Narnaul Airstrip: Skydiving Adventure Near Delhi

The nearest drop zone to Delhi

Narnaul is in Haryana, about 130 km south-west of Delhi, and it is where skydiving in north India actually happens. The airstrip has been used for parachute operations for decades and the drop zone is flat farmland in every direction.

Ground training

Compulsory, and it comes first. You will go through the sequence of the jump, the hand signals used in freefall because nobody can hear anything, body position on exit, arch during freefall, and the leg-up landing posture.

It takes a while and it is the part that makes the jump work. Pay attention to the landing brief in particular — that is where people get hurt when they have not.

The jump

Tandem, harnessed to an instructor. You climb to altitude in a light aircraft, which itself takes fifteen or twenty minutes and is when most people go quiet.

Exit, then roughly thirty to forty seconds of freefall at around 200 km/h, which does not feel like falling — there is no reference point, so it reads as being pushed upward by an enormous wind. Then the canopy opens and everything goes silent, and you have four or five minutes of gliding with the Aravalli foothills on one horizon.

Video and stills are usually an add-on and are worth it; you will remember almost none of the freefall accurately.

Requirements

There is a weight limit, typically around 95 kg, and it is enforced at the scale on the day.

You must declare heart conditions, recent surgery, epilepsy, shoulder or back injuries, and pregnancy. Do not conceal any of it.

Minimum age applies and under-18s need guardian consent.

Practical

About five hours at the drop zone, plus two to three hours' drive each way from Delhi.

Jumps are weather-dependent and get scrubbed for wind, cloud base or rain — the monsoon months are largely unworkable, and October to March is the season. Build a spare day into your plans.

Wear trainers with laces. No sandals, no flip-flops.