Heier

I went tandem sky diving for the first time on my honeymoon. In my pictures I can see where the parachute cord comes out of the chute and is dangling in my tandem partners hand. The parachute didn't work until later. Is this normal? He mentions something about having had trouble with it in the past. Just curious to learn more about skydiving. It seems odd that the parachute has a cord that comes off.