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.

Industry Leaders in Safety Training

Posted: 27th May 2017

A day in the life of a skydiving apprentice

Posted: 5th March 2019

GoSkydive wins at the South West Apprenticeships Awards

Posted: 25th September 2018

Why do people skydive?

Posted: 4th April 2019

Meet Sydney Victor Crossland, a 100 year old who is skydiving to celebrate his birthday

Posted: 2nd August 2018

Facing your fear of skydiving

Posted: 10th April 2019

Skydivers jump with GoSkydive to commemorate 100 years since World War 1

Posted: 10th November 2018

The World’s First Tandem Skydive Apprenticeship

Posted: 24th June 2017

Friday 13th – not such an unlucky date after all for these skydivers

Posted: 11th September 2018

What is Freefall?

Posted: 20th June 2017

GoSkydive welcomes first female tandem skydive instructor

Posted: 10th September 2017