What is Freefall?

Posted: 20th June 2017

We've come to realise that try as we might to not use industry specific language we sometimes fail and it seems that when we talk about 'Freefall' people are often unclear as to what that actually means. So what is freefall? Freefall is the state that a tandem skydive pair are in when they first exit the aircraft. So once the aeroplane has reached the desired jump altitude (height from the ground) that we are wanting to skydive from the tandem pair exit the aircraft - they are then in a state of freefall until the parachute is deployed by the tandem instructor. The pair are literally falling freely through the air at speeds of approximately 125mph. The freefall is the skydiving part of the experience and the length of time that the experience lasts depends on the altitude that you are jumping from. The parachute is deployed at 5000ft so the 'freefall' or skydive lasts for the time it takes to fall from the jump height minus the parachute deployment height. So jumping from 15,000ft minus 5000ft when the parchute is deployed gives you a freefall distance of 10,000ft which on average takes about 60 seconds to cover. Jumping from 10,000ft would give you a distance of 10,000ft to cover taking about 30 seconds. To calculate the speed that you would freefall at you can use our freefall calculator (refresh after each calculation). Find out why do people skydive here.

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Incredible experience

Reveiwed 21 March 2023

I done a 10,000ft skydive for my 30th and it was awesome! My instructor Steve was amazing and made me feel so at ease. Roman the camera guy was great as well. I honestly had the best time and haven't... Read full review

Definitely recommend!

Reveiwed 20 March 2023

Amazing experience and amazing staff! Booked in for 8am and jumped around 9.30. Great experience from start to finish. I had Joby and he was brilliant. Read full review

Exciting ,challenging day

Reveiwed 19 March 2023

Exciting and challenging day for anyone who dares to try, wonderful team to guide you. Well worth a go no matter how old you are ,so glad I did it with team Swansea . Read full review

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