Tandem Jump in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania gives you a lot of ground to look at on the way down. Amish farm country rolls out flat and orderly in the southeast, the Appalachian foothills wrinkle the middle of the state, and river valleys cut through the rest. Drop zones sit where those landscapes open up, and they run the full range, a nervous first-timer on a tandem and a licensed fun-jumper looking for a Saturday load both find a home here.

Tandem is the usual door in, since it puts you in freefall after a short briefing rather than a training course, strapped to an instructor who has done it countless times. The state's drop zones fly modern aircraft with experienced staff, and the backdrops earn the trip: the wide Susquehanna below, the Pocono ridgeline blue in the distance. Each one of those first leaps tends to stick with people.