Would this piss you off?

If you have been grounded for 5 months, come back, decide to rent a student parachute to ensure a soft slow landing on your first jump back, have a premature deployment at 13K under this student parachute, take 45 minutes to get down, land 2 1/2 miles from the airport and nobody comes looking for you except your buddy you have been jumping with for 3 years and one other person who had to be coerced into looking for you? Assume this is not your home DZ but you have been jumping there for 1 year and you are a very familiar face.

So, would you be pissed?

Extremely.
I would think it is common courtesy to go and try to find someone.

The premie on the gear? Well, that's life, esp if it was being used on a FF jump and its not really FF safe gear. Other then that, most premie situations (RW) can be caught with a good gear check and a pin check before exit.

As for landing off and no one caring. Well, that's disturbing, I'm sure I'd be upset. If the DZ didn't know that you weren't down, then I'd still be concerned (since they should know, checking loads, people telling them, etc). If they knew and didn't care...well, that would worry me.

yep, my sentiments exactly...it was total bullshit as far as i was concerned.

I would be pissed about not looking for me but not the premature. Pin check could have cured that problem.

I know of a guy that landed out - last load of the day, visiting a dz, and no one cared to look for him. It wasn't til it was dark out and his girlfriend came looking for him and the people at the dz said oh, never saw him land.

Quote

I think I'd have to first take a look at the mistakes -I- made before getting too pissed off at the dz.

45 minute canopy ride from 13k? Was I caught in the updraft of a thunderstorm or what? Was there something wrong with spiraling down?
2.5 miles off the dz? Were the spot and/or winds really that bad?

Everybody makes a mistake every once in awhile. Be prepared to land off and deal with it.

yes, it was a 45 minute ride because it was a student 288....did i say i was pissed about landing off? No. I brought up the issue of no one coming out to look for me. That is a pure safety issue...what if I was in a tree with a broken back? What if i was in a field unconcious?

I was on a jump and was the only person to see the guy before me land out. He was visiting the DZ so I knew noone would miss him. Since he hadn't pissed me off that day, I went to get him. Anyway, jump with a cell phone.

Quote

I was on a jump and was the only person to see the guy before me land out. He was visiting the DZ so I knew noone would miss him. Since he hadn't pissed me off that day, I went to get him. Anyway, jump with a cell phone.

I dont think the issue is how the jumper deals with landing off but more so the DZ itself. What good will a cell phone do if a jumper is unconsious? Or his arms are broken and he cant use it...In my mind there is NO excuse for a DZ not going out to look for people landing significantly off.

I gotta agree with Quade on this one. Take a breather and chalk it up to an experience.

Quote

I gotta agree with Quade on this one. Take a breather and chalk it up to an experience.

Maybe I am spoiled then. At my home DZ, whenever ANYBODY landed off, it was a priority to find them no matter what. I have gone out looking for people that i had never spoken word one too. I think it is pretty sad that some peoples attitudes are "just deal with it" Sorry to say but that is how people get hurt. It is one thing if someone lands 100 yards off. But for a jumper to land 2 1/2 miles off and not one person be concerned is pretty pathetic in my mind.

Yes I would be mad and yes if I could walk or hitch back I would. And yes I would say something to the owner or safety advisor. If they don't know what happened then they don't know what to fix


Thanks
and better luck to you if the future
------------------------------------------------------------

but Quade, don't you think its really odd that the dz didn't send people looking for him since he had THEIR gear? Just a thought.

Quote

but Quade, don't you think its really odd that the dz didn't send people looking for him since he had THEIR gear? Just a thought.

Maybe they figured if it never came back, that was just as well because they could never get any luck with the closing loop and pin.

Quote

nobody comes looking for you except your buddy you have been jumping with for 3 years and one other person who had to be coerced into looking for you?

Not making a statement on right or wrong but how many people did you expect to come looking for you ?

This is going to sound like one of those "When I was a kid" stories, but I swear its true...
In the '80s I landed out, only 1/4 mile. Broke a leg when my foot sunk 10" into freshly plowed bean field.
I had to field pack, and crawl every foot of the way backto the DZ, across 2 barbed wire fences, RR tracks, a highway, and up the drive to the DZ. (This was my home DZ) By this time the leg was too swollen to set for 5 days.
Was I pissed? Hell, I'm still pissed!
But I digress...You had one car (I assume) looking for you, and I would be grateful for that. The fact that the person other than your buddy had to be "coerced" is DISAPPOINTING though.

I don't know if it would piss me off. On the one hand my DZ is way more homey and safety-conscious than that, so if you were a "normal" jumper I'd expect everyone to pitch in and go after you because we do that for our pals to make life better. If you were a student I'd expect the staff to be all over finding out where you were, because they consider it bad form to misplace students. If you were recently injured I'd expect the other jumpers to know that and be more concerned. But I have been conditioned somewhat to expect that this won't happen every time, and that the DZ doesn't want to be held responsible for trying to find and collect you, or make any sort of promise that they will.

I understand the point about what if you were hurt, but in this sport being helped out when you're hurt is a common courtesy based on volunteerism and goodwill, not duty. That unfortunately means a person could go cross-country or land hard on an anthill or wind up on an island in the middle of the river (without knowing how to swim) and find nobody came after them, or people came looking but failed to find. Don't we just toss this on the pile of dangerous outcomes to be avoided by preparation, skill, luck, balls, and determination?

So now we have to jump with cell phone's!!

IMO first time shame on the DZ, second time shame on the jumper! Find another DZ that will give you the customer service you expect and deserve.

Of course the DZ won't miss you, they still have their Tandems and AFF money train, & the waiver you signed.

R.I.P.

45 minutes under canopy? Even a Manta 288 shouldn’t take that long to come down from 13,000 feet. [288 FPM] 45 minutes in a harness, especially not a custom fitted harness, would be very uncomfortable (I’ve done it).

Did any other loads go up while you were under canopy?

Why were you unable to land at the DZ?

Did you jump with anyone else?

Your profile doesn’t list a USPA license. Do you have a license? If yes, which one? (A, B, C, and/or D)

What was the cause of the pre-mature deployment?

Derek

Just curious, did you spot for yourself? Did you get out downwind from the dz on the wrong side of the hangar/main landing area? Were you visible to spectators/ ground crew when you were under canopy? At my dz it would be strange not to be seen because we load on the north side of the big hangar and the landing are is mainly south but also east, west and northwest. At my dz, I would be livid if someone if not usually several people didn't attempt to find me. Then again if anyone was jumping a 288 Manta, everyone would be looking out for them.

What he said. ("parts of the story are odd")
I aggree.