How Fast Do You Fall When Skydiving?

Key Takeaways
Most tandem skydivers reach a freefall speed of approximately 120 mph and achieve terminal velocity about 10 to 12 seconds after exiting the aircraft. While that number sounds fast, freefall doesn’t feel like a roller coaster drop. Instead, many first-time jumpers describe it as floating on a powerful wall of wind. Factors like body position, weight, clothing, and altitude can affect skydiving speed, but the average tandem skydive remains remarkably consistent. Once the parachute opens, your descent slows dramatically, giving you time to enjoy the incredible views and reflect on an experience unlike anything else.

You’re about to jump out of an airplane, so it’s only natural to wonder: how fast do you fall when skydiving?

The short answer is that most tandem skydivers reach a freefall speed of approximately 120 mph (193 km/h). After exiting the aircraft, you’ll accelerate for about 10 to 12 seconds before reaching terminal velocity. From there, you’ll continue falling at a relatively constant speed until the parachute is deployed.

If you’re searching for answers to questions like how fast do skydivers fall or information about skydiving speed, 120 mph is the number you’ll encounter most often. While that sounds incredibly fast, the experience itself feels very different than most people expect. In fact, many first-time jumpers are surprised to discover that freefall feels less like falling and more like flying.

So what exactly is happening during those first few seconds after leaving the plane? To understand why skydivers don’t keep accelerating forever – and why 120 mph doesn’t feel nearly as intense as it sounds – we need to talk about terminal velocity.

What is Terminal Velocity?

How fast do you fall on a skydive? No faster than terminal velocity. Terminal velocity when skydiving is the point where gravity and air resistance balance each other out.

In simple physics terms, gravity pulls you downward at a constant acceleration of about 32 feet per second per second (i.e. 32 ft/s²), while air resistance (drag) increases as speed increases. Drag force rises approximately with the square of velocity, meaning small increases in speed produce much larger increases in resistance.

At a certain point, these forces equalize. When that happens, acceleration stops. This is why skydivers do not keep speeding up indefinitely. Instead, they reach a stable fall rate, or terminal velocity, and remain there for most of the freefall portion of the jump. In a belly-to-earth position, this equilibrium typically occurs around 120 mph.

What Does 120 MPH Feel Like in Freefall?

One of the most surprising parts of skydiving is that 120 mph does not feel like 120 mph. On the ground, speed is something you measure by watching objects pass you – cars, trees, signs. In freefall, there are no nearby visual references. The ground is far enough away that your brain loses its usual cues for interpreting velocity.

Instead of feeling like a drop, the sensation is dominated by airflow. The wind hits your body evenly and continuously, creating a feeling more similar to being supported by pressure than falling through empty space. If you’ve ever stuck your hand out of a car window at highway speed, you already understand how powerful moving air can feel. In freefall, that same force acts across your entire body, creating a steady cushion of air that supports you throughout the jump. It’s like a gentle, windy massage! 

Small changes in body position – like extending an arm or bending a leg – can noticeably change how you move through the air. From a physics standpoint, you are essentially a human aerodynamic surface moving through a dense fluid. The experience is closer to controlled flight than falling, even though the speed is objectively high. This is why many first-time skydivers report that the anticipation feels more intense than the freefall itself once they stabilize in the air.

How Long Does it Take to Reach Terminal Velocity?

Skydivers typically reach terminal velocity within 10 to 12 seconds after leaving the aircraft.

During that brief window, gravity dominates and acceleration is rapid. However, as speed increases, air resistance grows exponentially until it balances gravitational force. At that point, the skydiver is covering roughly 1,000 feet every five to six seconds, depending on body position and air density.

This is the phase where freefall feels most stable and controlled.

How Long Does it Take to Fall 10,000 Feet?

In general, a skydive from 10,000 feet would take approximately 30 to 45 seconds before needing to deploy your parachute.

Factors such as body position, weight, air density, and altitude can cause small variations in fall rate, but most skydivers will cover 10,000 feet in roughly that timeframe. Rather than tracking time precisely, skydivers rely on altitude awareness using instruments like altimeters to know when to prepare for parachute deployment.

Does Freefall Speed Change at High Altitude?

Yes, freefall speed can change at high altitude and for a very specific physical reason. At higher altitudes, the atmosphere is less dense. Air molecules are more spread out, meaning there is less resistance acting against a falling body.

From a physics perspective, reduced air density lowers drag force, allowing a skydiver to accelerate slightly more before reaching equilibrium. As descent continues into denser layers of the atmosphere, drag increases again, and speed stabilizes.

This is a direct application of fluid dynamics: drag force is proportional to air density, velocity squared, and surface area. In practical terms, the difference is subtle for tandem skydivers but demonstrates how strongly atmospheric conditions influence motion through air.

What Affects How Fast You Fall?

Skydiving speed is determined by the balance between gravity and aerodynamic drag. Here are the three main factors that can affect how fast you fall:

Body Position & Aerodynamics

Body position has the greatest impact on fall rate. A belly-to-earth position increases surface area and drag, creating a stable terminal velocity around 120 mph. More streamlined positions reduce drag and increase speed.

• Belly-to-earth: ~120 mph
• Head-up flying: ~150-180 mph
• Head-down flying: ~180-200+ mph
• Competitive speed skydiving: 300+ mph

This is the same principle used in aerodynamics research, where shape and orientation determine how efficiently an object moves through air.

Weight & Mass

Heavier skydivers generally reach slightly higher terminal velocities due to increased gravitational force acting on their mass. 

In tandem skydiving, this effect is managed using a drogue parachute, which adds drag and stabilizes freefall speed regardless of passenger weight differences.

Air Resistance & Clothing

Drag is influenced by surface texture and shape. Loose clothing increases air resistance, while tighter clothing reduces it.

While the effect is minor for tandem students, it still reflects the same aerodynamic principles seen in cycling, skiing, and motorsports.

What About After the Parachute Opens?

Once the parachute deploys, physics shifts again. Instead of freefall dominated by high-speed aerodynamic drag, the system transitions into a controlled glide. The canopy dramatically increases surface area, reducing descent speed to approximately 10 to 15 mph. At this point, gravity is still acting on the system, but drag has increased so significantly that descent becomes slow, stable, and highly controllable. 

This phase allows skydivers to steer, glide, and take in the surrounding landscape, often covering several miles horizontally before landing.

Experience Freefall at Piedmont Skydiving

Skydiving is often described in terms of speed, but the real story is how physics, aerodynamics, and human perception work together to create a controlled flight experience at 120 mph. At Piedmont Skydiving tandem students experience this firsthand every day.

Whether you’re curious about the science, the sensation, or simply ready to check skydiving off your list, our experienced instructors guide you through every step of the jump.

Book your tandem skydive today and experience what it actually means to fly through the sky.