Dan Poynter - Parachuting: The Skydiver’s Handbook

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20130416

PARACHUTING: THE SKYDIVERS HANDBOOK
Tenth Revised Edition
Copyright 1978, 1983, 1989, 1992, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2013
Dan Poynter and Mike Turoff
First edition 1978
Eighth edition 2000, revised
Ninth edition 2004, completely revised
Tenth edition 2013, revised

ISBN: 978-1568601-41-0 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-56860-162-5 (ePUB)
LCCN: 2003107510

PUBLISHED BY:

PARA PUBLISHING
PO Box 8206
Santa Barbara, CA 93118-8206
U.S.A.
ParaPublishing.com
Telephone: (805) 968-7277

Cover photo by Art Ingrao
Digital formatting by B10 Mediaworx

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owners and the above publisher of this book.

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Skydiving
eab:20130414.01

Smashwords Edition

Para Publishing
Santa Barbara, California

This is the only up-to-date basic sport parachuting handbook and it is highly recommended.

The Next Whole Earth Catalog

Poynters latest fills the bill of educating while entertaining. He says it well.

Parachutist magazine

For a lesson or just some vicarious thrills, read Parachuting: The Skydivers Handbook.

New York Post

A valuable collection of information and a good first look at the sport.

Library Journal

Dans strength as a writer lies in his technical descriptions of equipment; these are faultless.

British Sport Parachutist magazine

This handy volume falls into the Everything you need to know about category and is required reading for everyone who wants to jump out of and aeroplane.

Flight International

All aspects are covered in a clear and authoritative fashion.

Air International

Chapters cover an overview of the sport, detailed discussion of each facet of the first jump, the history of parachuting, and an in-depth study of parachuting emergencies. Other sections discuss specialized jumping and equipment. Appendix contains a glossary and a list of drop zones, books, magazines and films.

Sporting Goods Business

Well-written, this volume is profusely illustrated with photos and drawings. A useful addition to the public library collection.

Choice

Dan Poynter has done it again.

Spotter NewsMagazine

Dan Poynter is past president of the Parachute Industry Association, past chairman of the Board of the U.S. Parachute Association, an expert parachutist with all the highest licenses and ratings, a pilot and a master parachute rigger who has written more books on parachutes and skydiving than any other author. He has made more than 1,200 jumps since 1962.

Dan made the North Pole jump in 1994 and directed the International Parachute Symposium in 1997 and 1999.

Dan is one of sport parachutings most energetic, experienced and respected leaders.

Mike Turoff is a USPA D-licensed expert parachutist and an Instructor Examiner in all four USPA training methods. Mike is also an FAA certificated commercially licensed, instrument rated pilot and has performed worked as a Jump Pilot at several drop zones. Mikes real-world career job is that of an analytical chemist, but during his weekends of jumping, he is a dedicated instructor and he has made over 3,500 jumps since 1977.

Mike has contributed to the sport in many ways. He has authored numerous articles dealing with safety and training practices which have appeared in both Parachutist and Skydiving magazines. Mike serves as an advisor to the USPAs Safety and Training Committee. He has participated as an evaluator at AFF Training Camps and Certification Courses, and has been rated to perform Tandem instruction using Relative Workshop, Strong Enterprises, and Stunts Equipment tandem parachute systems. Mike serves as a Tandem Examiner for The Relative Workshop.

Few instructors have given as much thought to working with students, explaining how things happen and applying safety to skydiving as Mike.

This book is written around the newer equipment that is making our sport even more exciting: faster square ram-air canopies and advanced piggyback container systems. Student equipment and training techniques vary from skydiving school to skydiving school so the descriptions here may not be precisely what you will see at your nearest drop zone. Ask your instructor for an explanation or clarification. See the Glossary in the back of this book for words that are not familiar to you.

Check the Appendix of this book for the drop zone, club, school, commercial center and/or equipment dealer nearest you. Then call or visit for more local information.

This book is a group effort. Many thanks for the advice received from Jeff Jones, Steve Mack, pilot Bob Jones, Tony Dell, Grayson Hoffman, John Brasher, Don Balch, Mike Smith, Linda Piatchek, and Dan Tarasievich. Drawings came from Para-Flite, Inc., Performance Designs, Bernard Parker and George Galloway of Precision Aerodynamics. Peer reviewers who checked chapters in which they have a special expertise were Kevin Gibson, Mike Johnston, Paul Sitter, Doc Maglaughlin, Rob Laidlaw, Jan Meyer, Bill Dause, Paul Fayard, Jim Mowrey, Bill Gargano, Don Balch, Al Gramando, Danny Page and Sandy Reid. Photographs were supplied by Robert Tomany, Tom Sanders, Bill Lamping, Richard Jake Jacobson, Murray Stevens, Douglas Feick, Mike McGowan, Michael Williams and Norman Kent. And many thanks to Gail Kearns for her copy editing, Chris Nolt for her design, typesetting and layout, Karen Stedman for fact checking and to Paul Fraser for his illustrations,

I sincerely thank all these fine people and I know they are proud of the part they have played in the development of the parachute, the training and the sport, as well as of their contribution to this work.

Cover photo by Art Ingrao

Whenever a person leaves the ground, he or she risks injury or even death. Whether to accept or reject this risk and its accompanying challenge must be a personal decision; one must weigh the risk and the reward. This book is designed to promote safety through education.