Sky Diving Alone is Scary

This skydiver just jumped alone for the first time. The only thing moving is the ground. In a wind tunnel, the walls are right there. Drift an inch, and you see it. With instructors beside you, you watch yourself move next to them. They're your walls. Alone, there's nothing. Just the ground, growing so slowly you can't feel your speed. So students learn to lock their eyes on the horizon. A beeping altimeter tells them when to pull. This 3D animation shows why a skydiver alone in freefall has so little to judge motion by. In an indoor wind tunnel the glass wall is a metre or two away, so a small drift shows at once. On early jumps the instructors flying beside the student do the same job. Alone, the nearest surface is the ground, kilometres below, and at about 120 mph it grows by only about one percent a second. Students keep their eyes on the horizon to hold their heading, check the altimeter on their wrist, and carry a beeper in the helmet as a backup that sounds at the altitude to open the parachute. The people, gear, tunnel and farmland are illustrations, not a real drop zone or a real jump. #Shorts #Skydiving #HowItWorks