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Quote>Do you think high performance landings have caused these numbers to increase.
Partly. A bigger factor (related to HP landings) is that people are in general jumping smaller canopies. They are faster, leaving less time for reactions - but skydiver's reaction times have not increased. A bad turn in a pattern that ten years ago would have resulted in being shouted at under canopy is now a nearly instant collision (and all too often, resulting death.)
Hell Just froze over......I agree 100% with Billvon You cannot educate human capabillites out of the equation. Humans make mistakes and these tiny canopies do not allow for mistakes. YOU have to be on 100% of the time. The canopy will wait patiently for you to screw up. It is ground hungry and the minute you give it an inch it is taking you and possibly others in for a dirt nap
MAKE EVERY DAY COUNT
Life is Short and we never know how long we are going to have. We must live life to the fullest EVERY DAY. Everything we do should have a greater purpose.
Quote>Do you think high performance landings have caused these numbers to increase.
Partly. A bigger factor (related to HP landings) is that people are in general jumping smaller canopies. They are faster, leaving less time for reactions - but skydiver's reaction times have not increased. A bad turn in a pattern that ten years ago would have resulted in being shouted at under canopy is now a nearly instant collision (and all too often, resulting death.)
Very well stated.
My old 252 (from the 70's) sank like a brick. It did not have much forward speed. My Stiletto 135 on the other hand, is a rocket ship by comparison. However, there are pleanty of canopies out there that are way faster. I think the difference is the performance and sheer numbers of fast canopies in the sky today. Which means simply that... We cannot play by yesterday's rules. as always IMHO
"Son, only two things fall from the sky."
Let me use an extreme example to illustrate what I mean. Take a load that has two ten ways. One group is Belly and the other is freeflying. The belly group is flying canopies in the range of 150-210 with lighter wing loadings(.8-1.4). The freefly group is flying canopies in the range of 90-120 with heavier wing loadings (1.6-2.0). The freefly group gives plenty of separation, but they open just a tad after the belly jumpers and at the same altitude. It's highly likely that the freeflyiers will overtake the belly fliers and if the timing is bad it will be near the landing area.
This may or may not be valid to the issue, but I thought I would throw it out there.
grimmie 179
Quote(this is not in reply to any one particular - I just hit reply on one of the posts)
I've been reading about all these canopy related issues for years and I have mixed emotions on how to handle them. All I can say is that soon after my son got into the sport (2003) I chose to be proactive in my region of the country.
I first brought Scott Miller to our DZ to conduct a sold out canopy course. Both my son and I attended. This was the third course/seminar I had attended and have since been to many more.
Scott spent two nights at my place and a 1 1/2 hour drive each way to the DZ during which time I picked his brain until it was bleeding. I know this because when he woke the next morning his eyes were blood shot (how else could that have happened?).
He did not have his course in written form so my son and I spent the oncoming winter writing our own
curriculum. This was before USPA came out with one.
I have since conducted a canopy course every year at our DZ and have brought in other coaches such as Scot Roberts and Brian McNeeney. My courses are always open to anyone, whether from our dz or not.
This year at Safety Day (for obvious reasons) we spent the majority of our time talking about canopy related deaths, and how each one may have been prevented. We talked alot about how people from Cessna DZs go to bigger DZs or boogies with bigger planes and how they can avoid becoming a victim of a canopy collision or (worse) causing one.
All of my courses have been sold out and even though I try to put a limit on the number of attendees I always allow the extra one or two in because my mind immediately thinks: "what if you keep this person out and they get hurt under canopy......"
I always talk about - no, actually preach about - situational awareness and how we tend to lose our awareness the closer we get to terra firma. I have drills prepared to improve the attendee's awareness. I also teach what I call a CAT maneuver (Collision Avoidance Turn) to be performed and practiced immediately after opening (every opening).
These are just a couple of things I do in my course.
I like to think because I'm so involved in bringing canopy education to our area that newer jumpers seek out my advice on their canopy choices. It doesn't just happen over night. It takes time to earn their trust and respect and sometimes they don't listen anyway.
I'm not arrogant enough to think I'm the greatest canopy coach or even one of the greats. But due to feedback from people who have attended one of my courses I know that what I am doing is making a difference.
Sometimes people still get hurt due to a bad choice but at least I know I'm doing what I can. Are you?
Be the canopy pilot you want that other guy to be.
Wonderful post. I always tell jumpers it is actually easier to be part of the solution than part of the problem.
It must be a LOT of work. Thanks for the efforts.
Partly. A bigger factor (related to HP landings) is that people are in general jumping smaller canopies. They are faster, leaving less time for reactions - but skydiver's reaction times have not increased. A bad turn in a pattern that ten years ago would have resulted in being shouted at under canopy is now a nearly instant collision (and all too often, resulting death.)
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