Choosing A Method Of Skydiving Lessons

There are three options you can choose from when taking skydiving lessons. Which you decide to do will depend on how much time you have, how much you are willing to spend for instruction and how well you handle your nerves. For your first jump during skydiving lessons you can choose between tandem, static line and accelerated freefall or AFF. Each of these methods varies in how much skydiving lessons are involved. Some are just a quick experience in skydiving while others offer a full first jump course that starts you towards becoming a certified skydiver. You will want to consider the experience each of these methods has to offer and choose the one that appeals to you the most.

Tandem Skydiving

For the first jump many choose tandem for their skydiving lessons. This allows individuals to experience skydiving first-hand without having to deal with the stress of a more involved program. Many schools will offer two types of tandem skydiving lessons: either as a fun jump or as the first step to further skydiving lessons. For a fun jump you typically only go through thirty minutes of ground instruction while the other type will require a standard first jump course that can take up to four hours or more. With tandem skydiving you will jump while attached to the instructor and follow some basic instructions. If you don’t remember what to do the instructor can easily take over control of the jump.

Static Line Jumps

Over a period of thirty years, static jumping has changed from the original military use into an effective method of training sport parachuting. With this option your skydiving lessons will consist of four to five hours of ground training and then you will jump from about 3,000 feet. You follow a poised exit from the aircraft and a static line deploys your main canopy. You get about two to three seconds of falling experience before the parachute opens.

You will have about fifteen minutes of preparation before a second static line jump and then you will be trained to pull the ripcord by yourself after about two good jumps with the static line. Although you will still do three more static line jumps while pulling a dummy ripcord to show you are ready even though the static line is still deploying your parachute for you. Then you will be cleared for your first freefall jump.

Accelerated Freefall

This AFF program started in 1982 as accelerated skydiving lessons compared to the method of static training. This is the best option if you want a true taste of the modern sport of skydiving. You will often have about five hours of ground training because you will have to do a fifty second freefall on your own during the first jump. Then you will jump from about ten to twelve thousand feet while being assisted throughout the jump by two instructors. You then pull your own ripcord at about four thousand feet.