ukparachuting.co.uk // skydivesibson.co.uk
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Welcome
Welcome to UK Parachuting, the UK’s premier skydiving experience and training organisation. Maybe you’re considering jumping, or you’ve already made that first skydive. Either way you’re well on your way to being part of a very exclusive club. Skydiving is much more than just falling from an aircraft, and this magazine will help you on your journey, explaining a bit more about our wonderful sport. We have two locations in the UK. One near Peterborough, and one near Ipswich. Both centres are owned and operated by UK Parachuting and regulated by the British Parachuting Association (BPA). We look forward to welcoming you at one of our centres, and if you have any questions before then, please give us a call, or visit our websites. ( 01502 476 112 ukparachuting.co.uk skydivesibson.co.uk
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Skydive Gear Starter Pack SPECIAL OFFER
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Altimeters & Log Books Books, DVDs & Gifts Complete Parachute Systems Gloves & Goggles Jump Suits & Clothing Second-hand Equipment Follow us on:
www.thejumpshop.co.uk 4
M: 01832 279 045 | 01832 279 046 E: skydive@thejumpshop.co.uk
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Contents //06: Tandem
//16: Wingsuit flying
Jumping attached to a pro
The purest form of human flight
//08: AFF
//17: Parachutes
Learn to become a skydiver
Serious canopy flying
//10: All the gear...
//18: What’s next?
Skydiving gear buying advice
Passed AFF? Now what?
//12: Formation skydiving
//19: Contact us
The first progression step
//14: Freeflying Turning it all on its head
The who and where
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//17 UK Parachuting
UK Parachuting
01832 280 490 skydivesibson.co.uk
01502 476 131 ukparachuting.co.uk
Sibson Airfield Wansford Peterborough PE8 6NE
Magazine design by
Beccles Airfield Ellough Suffolk NR34 7XD
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“The guys were fantastic, the experience was great and it will be a day I will never forget.”
Tandem Jump Your first steps in the playground in the sky
You have to start somewhere and the simplest way to see if skydiving is for you is to take that first leap securely harnessed to a fully qualified instructor. Making a tandem skydive with UK Parachuting is not just about the jump itself. It also involves initial ground training, getting fully kitted up, meeting your instructor and taking that long, exciting, nervous walk to get on the aircraft. Once on board, you will probably be with others tandem students as well as qualified skydivers simply jumping out for fun. The ‘ride to the top’ takes around fifteen minutes, during which time you will get a chance to observe the view, The canopy deployed at 120mph
“Would I do it again? Without a doubt!”
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chat with your instructor and, if you are being filmed, your camera person. Around half way up, you will be given further information from your instructor about what will happen when the door opens and how to hang over the edge ready for your skydive. When the plane reaches a safe jumping altitude, the door will open and things will suddenly get very noisy as the wind rushes in. Skydiving aircraft are not like commercial aircraft in that opening the door is very safe to do. You will still be able to breathe normally and nobody will be sucked out of the door. Firmly attached to your instructor, you’ll both slowly move towards the door as the people in front of you exit. If a camera person is present for your jump, they will already be holding on to the outside of the aircraft, waiting for you and for your instructor to give the nod to go! The first few seconds are impossible to describe as it’s not like a funfair ride. There’s no pressure on you at all as you are in complete free-fall, your speed rapidly increasing to around 120mph within a few moments of leaving the aircraft. After overcoming the initial rush, you get the chance to really feel you are skydiving. You can look around, stick your arms out, wave at the camera
person or, like so many others and for no reason whatsoever, pretend to swim! The most important thing to remember is to smile. At around 6000ft your instructor will deploy the main parachute, slowing
BOOK NOW!
Getting ready to skydive for the first time
you down and giving you around ten minutes to enjoy the more sedate feeling of being under canopy. This is the time to enjoy the view, talk to your instructor and realise what you have just done. There really is no other feeling like it. As you fly towards the landing area, you will be reminded about what you need to do when you come into land. It’s vital that you do exactly as your instructor tells you to ensure a nice soft, safe landing.
On landing what has just happened will begin to hit you. Some sit there for a while, some jump up and down and some can’t stop talking. What everyone agrees is that they’ve just done something incredible that has genuinely changed their life. Most want to go straight back up and do it again! You can book your tandem skydive via our websites, or by giving us a call on 01502 476 131.
Tag your jump photos
TANDEM
DO IT FOR CHARITY Making your first skydive for charity is an excellent way to help a good cause and do something incredible for yourself. UK Parachuting is associated with many national charity organisations, but also encourages individuals raising funds for smaller, local charities to skydive at our Peterborough and Beccles centres. We have specialists on hand to help you organise your day, provide specific sponsorship forms and get you on your way to your fundraising target. If you get enough sponsorship, most charities are happy for you to pay for the skydive out of the money you’ve raised. This means you get to jump for free and help out a worthwhile cause. We can help sort fundraising events for one or two people, to groups of hundreds. Our team can even set aside a day at one of our airfields for your exclusive use.
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Making a skydive is a great way to support your chosen charity!
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AFF “The AFF school and experience is simply excellent. The care, professionalism and expert guidence is outstanding�
Learn to safely land your own parachute
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AFF
Despite standing for Accelerated Free Fall, AFF has nothing to do with the speed of your skydives. It’s actually the quickest and most comprehensive way to obtain your BPA A licence, which you’ll need to jump on your own, or with other experienced skydivers.
The AFF course is based on eight levels of accomplishment (normally one skydive at each level) and is designed to take place over a full week, or broken down over a few weekends. On each jump, you’ll be required to acheive certain objectives like turns, movement or somersaults. Given good weather, the course can be completed in as little as three days. After graduating from the course, you perform a further ten consolidation jumps, guided by your instructors, to practise the skills you have learned. You will then be awarded ‘Category Eight’ – your first International Skydiving Licence! The course commences with a full day of ground tuition with your instructor. This covers the theory and practice of skydiving and the use of your parachute system. You
will learn safety procedures, how the equipment operates, how to exit the aircraft with your instructors, how to maintain control and communicate in free-fall, how to initiate the opening of the main parachute, and how to steer to the landing area and land safely. Before jumping, you will practise all the procedures for both your skydive and the parachute descent until your instructors are completely satisfied with your abilities. You then take the aircraft right ‘to the top’, around 13,000 feet, and, with one instructor at each side, exit the aircraft and put your new skills to the ultimate test! With the maximum amount of time in free-fall and the very best instructors (these guys and girls have logged thousands of skydives), you’ll get the ultimate experience and the maximum achievement.
Once you’ve deployed your own parachute, yes, on your first jump, you’ll fly it, with assistance over a radio, safely back to the landing area yourself. Here you’ll meet your instructors for a debrief of the jump and a briefing to prepare you for your next skydive. With our full-time experienced instructors, and the willingness to learn, it’s possible to complete all 8 AFF levels in as little as three days. Once you’ve acheived your BPA A licence, you’ll no longer be considered a student parachutist, though of course you’ll still have a lot to learn. Continue reading to see the many exciting disciplines you can work towards once you’ve succesfully passed your AFF at UK Parachuting. First up, Formation Skydiving...
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All the
gear... Now that you have decided that skydiving is for you, it’s time to get clued up not only on the jumping opportunities that this amazing sport has to offer, but also on what equipment you will most likely need to get you to where you want to be. As someone new to the sport, you must make sure that your mandatory equipment meets the requirements for a new skydiver. Your helmet Could this be your should be open-face, your first rig? altimeter should be of the clock-face type (analogue face) and your goggles should be clear, not tinted. Once you have completed your consolidation jumps you will also need a hook knife. Your instructor will explain what this is for when the time comes to have one.
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Whilst gloves and a jumpsuit are not mandatory, it’s sensible to wear them while jumping. A good jumpsuit will ensure that you feel comfortable in the sky, and will help to keep all your other clothes out of the way. It will help reduce drag and lower the risk of catching your clothes on the aircraft or parachute rig, making sure your main deployment and emergency handles are not obscured at any time. Gloves will protect your hands from the cold, and from minor abrasive injuries that can be caused when climbing out of the aircraft, or more commonly in the early stages, by falling over after landing! If you have any doubts about your equipment needs, you should always ask your Chief Instructor (CI). Your CI knows you and
With so much choice, make sure you get some good advice.
your style of jumping best of all. They will advise you on not only what looks good, but also help you buy the right type of equipment, and keep you safe. Your CI will recommend either a good product, or a reputable dealer to approach for the equipment that you need. Parachute and skydiving equipment dealers (or gear stores, as they are more commonly known) can be a wealth of information. A good gear store will spend the time getting to know you, and understand your individual style and requirements, before offering advice.
forums – this is even less formal than approaching someone in person. Websites such as Dropzone.Com will provide you with a wider-ranging selection of peoples’ opinions from which you can draw your own conclusions, but be aware of who you take advice from. Not everyone online is as experienced as they make themselves sound. Finally, when it comes to buying a rig, you’ll need to make sure you get advice about suitable canopy sizes, getting something that suits your particular skydiving style, but more importantly your skills, ability and experience. Buying a rig is a big commitment, and when the time comes you’ll want to be sure you’re buying the right one for you. Second-hand gear can be an affordable way to buy your first rig, but you must make sure that you have the equipment vetted before you buy it. Make sure you seek out a suitable and qualified person, usually your dropzone rigger or instructor. If you’re buying a new rig, get in touch with a reputable gear store and make sure you’re getting the right advice, so that you end up with the gear that’s right for you.
GEAR
What do you need? Successfully making the leap from Novice to Certified skydiver, means you’ll want to make sure that you buy the right equipment. Most important of all is to make sure that you have the basics that you need to be able to turn up to the DZ and jump. As a bare minimum you’re going to need: // Helmet // Altimeter // Goggles // Hook Knife // Jumpsuit // Gloves
WRITTEN BY
With so many gear stores out there, you should look for those that provide the best customer service and offer customers accurate and relevant information.
Damo Hewitt
Owner, The Jump Shop lovetojump.co.uk
On a more informal level, you can always ask around your DZ - often there’s a wealth of skills, knowledge and experience just waiting to be tapped. Don’t waste that opportunity, especially on a weather hold, and remember, there really are no silly questions! Browse the online
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Formation Skydiving
Congratulations! You’re now the proud owner of your BPA A licence and you are effectively a qualified skydiver. What’s next in this amazing new world you’ve discovered? Well, flying with your buddies would be pretty awesome wouldn’t it? Sure it would! So what’s the next step to get you flying like Bodhi and Utah in a Point Break style? The qualification you’re aiming for now is called FS1 - the FS stands for formation skydiving and the 1 simply means it’s the first stage. FS1 teaches you how to safely fly in the same piece of sky as other jumpers. You’ll learn how to increase and decrease your fall rate, move forwards and backwards, move laterally (side sliding) and perform turns in a more powerful way than you learned during your AFF (because for hecks sake, you’re now a real skydiver!). You will be taught how to approach other jumpers in a controlled manner and move away from them quickly and efficiently (tracking) before you deploy your
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parachute. You will need to show clear altitude awareness throughout. Once you’ve proved you’ve mastered all these skills individually, the final piece is to demonstrate them all in two formation skydives (a 3 way - you and two others, and a 4 way - you and three others, including your coach) Some people whizz through the skills in perhaps 5 or 6 jumps, other people take quite a few more, but the thing to remember is that the whole learning process for FS1 is brilliant fun and every jump adds more experience to your fledgling skydiving career. Some people opt to hone their skills in the wind tunnel before, or during their FS coaching jumps. It’s definitely not a requirement, but just 10 mins in the tunnel in one session is roughly equivalent to 12 skydives. As you don’t have to worry about any of the elements of a skydive, you can have your coach standing right in front of you, and be able to crank out lots of learning in one session, the tunnel can be a very efficient learning tool.
When you’ve achieved FS1, the formation skydiving world is your oyster (slow is steady, it’ll take a few more jumps to take part in larger formations). You can now start jumping with your FS1 qualified friends and, much like when you learn to drive once you have your licence, you will now really learn how to skydive. You can take part in small group jumps, join a Scrambles competition (ask an instructor what this is - it’s possibly the most fun you can have with your clothes on!), take part in the annual Speed 8 Nationals, or even consider putting together a rookie (beginner) formation skydiving team. Imagine, it’s 8 o’clock on a warm summer evening, you’re on the sunset load with a few of your closest friends, the door opens, the green light comes on and suddenly you’re all in free-tfall together. Just you and your friends experiencing the most amazing sun set, geeking at each other with huge smiles on your faces...
WRITTEN BY
The Bradley Twins
Victoria and Rebecca are better known as the ‘twins’, for obvious reasons. With thousands of jumps between them, they are qualified AFF instructors and serious FS fans. Usually found at our Sibson centre, they are very approachable, so make sure you say hello!
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FREE Flying
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FREEFLYING
The first qualification in freeflying (FF) is FF1, which is the ability to fly in a head up position. Imagine sitting in a chair in free-fall, but without the chair and flying your body in 3 dimensions. In this orientation, you’ll achieve speeds of about 150mph – faster than the average 120mph you do in FS. Once FF1 is achieved, you can start to skydive with other freeflyers and begin to improve and develop your technique. Although the way in to freeflying is head up, most skydivers soon begin to learn how to free-fall in a head down position. It might look like a natural position to fall through the air in, but it actually requires a great deal of skill. Trying to position your arms and legs to get the correct amount of movement forwards and backward in the airflow at a 170mph takes a great deal of training. As you develop these skills, you’ll work towards your FF2 qualification. Many freeflyers spend time in wind tunnels to perfect their skills, as the airflow is very similar to free-fall and they can work on specific techniques Freeflyer jumps with a ‘tube’
in a controlled environment without a time constraint. There are FF competitions, just as in Formation Skydiving, as well as Vertical Formation Skydiving (VFS), which involves teams of four carrying out a wide variety of moves, similar to FS, but in very different orientations. Each team also requires a camera flyer who needs to be extremely skilled to capture all the team’s manoeuvres for the judges. FF gives the skydiver a wide set of skills, which can be used in many diverse ways. In addition to the various competitions, freeflyers are also in it for the fun of skydiving. Freeflying started out life as a different discipline in skydiving, and has grown to be what we know today. It’s faster than Formation Skydiving, so a greater awareness is required in the sky, but combining head up and head down can create some really fun, memorable jumps. Due to the increased speed, and orientations that you’ll fly your body in, there are certain equipment requirements for freeflying, though most modern gear is compatible. It’s all smiles head down at 170mph
“Freeflying is an amazing way to fly your body on all axis, enjoying the playground in the sky”
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WINGSUIT
Pilots use special suits, called wingsuits, that are custom made to fit the individual and feature inflatable wings. These wings inflate during flying, creating a semi-rigid surface, a bit like an aircraft’s wing, to enable the pilot to glide through the air. The suits come in different sizes, offering differing levels of performance, though all of them work using the same basic principles. Using a wingsuit, the pilot is able to significantly reduce the vertical speed towards the ground, and increase the horizontal speed, in effect, becoming a human glider. In regular free-fall, a jumper will fall at anywhere between 120-200mph. In a wingsuit, that can be easily reduced to around 30mph, with a forward speed of about 100mph. Because the suit itself can present a level of restriction when worn, there are experience requirements to try one for the first time. These are 500 skydives overall, or 200 skydives within an 18 month period. Similar to other disciplines there’s an initial training course called WS1 that needs to be completed before flying with others. For more advanced pilots, they can go on to complete WS2. Once you’re competant in a wingsuit, the real fun can begin. Now you can start working on the different aspects of flight, and perhaps enter competitions. You can compete based on forward speed, longest time in free-fall, and now, in artistic flight. This is where a team of two pilots, plus camera flyer, are judged on performing certain manoeuvres, like barrel rolls and holding on to each other, in a given time frame. Alternatively, if you’re like me, it’s about just getting out of the aircraft with your friends, spreading your wings and smiling as you fly through the sky.
Team Need for Speed by Jarno Cordia
WRITTEN BY
Wingsuit flying, or wingsuiting, is a relatively new skydiving discipline, having become mainstream about ten years ago. Despite being so new, it has become very popular with experienced skydivers and, thanks to the growing number of videos on social media, is one of the main disciplines that brings new people in to our sport.
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James Macdonald
‘Macca’, to his friends, is a very experienced wingsuit pilot and Coach Examiner. Based at our Sibson centre, he’s always on hand to help you fly.
Parachutes After every skydive, no matter if it’s a tandem, AFF or an experienced jumper, everyone needs a parachute so that they can do it again. Parachute flying has evolved greatly from the old military round parachutes to the present day square, maneuverable wings. A whole industry has been born and developed over the last 20 years. Nowadays we use a ram air parachute, which will glide up to one mile horizontally per 1000 feet in height, enabling parachutists to fly with a great deal of precision and accuracy.
Sunset canopy flight over the DZ
Landings are now softer than ever with modern equipment that can be slowed down just before stepping on to the ground. Student parachutes are designed for first time users on our AFF courses. During training all aspects of flying a parachute are covered. The student
parachute, although very maneuverable, is also very large and slow, allowing plenty of forgiveness for students who are just learning. Once you pass your AFF course, you’ll need to prove a level of competence under a parachute by completing your CH1 qualification. Once you get your BPA A licence and gain some experience, there are hundreds of canopy choices and sizes based on experience and your flying style. Many opt for slightly smaller, more responsive parachutes that can be great fun to whizz around the sky under. You’ll need to pass CH2 to move on and get your B licence. Beyond regular parachutes, used purely as a method of reaching the ground, are a range of high performance parachutes. Not for the faint hearted, these wings can build up speeds close to that of being in free-fall, and are used by canopy pilots that tend to prefer flying the parachute to free-fall. Using a different landing technique, they can build up speeds of up to 90mph before reaching the ground and gliding, at speed, across the landing area. Competitions are even held to see who can go the fastest and the furthest! The techniques required for this are covered in the CP1 and CP2 grades.
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What’s next?
You’ve made a tandem jump and completed your AFF, now what?
A LICENCE CH2
JM1
FS1
FF1
CF1
IS1
FF2
+50 Jumps
B LICENCE +200 Jumps and any further ‘Grade 1’
C LICENCE +1000 Jumps
D LICENCE
WS1
SS1
WS2
SS2
CP2 18
CP1
Source BPA Operation Manual
Contact us
UK Parachuting Sibson Airfield Wansford Peterborough PE8 6NE
01832 280 490 skydivesibson.co.uk
UK Parachuting Beccles Airfield Ellough Suffolk NR34 7XD
01502 476 131 ukparachuting.co.uk
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UK Parachuting Sibson Airfield Wansford Peterborough PE8 6NE
01832 280 490 skydivesibson.co.uk
UK Parachuting Beccles Airfield Ellough Suffolk NR34 7XD
01502 476 131 ukparachuting.co.uk
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