Skydiving is essentially a risk management sport. Every time we jump we consciously or unconsciously weigh the risks against the rush of the jump. To improve our odds of staying alive and logging thousands of jumps we all need to practice "safe skydiving".
Safe skydiving is more of an attitude than one or two hard and fast rules. It's knowing yourself - your strengths and your weaknesses knowing your gear, and being aware of what's going on around you.
Every injury or fatality can bee linked to a chain of events or uncertainties that led directly to the accident. The first step in preventing accidents is learning to recognize the uncertainties. This allows you to evaluate the circumstances and make a decision based on the information you have, not on your emotions.
What are some of the uncertainties?
Did you check your gear before you put it on? How about before you left the plane? Could your main or reserve pin have become dislodged when you sat down or got up on jump run?
Did you take the time to locate all the handles on that rig you are borrowing?
What about spotting? Will you be able to land on the DZ? Are you sure the DZ lies directly under that "industrial haze"?
What are the ground winds doing? Are they too strong for your particular canopy and/or level of experience?
These are just a few examples. When you feel uncertain - about anything - take the time to find out what's going on.
Ask someone to give you a pincheck both on the ground and again before exit.
Dont' jump through clouds. Besides being against certain FAR's, cloud busting could put you over hostile territory, i.e. the farmer who hates skydivers, the ocean, trees or a housing development.
Know the wind speed both on the ground and aloft before you get on the airplane. If the wind is too strong for you don't be afraid to sit out a jump.
When you were a student your jumpmasters were responsible for making go or no go decisions. They based their decisions on a non-emotional evaluation of many things. You may have been bummed when manifest announced that students were on wind hold but deep down you understood that the decision was made with your safety in mind.
A safe skydiver takes on the same responsibility for him or herself. A safe skydiver evaluates the risk factors and makes a decision based on his own capabiliies not his emotional drives: "I gotta make one more jump today" or "But all my friends are on the load".
Your go or no go decisions should be based on your own limits. Be honest with yourself. Evaluate your abilities and limitations. If you know your reactions are slower when you're hung over, perhaps one of your personal limits should be to stay on the ground the day after that legendary party.
If bouncing around in turbulence and backing up on final aren't your idea of a good time then one of your limits might be no jumping in high wind conditions.
As your skill and knowledge increase you may find that you can expand your personal limits. As a student you were told not to make major turns below 500 feet, but should this rule still apply after you've made 200 skydives?
The difference between fear and respect is knowledge.
The fear you felt as a student was your brain's way of
telling you to be careful as you ventured into unknown
territory. The more jumps you made the less fear you felt.
The safe skydiver never stops learning about the sport.
Have an insatiable curiosity. Learn all you can about your
gear; how it works, how to maintain it properly and how
your canopies fly in different conditions.
Read injury and fatality reports and do your own "Monday
morning quaterbacking". Analyze the situations presented
and try to pick out the uncertainties. Apply what you
learn to your own skydiving so you can avoid making the
same mistakes that have injured or killed others.
Avoid overconfidence. Those who feel they already know
it all are most likely to be involved in an accident. They
have closed their minds to any further information and they
make their decisions based on a limited amount of
knowledge.
Most importantly a safe skydiver knows that no skydive
is so important that it can't be delayed or postponed until
conditions are better. Professional demo jumpers know this
and even though they may lose money or disappoint
spectators if conditioins are'nt perfect they don't jump!
We all know skydiving is dangerous, or at least that's
what we've been told by our whuffo friends and family.
Practice safe skydiving and let's prove them wrong.
This article was originally published in Skydiving Magazine
(issue #175 - 1/96). It was translated into Spanish by
Gustavo Cabana and published in AirPress later that year.
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