Last night, members of the Skydive Langar team made a jump into local town Bingham to land in the Bingham Rugby Club. Local residents came out to watch and we were able to entertain them by flying around the skies with coloured fog and landing right in front of them, on the rugby pitch.
We like to do these ‘display jumps’ from time to time, and previous displays have been done into local schools, farm land, cricket clubs and even a rugby match.
So what is a skydiving display, and why do we do them?
What is a skydiving display?
A skydiving display is a jump made into a landing area which is not typically used for that purpose. The vast majority of our jumps are made onto Langar Airfield, our designated drop zone, and this is where we spend the majority of our time.
There are occasions that come up or opportunities we find to jump into places other than our own airfield, and this can be a display jump. This means we identify an alternative landing area – which could be a village green, a sports field, a school premises, a farm, a fairground… – and make arrangements to jump into it, including gaining appropriate permissions from the land owners and the Civil Aviation Authority, plus British Skydiving.
This allows us to make the jump on the specified date and time. Sometimes, we are limited to low altitude jumps, other times we can go a little higher.
There are clear guidelines around who can participate in these jumps and the skydivers who do are appropriately skilled, qualified and current to be able to safely complete the display.
What you can expect from a display jump
As a member of the public, you may see these displays being advertised or hear about them through your local community or club. When they do take place, we will dispatch a ‘ground crew’ who are there to set up the landing area, including setting up a landing direction indicator (usually a large arrow on the ground) and a wind direction indicator such as a smoke canister may also be used to assist the skydivers in a safe descent.
The ground crew will also ensure all spectators are aware of there the landing area starts and stops and help to keep the audience in a safe place from which to watch and enjoy.
It’s likely you will be able to spot the aircraft as it flies overhead and drops the skydivers. You may see the skydivers in freefall, and you will certainly see them once they open their parachutes and come in to land.
Skydivers are an excitable bunch, so expect lots of cheering and high fives once they’re down! We’re also a friendly bunch, so feel free to ask us questions or chat to us, too.
Why do we do skydiving displays?
The truth is that our main motivation for these displays is just for fun! It’s exciting for us as experienced skydivers to jump into a new place and there’s an element of nerves that comes from doing so which we don’t always get when jumping day to day.
We also love the opportunity to showcase our sport to people outside of it. When we jump into the local community, it gives those people the chance to experience a small part of skydiving and to see why we love it so much. It also goes a long way to taking away some of the uncertainties around our sport; if you’ve never been exposed to it, it might seem an alien or even scary thing to do. Once you’ve seen us land and watched our happiness as we do so, we hope it helps to clarify why we do what we do and even inspire some people to give it a try themselves.
There are also cases where we are invited to come and make a display jump, perhaps for a specific occasion, such as a sports game, fair or community event. In these cases, we can provide bespoke services, such as jumping with flags or coloured fog, or even bringing an announcer to narrate the display and share insights as the jump happens.
It’s also a really cool thing for us to share with our skydiving community. The jump we made into Bingham was done as a huge thank you to all of our amazing staff who work so hard, especially over the summer, to create great experiences for our visitors. By jumping into somewhere new, and then hanging around afterwards to socialise, we hope to let our team know how grateful we are to them for all they do.
Check out this page for more information about skydiving displays: