Parachuting and radios
 

I hope this is the right section for my question. Do parachutists, skydivers etc. use any kind of radio during their descent? I'm sure I read somewhere years ago that the Signal R537S was a popular choice, albeit only good for receiving on the airband. I know paraglider and hang glider pilots are known to use inexpensive Chinese handheld radios around 143 mhz. Is this something parachutists also make use of, legality notwithstanding!

Thankyou.

Did an AFF out of gap..had a radio but could only hear it after I pulled as far too much noise at 100mph..20 years ago.

OFCOM have assigned a channel for this. I don't think it's administered by the CAA and it is exempt from CAP452 C of C requirements.(although I may be wrong)

Within the UK, some student parachutists will be on radio, yes. Useless in freefall, they are used as a 'talk down' aid once a student is under canopy. The number of jumps a student will do with a radio depends on a few things, including the syllabus being followed (AFF [Accelerated Free Fall] versus RAPS [Ram-Air Progression Systems]), the student's level of competence, dropzone SOPs and so on. Often, radios are only carried on the first few jumps and not for the entirety of training, similar in many respects to trainee pilots, who might undertake a 'first solo' long before they qualify fully.

Pretty much as Charley says. The radios worn by students aren't for communications with anyone other than listening to what the instructor / coach on the ground says. Although in case of an issue like landing off in a field somewhere, the radio could be used to communicate back to the instructor. In US / Canada, the radios might commonly be of the inexpensive FRS style, a system that doesn't exist in Europe. (The usual issues of different regions having different frequencies allocated to different things, I suppose.)

Occasionally, very specific groups of skydivers have used other communications systems -- They have set up Bluetooth or similar headset based systems, as motorcyclists have used, but they aren't widely available or in common use. Has been used by Canopy Relative Work jumpers who are flying under canopy making formations with each other, or, say, wingsuit jumpers with full face helmets (keeping the sound level down), to assist in freefall communications.