Incident Themes

[rking12 0]

There is a common theme in the incident reports. Visiting jumper… Many of the bad things that happen are to people visiting a DZ. There is huge lesson to be learned here. If you are visiting a DZ take your time. Learn what you need to a head of time about the DZ and be safe and conservative until you know the area. Sit out a load or two and watch locals land. If you see visiting jumpers at your DZ take the time to show them aerial photos, talk about outs and obstacles, explain common wind conditions such as rotors from trees or buildings or a common wind shift during the day. On the way to altitude show them what they need to know about outs. You might not become a statistic or you might save someone’s life. None of us can live long enough to make all the mistakes ourselves. You MUST learn from others.

[ScratchTX 0]

Nothing to add, just wanted to bump this excellent post back up to the top. We were discussing just this very thing on the drive to a friend's memorial last week. Then I read here about a very very similar incident happening at a different dz a week later, resulting in multiple fractures and injuries, but this time the skydiver survived. The cards fall where they will, but you can at least stack the deck in your favor when you shuffle them.