Death Question

[Malta_Dog 0]

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Plus, the obvious, "There was a higher risk of popping your clogs on the drive to the DZ (Except when i'm driving, of course!)."

OMG here we go again....

All your dropzone are belong to us!!!!111!

[Trae 1]

In reply to "I am a new IAD JM .......yesterday while gearing up a load of 1st jump students I was hit with the "has anyone ever died here?" question.....it caught me completely off guard!!!! "
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Your reaction has got me wondering if you yourself have dealt with these death issues on a personal basis.
140 jumps is pretty well bugger all these days and you're teaching people?

The fact that this question threw you is worrying.

Yep you've struck a nerve.
Are we breeding instructors that are afraid of dying when they go jumping ?

I REALLY hate seeing instructors that are scared shitless in the air. They are NOT on the job.

Blustery frightened sensory overloaded TM's are similarly simply pathetic.


Every one of your little fears will be magnified, multiplied and blow torched onto the fears of your students.

The last thing you would want to do as a responsible instructor is to gloss over the cold hard facts that our beautiful sport kills people ..especially people who are prone to freeze or become hesitant when the shyte gets flying.

Some instructors can be too mother hennish protecting their students from serious realities.

If you're not telling them the truth then what are you doing in our sport.?

[Baksteen 84]

as a newbie, I'd like to point out respectfully that there is a difference between an instructor, who teaches students to jump and a jumpmaster, who can merely be someone who assists the intructors with supervising student exits. for example, in the Netherlands any person with a valid B-licence is allowed to supervise freefalling students in the plane, if appointed JM by the instructor on duty.

That the question "trew" the OP should IMO be taken to mean that he didn't expect the question and wasn't sure how to answer didactically, not that the OP shit his pants as he realised for the first time that Death was staring him in the eye every time he jumped from a plane.

If you are not trying to educate those who are trying to help you and perhaps with proper supervision will become great instructors in their own right later on then what are you doing in our sport.?

yes, i know, this last question is just as unreasonable as your own. Yep, you struck a nerve.

"That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport."
~mom

[DeNReN 0]

WOW.....you really need to slow down read and THINK before responding to threads....you could make youself look like a real idiot.....


I'd like to say thanks again to all who provided thoughtfull advise on this question....I believe I am now prepared to deal with the "death question" and other difficult questions at anytime while dealing with students

[karenmeal 0]

Tell them the truth! I wouldn't sugarcoat it too much- definitely teach them the concept that in this sport, we try to learn from other's mistakes.


The manifestors at the DZ that I worked at for a while routinely lied about this question to first jump students. Used to drive me nuts! I wish they would have said, "We've had one fatality under the current ownership and he was an experienced jumper who made a canopy piloting error. We have not had any serious injuries (beyond a broken ankle) for any of our students."

"Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

[JohnMitchell 14]

It's an amazingly naive student that doesn't know you can get killed skydiving. No need to lie to them. Tell them the truth, then teach them how to survive.

[bjjman 0]

I'm a student with 2 jumps so I thought I could give a unique perspective.

The best answer is an honest, straightforward one. Everybody figures the answer will be "yes", so I think its real purpose is the follow up question: why/what happened? (So I know what not to do.)

The worst situation would be to have an instructor I felt like a couldn't trust.

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." -Albert Einstein

[in2jumping 0]

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Thanks guys...

I see alot of tap dancing in responces with a couple of exceptions.....a simple "tell them the truth" answer kinda sucks as it does not address making my already nervous students more nervous by talking about dying while skydiving

Lets expand this subject a tad and ask what can be done to not have this question come up just before jump time..???.....should this subject be addressed in the FJC/tandem breifing? so it does not come up just before the jump when the student should be thinking of more important things..suchs as arching etc????

Ha I was encouraged to read the incident reports in the 100s of Parachutist that where laying around the DZ when I was going through my static line course back in 1993. They told me to learn what NOT to do during a skydive.

[Andy9o8 0]

One inescapable truth about parachute jumping, which whuffos do understand intuitively, is that, unlike almost all other activities, if there is a total systems failure of your equipment (i.e., an unsurvivable double mal), death is a virtual certainty. (They may grossly overestimate the chances of that happening, and not realize that it's actually pilot error that causes most fatalities, but this basic truth does exist, and they know it.). Lie to them about that, and you will instantly lose credibility with them - and their trust.

[JohnMitchell 14]

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if there is a total systems failure of your equipment

I have tandem passengers ask if I can promise at least one chute will open. I tell them I can't promise anything, except that I'll do my part the best I can and not take any unnecessary risks with their life. Then I tell them I have big plans for that night and I'm pretty sure everything will go great. But I don't lie to them.