Skydiving World

Skydiving or also known to you and me as parachuting is an activity involving a preplanned drop from a height using a deployable parachute. The history of parachuting is not clear. It's known that Andre-Jacques Garnerin made successful parachute jumps from a hot-air balloon in 1797. The military developed parachuting technology first as a way to save aircrews from emergencies aboard balloons and aircraft in flight, later as a way of delivering soldiers to the battlefield. Early competitions date back to the 1930s, and it became an international sport in 1951.

Nowadays it is performed as a spare time activity and a competitive sport, along with the deployment of military personnel Airborne forces and occasionally forest firefighters.

At the beginning, a trained skydiver (a.k.a. jumper) and a group of associates meet at an isolated airport, sometimes referred to as a "drop zone." (DZ) A fixed base operator at that airport usually operates one or more aircraft, and takes groups of skydivers up for a fee. It was common for an individual jumper to go up in a Cessna light aircraft such as C-172 or C-182. These days, it is common for busier DZ's near populated areas to use multiple, larger aircraft such as the Cessna Caravan C208 or De Havilland Twin Otter DHC6.

A standard jump consists of individuals jumping out of an aircraft (as a rule an airplane, but at times a helicopter or even the gondola of a balloon), travelling at approximately 4,000 meters (around 13,000 ft) altitude, and free-falling for a period of time before activating a parachute to slow the landing down to safe speeds.

As soon as the parachute is opened, (normally the parachute will be fully inflated by 2,500 ft) the jumper can direct his or her route and speed with "steering lines," with hand grips called "toggles" that are attached to the parachute, and so he or she can aim for the landing site and come to a relatively gentle stop in a safe landing environment. All modern sport parachutes are self-inflating "ram-air" wings that provide control of speed and direction similar to the related paragliders. Purists in either sport would note that paragliders have much greater lift and range, but that parachutes are designed to absorb the stresses of deployment at terminal velocity.

By maneuvering the shape of the body—as a pilot maneuvers the shape of his aircraft's wings—a skydiver can generate turns, forward motion, backwards motion, and even lift. Experienced skydivers say that in freefall one can do anything a bird can do, except go back up.

Skydivers commonly do not feel a "falling" sensation due to the fact that the resistance of the air to their body at speeds above about 50 MPH provides some feeling of weight and direction. At normal exit speeds for aircraft (approx 90 MPH) there is little feeling of falling just after exit, but jumping from a balloon or helicopter can create this sensation. They reach terminal velocity (around 120 mph (190 km/h) for belly to Earth orientations, 150-200 mph (240-320 km/h) for head down orientations) and are no longer accelerating towards the ground. At this point the sensation is as of a hard wind. When they leave the plane, their momentum from the plane causes their direction of travel to change from the direction of the airplane's flight (horizontal) to the direction pulled by the force of gravity (vertical). Skydivers call this transition period "the hill", and the amount of distance they fly with the plane due to the impulsion is called "forward throw".

Nearly all skydivers make their first jump with an experienced and trained instructor. During the initial joint jump (tandem) the jumpmaster is responsible for the stable exit, maintaining a proper stable freefall position, and activating and controlling the parachute. With training and experience, the fear of the first few jumps is supplanted by the tact of controlling fear so that one may come to experience the satisfaction of mastering aerial skills and performing increasingly complicated maneuvers in the sky with friends. Other training methods include static line, IAD (Instructor Assisted Deployment), and AFF (Accelerated Free fall) also known as Progressive Free-Fall (PFF) in Canada.

At greater dropzones, commonly in the Sun Belt region of the United States, training in the sport is often conducted by full-time instructors and coaches at commercial establishments. Commercial centers often provide year-round availability, larger aircraft, and staff who are current in both their sport and their organizational-training skills. In the other latitudes, where winter gets in the way of year-round operation, commercial skydiving centers are less prevalent and much of the parachuting activity is carried on by clubs. These clubs tend to support smaller aircraft. Instructors may suggest training in random classes or as demand warrants. These clubs have a tendency to be weekend only operations as the mainstream of the staff have full-time jobs during the week. Club members will often visit greater centers for holidays, events, and for some focused exposure to the modern techniques.