Is skydiving free falling comfortable? What’s it like exactly, compared to roller coaster drops?
Yes, it is comfortable. I mean, while freefalling you can do many things that won’t be, but if your only agenda for the jump is to relax, you can feel really and absolutely relaxed.The reason is, you are not exactly falling. With relative wind at ca. 50m/s the air gives you a tangible resistance, allowing to exercise full control over your body.So in fact you feel like you are flying, not falling. Especially when there are others nearby there is no mistake - since your frame of reference is constituted by them, not by the earth a couple of kilometers below, relatively to them you definitely fly and not fall.Now a lot depends on how you do exit the aircraft. If the airplane has a side door, you can feel perfectly relaxed right from the beginning, since you don’t have to jump away - you can gently slide in the air, more leaning onto it than jumping out. Since the aircraft has a lot of forward speed, you too have that speed from the very beginning on, so you can steer and control your position right away. Even in absolute terms you are not falling down either - at first you continue to move horizontally with the airplane’s speed, only gradually losing forward speed in favour of more vertical trajectory.Then, as said, if your only goal is to feel relaxed, you just keep stable box position and… relax on a comfortable air cushion :)However, if the aircraft has a rear reamp, in the first moments your body is non-steerable, as you are in the aerodynamic shadow of the airplane. You have to wait a moment to clear that area, enter the undisturbed air and feel the control, until then it’s more like water jumping than skydiving. In fact the most unpleasant exits I had were from the rear ramp of the chopper (no propeller wash, so reduced airspeed) or the balloon, because then for the first couple of seconds you exactly feel that you are helplessly falling down and this is definitely not nice. That’s the only moment in skydiving where you can find it similar to rollercoaster drop. But it’s just a couple of seconds - once you gain speed, you gain the control and start ‘flying’.
What will happen if I am skydiving and accidently open my parachute at 20000 feet?
Question: What will happen if I am skydiving and accidently [sic] open my parachute at 20000 feet?Having deliberately deployed my canopy right out the door at 18,500ft, I feel nearly qualified to answer this.Parachutes are inherently stable. They reach equilibrium after a few moments of flight such that the vertical components of lift and drag equal the force of gravity, and you descend at a constant speed. At high altitude, the air is thinner, so more airspeed is needed to produce the necessary amount of lift.In short, your parachute will fly much faster than at sea level.On this particular jump, my data recorder showed a descent rate of 49 feet per second on my 84 square foot canopy. My horizontal speed was nearly 100 mph.Under an average sized parachute (double the size of mine), I may have suffered very noticeable effects of hypoxia. However, under my parachute, I was descending at 3,000 ft per minute and quickly returned to reasonably dense air.In hindsight, I can’t help but wonder how fast I could have flown my parachute in a dive up there. I wouldn’t be surprised if a 150 mph vertical speed might have been possible … maybe next time.Edit: As for the temperature, it was approximately 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Frostbite may be a concern during winter, but this was the heat of summer.
How safe is skydiving?
Very safe, although it does seem riskier than many sports out there, mainly because it's pretty counter-intuitive to jump out of an airplane. The risk factor for someone going on a tandem skydive, that is a person who is not a skydiver attached to a highly skilled instructor, is very low. I can think of only one instance where a tandem student (passenger) was killed in an accident and that was several years ago.Students, that is those learning to skydive on their own, are also in a very low risk pool. Students fly very large and docile canopies, their parachutes are the equivalent of driving a large family sedan; cushy, comfortable and safe. Novices, those with less than one-hundred jumps also tend to be in a lower risk pool.Ironically, it is the skilled skydivers with advanced licenses that are in a higher risk pool. Often the case is pushing a skillset too far too fast, in other words people performing manurers that are outside their ability too soon. About half of the deaths in skydiving happen under fully functioning canopies, those canopies are small and fast, the equivalent of a Ferrari or F1 race car. In these instances, people miscalculate landings and hit the ground hard, which tends to be fatal. People downsize too quickly, going from a larger more docile canopy to a smaller and aggressive canopy. Imagine passing drivers' education and stepping right into an 800 horsepower car, chances are it wouldn't end very good.Here are some statistics supplied by the United States Parachute Association (USPA):United States Parachute Association > Facts/FAQs > SafetySkydiving accidents don't necessarily happen due to one error per se, usually it is a series of issues that lead to an accident. Each opportunity that is missed to correct something less than safe, increases the chance for injury or death.If you are asking this question because you are interested to try skydiving I can say it is worth the "risk". Selecting a reputable dropzone, ideally a USPA affiliated one, is a good idea as they must meet a certain level of standards to become affiliated. The people who are instructors and coaches in the sport have a deep passion to promote the sport as safe, it is in everyone's best interest that the sport is conducted as safe as possible. Blue Skies!
Skydiving: What does it feel like to fall through a cloud?
Of course, since it’s illegal, none of us has ever been in freefall through a cloud. Despite that, I do have some very clear recollections. ;)First of all, clouds contain moisture. Falling through rain feels like you’re falling through hail. Falling through hail feels like BBs. Even non-precipitating clouds are wet, so you end up with moisture on your goggles and face and, often, get pretty soaked.The other issue is visibility. Punching through a heavy cloud layer can be disorienting while you’re in the soup. You’re visually completely disconnected from the ground, which is pretty strange. I can remember coming out of the bottom of a heavy cloud layer when a competition judge had given our team an “exit, exit, exit” via radio (he had the wrong plane in his telemeter). The bottoms were at about 2500′ and we blasted out of the bottoms right over the middle of a densely populated residential subdivision. Thankfully we found a high school track to land on.In the midwest, “accidental” skydives through clouds are not that uncommon. In the winter in Illinois, we often sat on the ground for hours waiting for a hole to open up through the cloud layer. Occasionally there’d be blue sky and sunshine for a moment and we’d race to the airplane and go for it. (The condition that follows hours/days of watching cloudy skies is called “horny for a skydive”.) Sometimes the hole would turn out to be a “sucker hole” that would close up under you. Since both you and the airplane are operating under Visual Flight Rules, this is problematic. But if you’re horny enough for a skydive, sometimes you make the skydive. Particularly if you’re at your local drop zone and can do a VOR spot (find your location by the plane’s radio direction finder) or GPS spot.Not at all a smart or safe thing to do. A bunch of jumpers not being able to see each other in freefall is a midair collision waiting to happen. Add to that the prospect of IFR aircraft and tall antenna towers and it turns out to be a genuinely bad idea. Fun though.Which is why we never do it. ;)