Knowing Your Skydiving Equipment

Image via Wikipedia

This is why everybody should know what the proper skydiving equipment are prior to making the jump.

The parachute rig which is the equipment employed by each skydiver is made of 5 parts.

1. The first is the chute itself which is called the main canopy. This is the first one deployed once the skydiver arrives at a certain altitude to repress his or her speed before coming to the ground.

2. If there’s a problem with the first parachute, there’s the reserve or 2nd parachute that would be deployed by pulling on the cord. Occasionally, this will deploy automatically if you have an automatic activation device or AAD.

This is programmed to deploy the 2nd parachute when you reach an altitude of 750 feet or 230 meters from the ground.

Your primary and secondary parachute is put inside a backpack. So they do not come loose once you pull the cord, it also has thick shoulder and leg straps which you have to set up around your body. This is then attached to a line which runs starting from the parachute to the container. There are normally 5 sets of lines namely A, B, C, D and brake lines.

3. Always skydive with a jumpsuit. This is designed to protect you the second you jump off the plane due to the strong winds and other forces of nature which might tear up your clothes.

The jumpsuit also affords your protection particularly when you’re landing. Several people don’t land feet first when they hit the ground. Still, if they do, the wind could pull them down and you might get scratches or cuts till you are able to take the parachute off.

4. You’ll need to get an altimeter as part of your gear. This gizmo will tell you how far you are from the ground and is really useful particularly when you choose to skydive at night.

5. You’ll also need protective equipment like a helmet and some protective padding. To be sure, you may also acquire a spinal protector which will protect your spinal cord should you incidentally fall on your back when you hit the ground.

If you like this activity a great deal, you could perhaps be jumping each weekend and odds are you would have already lost count how many times you’ve jumped. In short, you want to do it again and this can simply happen if you have the suitable skydiving equipment.