GAMAgazine ONLINE

A Basic Knowledge of Skydiving

The sky is blue and the weather is so fine. The wind is blowing so gently that all you want to do is fly, to enjoy a breath-taking view from up above. Sitting on an airplane is not enough for you, but you don’t have wings to fly. What can you do to make your wish come true? Skydiving is the answer.

Tandem Skydiving

There are skills that you must have to “dive” in the sky. If you have no experience, you can try tandem skydiving. Tandem skydiving is a kind of skydiving where you’re physically attached to the instructor with a harness. With an instructor flying together with you, you don’t need to be confused about what you should do up there. You and the instructor will flare the same canopy for a nice soft landing. But before you reach the ground, you can enjoy the wonderful experience of leaving your aircraft off 13,000 feet from the ground, free falling for about one minute, descending with the parachute slowly for about 5 minutes to enjoy beautiful scenery and a cool breeze on your face. Experience is not indeed but your safety you’d better weigh no more than 115 kilos/.

Accelerated Free Fall

Still being supervised by an instructor, you can also try the accelerated free fall. Unlike tandem skydiving, in accelerated free fall the instructor is flying by your side, not attached to you, coaching you by using hand signals, and assisting you, if necessary, during your nearly one minute freefall. The instructor will leave you after you open your parachute and you can safety land with radio assistance. Accelerated free fall is the easiest way for you to achieve your first skydiving certification. It requires only 8 jumps to get it. For accelerated free fall your weight should not be more than 120 kilos.

License requirements

After graduating from accelerated free fall, you need another requirement to skydive with other skydivers. It means you have to gain an “A” license. To be eligible, you must have 20 jumps and be able to do relative work with other divers in the air with you. Relative work consists of some basic skills that you have to carry out in each skydive. To do save relative work, you should pay attention to:

• Exit technique
• Neutral box body position
• Up/down movement
• Forward/backward movement
• Sideward movement
• Center point turns
• Swooping to a formation
• Freefall safety
• Canopy control and safety
• Packing the parachutes after landing

An “A” license is the key for you to enter advanced skydiving. After you get an “A” license, you can get “B” and then “C” license. There is no other way to get that license s except by doing more and more jumps. For example, to do free flying, you should have an “A” license first and a minimum of 25 jumps. Freeflying is the ability to fly in any position, in any direction, at any speed at any given time. You can do it with your head down, sit, stand, or any style of flying you can create in your own mind. It’s like dancing in the air.

Dare to dive in the sky? Why don’t you try taking a few jumps? Who knows, you may have a talent in creating your own style of flying. And, you won’t need to be a bird to feel how amazing it is to fly up above beautiful scenery. Through skydiving, you can fulfill your wish!