Tandem skydiving
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Tandem skydiving refers to a type of skydiving where a student skydiver is connected via a harness to a tandem instructor. The instructor guides the student through the whole jump from exit through freefall, piloting the canopy, and landing. The student needs only minimal instruction before making a tandem jump.
Tandem skydiving is a very popular training method for first time skydivers, but it is more expensive than a static line skydive. It exposes first-time jumpers to skydiving with minimal expectations from the student. The training may consist of many of the activities performed by any skydiving student, for example, how to exit the aircraft, how to do maneuvers in freefall, and how to deploy the main canopy themselves. However, the tandem master remains primarily responsible for safe and timely parachute deployment.
[edit] Equipment
Tandem skydiving requires equipment with several differences from normal sport skydiving rigs. All modern tandem skydiving systems use a drogue parachute, which is deployed shortly after leaving the plane in order to slow the freefall speed of two people down to that of a single skydiver. This is necessary for proper parachute deployment, lengthening the duration of the skydive, and allowing the skydivers to fall at the same speed as videographers. Tandem skydiving systems also use larger main parachutes (360 square feet and larger) to support the additional weight of two passengers.
[edit] Instructor certification
Tandem instructors are required to pass an instructor certification course for the system they jump before skydiving with students.
Most countries have varying laws or regulations allowing who may skydive with a passenger or student. In the United States, the FAA requires every potential instructor to have over five hundred individual skydives and three years of skydiving experience.
The Instructors usually carry two parachutes with them. If in case there is malfunctioning in one of them, the system monitoring the fall from ground automatically detects it and releases the second parachute when you are at 2000 ft above ground. The free fall usually lasts for a maximum of 40 seconds before the parachute is released.
[edit] Links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Parachuting |
- Skydiving at the Open Directory Project
