Skydive Midwest

10/02/2026

"How do you not run into each other when the parachutes open?" 🪂

Fair question. Here's the answer: we separate long before anybody pulls.

At the end of a group jump, everybody flattens out and tracks — arms back, legs straight, body angled to turn vertical speed into horizontal distance. Done well, you cover a lot of ground fast. Each jumper takes their own heading, away from the center of the group.

By the time anybody reaches pull altitude, there's meaningful airspace between every person up there. Then you wave off, look around, and deploy.

Tracking is one of the first real skills you learn after student status. It's not a stunt. It's how everyone gets their own piece of sky.

09/30/2026

This is the part we don't talk about enough. 🪂

Not the exit. Not the freefall. This — the thirty seconds in the grass after the canopies are down, when whatever just happened up there finally catches up with you.

Relief, joy, and the realization that you actually did it — all arriving at once.

09/28/2026

How a parachute actually opens.

Pilot chute → bridle → d-bag → line stretch → canopy.

Four photos, roughly three seconds, and about a hundred years of engineering making it happen the same way every time.

09/25/2026

Meet the hardest-working member of our team.

She's a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, and she's the reason you get to 14,000 feet. Twin turboprops, short-field takeoff, and a climb rate that means less time sitting in a plane and more time doing the thing you came for.

Twin Otters fly in the Arctic, the Himalayas, and off island runways barely longer than a parking lot. They're built for places that don't forgive mistakes. Which is exactly why dropzones want them.

Ours doesn't get enough credit.

09/23/2026

The look of no regrets. 14,000 feet will do that to a person.

skydivemidwest.com

09/21/2026

Everybody talks about the jump. Almost nobody talks about the ride up. 🛩️

That's Austin. He's the reason the plane climbs to 14,000 feet in the first place, the reason the spot is right when the door opens, and the reason you got to jump at all today.

Pilots are the quietest part of a skydiving operation. Their whole job is to make the hardest parts look uneventful — and when it's done well, you don't even notice it's happening.

Thanks for keeping us in the air, Austin. 🤙

09/18/2026

"Why can't we just jump through the clouds?" 🌥️

Fair question. The answer is visibility — we have to see the ground to pick an exit point, find the landing area, and spot other traffic. It's not a preference, it's an FAA rule, and every skydiving operation in the country follows it.

Same goes for wind. If it's blowing harder than our parachutes fly forward, we're going backwards. So we wait.

Weather holds are frustrating. They're also why everybody goes home in one piece.

We broke down all of it — clouds, wind, rain, snow, temperature, and what ideal conditions actually look like.

📖 Read it:

It’s probably not surprising that skydiving is a weather-dependent sport. Some weather conditions can create increased risks when skydiving.

09/16/2026

People ask us all the time what skydiving actually feels like.

Honestly? It's hard to explain. Freefall doesn't feel like falling. There's no drop in your stomach, no roller coaster lurch. Just wind, and a horizon that goes on forever, and about sixty seconds where the ground is very far away and you are absolutely fine.

The closest we've ever gotten to describing it: you feel like a superhero.

This guy just skipped the metaphor entirely. 🦸‍♂️🪂

Come find out for yourself — skydivemidwest.com

09/14/2026

You did the tandem. Now what? 🪂

A lot of people land, unclip, and immediately want to know how to do it without someone strapped to their back. The answer is a USPA "A" license — and it's closer than you'd think. 25 jumps.

Our new blog explains all four skydiving licenses, what each one requires, and the instructor ratings that come after: Coach, AFF, Tandem, and Pro.

Ground school starts with a phone call. 262-886-3480

There are 4 skydiving licenses that can be achieved as a skydiver. Each of those requires certain skills and offers specific privileges.

09/11/2026

September 11, 2001.

Twenty-five years later, we remember the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives that morning — and the firefighters, police officers, paramedics, and ordinary passengers who chose courage when it counted most.

We will never forget. 🇺🇸