EnterTheVoid Posted May 30, 2011 Author Posted May 30, 2011 2. Free fall places immense physical stress on your body. One of the conditions in the contract you sign asks you to clearly state whether you suffer from any medical conditions like high blood pressure, stress fractures, hyper anxiety or anything that will affect your judgement during the dive. The reason is, during freefall, your body undergoes forces in the areas of 3 - 4 g. At 8 g and above, your body completely blacks out and you lose all consciousness as blood is being pulled away from your head and pushed towards your body. In other words, your brain is being starved of oxygen.
EnterTheVoid Posted May 30, 2011 Author Posted May 30, 2011 The key to any extreme risk taking activity --- bungy jumping, base jumping, scuba diving whatever -- is to keep calm. If you are calm, you are total control. If you panic, you lose the plot. You start breathing irregularly, your heart pumps blood at near or close to breaking point and in general, too much physical stress is placed on your body. It starts affecting you mentally and your judgement and reaction times are seriously comprised. It may not apply to doing a tandem sky dive but if you end up doing one of these on your own without external help, these are things to keep in mind.
Mariyam Posted May 30, 2011 Posted May 30, 2011 Thanks for sharing all the pics and the info Sree. :icflove:
punjabi_khota Posted May 30, 2011 Posted May 30, 2011 2. Free fall places immense physical stress on your body. One of the conditions in the contract you sign asks you to clearly state whether you suffer from any medical conditions like high blood pressure, stress fractures, hyper anxiety or anything that will affect your judgement during the dive. The reason is, during freefall, your body undergoes forces in the areas of 3 - 4 g. At 8 g and above, your body completely blacks out and you lose all consciousness as blood is being pulled away from your head and pushed towards your body. In other words, your brain is being starved of oxygen. :hmmmm2: Doesn't 'freefall' by definition mean a force of 1 g :dontknow:
EnterTheVoid Posted May 30, 2011 Author Posted May 30, 2011 Thanks for sharing all the pics and the info Sree. I am a student skydiver so I don't quite know the exact ins and outs that professional skydivers would. The reason I posted all this is because there is a lot of misconception and fear about this sport. The perceived danger is actually a lot greater than the actual danger and this comes about, mainly due to a lack of information. By doing this, hopefully those that have wanted to try this but have been putting it off will understand that skydiving as a sport, is not beyond the realms of possibility. Your average Joe with little or no knowledge, training or experience can do this, if they really wanted to.
Mariyam Posted May 30, 2011 Posted May 30, 2011 Sree, this may sound like a dumb question, but don't you get to jump/dive alone? Or is it always with an instructor? This was your second time, wasn't it? How many such jumps till you can do it on your own? PS: I don't think I'll ever have the courage to do this kind of stuff. Ever. Once again, thanks for all the informative posts.
punjabi_khota Posted May 30, 2011 Posted May 30, 2011 Was watching Seinfeld yesterday. Raised an interesting question: Why do skydivers wears helmets ? Jumping from 10000 feet, its not like they have gotten chance in hell to survive if the parashoot doesn't open
EnterTheVoid Posted May 30, 2011 Author Posted May 30, 2011 Doesn't 'freefall' by definition mean a force of 1 g During free fall, two parachutes are pulled. When two people jump (i.e. the instructor + the student skydiver), the combined mass is heavier than if a single diver were to jump by themselves. The combined weight will mean the tandem skydivers will fall faster than a single skydiver. Now the issue here is, if you fall at speeds in excess of 200 kilo meters per hour and you suddenly decelerate to speeds in the region of ~ 20 kilo meters per hour in a spate of 2 - 3 seconds when the main parachute is pulled, its very likely that the parachute will not be able to withstand that much stress and simply rip out of the backpack. For this reason, when we do a tandem sky dive, the instructor pulls a parachute before the main parachute called the "drogue chute". The drogue chute basically serves to slow you down. You don't actually experience the 3 - 4 g force for the duration of the sky dive but only when the parachutes are pulled. Since two parachutes are pulled in free fall, the drogue just 2 - 3 seconds after exiting the plane and the main canopy parachute towards the end of the sky dive, I don't quite know at which one you experience the sudden g - force. But yeah, to clarify, you don't experience the 3 - 4 g for the entire duration of the sky dive. Thats a mistake on the explaining of my part.
ravishingravi Posted May 30, 2011 Posted May 30, 2011 During free fall, two parachutes are pulled. When two people jump (i.e. the instructor + the student skydiver), the combined mass is heavier than if a single diver were to jump by themselves. The combined weight will mean the tandem skydivers will fall faster than a single skydiver. Now the issue here is, if you fall at speeds in excess of 200 kilo meters per hour and you suddenly decelerate to speeds in the region of ~ 20 kilo meters per hour in a spate of 2 - 3 seconds when the main parachute is pulled, its very likely that the parachute will not be able to withstand that much stress and simply rip out of the backpack. For this reason, when we do a tandem sky dive, the instructor pulls a parachute before the main parachute called the "drogue chute". The drogue chute basically serves to slow you down. You don't actually experience the 3 - 4 g force for the duration of the sky dive but only when the parachutes are pulled. Since two parachutes are pulled in free fall, the drogue just 2 - 3 seconds after exiting the plane and the main canopy parachute towards the end of the sky dive, I don't quite know at which one you experience the sudden g - force. But yeah, to clarify, you don't experience the 3 - 4 g for the entire duration of the sky dive. Thats a mistake on the explaining of my part. True. I was informed of this 10 years back by this kick ass informative movie I9K0ZvBtsUg nKOBZSPKvTE
EnterTheVoid Posted May 30, 2011 Author Posted May 30, 2011 Sree' date=' this may sound like a dumb question, but don't you get to jump/dive alone? Or is it always with an instructor?[/quote'] You can jump solo Mariyam but that comes after a lot of training, course work and practice sky dives. At this stage of my life, I am not in a position to undertake the amount of rigorous training required to get the necessary qualifications needed to perform solo sky dives. Solo skydiving requires a lot of risk on the part of the skydiver. For instance, consider the following picture that shows the instructor checking his altitude meter during free fall. -- REMOVED -- There are a million things that are going through his head; 1. How high are we in terms of altitude? 2. How do I maintain control of my body during free fall? If I didn't exit the plane properly, can I still maintain proper control of my body? 3. Is there a chance I could collide with the other sky diver? 4. Will my parachute deploy in time? 5. If the main parachute fails, will the backup parachute open up in time? 6. Am I far away from the other parachute so that I when I pull the parachute, our parachutes don't get tangled? 7. What if a sudden gust of wind throws me off course? 8. Can I see the drop zone clearly? If there is too much cloud cover, I wouldn't be able to see where I am supposed to land. etc .. Way too much stress for me too handle. I rather do this once or twice and just tick it off my bucket list.
Holysmoke Posted May 30, 2011 Posted May 30, 2011 Para sailing sounds really awesome, where did you do it ? Also, its comparatively easier, $150 compared to $500 for a sky dive. What about glasses ? Is there a danger they could fly off ? Another reason why I am thinking of getting laser eye surgery. Para-sailing is time pass. Nice to get some fresh air. 0 on the adrenaline meter. Its totally chilled out. Riding a Jetski solo is much higher on the adrenalin meter. It's a lot of fun, especially when the water is a lil rough. Even riding an ATV over rough terrain is a lot of fun. :icflove:
EnterTheVoid Posted May 30, 2011 Author Posted May 30, 2011 The guy in the white jump suit has been jumping since 1977 and has a ridiculous 10, 000 --- yep 10, 000 jumps -- under his belt. Took comfort in his experience and just keep calm. This guy knows what he is doing.
EnterTheVoid Posted May 30, 2011 Author Posted May 30, 2011 True. I was informed of this 10 years back by this kick ass informative movie nKOBZSPKvTE The part about the skydivers being able to hear each other in free fall is factually incorrect. In free fall, you simply cannot hear anything due to the sheer ferocity of the wind. To overcome this obstacle, we communicate to each other using hand signals. Upon exiting the plane, the instructor taps me twice on my arms. That tap tells me that we are in free fall and I should extend my arms and arch back as far as possible. Before pulling the main parachute, the instructor waves to the other skydiver, telling him that its time to bail and he's about the deploy the parachute.
Stuge Posted May 30, 2011 Posted May 30, 2011 :woot:I want to do it too pheck I live in Dilli ..:| :mad:
EnterTheVoid Posted May 30, 2011 Author Posted May 30, 2011 Last bit of trivia I can think of; 1. For every 1, 000 feet in altitude, theres a corresponding 2 degree drop in temperature. So, a jump from altitude of 15, 000 feet corresponds to a temperature drop of 30 degrees. So if the ground temperature is say 10 degrees, at 15, 000 feet, the temperature is -20 degrees. This is why the gloves are worn. ---- Have you ever wondered about the shape and design of the plane? Take a closer look at this plane, it doesn't have any propellers on either of its wings. Even if the plane did have side propellers, the exit door would be located behind them. The reason for this is that when you jump out, you don't get sucked into the blades of the plane.
EnterTheVoid Posted July 1, 2011 Author Posted July 1, 2011 Anything you want to ask, fire away. Just have faith in your abilities and you will amaze yourself at what you can achieve. You don't have to be superman to do this.
EnterTheVoid Posted July 2, 2011 Author Posted July 2, 2011 Both. I did it with an instructor. Do it alone if you want to make a living out of this, travelling the world participating in competetions and building up your reputation. Do it with an instructor if you want to do it once or twice and cross it off your bucket list. Be prepared to fork out $500 - 1, 000 US dollars each time you want to do it.
EnterTheVoid Posted July 2, 2011 Author Posted July 2, 2011 Make sure you don't have any hairline fractures or broken bones. When they pull the parachute, you go from 200 Kmph to 20 Kmph in 3 seconds and that puts a lot of pressure on your shoulder muscles. A bonus if you don't smoke. The higher you go, the harder it gets to breathe. The last thing you want is feeling lightheaded and start hallucinating.
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