Anyone into skydiving?

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Just a question seeing how many OCUK members are into the most exciting sport ever... Skydiving! :D Yes I'm a skydiver so I'm biased... but I'm interested in hearing what people think about it, if they know anything about it and whether or not they'd ever try it!

Also interested to find out for those of you who are in the sport, hearing your points of view, what DZs you go to and generally see how many computer gurus are nutters! Who knows I may have met some of you without even realising! :p

I'm not so closed minded as to hear people's disgust with the sport either! But what I do say is don't knock it till you try it! :D
 
"If at first you don't succed then skydiving isn't for you" :p

But seriously...personally, I would never go skydiving (at the moment at least). There is no way I would put my life into somebody else's hands completely like that. There are also small reasons like I don't like heights and that sort of thing doesn't 'turn me on' like it does proper skydivers etc. Bit too 'extreme', 'out of the box' for me if ya know what I mean :(
 
There are also small reasons like I don't like heights and that sort of thing doesn't 'turn me on' like it does proper skydivers etc. Bit too 'extreme', 'out of the box' for me if ya know what I mean

yeah that's a common concern - not many people are acrophiliacs (people who are excited by heights and that sort of thing) - I actually have/had a fear of falling & being out of control... and pushed myself to doing it when I got to uni - they had a skydiving club which i signed up to straight away!

I did the "static line" course - which is quite progressive but equally as frightening. Basically you get to 3.5k feet, and as you jump a line is connected to your parachute and the other end to the plane, so as you fall out of the plane it pulls open the parachute - when the parachute opens up all you can do is scream and shout cos that was the most amazing thing you've ever done in your life! You do feel like you are falling for a split second as you're lookin up at the plane you see it disappear above you and you see your parachute opening too! Always nice! :D

I understand your concern about "trusting"someone else for it. But what you must bear in mind is that owing to the nature of the sport, skydiving is therefore rendered very safe and saftey concious. It is also regulated by the aviation authority - giving it full government legislation and so on. Unlike bungee jumping which cna be setup by anyone... skydiving is very closely regulated, all the instructors have thousands of jumps and are very very experienced. There isn'treally any "cowboy" attitude with regards to the sport.

Once qualified you look after your own parachute (if you buy one) and so on - it feels a little better in a way too, and boosts your confidence as well - which always helps! :)

Also people seem to forget that you jump with a reserve parachute! Also 90% of incidents are caused by experienced skydivers (not students or beginners) doing flashy fast landings, or trying to do things beyond their capabilities or generally being a little stupid. As far as equipment malfunction, that is even rarer, you'd have more chance of winning the lottery than you would having a complete malfunction.

However if you spend all your effort thinking about the things that could go wrong you'd never do it! Just like getting in your car, you could have a fuel leak, you could hit someone, you could have a big rig crunch into you - you'd get so paranoid you'd stay at home!

Ok, so jumping out of a plane is a little different... there is no need. But it is an amazing rush - but it is also becoming safer and safer to do so!

It is an expensive hobby... There a lot of dropzones around the UK - but a good way to start is to go to South Africa or the States... ok so not REALLY that easy to do! :p Each dropzone around the country has different price structures for different types of training you can see the dropzones here: http://www.bpa.org.uk/dropzone/dzone.htm

A lot of people start off doing a tandem: that's where you're strapped to the instructor and he does everything. Some DZs will let you jump for free if you raise a certain amount for charity. It's a question of just how much you want to give it a go! The prices can range from 140 quid to 1300+!!! :eek: but it really depends on what you wanna do - and it also depends on how much kit you get and so on.

I think everybody should try it! :D
 
Oh and another thing... We don't use round canopies anymore! And you DON'T land like a sack of potatos!! :p

The actual canopy ride has become an integral part of the sport... but I have to say that I'm really into my formation skydiving stuff - there are loads of pictures and information available by looking on the link I supplied earlier.

I like driving fast cars, I like rock climbing, sailing and doing all sorts of stuff... but actually jumping out of a plane just blows everything else in comparison. It's remarkably peaceful and very very controlled... you have a LOT of control in the way you fall.

Certainly when abroad - I've just got back from the States on a skydiving holiday - it's really agreable when it's warm! I've jumped in shorts before and soem friends did a naked jump for charity! You are free to do what you want... it's like swimming really... though going up still proved to be a little difficult!! :D

you don't really get a "groundrush" feeling unless you start pulling low... i.e. anything below 2.5k

it really is dependent on skill level how mad you get... some people stay very calm and don't do much crazy stuff... whereas the more boysterous people go for more glory stunts.

Skydiving community is very close too, there is a real fraternity and really no rivalry - we are all in the same "game" so to speak... a good skydive is one that you land walk and laugh about with your mates.

No skydiving isn't for everybody... but the general rule is... once you try it you love it!! It is true to say some hate it... but then again not everyone likes chocolate!!! :confused:

Also along with the fact that it is a very close community, you get an excuse to behave like a student after the last jump (i.e. getting drunk), and the fact that most skydiving chicks are pretty fit, cool, and exciting to know - you get to be part of a very special group and a member of a very elite and minority club!

I'm hoping people will ask questions cos I really would love to spread the sport to people... even if just to observe or get educated about it rather than blow it off as being for nutters or people with half a brain cell and a deathwish... quite the opposite i would think! :p

Right back to solving peoples computing problems!

ta ta! ;)
 
oh cool!! which dropzone are you going to?! is this for charity or a one off thing that you wanted to try??

There is another progression system called AFF where you start off at 13.5k feet and are held by 2 instructors all the way to deployment at 5k... but that costs a lot more cos you are paying for all the stages up front - but you are usually guranteed to get your licence in a shorter period of time...

I really hope you enjoy it - you'll have to report back and let me know if you are going to join us in teh world of falling with style! :D

It's so high at 3.5k that you have no conceiveable idea of height or vertigo isn't even an issue - you'll be fiiiine! :p
 
I havnt made any firm plans other than to definitly give it a go this summer. I did look into it 4 or 5 years ago I think the AFF was about £650 back then. But I couldnt get any one I knew to give it a go. But the years are rushing by, so sod it Ill go on my own.

I cant renember where the place was, salisbury way I think, im in Poole Dorset so I know I need to travel a bit, unless anywhere has started up closer.

I figured its probobally best to try the static line first, just to see if the fear of hights is a problem.

I used to go window cleaning, but could only do downstairs. :D

TDF.
 
A few m8s and I tried to do some back in sixth form a few years ago. Dunno why but it never got off the ground (no pun intended). Would really like to give it a go but seems quite expensive.
 
I did six jumps in the early 80's. My DZ was at a place called Half Penny Green in Wolverhampton. Did the first one for charity, the next 4 were static and my last one was a 5 sec freefall. It is the most exciting thing I have ever done but I stopped because the place was about 40 miles from home. There was no mobile phones then so you could phone at 3 pm to see if the wind was OK and you could arrive at 4.30pm and it was too windy. This got on my nerves because the six jumps that I did I travelled about 1600 miles.

On my first jump I nearly hit the control tower and just missed a spike rail. My second jump was bang centre. The way we departed the plane was unnerving too. On command we had ten seconds to climb on a little step while holding on to the wing. As soon as we were in position we had to jump and push back off the wing counting 'One Thousand, two thousand' etc. It amazed me how the instructors knew you hadn't done your counting right from the ground through their powerful binoculars. I only got to one thousand on all five static jumps because the chute had opened by then.

It is easily the best thing I have ever done although my first Marathon was the most emotional.
 
I've always wanted to try this & my 21st is coming up in September, so I'd like to do something a bit special. I don't see myself getting a license or anything like that, just a one off (initially) jump. 1st of all, can this be done? What's a good height to start at? etc
 
Originally posted by Kingy
I've always wanted to try this & my 21st is coming up in September, so I'd like to do something a bit special. I don't see myself getting a license or anything like that, just a one off (initially) jump. 1st of all, can this be done? What's a good height to start at? etc

I did my jumps in the early 80's but you trained over two days and did a static line jump from 2,500 ft. The cost was £50 then. I went straight back up on the next plane and that cost me another £7. The jumps after that cost £7. I can't imagine what they charge now.
 
Originally posted by dmpoole
I did my jumps in the early 80's but you trained over two days and did a static line jump from 2,500 ft. The cost was £50 then. I went straight back up on the next plane and that cost me another £7. The jumps after that cost £7. I can't imagine what they charge now.

Up to a point the cost isn't that important, it'd be the experience... Well worth it I imagine. Do you know if courses like this still exist?
 
I'm always trying to convert people! :D sorry I haven't been posting recently I have been abroad... but now I am back and I am MORE than happy to chat about skydiving to you guys! (I kinda love the sport you see!! lol!)

Right taking each tread at a time (so you'll have to excuse me)!!

The DZ that TDF was talking about was at Netheravon - it's a military dropzone, but civies are alowed to jump there too - it's quite a nice DZ and they have a lot of cool planes to jump out of! :D There is a link to all the DZs I posted earlier in the discussion. The price porbably hasn't changed too much though it depends what that £650 was going to get you - it also is very dependent on the DZ - though overall they do charge around the same amount(ish!).

The best place to REALLY leap you into skydiving is to go abroad like the States or South Africa - it's a LOT cheaper - though of course you have got to be sure you want to do it - it's quite a trek to go all that way to find out your about to do spend more money on something you DON'T really want to do! ;)

A good start to skydiving is to either try a Static Line jump - or possibly a tandem jump. I think you'll like the static line jump TDF - when roughly will you be thinking of doing it?

Another point - if this doesn't cure your fear of heights... nothing will! :D

Personally, I started off doing static line and progressed through freefall and ended up getting my licence - but a lot of people struggle with the progression - and then convert to AFF because they are desperated to get onto proper freefall - which is understandable really!

Some friends of mine were stuck on static line for 20-30+ jumps... so you can understand their frustration when wanting to get onto freefall!! In my next post I'll talk a little about the differenced between Static Line and AFF and so on! :D

You'll have to let me know how you get on with your conquering of heights - hope that you go through with it!
 
Did a 12000 ft in Queenstown this year. The freefall was awesome. It was the clearest day with excellent views of most of the South Island. Whilst decending you could look around a see Lakes,Mountains etc where much of LOTR was filmed.

PS NZ is amazing.
 
To comment on silverpaw - it IS expensive but for what you get it's really rather reasonable - it depends also on the way you consider a lot of money - i.e. how much would you spend on a computer part, or on a car or whatever... it's all relative really!

Static line in general:

You start off by doing a days worth of training - and it does really last a whole day, they usually do it on weekends, but you can probably book yourself in on a weekday - it really depends on the place. Now in the states and other places static line courses are more rare - they prefer their AFF. Once fully trained and if you are very lucky you MIGHT be able to do a jump on the same day - but that is very weather dependent. What you are then supposed to do is, do 2/3 good stable static line jumps exits - and then you move onto DPs (dummy pulls) where they place a rip cord at the bottom of your container (where it would be located) but it is just the rip cord - it doesn;t DO anything as you are still on static line so the parachute still opens for you! The whole point of the DPs are to demonstrate that you are able to maintain a stable exit and body position whilst deploying your parachute. You have to do 3 GOOD DPs consecutively and then you can go on to your 1st 5 second freefall!!

Then the progression is as follows:

  • 2x 5 seconds
  • 2x 10 seconds
  • 2x 15secs (with wrist altimeter)
  • 1x 20 seconds
  • 1x 20 seconds with turns
  • 1x unstable exit + backloops
  • 1x dive exit, tracking turns
  • Qualifying jump called 1/2 series which is: dive exit, 1 left 360, 1 right 360, backloop, track

Up to 15 seconds you are taught to count the delay - i.e. one thousand, two thousand, three thousand and so on up till the total time of the delay, for eample, 10 seconds or fifteen seconds. now when you get onto fifteen seconds you are still supposed to count, but what you have to do is check the altimeter at 7seconds and then at 15seconds when you pull. Then your instructor will ask you for a recall. Now you may think this sounds easy, but when you are concentrating on gettin your body position right, and counting the time properly and generally starting to enjoy the fact that you are no longer vertical when you parachute deploys (like static line) - you are nicely horizontal staring at the horizon - and possibly have an instructor in front of you keeping an eye on you - but they are not allowed to touch or hold you (that's AFF and I will explain that later) - anyway back to the alti checking - you know if you've just looked at your watch and someone asks you the time... you have to re-check your watch don't you?! Well in GENERAL that's what people do - you don't conciously take note of the time - so it is one thing that you have to be very weary of - as obviously your altitude is somewhat important!!

Anyway to progress you have to remain stable, and not go drifting too much or generally going all over the place. Also you must learn to be altitude aware as you go higher (20 seconds and above), you also must learn to deploy your canopy on altitude rather than counting - and maintain a stable body position when you deploy - as deploying on your back isn't the prettiest or the best of things! :p When you get onto 20 seconds you have to learn to turn - and obviously you have to get this right before you progress. you have to do a left 360 and a right 360 - you pick out a heading on the horizon and you have to make sure that when you turn you get back on heading and so on. You have to prove your ability to be acurate - if your not then you could be potentialy a hazard for others!

When I say dive exit I mean stand and jump out of the plane towards the rear of the plane at 45 degrees - i.e. you pick a point between the tail and the horizon - that's the general rule! A normal exit on satic line until you get onto your dive exit, is a seated exit. You sit down, stick your legs out of the door and pivot yourself so as you jump out you are perpendicular to the plane and you hit the slip stream with your chest and your body square on - by doing this you won't twist or flip around and you should get stable nice and evenly. Some people have difficulties with the seated exits but if you get it right it works fine. Also it is required for a static line exit - if you think about it, you don't want a line to be stuck to your back and you jump out head first... it might end up between or your legs or something hideous like that!!! :eek:

The unstable exit is probably one of the best exits and the most fun jump you get to do in RAPS... basically the instructor throws you out and you are supposed to keep an unstable position for about 6 seconds, then arch and get yourself stable. This is to prove and to get you to practice getting yourself out of an unstable position if ever you have a problem. My unstable exit was great... I was sat by the door chin tucked into my knees arms around my legs tucked into a little ball, and I got an almight shove out of the door... I saw, green, white blue, green white blue faster and faster! woohoo this is soooo fun - oh oops I've got to arch now... so I arched and bang, I was stable - it's amazing how amazingly well it works!

For a practical demonstration you can try doing this... get an ordinary piece of A4 - though if you can cut it into a square so much the better... anyway, drop that piece of paper... what happens? it flaps around and falls really uneavenly. Now make a fist and scrunch the paper AROUND your fist so that it folds into a little bit of a bowl shape... now drop the paper - you'll see that the curved edge of the paper will be at the bottom and it'll fall really stably without flipping or anything. Try dropping it upside down... i.e. with the "bowl" area facing the ground... what happens? It flips over and the curved area is back facing the ground - it's the same principle with skydiving - when you arch with your belly towards the ground - and your legs ups and arms high you are making a hollow on your back, and a curve on your belly, and it's doing the same effect than on that on the paper - however we have rudders and everythings!

Tracking is essentially horizontal movement across the sky - used mainly to get away from formations - though you learn these skills much before you actually do any formation work - they are vital core skills to have. As you can imagine deploying your parachute near other people can be harzardous! The earlier you master these skills the more competent you become at doing them instinctively. Now I hardly thinkg about how I move... I just think... right, I want to go there, and I go there - just like looking up a tree, or crossing the road, you look instinctively, and you walk and move instinctively with how you feel you have judged the situation. The less you think about htings and do things by instinct the least likely you are to make mistakes! :D well that's the theory!

When you've proved your competency to control your movements your instructors will tell you to get onto your 1/2 series. Now this basically invovles you in doing a sequence of moves to prove you can do a controlled skydive. Oh by the way I forgot to say that from your unstable exit you start jumping at 13,500 feet. And your 20s you jump from around 7/8000ft... It goes up the longer the delay (obviously!) - but as you become more of an expert you can start pulling lower - the UK minimum is 2,500ft... but to be honest... that's bloody low!

Anyway when I did the static line course each jump was around £30 though my uni subsidised it and I got £9 back - which is actually pretty damn good. The intial course, which makes you a member of the BPA for the year, gives you the days training, and your first jump is £140 approximately - this is from the DZ that I went to in Nottingham - called Langar (see my previous post for the URL of all the DZs).

If you are GOOD you can get your "A Licence" in 16 jumps - which is a certificate issued by the FAI (Federation Aeronautique International) stating that you are no longer a "student" jumper and that you have the basic required skills to jump by yourself and entitles you to jump abroad and move on to formation skydiving and so on. On average however people typically do it between 20-30 jumps, I did mine in 24. Unfortunately I did mine over winter - nov/dec - which meant that 13000ft was bloody cold! lol! And there are a few rules when you are on static line that you must jump once every 3 months, and to progress they prefer you to leave a gap of no more than a few weeks - if you exceed that they'll give you a free retrain or recap - it really does depend on how comfortable or proficient you have been to day! So if you bear in mind you can do it in 16 jumps, plus the £140 to join - WITHOUT the uni subsidy for jump tickets - the cost comes to about £600 very roughly - which in one chunk is a lot... but spread over a few months isn't too bad - that's one of the advantages of static line over AFF... the gradual thing. However you have to probably spend another 150 or so realistically!! Then you have to buy yourself and altimeter (approx £90) a helmet (from £50-£££!), some goggles (£8), a knife (£5), a jumpsuit (from £100-£200)... so it all clocks up... though there is a lot of second hand stuff which is very good and reliable (besides you know it works! :D) - and it does bring the cost down - by about 50% in most cases. Then if you're really rich you can buy yourself a parachute!! But a brand new one can cost up to over £3500!!! Excluding the parachute, you can easily spend close to a grand on jumping and accessories!

It now leads me on to AFF which I will do on another post cos I need to pop out now! so please bear with me! Any questions so far?
 
I did my jumps in the early 80's but you trained over two days and did a static line jump from 2,500 ft. The cost was £50 then. I went straight back up on the next plane and that cost me another £7. The jumps after that cost £7. I can't imagine what they charge now.

Up to a point the cost isn't that important, it'd be the experience... Well worth it I imagine. Do you know if courses like this still exist?

To be honest I am not 100% sure if these sort of courses still exist. I would agree that that would be a perfect way to start and certainly you'd get the experience! Though that was 20 years (ish) ago! As far as the experience I personally think it's priceless! And if you don't like it, you can at least say that you've tried it - you've jumped out of a plane!! :eek: That's pretty cool conversation to have with someone! Well actually I find some people think I'm completely nuts and are worried about talking to me in case I do something stupid... and others are totally fascinated and want to know more! :D I have to say that more often than not people are in awe or at least impressed! :D

One thing I would suggest is to find your local dropzone and give them a bell and ask if they are happy to do that sort of deal - if not they may know of a place that does do it! Certainly the bunch of people I know how run the Oxford Stunt Factory who run a bungee jumping thing do that very thing - your first jump is £40 and your second is £15 - it's a good idea for getting people into these activites.

I would guess it would be more expensive nowdays as there is a lot of training that is involved and the staff is always quite busy - though you have to bear in mind also that the kit nowdays is more expensive too (so rental prices are higher) - the Static Line course I talked about does cover a lot of things, including your first jump - so if you knock that off you're actually paying £90 for a days worth of training and so on - I think it is pretty reasonable. The problem is you have to try it to get the bug... There is no description that really does it justice!!

I'm quite happy to see that there are a lot of you guys who have actually tried it:

Did a 12000 ft in Queenstown this year. The freefall was awesome. It was the clearest day with excellent views of most of the South Island. Whilst decending you could look around a see Lakes,Mountains etc where much of LOTR was filmed.

I have heard that NZ is pretty incredible, that is another place that would be worth doing AFF as well as Oz. The views you must have got would have been amazing!!! I'm SO jealous!! I'm also glad you enjoyed the jump! You wanna do it again?!

There are some cool pics and stuff here - you'll be able to see some static line jumps there and some more fun things.

But as I keep saying check out the earlier link for all the dropzones around the country, they have their own websites - with their pictures and prices! :D

You can also go to Google.co.uk and make sure you search uk pages, and just type in skydiving... you'll get LOADSA info. However I am MORE than happy to share my experiences and advice with you all! :)
 
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This is an excellent post. Lots of useful info.

saves thread...

I looked into doing this last year. I think it worked out to about £1100 for the AFF course you talk about. I still cant afford it atm but I may have a new job soon so i'll have another look then.

Just a quick question. How would you go about getting your liscence in America? Can you book it whilst your out there? It would make an excellent holiday and I really would like to give it a go.

I havent looked in the link you posted yet but I will do tomorrow.

:thumbsup:
 
Originally posted by freefaller2001
this is from the DZ that I went to in Nottingham - called Langar (see my previous post for the URL of all the DZs).

I went to Loughborough uni and one of my house mates was into skydiving and used to jump there.

It seemed that his life was dominated by the weather, first thing he'd do in the morning is find out if it was good to jump, and if so he was gone for the day.
 
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