Category: General Skydiving Skills/Info
Skydiving skills come naturally to some of us, but not so much to others. And skydiving safety is not always intuitive, especially if you don’t have a background in aviation. Learn more about how to skydive safely and effectively with these tips.
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Which Way to Track? (Breakoff Series Part 4)
There’s a uniquely confusing time in a new skydiver’s life where they may not be at all sure which way to track at breakoff. This may not be due to them being stupid; it could actually be the result of being very WELL coached as a student. Imagine you are this new skydiver. You’re recently
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Don’t Chop Your Fingers!
What’s most important, an on-heading opening or a fully open canopy? (Video follows article) Many manufacturing industries educate their employees about hand safety, especially when they have to work around heavy machinery. We don’t tend to talk about hand safety too much in skydiving, other than to recommend not wearing rings that can get hooked
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Don’t Be Late for Your Date!
We’re all adults here, and we all know that showing up late for a date can make you miss out on… well, whatever you had planned! 😳 Your date with the airplane for a skydive is no different, and few of us ever miss that! However, there are a LOT of skydivers who can be
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How to Pick Up Your Canopy
Hey, new skydiver! Do you feel confused when picking your gear up off the field? Do you constantly hear “YOU’RE DRAGGING!” being shouted from across the landing area? Do you want to look more like a PRO on your way in?! There’s a whole lot of information thrown at you as a new skydiver, and
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Parachute Landing Patterns Explained
Have you ever struggled to understand what a parachute landing pattern is and how to modify it for different wind conditions? Check out this video! (Another fantastic edit by Nick Lott!)
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Look Both Ways Before Crossing the Runway
When we were kids, pretty much everyone who took care of us taught us to look both ways before crossing any street. Right? This was probably one of the rare pieces of advice most of us didn’t challenge too much, because no one wants to get hit by a car! Why, then, do we not
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New Landing Hazard at Spaceland Dallas
UPDATE (10/10/22): We now have a secure gate on our side to access this area (in the southwest corner, the one closest to the hangar). It’s still not ideal to land here for sure, but we should be able to get you out without too much trouble. We would still recommend avoiding this area when
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It’s YOUR Job to Avoid Aircraft!
Remember the Smokey the Bear public information campaign with the slogan, “Only YOU can prevent forest fires?” The idea was to remind us that we all bear personal responsibility for avoiding this dangerous situation. (See what I did there? 🙂 ) Flying parachutes puts us in a similar situation that requires each of us to
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19 Things You Want to Know About Tandem Skydiving
You’re thinking about trying skydiving. Or maybe a friend/family member is. Or maybe you just need a few minutes’ break from work or your amazingly awful blind date, and this article sounded like the perfect activity to kill time while you’re hiding out in the bathroom. Let’s have some fun with this! These are the
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Manifest General Reminders
If you find yourself at the dropzone, you will most likely be spending some time in the manifest office. With the rapid rate of growth that Skydive Spaceland has been experiencing, we want to spread the word on some general reminders and guides for manifesting and sharing the space of the office. Manifest Basics What
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Skydiving Airmanship Part 1: Knowledge
“Airmanship is the consistent use of good judgment and well-developed skills to accomplish flight objectives. This consistency is founded on a cornerstone of uncompromising flight discipline and is developed through systematic skill acquisition and proficiency. A high state of situational awareness completes the airmanship picture and is obtained through knowledge of one’s self, aircraft, environment,
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Good Canopies, Bad Decisions
So you are ready to get that shiny new wing, or sell your current canopy. Well caveat emptor[1], good readers. Are you making good decisions about this purchase, or the sale of your “old” wing? We are seeing a disturbing, fatal trend among skydivers worldwide as newer, faster wings come onto the market and older
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Breakoff Series Part 3: Video Takes the Center, High
It’s a super cool shot to get when you’re flying outside video above a skydiving formation–that shot when the outside camera flyer (who is filming the jump without being a part of the formation) drops into the center as the formation breaks away, probably turning in place to watch everyone track far and fast before deploying.
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Breakoff Series Part 2: Flat Tracking
Tracking away from other skydivers well is one of the most vital survival skills a skydiver can have. No matter what kind of freefall skydive you do, unless it’s a Mr. Bill or a solo, you will be tracking to achieve horizontal separation from the other people you are skydiving with before deploying your parachute.
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Breakoff Safety Series
As skydivers who want to skydive again (and again, and again…), we tend to pay attention to the highest risk areas for our skydives to make them as safe as possible. We learn as students how to fly and land our parachutes safely, and we take canopy courses to get even better at it. We
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Breakoff Series Part 1: Planning Breakoff and Tracking
Revised August 2015 Before you hop in the plane for your next jump, here’s some food for thought on safety: Plan your breakoff and tracking just as carefully as you plan the freefall part of your jump. This part of the jump is often neglected because it comes after “the good stuff,” but it is
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Red Light, Green Light, No Light?
Quick! What do you do if you are on jump run, the green light has been turned on, and then the green light goes out (either the red light comes back on or the green light simply turns off)? Assume the light is broken and proceed with your climbout and skydive. Flip the spotting switch
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Skydiving? Take Your Phone!
These days, most of us are almost never without our mobile phones. Some even seem to have separation anxiety if they misplace their phones for even a few minutes! 🙂 This week’s tip is good news for the phone-bonded among us, because it’s a recommendation to take your phone with you whenever you skydive. Why,
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Altitude Awareness: Do You Have It?
What’s the first thing your skydiving instructor has you do after you leave the plane? Check your altitude. Before and after maneuvers, check your altitude. If you don’t have altitude awareness, PULL! Awareness of your altitude is of paramount importance to our survival in skydiving, and we all know it. And yet we sometimes forget
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What’s Your Wind Limit?
Gusty winds are common at Spaceland and many other dropzones. As an experienced jumper, I have thought a lot about what my personal wind limit is–in other words, when I will sit down even though the dropzone is not on a wind hold. Recently, I made the decision not to jump after watching other fun
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Splish-Splash: Landing in Wet Conditions
Ah spring… Green grass, warming temperatures, and RAIN! One of the most common questions we see in our social media news feeds this time of the year is, “How wet is the landing area?” If you have to ask, the answer is usually “underwater.” 😉 Since we’re not too interested in waiting days for perfectly
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Emergency Exit!
Current weather reports 1000 foot overcast skies… anyone for a hop & pop? In all seriousness, how low are you prepared to get out of the airplane? Have you thought about what you would do in an emergency since you were a student? A couple weeks ago I was flying, had just taken off from
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Flying the Hill: Basics
You’ve probably heard skydivers talk about the “hill” and “flying the hill” when discussing exits from powered aircraft flying horizontally. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, let’s define it! The hill is that transition period between your leaving the aircraft and reaching terminal vertical velocity. When you exit, you are initially traveling horizontally just like
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Skydiving Currency: Use it or Lose It!
Ah, wintertime. We’re lucky enough here at Spaceland-Houston to have jumpable temperatures year-round, but cooler days and holidays often result in many of us taking a bit of a break from jumping this time of year. This break can result in a lack of currency, which is an additional risk factor for injury in skydiving.
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Rigs vs. Doors
Recently, one of our licensed jumpers took it upon himself to remind us all about keeping our rigs away from the edges of the aircraft door when rotating out to a floater exit. It’s a great reminder for all of us, because it’s far too easy to get too comfortable and complacent about safety aspects
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Special Dives: Low/High Pulls, Toy Dives, Pond Swooping
Low/High Pulls High openings and low passes must take into account the number of airplanes flying, other skydiving activities, and canopy descent rate. We cannot always accommodate low passes or high openings. We cannot guarantee that low-pass jumpers will land alone unless only one plane is flying. Ensure that the aircraft is configured for your
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Aircraft/Loading Area Safety and Policies
Winds Aloft This information is posted daily on the board near the aircraft mockups. Also check out our weather page… Loading Area We use loading area 1 (north of the hangar) on cold starts/after fueling, and loading area 2 (northwest corner of hangar) on hot turns. Please be in the loading area on the 5-minute
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Wingsuit Dive Policies
Wingsuit jumps carry many of the same risks as tracking/angle flying because of the horizontal movement component. They can also pose a risk to later-dropping aircraft because of the extremely slow fall rate. They can pose challenges when dealing with malfunctions as well, because of the limited mobility many suits allow the jumper before wings
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New on New
Are you a new skydiver with a shiny new A license? Or maybe you’re a skydiving student already thinking about the fun things you’ll do after you graduate? Congratulations on becoming a part of the global skydiving community! We’re glad you’re here. 🙂 Now let’s talk a little about the skydives you’ll do once you
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Skydive Spaceland Camera Policy
Forrest Gump might have said that skydiving and cameras go together like peas and carrots. It’s an awesome thing to capture what’s arguably the world’s most fun aerial activity with a nice tiny, high-quality camera such as a GoPro. It won’t get in the way, right? You won’t even know it’s there! To go back