Topless SkyDiving

Browsing around on the internet today and found a mock video of a topless skydiving team, very funny:

Sexy Topless Skydive Team - Watch more Girl Videos

Charity Skydive

A charity skydive is where you can skydive, and persuade family and friends to sponsor it, with a minimum amount going to a selected charity. The charity then pays the cost of the skydive.

There are several types of skyjumps, and generally the more daring the jump, the higher the minimum funds you have to raise. It ranges from around Read more

Indoor Skydiving

Indoor skydiving is an exciting new’ish sport where you are in an atmosphere which enables you to float and move around in the air, giving a sensation of real skydiving. A vertical wind tunnel, often shortened and called a VWT is a tunnel which forces air up vertically. The wind is forced upwards at around 120 miles per hour, which is about the right speed to keep a human being, belly-downwards, afloat.

You can therefore fly in this tunnel without the help of a plane or parachute, in what is called bodyflight. It is particularly appealing to those who would enjoy skydiving, but feel safer having their feet on the ground. In this simulated atmosphere, you are never more than a few feet above the ground.

Jack Tiffany was the first human to fly in a VWT at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base, in 1964. But it wasn’t until 1979 that the first recreational facility was built. It was built by a company called Aerodium in Canada. The sport came to greater fame when a “wind machine” was built especially for the closing ceremony of the Torino Winter Olympics in 2006. Recently, there have been many centers opening up around the world, and the sport is becoming more popular.

To enjoy the thrill of free-falling in a controlled environment, a bodyflight ‘pilot’ will usually have a 30 minute training session with an instructor at the Recreational Center, and is then kitted out with a special flight suit, goggles, specialist headgear, earplugs and knee and elbow pads. These are worn over regular clothes and sneakers which should be comfortable and unrestrictive. Entry through the door of the flight tunnel is with the help of the door a personal flight instructor. Most flights are of a minute’s duration, during which you can just spread out for the feeling of a free fall, do acrobatics including turns, lateral movements and rolls, or just enjoy being kept aloft and overpowering the force of gravity. The flight is accompanied at all times by a flight instructor.

No experience or training is necessary before arriving at the recreational center, and the sport is safe for all ages, including children. For anyone who has dreamed of flying, this is the ultimate experience!

Base Jumping

If you are interested in the very extreme sport of base jumping, then you love to live on the edge.  Since you may be thinking about giving it a try, you should know as much as possible about the sport along with the high risk it carries, even for the most skilled jumpers.

Base jumping is basically parachuting from a very tall fixed object. Since there is no airplane from which to launch, the amount of time spent midair is very short and therefore very dangerous. BASE stands for the categories of fixed objects from which you would jump. Building, Antenna, Span, and Earth. The only legal category, and only in a few places, is Earth.

Although history has alluded to some form of base jumping since the 12th century in China, the modern form was invented, and the acronym coined, by Carl Boenish in 1978. That was when he filmed the first jumps from El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in California. Although Boenish used a traditional sky-diving parachute, it is recommended that base jumpers use specially made ram-air parachutes. They cost around $1500. Boenish eventually was killed during a jump in Norway in 1984.

Base jumpers fall at lower speeds than skydivers due to the lack of time to fully accelerate. And therein is the core of the danger. There are many ways to make mistakes which can be fatal. Base jumpers have little aerodynamic control and may tumble during the jump. If the parachute opens during a tumble, the jumper may get caught in the chute or it could fail to open properly. There is no time for correction.
If the jumper is not facing in the right direction, he could hit an object on the way down. It is believed that was what happened to Boenish and that has been the cause of many serious injuries and deaths.

Base jumping off of tall buildings and other urban structures often makes the news but it is illegal. Police are usually waiting at the bottom to arrest the jumper. One of the legal spots for base jumping is Lysefojord in Norway. Other natural formations in Europe are also legal locations to jump. However, that does not include the Eiffel Tower, despite its popularity. Another popular spot is Angel Falls in Venezuela.
Base jumpers consider themselves to be outlaws and are secretive about their jumping locations. So accurate numbers about injuries and fatalities are difficult to assess.

So if you are serious about learning base jumping, you should have at least 100 skydives under your belt, a good mentor, and even better health and life insurance policies. And an understanding family.

Tandem Skydive

A tandem skydive is the first step in becoming what many people consider the ultimate feeling of freedom and actually flying. For your first jump it is necessary to tandem skydive, not only for the safety issue, but due to the unfamiliarity of the sport.

Tandem skydiving simply put, is the fact that you are tethered to a professional who understands the complexity of skydiving. It allows you to be able to jump from an aircraft without any knowledge of the sport whatsoever. You will receive expert pre jump training in what to expect once you leave the aircraft and what to expect when you land back on the ground. You are secured to the professional jumper in front, and the harness that you wear actually attaches to the front of your instructor from the back of your harness.

What you can expect from a tandem skydive, is the true feeling of freedom and flying. Your instructor has all the knowledge and expertise to allow you to freefall a safe distance and then the cord is pulled and the parachute opens. That “empty stomach” feeling is absent when you jump, be it tandem or solo, for you just begin a simple fall procedure and not the jerking motion of an elevator and or an amusement park ride. During the tandem skydive; you will experience a free fall adventure from 10 to 60 seconds, depending on the altitude of the aircraft when you jump.

Once the freefall is completed and the rip cord is pulled by the instructor, you will feel a slight tugging on the harness and your parachute will fill with air and you will begin your descent towards the ground. Once the descent begins, the view of the area around you is so spectacular that you will wish you could perhaps stay up for a much longer time. The initial apprehension, if any, has now disappeared into one of pure euphoric joy.

The best type of clothing to wear is something loose and very comfortable. You will be given a jumpsuit to wear over your clothing and this will ensure the best aerodynamics during the freefall and descent.

From the first successful jump from a hot air balloon in the late 1700’s to the full use of parachutes for the military, tandem skydiving has become the beginning step in one of the most exhilarating sports ever to be offered to the individual with no experience and or background knowledge of the sport.

Wingsuit

Flying in a wingsuit is using the human body to fly through the air using a specially designed jumpsuit, that shapes the body to an airfoil, creating lift.

The wingsuit has become a new innovation in skydiving. It is a kind of jumpsuit which has three big wings attached to it. Two of them are attached to either side of the body by being sewn between the wrists, hips and armpits, and the third stretches between the legs above the knees. The wings are made of the same material that a parachute is made of, and is sewn down lengthwise at various intervals leaving the ends open to form long cells, a bit like those of a raft. During free-fall, the wind enters these cells, stiffening the wings, and creating lift.

The idea of a wingsuit is not new, and the first ones were produced in the 1930s. The users were referred to as Birdman. But they were largely unsuccessful in producing flight, and the majority of trials ended in fatalities. The breakthrough came in the mid 1990s, then a Frenchman named Partick de Gayardon perfected the design by spending endless hours in a wind tunnel, simulating flight with prototype suits. He produced a suit that was unparalleled in performance and safety. Whilst he was testing a new modification to the suit, he passed away, and his expertise was lost. Since then, others have built on his work to finally create a wingsuit that is considered safe for skydiving.

The innovative thing about the wingsuit is it’s ability to change shape during flight. An aeroplane’s wings are straight, with slight moving on it’s surfaces for take-off and landing. A wingsuit can modify its flying performance by changing the shape it is in. The shape can be changed easily by moving the body. Different positions will produce different movements. All sorts of maneuvers in the air, and types of landing approaches can be effected by moving different parts of the body.

Currently, skydivers wearing wingsuits open parachutes to land, but there are several skydivers across the world in a race to see who can be first to make it from plane to land without opening a chute.

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