Everest Tandem Skydiving

This October, the Everest sky will witness an extreme and challenging aerial event, courtesy, High & Wild Adventures, UK and Explore Himalaya, Kathmandu. The event is the first ever Everest Skydiving adventure. There are four programs:1. Everest Skydive 2.Everest Tandem skydive 3.Everest skydive Observers & companions, & 4.Everest skydive– Gokyo lake extension.(For more information on these programs check out ,www.highandwild.co.uk)
While the first program, Everest Skydive is for qualified and experienced skydivers, the second program Everest Tandem Skydive is for the first timers or novices who haven’t had any skydiving experience.

What is Tandem Skydiving?

Tandem skydiving refers to a type of skydiving where a novice skydiver (“student” or “passenger”) is connected via a harness to an experienced skydiver (“tandem master” or “tandem instructor”). The instructor controls the whole jump from exit through freefall, piloting the canopy and landing. The student or passenger needs only minimal instruction before making a tandem jump. More than a million tandem skydives are made each year around the world for pleasure.  It is also a popular training method for first time skydivers. It exposes first-time jumpers to the skydiving routine with minimal expectations from the student and maximum safety. The tandem master is responsible for safe and correct time of parachute deployment.

Equipment
Tandem skydiving requires equipment with some differences from sport skydiving rigs. All modern tandem skydiving systems use a drogue parachute, which is deployed either from the aircraft or shortly after leaving the plane in order to slow the freefall speed of two people down to that of a single skydiver. This is necessary for proper parachute deployment, lengthening the duration of the skydive, and allowing the skydivers to fall at the same speed as videographers. Tandem skydiving systems also use larger main parachutes (360 square feet and larger) to support the extra weight of two passengers. The three most common tandem skydiving systems in use are the Strong Dual Hawk, the Relative Workshop Vector Tandem, and the Relative Workshop Sigma Tandem. Everest Skydive is using the Dual Hawk System made by Strong Enterprises, and Tom Noonan , the director of Tandem from the company is overseeing all Everest Skydive tandem operations

Instructor certification
Tandem instructors are required to pass an instructor certification course for the system they jump before skydiving with students. All Everest Skydive instructors are so rated. Most countries have varying laws or regulations allowing who may skydive with a passenger or student. The United Kingdom requires each potential instructor  prior to their training and examination to have over five hundred individual skydives and three years of skydiving experience. Individual manufacturers’ certification courses usually have additional requirements. All Everest Skydive tandem masters are qualifies under British, American and Australian regulations and to the manufacturers stringent requirements.