Parachutes for Skydiving

 Last Saturday April 3rd, Lily and her friend went to skydiving at Ennis, Texas. They had an experience of their life times. I went with them, but as an chauffer and photographer. When I was at the tiny airport, I observed how the staff preparing the parachutes, the most important safety device for skydiving. 

the parachute

Looking at the photo carefully, you will see there are actually two parachutes, the colorful big parachute, and a tiny light color parachute, which is called pilot parachute, on top of the big parachute. The pilot parachute is, I believe, for initial jump off the airplane, to avoid entanglement between parachute and the aircraft.

The deployment of a parachute timely is critical for the safety of skydivers. 

How is parachute packed into the pre-deployment configuration? How does the parachute deploy?

The following is my observation and interpretation.

a deployed parachute is brought into staging area

a staff, typically skydiver himself, will pack the parachute, via folding and rolling

squeezing air out of the parachute: note that there is black pocket - it is the deployment bag (D-bag),
a white tiny white parachute (pilot parachute) at the top, and the carrier backpack (i.e. the container) is at the other end of the floor and the strings (bridle)

  

the parachutes are rolled and packed into the bottom of the container (backpack). the main skydiver in the tandem diving carries this backpack

note that there is silver handle with a orange ball at the end, which I believe controls the release of the main parachute 

For tandem skydiving, an equally important device is the harness on the second diver, which is connected to the main diver. There are five connection points between the main diver and the secondary diver, two on the shoulder, two at the waist, one at the back. The hook on back is used for initial jump up to keep the two divers tied to each other. Once the main parachute opens up, the main diver will disconnect this hook.

The main diver carries the parachute container, and connects to the secondary diver on the plane.

a hook at the back

two connectors at shoulder, two at waist

in the sky

mission accomplished

The thrill of skydiving

Note: after the write-up, I check internet for the sequence of parachute deployment . My observation and interpretation is pretty close.