The Tandem parachute - true innovation in aviation sports
Tandem parachute skydiving is a relatively new concept, and the first real two-person under one parachute skydive happened in 1977(1). Then some clever parachute engineers in the US started along the innovation road and in 1983, the first properly engineered tandem parachute system was jumped by its inventor. Four years later in 1987 a US patent was awarded to Ted Strong for the dual hawk tandem parachute system. Today there are about a million people worldwide who make their first jump this way, every year and that number is rising fast. That sounds like a lot and of course it is, but when there are six billion people in the world, we realise we are just scratching the surface. Like to know a more about what happens on a tandem skydive? Our section gives you the full unbiased report without the hype. Because we see the big picture, we also know where the best skydiving deals are to be had in UK. We're currently researching the best deals in other countries, so we'd love to receive and pass on your recomendations.
Before the tandem parachute arrived, this sport could only be experienced by an elite few who usually committed themselves to paying large sums to feed their addiction. Many skydivers would travel many miles and to other continents to experience different and larger aircraft and large formation 'boogies'. In those days many drop zones would find it almost impossible to make a business case for a turbine aircraft which could climb fast and deliver on a promise of high volumes of jumps. Tandem skydiving changed all of that and now it has become the consumer product that supports the specialist skydiving fraternity. Those fast climbing Cessna Grand Caravans and Turbolets provide the production capacity to allow a normal drop zone to make over a hundred tandem parachute jumps in a single day, subject of course to the vaguaries of the weather.
Nowadays the tandem parachute is just part of a system. The other parts are the instructors who are specially selected and trained to deal with pretty much any situation which is thrown at them. They have to stay 'current' and be fully au fait with all their emergency drills. Its a bit like the difference between a private pilot and a commercial pilot - if you're going to be responsible for other lives as well as your own you'd better be 'up' for it. Some of the other essential parts of the system are the reception booking staff, the parachute packing teams, the parachute technicians who maintain the equipment and the pilots who deliver the package to the right place. All in all, its become a process, which is being continually improved and which always needs to be monitored and supervised.
Life before Tandem Skydiving
Before the tandem parachute system, if you wanted to experience free fall, you had to either go through the conventional (or traditional) static line course and then do a minimum of six jumps using a static line before you could be cleared to do a three second freefall – that’s what we ‘in the trade’ call a ‘hop and pop’ or a ‘clear and pull’ (depends on which side of the world you hail from). That’s a whole three seconds in free fall! (wow!) Not really much to get into, and when I went free fall it for the first time (a long time ago) I was more concerned about making sure I pulled the ripcord for my parachute and that I stayed stable. (2) I have to say that my first free fall was a tense time for me and I suspect for many others. I really wish we would have had the option to try a tandem first and it would have prepared me very well for what fun was to follow (and it really is fun, take my word for it).
Accelerated free fall - altitude plus attitude
The other alternative, also relatively new (developed in the US by Ken Coleman, approved in 1980 and introduced to UK in 1984) is the accelerated freefall course, which gets you up to twelve thousand feet or more on your first skydive with two specially trained instructors holding onto your harness after a full day ground school. In some countries, such as Australia a tandem skydive is incorporated into the AFF system to give an early taste of the free fall aspect and get over any ‘sensory overload’ and also get used to altitude awareness and pulling the parachute for yourself.
BASE
The other option for people to taste some free fall was (and still is) to jump off a tall building, aerial, bridge or cliff. That’s called a BASE jump and it’s clearly outside of the scope of this site and definitely not recommended by us until you get licensed and further advanced in skydiving (and even then only after you take some specialist training).
Tandem risk and safety
Tandem skydiving continues to grow and to serve its market. There are those who have likened tandem parachute jump to a 'fairground ride' and perhaps they consider that because the student is attached to the instructor that they are entirely, completely 100% safe. Guess what? They're wrong! The reality is that this remains a risk sport and there is stil, the chance of serious injury or even death. Here at acceleratedfreefall.com we recomend that if you are considering making a skydive on the front of tandem parachute that you read properly the requirements of the drop zone, especially those which refer to your height/weight ratio. If you are over fifteen stones in weight, you should think very carefully about making a skydive until you have trimmed your weight down to that level. This can seem pretty hard on those who are very lean muscle and heavier than this, weight but there are exceptions. Remember it's not just about the landing, but you need to consider how your flesh moves after being attached into a harness which is then subjected to 120 mph slipstream.
There is a full section on tandem skydiving on our site where you can research further, or perhaps you're raring and ready to go tandem skydiving and you just want to know the best deals we've found so far.
Do you have any stories questions, comments or reviews about your skydiving experience?
If we haven't yet managed to answer all your questions, then we'll keep trying. If you have any questions or would like to share your thoughts with us about any aspect of making your first skydive, you'd be very welcome to register on acceleratedfreefall.com and use our free 'dive doctor' service from qualified and experienced skydiving instructors to answer any questions you may have. You're invited to publish and blog your views and reports about your first skydive on this site. You'll see the registration form on the left of this page. It's free and we promise to respect your privacy.
Perhaps you'd be interested in reading about accelerated free fall ? here on our site
Here's another option to consider - Indoor skydiving in a wind tunnel is fun, has fewer restrictions and you can do it with your friends, family and colleagues in corporate team building sessions. It also doesn't matter if you're fearful of heights or flying or if you're too young to skydive. So I reckon its great for just about anyone!
or would you like to go back to the home page and look around at the other aspects of our site? just click this link
1. I’m an engineer and a skydiving instructor. In this piece I’m not talking about tandem parachuting or paragliding or soaring or anything which doesn’t involve free fall, and I’m not talking about things which were only ever drawings and may never really have been jumped. I’m talking about reality in the context of modern tandem skydiving.
2. It's very important to stay stable and face to earth during and after parachute is activated, in order to enhance the chances of a ‘clean’ deployment that doesn't tangle on anything.
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