Hoping to jump from a plane

the_lost_one

I am currently living in Galway and am hoping to do a skydive, i know there is a company that does it in Galway. I was just wondering if anyone could give me a ballpark price for the experience?

FouxDaFaFa

Are you sure there are people in Galway doing it?Closest I know of are Kilkenny and Offaly.

Quazzie

The one in Offaly is www.skydive.ie, but I aint sure about the price. Most people do it for Charity on their first time as it is a useful time to get your first jump in and raise some money for charity.

It also depends whether you want to do it solo (which requires a training course) or tandem which doesn't.

galwaycyclist

These guys are advertising themselves as jumping in Galway

http://www.skydiveireland.ie/location.php

They are also tied in with the National Council for the Blind if you want to do a sponsored jump.

Apart from that AFAIK the nearest drop zone is the Irish Parachute Club in Clonbullogue in Offaly. The next nearest used to be the Naas Falcons but Google couldn't find much on them so they might be gone.

FouxDaFaFa

That's great, didn't know there were people operating out of the airport.They do static-line solo jumps which sound pretty cool.May be tempted myself!

xflyer

www.skydiveireland.ie are the nearest to Galway operating from Birr Co. Offaly. However they are coming to Galway airport again. So contact them. They've jumped in Galway airport several times this year and are due back very soon. Their pilot is Galway based and likes the short commute!

It's all weather dependant of course.

galwaycyclist

the_lost_one wrote: »

I am currently living in Galway and am hoping to do a skydive, i know there is a company that does it in Galway. I was just wondering if anyone could give me a ballpark price for the experience?

Further to this on the cost. Check out the web sites the training course for doing a static line jump will probably be multiples of the cost of a tandem jump.

BUT

If you think you might "catch the bug" then you are better off scraping up the cash for the static line course. Because once you have done the course, the price of your next jump drops to the price of petrol for the plane and packing the chute. (That was how the Naas Falcons used to do it anyway)

You have to keep jumping within a set time window before retraining I don't know what that is nowadays but the clubs can tell you.

If you do a tandem and you decide you want to expand on that experience then you still have to shell out for the course.

leeroybrown

FouxDaFaFa wrote: »

That's great, didn't know there were people operating out of the airport.They do static-line solo jumps which sound pretty cool.May be tempted myself!

I'm pretty sure that you won't be able to do a static line jump at Galway airport, only a tandem. Without someone experienced to deal with the landing you'll need to do it somewhere with a more controlled environment.

xflyer

Further to this on the cost. Check out the web sites the training course for doing a static line jump will probably be multiples of the cost of a tandem jump.

Actually it costs the same. It can even be cheaper sometimes. But you're right that once the first jump is done. Then it gets a lot cheaper. You can even buy a batch of jump tickets for a discount.

A lot of people collect for a charity and raise quite a lot of cash that way. That effectively can mean a free jump.

And Leeroy is right you won't be able to do a static line jump at Galway airport. They are done at Birr airfield. Birr is only an hour and a bit from Galway.

Head The Wall

Quazzie wrote: »

The one in Offaly is www.skydive.ie, but I aint sure about the price. Most people do it for Charity on their first time as it is a useful time to get your first jump in and raise some money for charity.

It also depends whether you want to do it solo (which requires a training course) or tandem which doesn't.

xflyer wrote: »

Actually it costs the same. It can even be cheaper sometimes. But you're right that once the first jump is done. Then it gets a lot cheaper. You can even buy a batch of jump tickets for a discount.

A lot of people collect for a charity and raise quite a lot of cash that way. That effectively can mean a free jump.

And Leeroy is right you won't be able to do a static line jump at Galway airport. They are done at Birr airfield. Birr is only an hour and a bit from Galway.

It's going back a few years now but I did a solo jump in Birr in 98 and it cost me £180. If I was doing it for charity I would have had to collect £280 (140 for the jump and 140 for the charity) so it didn't work out great for the charity. There has probably been changes since then.

There was a seven or eight hour training course on the day for solo jumps while people doing the tandem jump had 30 minutes to do. There was also a lot of disclaimers signed .

I read somewhere that you have to have done some tandem jumps now before you are allowed do solo jumps, hopefully I'm wrong as it was one of the best days of my life. The actual jump out of the plane on your own is the hardest part but the most exhilarating, 4 of us went up but 2 of them couldn't go through with it - day and money wasted.

xflyer

No need to do tandem jumps before you go solo. Any skydive outfit who tells you that is a rip off. Relatively speaking the price has dropped, there is a recession after all. Training for a tandem is about 15 minutes. Static line training is as before, a full day's training and stringent at a good school. If not up to standard, no jump. Sometimes you can transfer to a tandem in that case or in the case of a refusal.

Tandems can't refuse, the Instructor is going out the door anyway and you're attached to him. Scream as loud as you like, he's going out that door and so are you.

galwaycyclist

Head The Wall wrote: »

I read somewhere that you have to have done some tandem jumps now before you are allowed do solo jumps, hopefully I'm wrong as it was one of the best days of my life. The actual jump out of the plane on your own is the hardest part but the most exhilarating, 4 of us went up but 2 of them couldn't go through with it - day and money wasted.

Likely what is getting mixed up here is the two routes to free fall jumping where you exit the plane, fall in a stable position as seen on tv, and then open your own parachute.

One route is the so called "accelerated free fall" where your first jumps are done at high altitude with one or two instructors jumping with you. They guide you through the steps to get stable and deploy your chute. (If you don't get it right they will pull the ripcord for you) You do a few of these jumps with instructors until you have been passed to jump on your own.

The other more common route involves progressing through a series of "static line" jumps at lower altitudes. In a static line jump there is a line attached to the aircraft that opens your parachute for you. In a series of jumps you must demonstrate consistently stable exits, followed by what are called drp jumps where you pull a dummy ripcord but the parachute opens automatically. If you pass these steps you get to do a free fall jump - no static line - you open your own chute.