What is tandem skydiving?
Tandem skydiving is the most popular way to experience skydiving for first timers. With less than 30 minutes training you can jump attached to an expert instructor. First you complete some paperwork and a waiver. Then you will attend a short briefing conducted by a United States Parachute Association (USPA) licensed Tandem Instructor. Your instructor will have a minimum of 3 years experience in skydiving, 500 jumps, and hold a USPA Master Skydiving license, although most of our instructors have thousands of skydives. In the class you learn an overview of the process, correct freefall body position, emergencies, exiting the aircraft, operating the parachute after freefall, landing approach, and landing.
Afterwards, an instructor will outfit you with a jumpsuit (if available), harness, and goggles. The harness attaches to the parachute directly at 4 separate points so there is no chance of coming loose.
Once you are suited up, it's a short ride to 14,000 feet above the ground (altitude may vary depending on weather, aircraft, and air traffic) where you exit into freefall at 120 MPH for about one minute. You, or the instructor will open the parachute around 5,000 feet and you will spend 5 to 7 minutes both steering it to the ground. The landings are typically soft, sliding in on your behind or standing up.
The entire process takes 2 to 4 hours from the time you arrive until you leave. Tandem passengers must weigh 254 lbs or less. Additional rates and restrictions may apply to passengers over 220 lbs.
How safe is tandem skydiving?
Each one of our UPT Sigma tandem parachute systems is the top-of-the-line in the industry. Each contains a main parachute, reserve parachute, and an onboard computerized Airtec CYPRES automatic activation device. The reserve parachutes are all inspected and re-packed by our F.A.A. certified Master Parachute Rigger every 180 days. If by 1,900 feet no parachute has been activated, the automatic activation device will activate the reserve parachute.
How much is tandem skydving?
We wish is was a simple one number answer. This is the thing that makes us so different from other places- up front pricing. Some places offer what look like low rates but that's not the whole story. There are a lot of factors that you need to consider when asking this question:
- Does the price include everything or do you need to pay extra fees? The majority of places these days have adopted a "get 'em in the door" strategy and hit you with tons of fees. Equipment rental, booking fees, additional altitudes, etc.
- Is the price or coupon restricted to certain days?
- What altitude is the price for? Many places have those rates for 8,500 or 10,000 feet. If you want to go up higher your paying more. Music City Skydiving takes you up to 14,000 feet weather permitting every time for no extra.
- What is the wait time like? Are you just number 99 in the hundred people that day the company is cattle driving out the door? If so, expect to wait a long time, sometimes 6 to 8 hours, and expect to be treated like a number. Google shows people typically spend 3.5 hours here on average. Consider that average includes our people that work here who are logged into Google. So the actual average is much faster for tandem skydives, typically 2.5 hours or less from when you walk in until you leave.
- What kind of experience will you feel? Skydiving is a once in a lifetime experience for most people. You deserve a unique 5 star experience. Read our Google Reviews.
- You can find out our exact prices at our Skydiving Prices page.
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