Skydiving: Truth and Fiction
Parachuting is one of the most extreme that a person could come up with. Very few decide on a parachute jump – and only a few, having decided on a jump to nowhere, continue this dangerous activity. As in any sport, there are lay people who consider themselves true professionals. It is thanks to such people that among the uninitiated often fall unconfirmed facts and rumors, which in fact turn out to be lies and fiction. In this post we will try to talk about the most common myths of parachuting.Two prashyutisty can calmly talk, being nearby from each other in a state of free fall.
In some very truthful films, skydivers really talk in the air, but this is nothing more than a legend. No matter how you scream, a person falling nearby will not hear anything. That is, not just anything, but absolutely nothing: you fall so fast that the sound just does not have time to reach the other person, shaking the air somewhere above.
Maybe if you shout in your ear, something will be heard, but not a fact. By the way, about the fights of many directors loved in the air – maybe a professional parachutist will be able to hit someone falling nearby. But even for a professional it will be very difficult to perform all those tricks that we see in action films.
When the parachute opens, the paratrooper rises a little higher.
All this is just an optical illusion that we see on TV – after all, who is shooting paratroopers? Either the same skydivers falling nearby, or a person who is on any aircraft flying down at a certain speed. Naturally, as soon as the parachute opens, the speed of the paratrooper’s fall immediately slows down, and for the outside observer the paratrooper “jumps”, remaining at the top.
The paratrooper always packs his parachute himself
Yes, many parachutists really prefer to fold their own parachute on their own, but in general, usually the parachute is folded by specially trained people who know how to do it very well. Naturally, such services are not free – “packers” charge from 5 to 7 dollars for their services per package.
But of course, it is best to learn to do it yourself, not hoping for the attention and conscientiousness of outsiders. By the way, there are various options for stowing parachutes, which makes it possible to soften the blow when opening the parachute.
You can open the parachute at any height
Movies about special forces again mislead us – we see a soldier open a parachute directly above the ground, unnoticed when it lands. The facts are such that a parachute must be opened at a height of not less than 180-300 meters above the ground. Of course, you can fold your parachute so that it will pop up almost instantly. But we must not forget about the dynamic shock that occurs when the parachute opens. A normally laid parachute opens gently without harming the parachutist. If the parachute is folded up for instant actuation, then at a sufficiently high fall speed, opening the parachute can simply kill or cripple the paratrooper.
Oxygen masks
Many aspiring paratroopers think that athletes jumping from great heights need oxygen masks, because there you can simply suffocate. The reality is that an oxygen mask is needed only in an airplane, and they are removed when jumping – all because at a high altitude, where the air is very thin, the paratrooper will be very short, falling down at high speed.
