Airmanship for skydivers

Over the last year I've barely jumped, and I've been involved in different adventure sports, sea kayaking and paragliding. One thing I've noticed is that the attitude I've picked up from skydiving has served me really well in the activities, and what's more they both have this idea of airmanship/seamanship. I've wanted to put my finger on this for years and it's only recently that I've come up with the word for what a lot of skydivers lack. In the UK, there's generally this idea that if you have a certain licence, then you're performing at a certain level etc, whereas someone's skills, knowledge and approach to the sport can differ wildly from the next. Looking at injuries/fatalities, so many of them could be avoided if there was a greater sense of being part of a bigger picture.

Here are some areas I mean:

• Environment (weather, airspace, PLA etc)
• Equipment (packing, rigging, wingsuits etc)
• Dealing with emergencies (not just mals)
• Human factors
• Depth of knowledge
• A few others I can't think of right now

Most instructors looking at this will go, 'yeah, I know all that', but what I don't understand is why this has to be just for them, why shouldn't every skydiver have a basic set of skills to get them along? My friend suggested that the system is the way it is because it works, but it clearly isn't, people are still getting seriously injured or killed.

I've sort of rambled and really struggled to make my point but hopefully someone will understand and phrase it a bit better.

Discuss

Hmm. I guess one would have to look at each countries' training system, or indeed what particular DZs teach. Certainly new jumpers are taught about airspace, weather, equipment technical info, etc, and there are lists of such things in training manuals, so that each phase of a jump is considered.

Skydiving doesn't have as much money involved like in say commercial or military aviation, so the progression systems are more casual (after the initial licence) and more dependent on the jumper learning the skills themselves, and they and their buddies evaluating their own skills to do a particular jump. (The UK is more stringent than the US & Canada, with some sort of more formal allowances to do RW or freefly or swooping, something that would be handled more at the local DZ level on the left side of the pond.)

I'm not sure whether 'airmanship' is just something that's there when none of the individual pieces are neglected, or whether it is some separate concept. Certainly, it is often used to apply to things "beyond the letter of the law", beyond the basics of the rules, to include a more nuanced appreciation of all the factors including how to interact with others in the air.

Perhaps a little more Human Factors stuff can be introduced. For example, one thing I'd like to see pushed a little more in some places, is the idea of a self-evaluation of the risks, potential risks, and challenges on any particular jump. Go over all of that and see whether the jump still makes sense, or whether something about it should be changed. 

6 hours ago, Quagmirian said:

I've wanted to put my finger on this for years and it's only recently that I've come up with the word for what a lot of skydivers lack.

It's discipline. Skydivers are the least disciplined of all aviators.

it may also have to do with the amount of time.  people have been using boats for thousands of years and planes for over a hundred.  skydiving is relatively new and hasn't had time to mature so to speak.  also there is also a much smaller base than other groups, except maybe hang gliding, i don't know about that but hang gliding came from flying not jumping.  skydiving came from a very wild outlaw mentality originally and that also has a lot to go with it.  there are many factors involved i would say.  it is an interesting area of research, you should go further with it. 

Good question quagmarian,

I started skydiving the same time I started pilot ground school. I completed my pilot license over that winter, but it was a few more years before I made enough jumps to earn my first skydiving license. By then, many things like reading wind socks ... were second nature.

It still baffles me why so few skydivers understand the "rules of the air" much less their nautical origins.

Maybe it is just my odd learning style, but - with a bit of theory - I can quickly grasp a concept .... much quicker than months of rote learning.

OTOH many skydivers have attention spans shorter than "weasels on crack" meaning that they can rarely learn more than one tiny fragment of info at one time. They need to hear the same information - from a dozen different angles - before it sinks in.

Different skydivers learn by different methods. For example, I am a visual-learner who can grasp a concept from one diagram. OTOH some skydivers cannot read maps, but learn quickly when listening. There are a dozen different learning styles. Instructors are constantly challenged to find which method works best with every different student.