It’s been a little while since we’ve had a good safety debate on here recently, so I though I’d start one.

Anyone that reads the forums on dropzone.com has no doubt read that Skydive Arizona has banned turns over 180 degrees in their primary landing area.  This has cause a little bit of debate.  I haven’t traveled to Arizona and so I don’t know how much of an issue it was there; I don’t want to start a discussion about the Arizona ban here; my intention is to start a conversation between Skydive Chicago jumpers about what do to AT Skydive Chicago.

I want to start out by disclaiming that I am not an expert.  I have less than 200 jumps and have only been in the sport since 2004.  I’m pointing this out because while I’m doing work for Skydive Chicago and spend a lot of time on the forums here, it’s important that everyone understands that these are my opinions are that of a low time jumper, I am not by any means someone who makes any decisions on regulations. 

With plenty of other things to do, Rook isn’t very active on the forums, but I do know that he reads them.  The operators of Skydive Arizona mentioned that by banning these turns, they hoped to start a trend and would be in contact with other DZO’s in effort to lobby for an industry wide effort to help reduce the number of high-performance canopy related fatalities in the sport.  By posting your opinions on here, you have the ability to help influence any potential future regulations, or lack thereof.

Here are my personal comments:

Skydive Chicago has the largest landing area I’ve ever seen.  When I got here a few years ago, I learned that in order to land in the high performance area 1,500 jumps are required.  I thought this number was a little high, with a D license requiring only 500 jumps, 1,500 seemed to favor those who could afford to be out here every weekend, or staff.  After having been in the sport for a little while, though, I think that the 1,500 jump requirement is completely reasonable.

I don’t want to see us loose the high performance area right in front of the hangar for swooping.  I feel that Skydive Chicago has plenty of room for high performance landings to be done safely.

I have noticed though, that the 1,500 jump requirement is loosely enforced.  It is not uncommon that 300-500 jump jumpers will use this area.  On weekdays when loads are light and almost everyone knows each other and what kind of landings will be taking place – I don’t see a problem with this on slow days; I do however that think we could benefit by enforcing the 1,500 jump requirement more strictly during weekends.  This is really to protect low time jumpers from being tempted to land closer to the hangar without realizing the safety repercussions, more than it is to protect swoopers themselves.

We have a swoop pond now and plenty of space out near the pond for landings.  I think it would be a good idea to encourage people who are just learning how to swoop to stick to the grass in that area.  This keeps them far away from the general population, but still allows privileged experts the right to land in front of the hangar.  Sure - this means learning to swoop at SDC will mean a good amount of walking - but it does help protect the sport of swooping.

I remember the day of my first tandem skydive, one of the things that made the experience so awesome to me was watching the camera fliers swoop in right next to the hangar.

We have a huge year coming up.  The POPS record, the Freefly record, Summerfest, the cancellation of the WFFC is sure to bring more traveling skydivers this way, and who can forget the 2007 National Competitions…   This could just be the best year we’ve ever had.  During these events especially, I think it is important to make a visible effort to keep low time jumpers out of the high performance area.  Maybe we could implement some kind of wrist-band or legstrap band to make it easy to enforce?

To summarize.  I don't think we need to see any kind of a ban at Skydive Chicago, but I do think that a better job could be done to enforce the rules already in place.

Please take some time to post YOUR comments, and also post your experience level and any instructor certifications so that readers have a good idea of who’s giving them.

mwc

As someone who has been in and survived  a low altitude canopy collision due to someone swooping through a regular pattern (not at Skydive Chicago) I have very strong feelings about this.

High perfomance landings (involving turns of 180 degrees or more) DO NOT MIX with a regular rectangular pattern.  I don't care how experienced the swooper may be - even very very experienced and skilled jumpers have been injured or worse in this scenario.  The landing area does not have to be busy - accidents have happened when only 2 jumpers were in the air!

There is no need for separate landing areas - separation in TIME will also work.  How the DZ chooses to work it out is up to them, but it needs to be worked out so both swoopers and non swoopers can do their thing without risk of collision, and THE RULES NEED TO BE ENFORCED.

I wasn't talking about tandems.  They get out last and open above 5000 feet.  You'd pretty much have to do an altitude hop & pop and some aggressive canopy piloting to be landing when they are.