Coffee Table Book of: Skydiving (Paperback)

Description

Coffee Table Book of: Skydiving is a large format book of skydiving, printed edge to edge in colour, one picture to a page and the widest carried across two: canopies against the sky, the packed rig and the kit worn with it, drop zones, hangars and airstrips, the open door of the plane, the kit being made and cared for, the early days of the sport, and a few skydivers seen far off in plain dark clothing.

The kit is laid out plain: a packed rig on short grass and another on the landing field at sunset, a hard helmet, clear goggles, a wrist altimeter, a jumpsuit with grips on its arms and legs, a wingsuit spread flat, a pilot chute with its long bridle, a slider with its four grommets, a weight belt, a soft landing pad with its small disc, a bright canopy lying spread on the grass after a landing, windsocks in a light breeze and a strong wind, and small planes on the grass at sunrise, high in the blue, above the clouds at sunset and parked in the snow.

The making and the care follow a roll of canopy cloth, a coil of braided line, a heavy sewing machine, a mended tear, rubber stow bands, a deployment bag with its lines stowed and a canopy folded on its packing mat, while training brings a wooden creeper, a mock up of the door of a plane and an indoor wind tunnel. The past runs from a pyramid of linen and a balloon basket to old silk, a round canopy hung in a barn and another spread on a field, a weighted paper streamer, a reserve worn on the chest, a leather helmet, high boots, a pit of pea gravel and an old twin engine plane on the grass.

Short notes run through the book, on the canopy, the rig and how they work, the drop zone and its weather, and the history of the sport: most drop zones have a wide landing field of short grass, kept clear of fences, trees and wires, the first parachute jumps from high in the air were made from balloons, in the late 1700s, many drop zones are small country airfields, with a grass strip and a single hangar, and in a vertical wind tunnel, a column of rushing air lets skydivers practise freefall indoors.

Printed in full colour on heavy 150gsm coated paper at 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 inches), as a paperback.