Skydiving is parachuting from an airplane for fun.

Skydiving can be done individually and with

groups of people. Training is required. Unlike most paratroopers, skydivers often wait until they are
low, before opening the parachute. The jump can also be made from a helicopter or a balloon that is
high enough in the sky. Skydiving can be a very exciting sport.

1.The descent of a person to the surface from an aircraft in flight when he or she uses or
intends to use a parachute during all or part of that descent.

2: To jump from an aircraft with a parachute.

The key elements here are "aircraft" and "parachute." An "aircraft" has to be just that: a
vehicle moving through the air. The aircraft doesn't have to be an air plane - it can be a hot-
air balloon, a microlight, a paraglider with a tandem harness to jump from, or a big ol'
dirigible. The "parachute" must be present, but it doesn't have to be of any particular kind. It
can be an old-school round or a modern ram-air (square) number. These days, it's almost
always the latter.
Skydives are performed using a "two-parachute system," which comprises of a "container"
(the backpack into which the fabric is folded) and two parachutes: the main canopy and the
backup parachute (or "reserve") in case the main one malfunctions. In most skydiving
systems, there's a device installed which opens the reserve parachute in the eventuality
that the skydiver does not or is not able to open his/her own parachute unaided. These
failsafes permit the stupendous statistical safety of tandem skydiving(which is heavily
regulated).
WHAT IS BASE JUMPING?

BASE jumping is the sport of jumping - while wearing a one-parachute safety system - from
non-moving objects. These systems are designed to open quickly and on-heading in a
perilously short space of time. There is no reserve canopy in a BASE-specific container.

The term "BASE," in fact, is an acronym that stands for the objects most commonly jumped
(so you can think of it as B.A.S.E. jumping):

 Building
 Antenna
 Span (bridge)
  Earth (cliffs)

Other objects (for instance: billboards, wind turbines, ski lifts, cranes, high-altitude cables,
etc.) also count as BASE objects if the exit point is static.

Because BASE jumping does not meet the Federal Aviation Administration's definition of its
jurisdiction ("the descent of an object to the surface from an aircraft in flight"), it is not
overseen by the FAA or any other regulatory body.
WHAT IS HANG GLIDING (AND PARAGLIDING)?

While the sports are functionally similar (and administered, in the US, by the same
organization), it's important to note that paragliding and hang gliding are totally separate
sports. Most pilots will do one, and not the other.
Unlike the previous two airsports, neither involves jumping, nor do they involve the
deployment of a parachute from a container. Conversely, paragliding wings and hang gliding
wings are both designed for the up as well as the down. They use lift to draw the pilot and
glider upwards, potentially conveying him/her over long distances and extending the
airtime for hours before descending safely to the ground.
To that end: paragliding and hang gliding wings are launched, not jumped. After
connecting to the wing, the pilot doesn't board any kind of aircraft. Instead, they become the
aircraft. The pilot simply steps into the gentle breeze at the launch site until the wing lifts her
into the air. From there, the pilot - unlike a skydiver or BASE jumper, whose main concern
would be to find and steer back to a safe landing area in a short period of time - picks a
direction and goes on a journey. Pilots stay aloft using ridge lift or thermal lift. Skillful hang
gliding and paragliding pilots have flown more than 500 kilometers, climbed up to 4,526
meters above the ground and been in the air for more than 11 hours.

Tandem paragliding and hang gliding flights are a popular introduction to the sport, and are
available at most major launch sites worldwide.