An Article Worth Reading

[rgoper 0]

i took this off of another forum. i think this jm feels horibly for the one that lost his life, but is stating procedures in hopes that no one else will be lost.
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I don't know what happened in Connecticut, but there have been a few posts that focus on the bravery of an AFF instructor who stays with a student and places
his own life in jeopardy to help the student pull.
AFF instructors are trained to never stay with a student below normal breakoff altitude. If the ripcord hasn't been pulled and it is time to go, the instructor must stop his efforts and save his own life. It is not heroic to die trying to save a student who is struggling with a pull or is unstable. Breakoff is breakoff, and pull time is pull time. Always.
Every AFF student should be trained to understand the hand signal for pull, and they should also be trained to understand that they must pull immediately if they see their instructor deploy. That gives the instructor two ways to signal
the student to pull. On release dives a standard wave off is often added as a third signal to pull.
Every student must understand that they are solely responsible for saving their own life on every skydive, and that the instructor will NOT make a wild heroic effort to help them. If a student sees his instructor hanging out, chasing him,
or trying to grab onto the ripcord he may think everything is OK and keep working the freefall problem well below normal pull altitudes. By opening his own parachute the instructor clearly shows the student that freefall must be over. Leaving a struggling student isn't easy, but every instructor needs to be
ready to breakoff when the freefall part of the skydive is over.
It is really easy for an AFF instructor to become so focused on the ripcord pull that he looses track of altitude. Every AFF instructor should have a visible altimeter (required by BSRs), and an audible warning device like a Pro-Track or Ditter. It is also a really, really, really good idea for AFF instructors to have an AAD as a final back-up. And of course, every student
should always have an AAD.
If you have a chance this weekend, talk with the AFF instructors on your DZ and see what their plans are for a ripcord problem at breakoff altitude. Do they have a hard deck for their own pull, and do they brief their students to pull
if the instructor has pulled? This is also a great topic of conversation for static line instructors and coaches who fly with students on higher level jumps. It is also worth discussing the advantages of audibles and AAD for
instructors. Does your school have a policy about this? Should it? Does your school help instructors with the cost of AADs or audibles? Should they?
Again, I don't know what happened in Connecticut, and this post isn't really
about that event anyway. We should all take a quick moment to think about our responsibilities as instructors, and the training we provide our students for pull difficulties. We should also think about how easy it is for both students
and instructors to loose track of altitude, and reconsider our minimum equipment needs when flying with beginners who may need our help.
Tom Buchanan
D-8514
Instructor (AFF, SL, Tandem)
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Richard
"Gravity Is My Friend"

[Zoltan 0]

..... AAD .....
and no more comment.
z

[Remster 30]

... proper training and following procedures ...
no more comment.
Remster
Muff 914

[hobbes4star 0]

when i was a student i had to wear an ADD. isn't this at every dz??? my instructers told me in the first jump course it is my responsibility to pull and save my own life.
why jump when you can fly

[rgoper 0]

**when i was a student i had to wear an ADD. isn't this at every dz??? my instructers told me in the first jump course it is my responsibility to pull and save my own life.**
you were instructed properly, and equipped in the same manner. it is your responsability to "pull, and save your own life" we may never be sure of what happned in this particular incident with the aff divemaster. retrospective view is always 20/20. what we can do, is take what we can learn from this unfortunate incident, and learn from it, and evryone do they're level best to insure that an incident of this proportion doesn't occur ever again. this is a very dangerous sport, if any individual thinks it's not, that particular person needs to stay grounded. but having said that, with proper training, planning, and execution of the same, we can eliminate future incidents in our sport that will costs us valuable human life(s) plan your dive, dive your plan, rehearse emergency procedures and be safe, look out for one another and have fun! Richard
"Gravity Is My Friend"