Civilian Skydiving School

GeorgeK said:

A few questions: Setting American SW, 10 years from now

Is it reasonable that on a jump, the customer would wear their own clothes and then have a brightly covered one piece overalls on top of street clothes? This is the character's 3rd jump. It's not super high altitude, just civilian commercial for fun.

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Color of jump suit can be whatever you like (I wore a white one), and, yes, you put it on over your own clothes. You need to be comfortable, so not jeans -- something like sweats, etc.

GeorgeK said:

If someone had already pulled their chute at 2500 feet and another person without a chute latched onto them (Thanks to magic on the part of the non-chuted character there's no Gallagher worthy impact) would they be able to have a conversation on the way down (remember not during freefall)

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It would have to be magical -- a free-falling diver will be travelling 100 mph+ -- if they can't magically slow down, they'd kill the 'chuted jumper and/or cause major damage.

As to being able to speak to each other, yes. Barring jumps in high winds, which beginning jumpers generally are forbidden from doing, it is pretty quiet once you're under canopy.

GeorgeK said:

Part of the plot involved the customer having to pack her own chute at landing then turn it in for inspection. Seem reasonable?

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No. You have have to be certified to pack 'chutes, and someone with only three jumps would be nowhere near that level. Packing chutes is a BIG deal. That said, my experience is limited, and from quite a few years back, but I don't think things like this are likely to change much; it's a matter of safety and of liability.

My info is 30 years out of date, but... when I jumped, you went out alone via static line (basically, your chute was linked to the plane by a velcro strap that opened the chute then released), but we had a radio that we were supposed to be able to talk to/hear from ground support with. Hearing the radio wouldn't have been a problem if anyone had bothered to talk to me. (Girl who jumped before me broke her leg - I think they forgot I was even up there.)

We wore jump suits over regular clothes - I don't remember exactly what, but it was February, so it must have been fairly warm.

And if I remember correctly (as said, it was a long time ago, and it was back in the age of the round parachutes), after your 1st jump you were expected to pack your own chute under supervision. I don't think you were allowed to pack someone else's.


Oh - and fyi, I believe Travis Pastrana jumped out of a plane without a chute and got one from someone else on the way down. Don't know how he did it, but you could probably look up the details. Might give you some ideas.

debirlfan said:

after your 1st jump you were expected to pack your own chute under supervision. I don't think you were allowed to pack someone else's.

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And, really, how many people would want to jump with a 'chute packed by some random stranger?

GeorgeK said:

So it sounds like repacking after you land is a reasonable test, again, it's just a test to see if they understand how to pack. Nobody is inended to use that chute.

I assume that's the guy I saw on tv. One guy jumped with 2 chutes and the second guy jumped with none. Then a third guy jumped as a last minute safety. The first 2 meet in freefall and a chute gets transferred

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If there is a "practice" chute used just for packing practice, I'm going to guess that at a minimum it will be very clearly marked, or even more likely it won't have harness attachment points in order to assure that it's not accidentally used.

And yeah, Travis is probably the guy you saw on tv - he's one of those x-gamer types that does various crazy stuff.

Travis did the jump on a show called "Nitro Circus".

When I did a tandem jump 3-4 years ago, we wore our normal clothes under the jump suit.