They Went Skydiving

And, not only did we not join in but also didn't know any of those who skydived. Grenville and I were just onlookers at a NH skydiving site late last fall. 

We're perfectly OK with that status. This activity is definitely not on our bucket lists, but apparently it's on that of many others.

This year, the United States Parachuting Association (USPA) has over 41,400 members, a record number increase from the pandemic-low membership of 36,200 in February 2021 and membership is expected to increase this year.  An estimated 350,000 people complete over 3 million jumps annually in the U.S. alone.

Who knew that skydiving was not only so popular, but that we could see it just 20 miles from our Nashua, NH, home. We did so in late 2021, but I neglected to post earlier. (The parking area was a distance from the drop zone; my camera zoom is limited, so no super close-ups.)

Tandem jumps at Skydive Pepperell, NH

New Englanders (or anyone) who wants to jump out of a perfectly good aircraft to land on the ground, can do that at Skydive Pepperell in Pepperell, NH. It's open daily from late April through October and has a recreational drop zone on a private 60+ acre skydiving-only airport with a flat grassy drop zone without obstacles. Novice skydivers jump with an instructor, tandem style. Two people are strapped together, jump out of a plane and remain connected during the descent. 

Cessna Caravan at Skydive Pepperell, NH

The Texas turbine powered Cessna Caravan aircraft used for the drops is considered the fastest and most popular jump plane. It can take a maximum of 18 skydivers up to 13,000 feet in about 8 minutes. Typical worldwide skydiving height (exit altitude) is about 10,000 feet.

DaVinci's design

Curious as to how this sport started, I learned that the concept of falling from the sky dates to the 1100s in China. The Chinese would do what today is called base jumping, that's jumping from cliffs and outcroppings then floating to the ground in makeshift parachutes. 

Fast forward a few hundred years to 1493, when artist Leonardo DaVinci, also a scientist and inventor, sketched a design for the first parachute. He never tested the triangular parachute design. It was tried in 1999 and worked. 

Lenormand jumps from the tower of the Montpellier observatory, 1783. Garnerin releases the balloon and descends with the help of a parachute, 1797 (Internet sources, late 19th century)

In the 1700s, Louis-Sébastien Lenormand, a French chemist, physicist, inventor, became  a parachuting pioneer who is credited with coining the term from the Latin prefix para (against) and the French word chute (fall). Lenormand refined his device after jumping from a tree with a pair of modified umbrellas and in December 1783, jumped from the tower of the Montpellier observatory using a 14-foot parachute with a rigid wooden frame. His intended use for a parachute was to help those trapped in a building fire to escape. 

André-Jacques Garnerin, a French hot air balloonist was the first person to successfully jump with a frameless parachute attached to a gondola in 1797. The successful descent was made after the device was lifted skyward 3,200 feet above Paris by a hot air balloon. He jumped without injury.

Landings at Skydive Pepperell, NH

While skydiving isn't without risk, I was surprised to learn it's safer than expected. Statistics show the annual fatality count is about 20 and equals a .007 percent chance of death for every 1,000 jumps. The sport of bungee jumping has about the same fatality rate. In terms of safety, bungee jumping and skydiving are equal. This low rate makes each death newsworthy when it occurs. By comparison, over 46,000 people die annually in crashes on U.S. roads. 

Thanks to a post comment from a fellow blogger, I checked another statistic on BASE jumping. By comparison, this is one of the most dangerous recreational sports worldwide with a fatality and injury rate 43 times higher than parachuting from a plane. (BASE stands for the categories of four fixed objects that one can jump from — buildings, antenna (radio masts), spans (bridges), and earth (cliffs). Participants exit from the fixed object and after an optional free fall delay, deploy a parachute to slow their descent and land.  BASE jumps are way more dangerous than skydives as jumpers often use one parachute with no reserve. 

Skydiving is often compared to parachuting since both involve jumping/falling to the ground for various reasons. 

No, they are not the same and, yes, there's a marked difference. 

Parachuting is the act of jumping from a plane with a parachute that's immediately deployed. Skydiving starts with a leap from the airplane and includes a free fall descent from 30 to 90 seconds before the parachute opens, usually at a higher altitude. In short, a parachutist doesn't experience free fall after jumping from a plane. 

Another distinction is that parachuting is most often used in the context of a career or work and skydiving is used in the context of recreation. For example, smoke jumpers, Navy SEALS and Special Forces operatives are said to parachute, whereas sport jumpers and international competitors are said to skydive. 

If you're considering a recreational skydive, costs can be sky-rocketing (couldn't resist a pun). At Skydive Pepperell, an individual tandem jump is $275 which includes airport fees, lift tickets, and instructors. It decreases by $10 per person starting with groups of 5 to 9 and up.

In doing this post, I thought about the lyric, I went skydiving, from the 2004 song Live Like You Were Dying by Tim McGraw from a CD that's a favorite in our music collection. I've included a music link above. In the lyrics, McGraw is talking to a man who's received a terminal diagnosis. When McGraw asks him how he handled it, he learns that the man got a new outlook on life and started doing things he always wanted to do (skydiving, mountain climbing, fishing, bull riding) and became more generous and forgiving. 

Your turn — Have you ever considered skydiving or any other extreme recreation?