Why You Should Offer Flying the Tandem Parachute to Your Students
After the parachute opens and you have completed your control checks, it’s now time to fly the parachute. But, who should do that: students or the tandem instructor?
Do tandem students even want to fly the parachute?
In our experience, 85-90% are interested in flying it. While some students may object to the idea, most are concerned that they are going to do something worng. After a little bit of encouragement and assurance that you will be guiding them, most are happy to take the controls.
Why should you allow your student to fly the parachute?
Reasons to do so:
Allows the student to be in control
It makes the experience more enjoyable for them since they are now activley invovled.
Students are less likely to get motion sickness.
As an instructor, you won't be as tired when it comes time to flare.
When to recover the controls?
While you may allow them to fly all the way down to the ground (necessary for a tandem progression jump), taking the controls back around 1500' allows you to have plenty of time before entering the landing pattern.