Vietnam parachute jumping: Floating and swaying with parachute jumping

For those who might enjoy the feeling of hanging in the air and then slowly landing on the ground, the Southern Air Club in downtown Ho Chi Minh City has recently opened and is offering parachute-jumping courses.

Needless to say, this sport is not for anyone with a fear of heights; it requires a healthy body, courage and a love for the sky.

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Hoai Nam, the club’s manager, said that the parachute-jumping course is open to people from all walks of life. Registration for the course is very simple, just an application form and a resume.

However, safety requirements demand that every applicant must pass a very strict health examination, which will be carried out by academic doctors.

The training courses take place on the weekends.  Once accepted, apprentices will be taught the basics of parachute jumping on every Saturday and Sunday for two months. They will be given theoretical situations and solutions for problems that may occur when jumping. In short, the course will teach techniques for jumping and landing safely.

After two months of theory and practicing on land, parachutists will have a chance to take to the air and experience a real parachute jump from a helicopter, which will take off from Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh city Vietnam and fly to Bien Hoa Airport in the southern province of Dong Nai Vietnam.

When reaching the jumping site, and after measuring wind directions, the trainers will jump first to demonstrate the technique, followed by the parachutists.

Obviously, falling from a height of nearly from 800 - 1000 meters is not for those who panic easily!  And for a beginner there is often the fear of what could happen if a jumper lost control and could not open the parachute.

“For the sake of safety, every parachute always has two built-in mechanisms which are set to automatically open the parachute in case the jumper, for some reason can not, or does not,  open the parachute after three seconds of jumping out of  the helicopter,” said Nam, the club’s manager.

He added that even in the worst scenario, such as the jumper passing out from fear, the parachute will open automatically thanks to that piece of equipment.

The cost of enrolling in the training course is VND2mil per person.  This will cover the training course,  necessary equipment such as clothes and shoes which are especially designed for parachute jumping, and, once a jumper has passed the course, any additional jumps he makes in that year.

“On becoming a member of the club, parachutists will be invited to participate every time the club organizes a jump,” said Nam.

He said that the first course has started with 50 people, who were picked from some 70 applications. At present, the club is preparing for the next course, which is scheduled to start in October this year.

(Source: SGT)