Skydiving: Will you pack your own chute?

Mark Pawlak    skydiveworldwide     free fall parachuteing, freefall, parachute, parachute jump, skydiving

The jump is the moment. But skydiving’s not just as straightforward as turning up, suiting up, jumping in a plane and then jumping out of it. There’s much to be done before your feet even leave the floor…

Pack your own chute? Image: Flickr/Horia Varlan

Aside from the refresher training you might choose to do, most of your time will be spent on safety checks and briefings. And when it comes to packing your chute don’t worry, you don’t always have to. If you are happier if someone more experienced than you prepares it, jump schools and riggers are more than happy to help.

They also offer training and guidance how to pack your chute, which in the end could also save you money. There’s no one set way to pack a parachute, although you will come across the following in your time in the sport: Stack Packing, also called Side Packing; Roll Packing; Pro Packing; and Trash Packing.

Skydiving isn’t the cheapest of sports, even if the experience really is priceless. To help reduce the overall costs, finding somewhere to stay within a short drive of the jump site is well advised. If you are staying in New York then stay in a New York hostel rather than a hotel, and look out for local transport options or buses laid on by the jump school.

And there’s one further consideration before packing a chute: you should read the instructions! If you’ve any issues or worries, the best people to contact are those who built, trialed and developed it – it’s likely they know best!

Skydiving, parachuting, freefall: what’s the difference?

Mark Pawlak    skydiveworldwide     freefall, parachuting, skydiving

Yep, there’s a little confusion here, so let’s set about clearing it up.

Pilots practice with a 'chute'

Skydiving is parachuting. There you go! Freefall is a type of parachuting (you are in free fall after you jump and before you open your parachute) , as is ‘static line’. Another way to think about it is: skydiving is the sport, freefall is the fall!

A brief look at the history of parachuting also helps sort things out.

Leonard da Vinci sketched the first chute, although parachutes were seen in China way back in the 12th century – mainly as gimmicks to help with stunts and entertainment.

It’s the French who can accurately claim to have pioneered the first parachute. Jean Pierre Blanchard trialled it on his dog before giving it a go himself!

Pilots in the First World War soon found the parachute had a life-saving function, as they bailed out of their stricken craft.

The first ever freefall jump was by an American, Leslie Irvin, in 1919. From here, in the civilian world at least, there are now two clear roles for the parachute: safety and sport.

Static line parachuting

This is where you jump from a plane and the chute is pulled automatically as you exit. The pilot chute is joined to the inside of the plane, and is pulled when you exit the aircraft.

Your first jump is likely to be on a static line – if you’ve seen images of paratroopers leaving an aircraft en masse, they are jumping using a static line.

Freefall

Gets its name as you fall ‘free’ before you deploy your chute (you are also free from the aircraft as there is no static line). You pull your own chute, and after professional training and practice, can freefall for 20, 30, 40 seconds, often even longer.

And the longest freefall jump ever? That has to go to Joseph Kittinger who jumped from the edge of space!