PARACHUTING Parachuting is an activity involving a preplanned drop from a height using a deployable parachute. The history of parachuting is not clear. It's known that Andre-Jacques Garnerin made successful parachute jumps from a hot-air balloon in 1797 A typical jump involves individuals jumping out of an aircraft (usually an airplane, but sometimes a helicopter or even the gondola of a balloon), traveling at approximately 4,000 meters (around 13,000 feet) altitude, and free-falling for a period of time before activating a parachute to slow the landing down to safe speeds.

Once the parachute is opened, (usually the parachute will be fully inflated by 2,500 ft). the jumper can control his or her direction and speed with "steering lines," with hand grips called "toggles" that are attached to the parachute, and so he or she can aim for the landing site and come to a relatively gentle stop in a safe landing environment. By manipulating the shape of the body—as a pilot manipulates the shape of his aircraft's wings—a skydiver can generate turns, forward motion, backwards motion, and even lift. Experienced skydivers will tell someone that in freefall, one can do anything a bird can do, except go back up.

Most skydivers make their first jump with an experienced and trained instructor (this type of skydive may be in the form of a tandem skydive). During the tandem jump the jumpmaster is responsible for the stable exit, maintaining a proper stable freefall position, and activating and controlling the parachute. With training and experience, the fear of the first few jumps is supplanted by the tact of controlling fear so that one may come to experience the satisfaction of mastering aerial skills and performing increasingly complicated maneuvers in the sky with friends.

SAFETY Despite the perception of danger, fatalities are rare. However, each year a number of people are hurt or killed parachuting world-wide.About 30 skydivers are killed each year in the US; roughly one death for every 100,000 jumps. In recent years, one of the most common sources of injury is a low turn under a high- performance canopy and while swooping. Swooping is the advanced discipline of gliding parallel to the ground during landing.

Types of parachuting include: Accuracy landingAccuracy landing - Landing as close as possible to a target. BASE jumpingBASE jumping - From buildings, antennas, bridges and cliffs. Blade runningBlade running - A kind of slalom with parachute. Big-waysBig-ways - Formation skydiving with many people. Canopy formationCanopy formation - Making formations with other parachutists while under canopies. Canopy pilotingCanopy piloting - Also known as 'swooping'. Formation skydivingFormation skydiving - Making formations during freefall. Freefall style Freeflying Freestyle skydiving Military Parachuting Para-ski SkysurfingSkysurfing - Skydiving with a board strapped to one's feet. Vertical Formation SkydivingVertical Formation Skydiving - a subset of Formation skydiving that uses high-speed freeflying body positions instead of bellyflying.Formation skydivingfreeflying Wingsuit flyingWingsuit flying - Skydiving with a suit which provides extra lift.

Costs in the sport are not trivial. As new technological advances or performance enhancements are introduced, they tend to nudge equipment prices higher. Similarly, the average skydiver carries more equipment than in earlier years, with safety devices contributing a significant portion of the cost. A full set of brand-new equipment can easily cost as much as a new motorcycle or half a small car. Costs:

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