When all AAD's are banned, what will you do?

[JohnRich 4]

The way things are going for AAD manufacturers, it might not be too long now before all of them just quit making AAD's for the sport skydiving market, due to too much liability and too many lawsuits.

And there are also a whole lot of skydivers who use AAD's as a security blanket and state that they won't jump without one, as they wouldn't feel safe.

So, what happens, ladies and gentlemen, when there are no more AAD's available for sport skydivers?
Will you continue to jump without one, or will you quit skydiving?

[dragon2 2]

I prefer jumping with an AAD, but one of my 3 rigs doesn't have one (accuracy rig) and I've done jumps without before, too. It would suck, I'd rather have an AAD, but if not, so be it. But then again, the only things I will not jump without are my rig and my camera

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[Abedy 0]

You ought to be pretty sure it will happen since you wrote "When" and did not start with "If"
I don't think it will happen, at least not in Germany. Lawsuits aren't that costly here as they tend (are said?) to be in the US of A.
IF Cypres (the only one I trust) got banned I would have to jump w/o one. But I don't think my rig's manufacturer would do so.

The sky is not the limit. The ground is.

The Society of Skydiving Ducks

[Andrewwhyte 1]

You left out the "jump with a banned one installed" option.

[piisfish 140]

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The way things are going for AAD manufacturers, it might not be too long now before all of them just quit making AAD's for the sport skydiving market, due to too much liability and too many lawsuits.

well it's the end of the world in 2012 anyways, so why not continue jumping ?

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[Sangi 0]

More doom preachers..

lol

"Dream as you'll live forever, live as you'll die today." James Dean

[CRASH1 0]

Quote

Quote

The way things are going for AAD manufacturers, it might not be too long now before all of them just quit making AAD's for the sport skydiving market, due to too much liability and too many lawsuits.

well it's the end of the world in 2012 anyways, so why not continue jumping ?

Agreed, lol

[freeatlast 0]

Perhaps we could recalibrate them and start a new extreme sport of BASE jumping using AAD's to deploy for us??

[NovaTTT 2]

What!!??!! There's no option for "Send Rhys a Letter of Apology"??



And I sort of mean that, too.

"Even in a world where perfection is unattainable, there's still a difference between excellence and mediocrity." Gary73

[councilman24 37]

The liability issue is probably mostly in the U.S.

I can easily imagine Airtec deciding not to sell Cypres' in the U.S. I understand they are already dismayed by the course of a current lawsuit. One or two more may be all it takes. The same with the rest.

They may either be driven away from the U.S. or put out of business by a U.S. suit. Many of the gear manufacturers have defense corp. structures in place to survive a large judgment but not sure if the European AAD man. have done likewise.

It's not so much the banning by a H/C manuf. That, IMHO, has been done for good reason. It's leaving the market completely that may very well make this poll reasonable.

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[Martini 0]

It's OK John, you can go back to sleep now, it was all just a bad dream.

Sometimes you eat the bear..............

[muff528 3]

You left out "PULL!"

[cocheese 0]

I'll probably die trying to save someone who got knocked out on exit.

[jlmiracle 7]

My Cypres recently expired and I have not bot a new AAD. I am still jumping. Aside from my student jumps, my first 500-600 jumps were without an AAD.

Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

[wildcard451 0]

Keep swooping.....I don't turn it on anyway.

[grimmie 186]

Start my own line of AADs and hire Larry H. Parker to defend me.

[JerryBaumchen 1,363]

Hi John,

There are many ways to protect the AAD mfr's but none IMO are perfect.

One way would be to buy the parts individually & have your rigger assemble them; voila, an AAD but not one that you bought.

Who knows, might work

JerryBaumchen

PS) This was sort of how some suppliers got around the 3-ring patent; they did not sell an entire 3-ring system with all of the parts, they only sold certain pieces of hardware. The rest of the needed materials were then purchased seperately.

PPS) You hire a patent attorney to make your patent fool-proof and the other guy hires one to beat your patent. And on and on it goes.

[Rainbo 0]

Let's see, 30 years of skydiving, 27 without an AAD, hmmmm, what would I do

Rainbo
TheSpeedTriple - Speed is everything
"Blessed are those who can give without remembering, and take without forgetting."

[Trae 1]

Hypothetically it would have humungous effects on the sport. How would mandated DZ's suck it up and get on with business.
Tandems without AAD's, students relying on SOS, COD-impact.
1980's here we come
We'd all have to get careful again.

[kimemerson 7]

Never owned one. Wouldn't make a difference in my life.

[jshiloh 0]

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The way things are going for AAD manufacturers, it might not be too long now before all of them just quit making AAD's for the sport skydiving market, due to too much liability and too many lawsuits.

It'll never happen. First, no one's going to BAN them. The only possible way that might stand a chance of happening is if could be proven that AAD's are dangerous. Not just that they have a risk of failure, but that they actually significantly increase the risk of skydiving. Then the FAA would need to rewrite some FARs (tandems require AADs) then take an almost unprecedented step of banning the use of particular equipment in a sport. For that to happen, AADs would have to be proven as a HUGE danger, which there's absolutely no supporting evidence for.

Now, it is possible that if enough lawsuits go through finding AAD manufacturers liable, more manufacturers will get out of the business. But again, this is highly unlikely. It would take more than just a few lawsuits. More even than several lawsuits that make it all the way through the appeals courts. And even if many, many suits make it through, manufacturers will change the products and/labeling in order to reduce liability rather than jus cut & run.

Basically, the chances of AADs being banned or eliminated from the market is about the same as the entire tandem skydiving industry being shut down. Not gonna happen.

Now, in the massively extreme not-gonna-happen scenario, I'd jump without. Most of the time I don't use one anyway. I understand the risk & make the conscious decision to accept that risk.

[david3 0]

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When all AAD's are banned, what will you do?

skydive

[GroundResonance 0]

It may be strange but I feel like from everything I've read, as a new guy, obligates me to get an aad.. I mean, it would really blow to go somewhere and not be allowed to jump. From everything I've been told its irresponsible not to jump with one. Guess that's just the environment of being new to the sport..

[JohnRich 4]

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It may be strange but I feel like from everything I've read, as a new guy, obligates me to get an aad.. I mean, it would really blow to go somewhere and not be allowed to jump. From everything I've been told its irresponsible not to jump with one. Guess that's just the environment of being new to the sport.

Your feeling is correct. AAD's are pushed heavily, and everyone has come to think of them as a necessity. As a new guy, if you do without an AAD, you'll be chastised and called a fool. And yet, at the same time, the same people that push 'em, tell you not to depend upon them, and make excuses for them when they don't work properly. And with all that, and the problems that the industry has been experiencing lately, that's what led to my question.

I'm glad to see that only 3 out of 100 people say they would actually quit jumping without one. Those three people it could be argued probably shouldn't be jumping anyway, if that's the only thing keeping them in the sport. And apparently all those people that advocate so heavily in favor of them, are perfectly willing to do without if necessary. Go figure.

[DBlank 0]

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It may be strange but I feel like from everything I've read, as a new guy, obligates me to get an aad.. I mean, it would really blow to go somewhere and not be allowed to jump. From everything I've been told its irresponsible not to jump with one. Guess that's just the environment of being new to the sport..

It isn't about being new to the sport, it is because sometimes shit happens in freefall or on exit that is not your fault. People on here act like every one with an AAD doesn't trust them self to pull their reserve if things go south. The truth is they don't trust someone else not to knock them out, especially the AFF-Is I've talked to about it.

"Do you really want to take advice from the guy we call Tarmac?"