One of the scariest things about skydiving (so I’ve heard & read online) is how hard you hit the ground.
I mean, I can understand.
Falling from 10,000ft sounds like it must really hurt right?
In answer to your question, the landing is usually pretty soft when skydiving. You will be trained to ensure your landings are as comfortable and straightforward as possible. Of course, you do have to factor in weather conditions and equipment which could make for a bumpy landing!
For the most part, all your landings will be completely simple, stress and pain-free.
There are many ways you can land, and different factors depend on how you land.
Of course, like anything, there are always risks involved but you will be taught all the correct procedures and what to do in light of an emergency before your very first skydive and in your solo skydiving training.
How long does it take to get to the ground when skydiving?
How long a skydive takes really does depend.
It’s safe to say that no two skydives are the same.
Not the definitive answer you were looking for I know, so let us explore this some more.
Let’s take a look at an example.
Let’s say you travel up to 10,000ft in the aircraft which takes around 20 minutes.
You then jump out the plane and you freefall for around 30 seconds which gets you to around 5,000ft.
You would then deploy the parachute.
This part of a skydive is a lot slower and calmer so it takes around 5 to 10 minutes to reach the ground.
The actual skydive only takes around 10 minutes but including the plane journey up it will take about 30 minutes altogether.
At what speed do you hit the ground?
There are different parts of skydiving in which you travel at different speeds.
Firstly, you have freefalling.
The first part of the skydive.
You fall at around 120mph at this stage.
You then open your parachute which decelerates your speed to around 10mph.
When you land, you will be traveling between 20mph to 5mph.
Some describe the landing as the same speed as a bike ride.
Don’t worry you won’t be plummeting to the earth at 120mph when you are landing!
Do you get a dropping feeling in your stomach when your freefall?
You know that feeling you get in your stomach when you are in a car and you go over a hill really fast or when you suddenly accelerate on a rollercoaster ride?
It feels like you have butterflies in your stomach doesn’t it?
Well, weirdly enough you don’t experience this when you freefall.
Freefalling is the first part of a skydive.
When you first jump out the plane and the parachute isn’t open yet.
You would think you would get the same feeling as when you are on a roller coaster when in this position.
Weirdly, you don’t.
Well not weirdly, here is the science behind it.
When you are in the plane, it will be traveling forward at around 80mph.
So, when you jump, your body actually already thinks you are traveling.
Usually, you get that funny stomach feeling when you are stopped (or going extremely slow) and then suddenly accelerate.
But since you are already moving, that feeling just doesn’t usually occur.
Do you fall faster the heavier you are?
How fast you fall is dependent on a lot of things.
It all goes back to the time-old experiment; if you drop a rock and a feather which falls quicker?
If there was no air, they would land at the same time.
With air, the rock lands quicker and the feather will float down nicely.
That is because the feather expands and allows room for the air.
Let’s put this science to an example.
Let’s think about the size of your parachute.
If you have a larger parachute, it takes longer to reach the ground due to the drag.
If you have a smaller, lighter parachute, it will fall a lot quicker as it will have less air resistance (drag).
If a heavy person and a lighter person jumped at exactly the same time with the same parachute, the heavier person would reach the ground first.
If you were to change the size and weight of each parachute that would be a different story.
Heavier people will need to have a larger, heavier parachute just like tandem jumpers.
Whereas smaller people need a normal-sized parachute.
A larger person will have a higher terminal velocity than a smaller person, therefore they would land quicker.
What position do you have to be in when you hit the ground?
Again, this depends on who you are and your preferences.
If you are a tandem skydiving student, you will be landing on your bottom.
Beforehand, you will be briefed on how to land.
Your instructor will tell you to stick your legs out, so they are as parallel to the earth as you can manage.
You might slide across the ground on your backside until you come to a halt.
If you are a solo skydiver, there are many landing positions you can adopt.
Firstly, we have the PLF. This is the Parachute Landing Fall.
To land like this you come down at an angle, place your ankles and legs first then roll onto the rest of your body.
This type of landing is widely used and prevents ankle and leg injuries.
Secondly, we have the swooping landing.
This landing can cause injury if done incorrectly and is a big topic to discuss in the skydiving world.
A swooping landing is basically a super-fast landing and clever movements with the parachute.
It really is not recommended unless you are super experienced and know what you are doing.
Lastly, we have the flare landing.
Flaring is stopping the forward motion of the parachute so you can make a slow landing.
Again, this is a popular landing technique and is only used by solo divers.
It is not quite as technical as the swooping landing but still requires some practice!
What happens if I fall wrong?
From speaking to new jumpers and reading articles online, it seems to me that lots of new jumpers are scared about the landing.
It really isn’t anything to worry about.
Think about it.
Thousands if not millions of people skydive every year and how often do you hear of a landing going wrong?
Not very often.
That being said, skydiving isn’t called an extreme sport for nothing.
The sport does involve risks. You can land wrong.
When doing a tandem jump, you will be told to lift your legs so they are parallel to the ground (like we mentioned before) if you do not listen to this instruction, you could land straight onto your ankles which could break the bones.
Solo jumpers often injure themselves when they try a landing position called swooping.
Again, this can cause broken bones and on very rare occasions, death.
Most accidents occur when people try advanced maneuvers, they are not skilled enough to do.
You will be perfectly fine if you do as your instructor tells you and you only do what you feel comfortable doing.
In conclusion, if this is your first skydive do not worry about the landing.
You won’t hit the floor at groundbreaking speeds and hurt yourself.
If anything, it will be the slowest and calmest part of the whole experience.
The landing is soft and if you are tandem jumping, you’ll land right on your backside and slide a few meters!
The more you train, gain experience, and confidence, the more you can experiment with different landings and show off your awesome landing moves!
