Skydiving Skydiving is something that you probably see all the time. Every major soft drink company has done a commercial with skydivers in it. Lots of action films feature skydivers. Skydiving appears in reality shows.

The sport definitely has an edge to it. There is something about leaping from a plane and falling through the air at 120 miles per hour that really gets people's attention.

Have you ever wondered how skydiving works?

What kind of equipment do skydivers use?

How safe is skydiving as a sport?

How do you become a skydiver and how much does it cost?

Tandem Skydive

Most people experience skydiving by doing a tandem jump strapped onto a qualified instructor

You get to jump from 15,000ft and travel at speeds of over 120 mph before the parachute is deployed

The parachute is built for two for a very soft landing

Learning to Skydive

You can learn to skydive with 2 instructors who teach you while flying in freefall at 120mph

You learn to make yourself unstable then prove you can recover and deploy your parachute before you qualify

This course qualifies you as a skydiver in only 8 jumps which is why it is called accellerated Freefall

Static Line

New skydivers can learn to fly a parachute before learning freefall by doing a static line course

When they leave the aircraft the parachute is automatically deployed for you

You progress slowly and become qualified in approx 30 jumps

Video & Photos

Skydivers wear cameras on thier heads to take photos and vodeo skydivers

You can take a DVD of your tandem skydive or photos home with you

Parachutes

Parachutes come in all sizes from 300 sq ft to 79 sq ft for the very experienced pilots

Skydivers have to pack thier own parachutes or can pay a packer to do it for them

Formation Skydiving

Formation skydiving is when a group of skydivers get together and make as many different formations as possible within 1 minute

The record is 43 points achieved by a french competition team

Canopy Formation

Canopy formation is when a group of skydivers fly the parachutes together and hold onto them to make different formations.

You need 100 skydives before your allowed to do this

Freefly

Some skydivers now prefer to fly upside down or standing up which is called freefly skydiving

This has only become popular over the past couple of years

Most new skydivers now want to freefly

Swooping

Skydivers with small fast canopies love to fly at speed over water, this is called swooping

Only skydivers with over 500 jumps are allowed to do this because if you get it wrong it can be dangerous

Birdman

Skydivers who jump with winged suits are called birdmen

When they fly together they are called a flock of birdmen

The advantage is they get to fly for twice as long as formation skydivers

Accuracy

Accuracy is a competition to see who can land on the smallest point

This is one of the oldest parachute competitions

Parachute Displays

Skydivers have jumped into many events promoting the sport and these are called parachute displays

You need a minimum of 200 skydivers before your allowed to jump into a display

World Records

The first 100 formation skydive was done in 1999

The largest formationskydive is now 400

The Largest Canopy Formation was achieved this year with 100 skydivers holding each others parachutes

Fun & Excitment

Skydiving is all about having as much fun as you can in a very short period of time

There are now a lof of skydiving game on the internet for children and adults

Skydiving Challenges

Skydivers can be very creative and are always trying to do things that have never been done before

The photos show one guy landing in a speeding boat and another gou not wearing his parachute – (Dont try this at home)

Skydiving Stunts

Very experienced skydivers organise and take part in skydiviong stunts for TV & Film

TV Adverts

Many companies have used skydiving to advertise thier products on TV

This is becuase its a very visual way to get attention

Skydivers can get sponsored by large companies who want thier logo or name seen in a very vissible manner

Sponsorship

Famous People

Many famous people have done a skydive, here is a photo of president Bush.

James Bond always looks good skydiving but never does it himself, he has a stunt man to take his place

Wind Tunnels

Now anyone can learn to skydive at any age in a wind tunnel

This new way of skydiving now lets skydivers train without having to worry about the parachute flight or being in real freefall

These photo’s were taken in Roosendal wind tunnel, one of the best in Europe