Skydiving Landing Tips

How do you land when skydiving? The general technique for landing is much the same, but there are variances depending on the kind of skydiving you’re enjoying (tandem or solo skydiving) We’re here to help unveil the mystery and help you with the top skydiving landing tips for your skydive!

When you are tandem skydiving, you are harnessed to an experienced instructor.

This doesn’t mean you get to sit back and simply enjoy the ride (although there is a little bit of that), the tandem passenger plays an active role in the skydive. When it comes to tandem skydiving landings, here are the top 3 tips on how do you land when skydiving tandem:

1. Lift Your Legs – many instructors refer to the landing as a ‘3-legged race.’ That explanation is because you’ll be harnessed together and it’s hard to predict what each other will do and what needs to be done. For simplicity and safety, the instructor is in charge of the tandem skydiving landing. It is common for a tandem pair to do a “butt slide” landing and occasionally a stand-up landing. However, for either to occur, the tandem passenger must lift their legs up to make room for the instructor’s legs so he may guide you to touch down.  
2. Listen to Your Instructor – it’s easy to want to get carried away, yell YAHOO and completely immerse yourself in the skydive. However, as we stated, you are very much a part of the tandem skydive and landing the parachute with the instructor. It’s very important that you stay tuned in and listen to your instructor so he can assist with a safe skydive landing.  
3. Go Out and Watch – if you’re not sure how this will all go down, do yourself a favor and arrive 30-40 minutes early so you can watch other tandem skydiving students land. This will take out a lot of the mystery and help you understand your role for the landing.

Solo skydiving is thrilling as you are the one in charge of landing the parachute. In your training, your instructors will help guide you on how to control the parachute to the landing point, and help you with these solo skydiving landing tips to put things in context during training.

1. PLF – the Parachute Landing Fall is the go-to landing to help distribute your weight evenly and effectively if the skydiving landing isn’t going as planned. The PLF helps you negotiate your body in a type of a roll to avoid ankles, knees or wrists sticking out. This tucked up landing will help protect your body and distribute the energy of the fall.
   
   Pro Tip: Practice this a lot! Even when you’re experienced because you never know when it’ll come in handy!
2. Flare, Flare Flare! – flaring is basically stopping the forward motion of the parachute to slow the descent for landing. A lot of students have a habit of looking straight down or looking too far off in the distance. The trick is to look at about a 45-degree angle since the parachute is descending in a slow, forward motion. Then, when you get to about 10-15’ high, start initiating the flare evenly until touch down. Pro Tip: go up a flight of stairs about 10-15 steps up, this will give you the reference of 10-15’ and what it looks like at a 45-degree angle.
3. Get Video – if you’re having a hard time, first know you are not the only one! Skydiving landings take a lot of practice to perfect. During student status, your instructor can help you by videoing your landing so you can both critique your form. If your instructor isn’t able to video, ask a friend! Then share the video with your instructor so they can most effectively brief your skydiving landing.
4. Take a Canopy Course – there is so much to learn beyond the first basic skydiving license when it comes to skydiving landings. You can take it to the next level by getting coaching from world-class canopy pilots. They will help you understand your canopy flight characteristics in more detail, offer personalized coaching, and tailor the program to help you progress and feel confident under your wing.

There are several canopy courses around our region, however, we are also very fortunate to have canopy courses right here in our own backyard! Check out our calendar for upcoming events!

As we said, it’s a thing to wonder and be curious about how to make a skydiving landing. There is nothing like flying a parachute-like actually flying one. During your training, we help take you step-by-step to understand the skydiving landings and unveiling the mystery so you too can be a competent and confident canopy pilot.

Contact us to discover more about learning to skydive.

Related Article: Parachute Landings Explained