Skydiving and FAA regs

"climbing" would be some sort of altitude violation (or at the very least
a violation of the laws of physics.) ;-)
Of course I could be wrong......

You are wrong (well, sort of). My gliding instructor was also an avid
skydiver. He took great delight in guiding his jump plane upwind of the
best thermals before he jumped so he could fly into them and circle within
them . He was able to greatly prolong his parachute "flights" and on
occasion, actually climb back up to cloudbase; just like he taught me to
do in the sailplane.

Vaughn



I, also, am a skydiver and have taken advantage of thermals during the
canopy ride. I have only encountered "weak" thermals and have only been able
to maintain a given altitude for a short time. While I'm sure it's probable
that a skydiver under a canopy can gain altitude from thermals under "good"
conditions, the canopy (as Mike points out in the post below) is trimmed
quite differently from a paraglider or a powered parachute and is designed
to descend. In my experience, the thermals I have encountered (mostly from
paved parts of the airfield) in Florida are somewhat turbulent. This can be
fun or not depending on the jumper's experience! Sometimes a jumper under a
lightly loaded canopy (usually a student or low-timer) can experience a
little rocking and rolling in thermals or other turbulence that can be a
little disconcerting while he's looking up at the canopy and watching it
flap and breathe and bump. Another thought -- Thermals generated by the sun
beating down on airport pavement are usually blown downwind of the landing
zone at canopy-flying altitudes but ideally the skydiver hangs out upwind of
the LZ before entering the landing pattern. The "going back up" I was
referring to was while in the freefall phase of the skydive but, after
giving it a little more thought, a freefalling skydiver really CAN go up
relative to other freefallers, especially the more massive ones. I usually
have to wear 10 - 15 lbs of lead to keep up with some of the more
"aggressive fallers". (Makes the canopy a little more fun, too!)

tp