Mobidity/mortality

[Douva 0]

Sometimes, knowing something in your head and understanding it your heart are two different things. I think most of us came into the sport KNOWING we could be seriously injured or killed, but it wasn't until we saw the aftermath of a serious injury--the lost wages, the medical bills; the rehab--or the aftermath of someone's death--the devastation to his or her friends and family--that we UNDERSTOOD what that really means. For most of us, standing there watching the paramedics cut off someone's gear, as friends choked back tears, was the first opportunity we had to honestly weigh the potential consequences of the sport we chose.

I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

[Richards 0]

Summer of 1997, someone I new from my old dropzone was doing an accuracy jump and had a mal. She cut away but did not deploy until it was basically too late. I was not there but I was told that the canopy was just barely beginning to inflate when she hit. The dropzone was very sombre for the next few days and I remember not knowing what to say to her boyfreind (I am the clumsiest person in the world when it comes to condolences and while I mean well, my words always come out wrong and I feel I leave the person feeling worse so I generally avoid speaking).

The first jump I had done since the accident was 2 days later and I remember for the first time realy considering the possibility of mortality in the sport as I practiced my cutaway procedures with peculiar interest.

Richards

My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

[RkyMtnHigh 0]

Without a doubt, William Brightwell's incident was a wakeup call for me as to how dangerous this sport is. So glad to hear he is recovering so well.

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[micro 0]

excellent thread. it's good to think of these things. and think again of these things. and again...

for me it was looking at a picture at TN Skydiving Center w/ Chris Martin. He was listing off names of some of his friends he jumped w/ at Quincy one year... they were all posing in front of the 727 in ridiculous outfits. By the time Chris was showing me the pic, most in it were dead from skydiving accidents. This was in 1995. Then, on a 3 way, also in 95, as a low time jumper (lord have mercy, I'm STILL a low-timer) I watched an old man who should never have been allowed to jump open very very low. I was under canopy already and he just went lower and lower and lower. I was horrified but couldn't take my eyes off him. I was screaming pull pull pull but I knew he couldn't hear me. His old FXC (is that what it was?) AAD fired and he landed in trees. He was grounded.

Not too long after, Chris Martin's Twin Bo crashed at about 250' just after take-off w/ all my friends on board. I should have been on the load. It lost an engine and went in to trees. Luckily, no fatalities, but that scared me to death.

Of course, now Chris is dead as well. He was one of my AFF instructors, a drinking buddy, kite flying buddy, arguing buddy, etc. The reality of death in this sport has never been more real to me as it is today.

Yet, I have taken things for granted. I have been too cavalier in my gear checks, in getting involved in jumps that were beyond my experience level. This has been a grand wake-up call for me.

I miss Lee.
And JP.
And Chris. And...

[skysmurf2 0]

My 11th jump. Second freefall from about 4500 ft and I had a baglock. Cutaway and deployed reserve - made me realise that anything can happen at anytime - subsequent jumps have only reinforced that. It made me realise that I should always be prepared to cope with the unexpected and that the unexpected can and will happen - its a lesson I wish I knew better - but I am learning (or atleast trying to). A constant thought in my head since that jump is that "I wish i was better at this" -however, experience and wisdom are not barriers to death or injury and the more I understand this the more mortal I feel.

Best wishes and safe skies

[happythoughts 0]

Of all the people that I have known that have/had 1,000 or more jumps, half either :
1- have metal (pins, screws, plates) or
2- left the sport due to injuries or worse.

We are risk managers. We try to limit the risk through safety, gear checks, AADs, and landing patterns.

That is all we can do.

"You can do everything right and still die" - LB

I give this a lot of thought.

[steveorino 7]

One the first jump of a HALO class I was slotted to attend (that's another story) while in SF, had a guy go all the way in. This was 1979

steveOrino

[skydivermom 0]

*** Do what you can to minimize the risks, but don't let the risk of danger prevent you from living your life.

__________________________________________________

Very well said.

I'm still reeling right now...and it's perspectives like this that help me make a little sense out of it all.

Mrs. WaltAppel

All things work together for good to them that love God...Romans 8:28

[Broke 0]

I think the biggest thing here is that when anyone in our lives dies it makes us thing of the fact that none of us are immortal, and no matter what stuff can always happen to us.
On another note there is something worse than being dead.

Divot your source for all things Hillbilly.
Anvil Brother 84
SCR 14192

[leapdog 0]

In reference to your start of this thread. I was the other half of that CRW Dog that slammed. He hit no more than about 10 feet away. I have seen stuff before but that one woke me up. mainly because I was part of it. We must remain vigilant when it come to awareness. The Skydive is not over until you cross the field safely.

Gunnery Sergeant of Marines
"I would like it if I were challenged mentally at my job and not feel like I'm mentally challenged." - Co-worker

[Broke 0]

Ok that was you. You were about to make a sweet landing in the P pit if I rember correctly.

Divot your source for all things Hillbilly.
Anvil Brother 84
SCR 14192

[mnealtx 0]

Quote

Very well said.

I'm still reeling right now...and it's perspectives like this that help me make a little sense out of it all.

Then I'm very glad that I said it!

I hope to make it up to SSM while I'm back on vacation... we'll have to do a jump (or at least wave to each other!)

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[d_squared431 0]

AFF level 1. It was my b-day and I had planed to do 2 jumps that day. Do to weather and work schedule It was almost 2 weeks from my last tandem and grown school. My Aff instructor was in a bad mood and made me feel like shit before getting in the plane. When we were at the door I remember looking out the door and saying ready and off we went. I had a difficult time getting stable and was spinning. My instructor let go and I went flying. I took a deep breath arch and pulled. I ended up with a line twist and kicked out of. When I was getting ready to land he wasn’t saying much and then just started yelling flare. I know now why he was the way he was before getting in the plane. He wanted me to realize the risks that this sport came with. He taught me what I need to know to get to the grown safely. It felt like I had let him down for not getting stable. He yelled at me for what seemed like hours and then gave me a hug and said I did everything right, because I was able to walk away. I know what I did wrong and what I did right that day.

TPM Sister#130ONTIG#1
I love vodka.I love vodka cause it rhymes with Tuaca~LisaH
You having a clean thought is like billyvance having a clean post.iluvtofly

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

Quote

"You can do everything right and still die" - LB

I give this a lot of thought.

I did as well before I started jumping. My TM said it to me before my first jump. Then I saw my first femur before I made my 2nd tandem. Then I separated my knees on my third jump. The pain made me safe and it taught me the hard way I had limits to respect.

But it wasn't until I buried very close friends that the sport became less fun for me. Even that TM ended up in a wheelchair paralyzed from a bad hook. In my mind I knew which accidents could have been prevented and which ones were at the shit end of the luck scale......it didn't stop my heart from feeling the pain....and I wasn't ever quite the same again afterwards.

I only knew GFD from talking to her thru posts, IMs and the few nights we partied at WFFC 04. The most outstanding memory I have is from one night when we spent too much time looking for a lost bottle of wine and then later on when I found her dancing by herself long after everyone else went to bed. Still, it sucks knowing that someone that alive is now gone. Despite anything we say, it hurts and it only reminds me of the negative side of this sport.

Currently my gear is for sale. I haven't jump in about 1.5 years as my life has taken me in a different direction. But as I looked thru my archives for pictures of Shannon tonight, I found myself stopping on every jumping picture.....remembering the sound, the smell, the freedom of it all.....and it hurt almost as much. My original reaction to stopping by DZ.com tonight and seeing the terrible news was "this is why you moved on" and now I find myself missing it more than ever. What a strange group of people we are.

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you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[kirrz 0]

This weekend. It's changed everything.

[littleredfrog 0]

I thought I was the only one whose dreams were flooded with skydiving, malfunctions, and injuries since I started jumping.... thats interesting

MB# 4012

[PLFXpert 0]

Quote

It's always a shock to the system the first time you see someone die, regardless of the circumstance. It changes your life, forever. Finding out that it's someone you know only makes it worse.

I only want to say this:

None of us, NONE OF US, are guaranteed a tomorrow.

We will all die. It's a simple fact. Do what you can to minimize the risks, but don't let the risk of danger prevent you from living your life.

Exactly.

Once you except that death will happen and you'll never know when or how, you can really live. You take precautions, make choices to improve the quality of your life while you're here and do your best NEVER to take life for granted. Complacency is often a killer. One can become complacent in anything in life they do, skydiving or otherwise. People however, tend to become less complacent in things that are obvious threats to life than other things and thus the other things then become more likely to kill.

It's important to remind people of such things, but nothing is a given or for certain except death itself.

Paint me in a corner, but my color comes back.

[Shotgun 1]

Quote

I didn't even start Skydiving until I was 39 years old, so I might have a different perspective than younger people starting in the sport. By then, I'd had enough close calls to realize that you can go any day, any time.

Hmm, maybe it is a perspective thing... I was only 19 when I started skydiving, but I had already been seriously injured myself and had been through the experience of losing close family and friends... so I think I was fully aware of my own mortality... and maybe that made the dangers of skydiving a lot more real to me than to someone who has not already had those experiences in life.

But I still find it a bit disturbing to think that there are so many skydivers who do not realize that they can get seriously injured or killed in this sport (and won't realize that until they witness it or experience it themselves).

One of the things that they do in some BASE FJC's is to show (not-so-pretty) videos of what can happen when things go wrong - and I think that helps to make people more aware of what they are getting themselves into. Maybe that would be a good idea for skydiving FJC's too?

[skydivermom 0]

Yes, let's definately jump together!

Mrs. WaltAppel

All things work together for good to them that love God...Romans 8:28

[mnealtx 0]

Absolutely!! When I went up there last year, I wasn't able to get any jumps in... I hope to fix that this time!

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706