Skydiving競技・連盟管理

Parachuting is the descent of a person through the atmosphere using a parachute. In sport parachuting, a jumper normally exits an aircraft, passes through a period of free fall, deploys a steerable canopy, flies it to a landing area and lands. Skydiving is commonly used as a synonym for sport parachuting, although it can more narrowly refer to controlling the body during freefall before the canopy is deployed.

Parachuting is used for recreation and competition, military deployment, emergency escape and access to remote areas. International competition and record activity is administered by the Skydiving Commission of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).

On 22 October 1797, French balloonist André-Jacques Garnerin made the first well documented parachute descent from a balloon over Paris. His silk canopy opened after he separated a basket from the balloon at about 3,000 ft (910 m). Early parachute descents were mainly public demonstrations or emergency experiments. After the development of a manually operated ripcord, Leslie Irvin made an intentional freefall jump from an aeroplane on 28 April 1919.

Sport parachuting expanded after the Second World War. The first World Parachuting Championships were held at Bled in 1951, initially centred on landing accuracy, and the FAI began recognising parachuting records and championships during the same period.

Sport parachuting includes recreational jumps, training and internationally regulated competition. Military forces use parachutes to deliver personnel and supplies; specialised units also use controllable ram-air canopies for high-altitude freefall insertion. Forest-service smokejumpers parachute to remote wildfires and receive tools, food and water by air drop.

Parachutes have also been used for emergency escape from balloons and aircraft, particularly during the development of military aviation. Sport parachuting, by contrast, is a planned aircraft operation.

A sport jump begins with exit from the aircraft. Immediately after exit, the relative wind comes from the direction of aircraft travel and shifts as the jumper's trajectory becomes more nearly vertical. Body position is used to manage this transition, while altitude awareness remains essential throughout freefall.

Freefall is the interval between exit and parachute deployment. In a stable belly-to-earth position, a skydiver reaches a terminal velocity of about 200 km/h (120 mph); head-down and more streamlined body positions produce higher speeds. Body position is used to maintain stability and control orientation during freefall. On formation jumps, participants break off at a planned altitude and track away to create horizontal separation before deploying their parachutes.

Deployment is normally initiated by a pilot chute, a small parachute used to initiate or accelerate deployment of the main parachute. Parachute opening can be divided into three stages: activation, deployment—when the parachute leaves its container—and inflation, when the canopy fills with air. Modern sport parachutes are generally ram-air canopies: air entering openings at the front inflates an upper and lower surface into a gliding airfoil.

After opening, the jumper checks that the canopy is fully inflated, stable and steerable, and confirms that it can be flared for landing. Steering-toggle inputs change the canopy's heading and speed: pulling one toggle initiates a turn, while pulling both down slows forward motion and descent. Wind affects the canopy's track and speed over the ground, producing slower progress into the wind, faster progress downwind and sideways drift during crosswind flight.

Canopy flight is commonly organised around a holding area and a planned landing pattern while the jumper monitors altitude, position and other canopy traffic. The pattern is a deliberate approach, commonly divided into downwind, base and final legs, that positions the canopy for a straight final descent toward a clear area. If the intended landing area cannot be reached, an alternate open area may be selected.

During final approach, pulling both steering toggles down flares the canopy, decreasing its forward speed and rate of descent before touchdown. When a stand-up landing is not possible, a parachute landing fall can reduce injury risk by distributing the impact across several points of the body.

Training combines ground instruction with supervised jumps. Subjects normally include equipment, aircraft procedures, exit position, altitude awareness, parachute deployment, emergency procedures, canopy control, landing patterns and landing technique. Training systems differ among countries and national organisations.

In the United States, the United States Parachute Association (USPA) presents tandem, accelerated freefall, instructor-assisted deployment and static-line training within its student programme. British Skydiving uses static-line and accelerated-freefall routes for students progressing toward independent jumping.

In a tandem jump, a student is attached by a separate harness to an instructor, and both use one tandem parachute system. The instructor controls the exit, freefall, deployment, canopy flight and landing. United States regulations require the parachutist in command to meet experience, licensing and system-specific training requirements, and require an operational automatic activation device on the tandem system.

In static-line training, a line attached to the aircraft initiates deployment as the student exits. Early jumps therefore place emphasis on aircraft exit, canopy checks, steering, landing patterns and emergency procedures. As the student progresses, the deployment delay is increased until the student deploys the parachute independently.

Instructor-assisted deployment follows a progression similar to static-line training, but an instructor in the aircraft deploys the student's pilot chute as the student exits. Later jumps introduce independent deployment and longer free