It might seem like a question that answers itself, but the fact is that you can never truly prepare yourself for the sensation of skydiving until you’ve really done it yourself.
It is falling, so many naturally assume that it must feel like falling.
But does skydiving really feel like this?
Skydiving actually does not feel like falling. At first as you are picking up speed there will be a greater sense of falling, but once you reach terminal velocity, it will feel more as though you’re simply carried on an air current. Experienced skydivers can even manipulate the wind to “fly”.
So, surprisingly, skydiving really does not feel like falling.
Obviously, there are some ‘fall like’ sensations involved, but it feels far more like floating on the air than falling.
It also does not make your stomach drop as things like rollercoasters do, which is often how we understand a falling sensation.
Let’s find out more.
How long do you feel like you’re falling when skydiving?
This is a slightly tricky question.
Most often, the sensation of falling will only last for a short time at the beginning of the flight as you fall away from the plane.
Once you start to settle into terminal velocity, you will no longer feel like you’re falling.
But the length of the freefall itself can have an effect, too.
Most skydiving schools will allow customers to exit at either 10,000 or 14,000 feet.
This will depend on the kind of airplane.
For a 14,000-foot dive, you’ll be freefalling for about 60 seconds.
Around half that time for a 10,000-foot drop.
Either way, though, you won’t feel like you’re falling for much of the time.
Falling is really more of an immediate sensation, a rapid increase in the delta between your vertical and horizontal velocity.
Skydiving means you fall for a long time, so you don’t have that increase to create the falling sensation in your body.
So, the short answer is not very long.
Perhaps only a few seconds at the very beginning of the freefall, if ever really feeling it.
There’s one very specific sensation most of us associate with skydiving—the stomach drop.
Do we feel this when skydiving?
Do you feel your stomach drop when you skydive?
No, you will not feel your stomach drop.
For many people, this is all they need to know to know that skydiving does not feel like falling.
This is often the only point of reference people really have for the sensation of falling.
You can even get it in bed sometimes, when you are half asleep and your brain tricks you into thinking you are falling.
This, again, is due to the relationship between your vertical and horizontal velocity. In skydiving, it is pretty much constant.
There are no rapid changes between them, so you don’t get the stomach drop. This is unlike in, say, a rollercoaster, where you may be quickly thrown down a vertical track.
So, in that sense, skydiving really does not feel like falling in a way we would understand.
What does it feel like, then?
What does a skydive feel like?
It can be different for different people, that is for sure.
Many experience it in different ways than others.
And it will also depend on the tandem partner you have, or whether you can go solo.
Generally, though, the free fall will feel like flying more than falling.
It’s all to do with this question of terminal velocity.
Once you reach a certain speed, you are no longer gaining speed.
You’re falling down at a constant rate, supported by a column of air.
So, it feels more like flying, especially if you’re able to control your position to soar on the wind.
All of this is not to say that it is not frightening, or nerve-wracking.
But unlike a rollercoaster, the nervousness will usually disappear after you take the initial leap.
Once you are out and falling it is out of your hands, and you simply soar at an apparent slow descent.
It can be a bit loud on your ears, so many skydivers advise wearing ear plugs.
Either way, though, it feels much more like flying slowly towards the ground than it does to falling.
What is the scariest part of the experience, then?
What is the scariest part of skydiving?
It depends on the person, of course.
For most first-time skydivers, finding the courage to jump out of the plane in the first place is the scariest part.
Taking the initial leap of faith is the hardest part for many.
Once you’ve gotten over that, the freefall is generally easier for most people.
That said, depending on your proclivities, the freefall may be very scary, at least at first.
If you are afraid of heights, then certainly staring down from that height while falling can be very scary.
So, again, it really depends on the person.
But very few people have no trouble at all jumping out on their first go.
Despite the fact that skydiving is entirely an exercise in falling to the ground from a high place, by all our definitions, it really doesn’t feel like falling.
You are carried on a current of air through the sky until you eventually meet the ground.
As you get more and more experienced and practiced, you can even use the wind to your advantage to feel as though you are flying—not falling.
