Skydiving Guide : Tandem Jumps (Training Method)
Tandem jumping is the focus of this installment of our go skydiving guide.
In tandem jumping – a popular way to start skydiving – a beginner jumper and an instructor are attached together by a harness. They exit the plane and descend together, remaining attached throughout.
The instructor has complete control of the jump, including the free fall, canopy release and landing. He or she steers the two attached jumpers both horizontally and vertically; the novice can simply relax and enjoy the jump.
This lets a beginner experience skydiving with the least possible training, risk and stress. Many people follow tandem jumping with static line or accelerated freefall training, and ultimately with solo jumping. Tandem jumping is also usually cheaper than other options as jumper need very little instruction and need not buy or hire their own equipment.
Whereas most jump programs require several hours of ground instruction, very little training is needed to do a tandem jumping as a student. The novice must learn how to cooperate with the instructor in exiting the plane and descending, but this will usually take less than a couple of hours.
Within a few seconds of the two jumpers exiting the plane, the instructor will release the drogue – a small pilot chute. This helps slow the descent to the normal free fall speed of roughly 120 mph (193 kph). Without the drogue, the combined weight of the student and the instructor would result in a descent speed of about 200 mph (321 kph), a speed that no novice jumper should experience.
At about 3000 feet (914m) above ground level, the instructor will pull a cord, releasing the main parachute canopy. Once the chute is fully deployed, the rate of descent will slow down and will be about 10 mph (16 kph) when the tandem jumpers land.