Skydiving in Poland - Parachuting in Poland
Dropzones & Courses
Skydiving and parachuting is a very popular pastime in Poland and there are plenty of different dropzones to enjoy or for the beginner, there are many places where skydiving or parachuting courses are offered. Poland attracts skydivers from around the world and in August 2010, Skydivers in Poland broke the European record for the number of people in a formation when 104 people joined together in the air. The team jumped out of five planes at a height of 4,800 metres (15748 feet). The jump was their 15th attempt at breaking the record.
Skydiving is one of the most popular items on people's, 'Bucket List' and that is due to the fact the the experience of plummeting safely to Earth from a great height is exhilarating, breathtaking and unique and has been widely accepted as one of the most exciting things that you could do. For those people who do not have time to attend a course and learn how to jump by themselves, the tandem jump is a perfect solution. Tandem skydiving provides you with the experience of a jump whilst safely harnessed to an experienced skydiving instructor.
About Skydiving & Parachuting
Parachuting, also known as skydiving, is the action of exiting an aircraft and returning to earth with the aid of a parachute. It may or may not involve a certain amount of free-fall, a time during which the parachute has not been deployed and the body gradually accelerates to terminal velocity.
The history of skydiving starts with Andre-Jacques Garnerin who made successful parachute jumps from a hot-air balloon in 1797. The military developed parachuting technology as a way to save aircrews from emergencies aboard balloons and aircraft in flight, later as a way of delivering soldiers to the battlefield. Early competitions date back to the 1930s, and it became an international sport in 1952.
A drop zone operator at a sky diving airport operates one or more aircraft that takes groups of skydivers up for a fee. An individual jumper can go up in a light aircraft such as a Cessna C-172 or C-182. In busier drop zones (DZ) larger aircraft may be used such as the Cessna Caravan C208, De Havilland Twin Otter DHC6 or Short Skyvan.
A typical jump involves individuals exiting an aircraft (usually an airplane, but sometimes a helicopter or even the gondola of a balloon), at anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000 meters (3,000 to 13,000 feet) altitude. If jumping from a low altitude, the parachute is deployed immediately, however, at higher altitudes, the skydiver may free-fall for a short period of time (about a minute) before activating a parachute to slow the landing down to safe speeds (about 5 to 7 minutes).
When the parachute opens (usually the parachute will be fully inflated by 800 meters or 2,600 feet) the jumper can control the direction and speed with toggles on the end of steering lines attached to the trailing edge of the parachute, and can aim for the landing site and come to a relatively gentle stop. All modern sport parachutes are self-inflating "ram-air" wings that provide control of speed and direction similar to the related paragliders. Purists in either sport would note that paragliders have much greater lift and range, but that parachutes are designed to absorb the stresses of deployment at terminal velocity.