Skydiving Lessons

Information on skydiving lessons is what you're after. I recognize your type from the mirror. You peer out of the window and lean over the sill if the building is high. As you drive over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge or the Delaware Memorial, part of you wants to stop the car and lean over the railing, just to look down. It is time for you to take skydiving lessons.

Skydiving and skydiving lessons are overseen, informally but protectively, by the United States Parachuting Association. This group represents the interest of the sport before the Federal Aeronautics Administration. It ensures that safety standards are maintained.

Skydiving Lessons in Practice

Skydiving lessons are given at drop zones, based almost always at local or regional airports, by certified instructors and experienced skydivers. The cost for a first drop runs about $250. This figure will decrease as you continue in the sport.

Skydiving needn't be a dangerous sport. Heeding safety precautions is important, and will keep you safe. Lessons involve four hours of ground training and a choice of three training methods. These methods are tandem freefall, static line, and accelerated freefall.

After listening to a lecture for four hours, you fly in a small plane to about 10,000 feet. You follow protocol and jump out of the airplane in a harness and parachute. You freefall for about 6,000 feet at about 120 miles per hour, or 165 feet per minute. You release the parachute, also known as the canopy, and fall the remaining 4,000-odd feet at about 1,000 feet per minute. You land. You walk away. You come back for more.