We look at tandem jumping in this installment of our skydiving guide.
One of the most common ways to start within skydiving is tandem jumping, which involves you and an instructor exiting the plane and descending together.
The two parachutists remain attached until after the landing and the instructor is in complete control of the jump, the free fall and the canopy release. He or she pilots the paired skydivers both horizontally and vertically through the entire jump, so the novice can just enjoy the skydiving experience.
It allows you to get acquainted with skydiving with minimal risk, minimal anxiety and minimal training. Many people use this as a preliminary to static line or accelerated freefall training, and ultimately to solo jumping. It's also tends to be the cheapest option as you don't have to purchase or hire your own equipment and you require less pre-jump instruction.
Whereas most jump programs require several hours of ground instruction, very little training is needed to do a tandem jumping as a student. The novice must learn how to cooperate with the instructor in exiting the plane and descending, but this will usually take less than a couple of hours.
Within a few seconds of the two jumpers exiting the plane, the instructor will release the drogue - a small pilot chute. This helps slow the descent to the normal free fall speed of roughly 120 mph (193 kph). Without the drogue, the combined weight of the student and the instructor would result in a descent speed of about 200 mph (321 kph), a speed that no novice jumper should experience.
At about 3000 feet (914m) above ground level, the instructor will pull a cord, releasing the main parachute canopy. Once the chute is fully deployed, the rate of descent will slow down and will be about 10 mph (16 kph) when the tandem jumpers land.
One of the most common ways to start within skydiving is tandem jumping, which involves you and an instructor exiting the plane and descending together.
The two parachutists remain attached until after the landing and the instructor is in complete control of the jump, the free fall and the canopy release. He or she pilots the paired skydivers both horizontally and vertically through the entire jump, so the novice can just enjoy the skydiving experience.
It allows you to get acquainted with skydiving with minimal risk, minimal anxiety and minimal training. Many people use this as a preliminary to static line or accelerated freefall training, and ultimately to solo jumping. It's also tends to be the cheapest option as you don't have to purchase or hire your own equipment and you require less pre-jump instruction.
Whereas most jump programs require several hours of ground instruction, very little training is needed to do a tandem jumping as a student. The novice must learn how to cooperate with the instructor in exiting the plane and descending, but this will usually take less than a couple of hours.
Within a few seconds of the two jumpers exiting the plane, the instructor will release the drogue - a small pilot chute. This helps slow the descent to the normal free fall speed of roughly 120 mph (193 kph). Without the drogue, the combined weight of the student and the instructor would result in a descent speed of about 200 mph (321 kph), a speed that no novice jumper should experience.
At about 3000 feet (914m) above ground level, the instructor will pull a cord, releasing the main parachute canopy. Once the chute is fully deployed, the rate of descent will slow down and will be about 10 mph (16 kph) when the tandem jumpers land.
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