in business? Have they had any accidents?


Physical Requirements
In general, a parachute student should be in reasonably good physical shape; this is a sport after all. There is a weight limit of 90kg’s for Tandems and 100kg for AFF.

Someone who experiences fainting spells, blackouts or has a weak heart should not be jumping. Someone with respiratory illness may have a problem due to atmospheric changes at altitude. The better your physical condition, the more you will enjoy the experience. This being said, very few people have medical or physical conditions which actually preclude jumping. With regards to women jumping during their pregnancy, Darwin Parachute Clubs’ policy is that we do not provide tandems or any AFF training for pregnant women.


Tandem Assisted Freefall (TAF)
A more recent innovation than AFF, but the end result should be the same - a trained skydiving novice. In this program the first stage of freefall training may be completed as a tandem jump where you may fulfill the same aims of the AFF stage 1 while falling with a Tandem Master.

The first stage requires about one hour of ground training prior to the jump. If the jump is satisfactorily completed and the student wishes to continue with the AFF course, AFF stage 2 can be undertaken with two instructors after completing the full one day ground training course.

Because of the differences in the training and instructors required, the price structure for TAF is different initially to AFF.


Skydiving Organizations
National parachuting associations exist in many countries. Many are affiliated with the Federation Aeronqutique Internationale (FAI) to promote their sport. In most cases national representative bodies, as well as prudent local dropzone operators, require that participants carry certification, attesting to their training, their level of experience in the sport, and their prove competence.

The primary organization in the U.S. is the United States Parachute Association. This organization hands out licenses and ratings for all American skydiving activities. The USPA also publishes the Skydivers Information Manual along with other resources.

The Parachute
At a skydiver's designated deployment-altitude; the individual throws the pilotchute from a pocket at the bottom of the rig. This is known as a bottom of container (B.O.C.) deployment system. This small parachute is connected to the main parachute by a cord known as the "bridle" which feeds through a grommet on a small black bag which has the carefully folded parachute inside and the lines stowed through rubber bands across the top. At the bottom of the container's tray which holds the main parachute is a loop which, in the closing sequence of the parachute system, is fed through grommets on each of four flaps that closes the container.

Attached to the bridle is a curved pin which is inserted through the closing loop after it has been fed through each of these grommets. When the pilotchute is thrown out, it catches the wind and pulls the pin out of the closing loop, releasing the black bag off the back of the individual. The parachute lines are pulled loose from rubber bands, through which they were stored during packing, and extend as the canopy starts to open. To reduce the risk of injury, A rectangular piece of fabric called the "slider" slows the opening of the parachute and works its way down until the canopy is fully open and the slider is just above the head of the skydiver. During a normal deployment, a skydiver will generally experience a few seconds of intense deceleration, in the realm of 3 to 4 G's, while the parachute slows the descent from 120 mph to approximately 12 mph.

If a skydiver experiences a malfunction with their main parachute which they cannot correct, they have a "cut-away" handle on the front right-hand side of their container which will release the main canopy from the container. Once free from the malfunctioning main canopy, the reserve canopy can be activated by pulling a second handle on the front left. A new type of RSL has been developed called the Skyhook. This new system uses the "cut-away" canopy to act as a very large pilot chute to more quickly extract the reserve canopy. The Skyhook is an incredibly fast system that has the jumper under the reserve canopy and flying within 2 seconds compared to the 5-10 seconds of the old system.

Skydiving Records
World's largest freefall formation: 400. This record was set February 8, 2006 in Udon Thani, Thailand.

Don Kellner holds the record for the most parachute jumps, with a total of over 36,000 jumps.

Cheryl Stearns holds the record for the most parachute descents by a woman, with a total of 15,560 in August 2003.

Capt. Joe W. Kittinger achieved the highest parachute jump in history on August 16, 1960 as part of a United States Air Force program testing high-altitude escape systems. Wearing a pressure suit, Capt. Kittinger ascended for an hour and a half in an open gondola attached to a balloon to an altitude of 102,800 feet, where he then jumped. The fall lasted more than 13 minutes, during which Capt. Kittinger reached speeds exceeding 600 miles per hour. The air in the upper atmosphere is less dense and thus leads to lower air-resistance and a much higher terminal velocity.

Jay Stokes holds the record for most parachute descents in a single day at 640.

Hildegarde Ferrea is the oldest person to have completed a skydive jump - at the age of 99 years old. She completed her tandem jump on February 17, 1996 at Dillingham Field in Oahu, Hawaii.



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