Parachuting (Skydiving)
Parachuting, also known as skydiving, is where a person jumps from enough height so that they can deploy a fabric parachute and land safety.
A typical jump involves individuals jumping out of an aircraft at approximately 4.00 meters (around 13.000 feet) altitude, and free-faling for a period of time before activating a parachute to slow the landing down to safe speeds.
Once the parachute is opened, the jumber can control his or her direction and speed with toggles on the end of steering lines attached to the trailing edge of the parachute, and so he or she can aim for the landing site and come to a relatively gentle stop in a safe landing enviroment.
Some types of parachuting are:
- Accurancy landing – Landing as close as possible to a target.
- Base jumping – From buildings, antennas, bridges and cliffs.
- Big-ways – Formation skydiving with many people all falling belly to earth.
- Skysurfing – Skydiving with a board strapped to one’s feet.
- Wingsuit flying – Skydiving with a suit which provides extra lift, and powered skydiving where the wingsuit flyer adds propulsion.
There are ways to proctice different aspects of skydiving, without actually jumping. Vertical wind tunnels can be used to practice skills for free fall, while virtual reality parachute simulators can be used to practice parachute control.
Some training options are:
- Tandem skydiving (where a student is connected via a harness to a tandem instuctor).
- Static line (is a fixed cord attached to a large, stable object).
- Instructor Assisted Deployment
- Accelarated Freefall
For more useful information about parachuting please click on below links:
http://www.uspa.org/ United States Parachute Association
http://www.bpa.org.uk/ British Parachute Assiciation