Skydiving and parachute jumping in Houston, Texas
Revised August 2015 Before you hop in the plane for your next jump, here’s some food for thought on safety: Plan your breakoff and tracking just as carefully as you plan the freefall part of your jump. This part of the jump is often neglected because it comes after “the good stuff,” but it is …
Continue reading “Breakoff Series Part 1: Planning Breakoff and Tracking”
Quick! What do you do if you are on jump run, the green light has been turned on, and then the green light goes out (either the red light comes back on or the green light simply turns off)? Assume the light is broken and proceed with your climbout and skydive. Flip the spotting switch …
Is it about time for your first hop and pop (low-altitude emergency exit simulation) in our Skydiver Training Program? If you’re like most skydiving students, chances are you are more nervous about this jump than most of your full-altitude skydives! The lower exit altitude combined with the 5-second maximum deployment time, and possibly your first …
Continue reading “Skydiver Training Tip: That First Hop and Pop”
When you get ready to skydive for the first time, you put the ultimate trust in your instructor. You trust that person to gear you up, give you the freefalling time of your life, and deliver you softly back to the real world on the ground. The relationship between first-time student and instructor is an …
Continue reading “Skydiver Training Tip: Finding Your Match”
Traffic is a bad word, especially for those of us living in the Houston area! And while we think we can get away from it when we’re flying, the reality is that at any dropzone, and particularly at a busy one like Spaceland, the traffic can resemble downtown Houston rush at its worst. The difference …
Continue reading “Canopy Traffic: Find Your Place in the Sky”
On Saturday, May 4, Skydive Spaceland in Rosharon, TX, hosted its annual 4-way scrambles meet. Organized by local teams Spaceland Lite and Spaceland Toxic, six teams competed for top honors over five rounds of intermediate-level 4-way formation jumps. Clear skies and a light warm breeze made for perfect conditions, the packers made sure that everyone made their loads, …
These days, most of us are almost never without our mobile phones. Some even seem to have separation anxiety if they misplace their phones for even a few minutes! 🙂 This week’s tip is good news for the phone-bonded among us, because it’s a recommendation to take your phone with you whenever you skydive. Why, …
What’s the first thing your skydiving instructor has you do after you leave the plane? Check your altitude. Before and after maneuvers, check your altitude. If you don’t have altitude awareness, PULL! Awareness of your altitude is of paramount importance to our survival in skydiving, and we all know it. And yet we sometimes forget …
Rosharon, Texas (March 31, 2015)–Building on the strong success of two world-class skydiving centers near Houston, Texas, and Miami, Florida, Skydive Spaceland will open a third skydiving center near Atlanta on May 1. “This is such a beautiful farm property in the Appalachian foothills,” says owner Steve Boyd. “We’re super excited to bring our business …
Gusty winds are common at Spaceland and many other dropzones. As an experienced jumper, I have thought a lot about what my personal wind limit is–in other words, when I will sit down even though the dropzone is not on a wind hold. Recently, I made the decision not to jump after watching other fun …
THE WOODLANDS, TX — March 24, 2015 — Not only did leaping out of an airplane raise more than $48,000 for the Children’s Cancer Recovery Foundation, but the Jump! Shout! event last September near Houston landed the 286 jumpers in the record book. Major sponsors for the event included iFLY, Ron Carter Ford & First …
Ah spring… Green grass, warming temperatures, and RAIN! One of the most common questions we see in our social media news feeds this time of the year is, “How wet is the landing area?” If you have to ask, the answer is usually “underwater.” 😉 Since we’re not too interested in waiting days for perfectly …
As a current or former student in our Skydiver Training Program here at Spaceland, you have access to our skydiving students group on Facebook. This group is a ton of fun! You’ll find everything from freefall and canopy control questions to gear inquiries, discussions of who’s jumping on a particular day, Spaceland event announcements, and …
We’re lucky enough Spaceland to have jumpable temperatures pretty much year-round, but cooler days and holidays (and sometimes just life) can result in many of us taking a bit of a break from jumping. This break can result in a lack of currency, which is an additional risk factor for injury in skydiving. No one …
On January 17th, two weeks after the original date was rained out, 19 Skydivers over Sixty (years of age) set a new World Record at Skydive Spaceland in Rosharon, Texas. Nineteen jumpers completed two points (two separate skydiving formations) to set the new Skydivers Over Sixty (SOS) world large-formation sequential record on the fourth try of …
Continue reading “Skydivers Over Sixty World Sequential Record”
Recently, one of our licensed jumpers took it upon himself to remind us all about keeping our rigs away from the edges of the aircraft door when rotating out to a floater exit. It’s a great reminder for all of us, because it’s far too easy to get too comfortable and complacent about safety aspects …
(Rosharon, Texas, Jan. 6, 2014)–Not every business does team-building activities, and those that do don’t often plan something as intense as skydiving. You certainly wouldn’t expect it out of a government office, but Houston Mayor Annise Parker brought no fewer than 20 employees, City Council aides, and others to skydive and bond at Skydive Spaceland …
Continue reading “Extreme Team Building: Skydiving with Houston Mayor Annise Parker and Friends”
Let’s face it: Skydiving isn’t easy, especially when you’re just starting the sport. You may be a natural at freefall, but struggle with canopy patterns or landing, or vice versa. Or you may be nervous enough to have trouble getting out of the plane at all. The important thing to remember here is that many …
Continue reading “Skydiver Training Tip: What If You Have to Repeat a Dive?”
Are you one of those people who knocks standardized tests out of the park without half trying, or do you tend to need some quality study time to ace them? Regardless of your test performance proclivities, keep one thing in mind regarding your skydiving training tests: These are definitely tests you don’t want to fail, …
Do you ever wonder what our pretty King Air with the in-flight door is up to? Spaceland’s owner Steve Boyd, Sr., has teamed with the Veterans Airlift Command (VAC) to provide free transportation in his King Air to our wounded veterans. So far, he has completed four missions including trips to North Carolina, Florida, and two …
Continue reading “Skydive Spaceland Owner Gives Back to our Military By Flying Wounded Veterans”
Rosharon, Texas (Nov. 4, 2014)—On the weekend of Oct. 25-26, 2014, skydivers set not one or two, but three challenging world skydiving records (and several Texas state/national records) at Skydive Spaceland in Rosharon, Texas, just south of Houston. “These records were all new (no previous records had been set in this category), making these skydivers …
Continue reading “Skydivers Set Three World Records Over Skydive Spaceland”
Oh no! You want to jump this weekend, but your reserve is out of date! Can this tragedy be averted so you can get some quality sky time? The answer is: Maybe! Our full-time rigging loft may very well be able to accommodate your right-now repack request, depending on their current workload. If you need …
Low/High Pulls High openings and low passes must take into account the number of airplanes flying, other skydiving activities, and canopy descent rate. We cannot always accommodate low passes or high openings. We cannot guarantee that low-pass jumpers will land alone unless only one plane is flying. Ensure that the aircraft is configured for your …
Continue reading “Special Dives: Low/High Pulls, Toy Dives, Pond Swooping”
Canopy Safety Wind indicators: Landing direction arrow, flags, wind sock. The landing direction arrow is an air-traffic control device that sets the landing direction on the north side of the runway. Know the landing direction before takeoff, and check the landing direction indicator (LDI) north of the runway after you open and check canopy in case …
Winds Aloft This information is posted daily on the board near the aircraft mockups. Also check out our weather page… Loading Area We use loading area 1 (north of the hangar) on cold starts/after fueling, and loading area 2 (northwest corner of hangar) on hot turns. Please be in the loading area on the 5-minute …
Continue reading “Aircraft/Loading Area Safety and Policies”
Wingsuit jumps carry many of the same risks as tracking/angle flying because of the horizontal movement component. They can also pose a risk to later-dropping aircraft because of the extremely slow fall rate. They can pose challenges when dealing with malfunctions as well, because of the limited mobility many suits allow the jumper before wings …
Are you a new skydiver with a shiny new A license? Or maybe you’re a skydiving student already thinking about the fun things you’ll do after you graduate? Congratulations on becoming a part of the global skydiving community! We’re glad you’re here. 🙂 Now let’s talk a little about the skydives you’ll do once you …
Houston Man among the Skydivers Who Honored Young Daughter’s Memory Rosharon, TX – October 2, 2014 – It was the thrill of a lifetime in more ways than one, as 286 skydivers took to the skies and made a jump that was both exhilarating and meaningful to so many. Children’s Cancer Recovery Foundation (CCRF), a 501(c) (3) charitable …
Forrest Gump might have said that skydiving and cameras go together like peas and carrots. It’s an awesome thing to capture what’s arguably the world’s most fun aerial activity with a nice tiny, high-quality camera such as a GoPro. It won’t get in the way, right? You won’t even know it’s there! To go back …
It is bumpy up there! Turbulence is the Rodney Dangerfield of skydiving…. It doesn’t get respect. Turbulence is a challenge for jumpers for at least two reasons: It is invisible and unpredictable. Because turbulence is invisible, we must actively anticipate where it may be. Most new jumpers (and a lot of more experienced ones) vastly underestimate …