Would this piss you off?

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I find a lot of stuff in the story odd.
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I asked about the 45 minute canopy ride and the jumper said he was using a student 288. I'm still not sure I understand why that would prevent him from spiraling down.
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I assume this is an exaggeration; isn't the descent rate for that canopy going to be about 1k per minute at normal glide? Possibly 500 feet per minute? Without updraft that would be 13 to 26 minutes from 13k AGL to the ground.

Sunday we had a weird situation where 6 or so jumpers had no problem with some interesting winds. (Different directions at different altitudes.) One student opened maybe 2k high in the same place as everyone else and got blown something like a mile - backward. (The DZ totally located and collected him, though. :)

Question? Who was the Manifestor? Did anyone take a head count before Boarding or while on the plane? Seems to me if they did or did not, someone should know about your Jump and realized your not back and Start a Search? I think your right about that. I know if I was in your shoes and no one seemed to take any action of any sort I would Question the Whole Operation in part. Like you said you could have been in a Tree with a Broken back not able to move or a Faceplant in a field somewhere KO'd. I would not be a Happy Camper...

Carolina Sky Sports has a good system.You put your jump ticket in a sleeve that has your name and exit weight on it and give it to manifest.After you land there is your sleeve hanging on the wall and you pick it up.Manifest checks that all of the sleeves have been picked up.If not they page the person.
I've only been there for boogies so I don't know if they use that system all the time,but it works great.

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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.

ROFLA.

I guess it isn't that odd, I landed out on my first solo (under a manta) I pulled around 6000 feet because I got serious ground rush and didnt' trust my altimeter. Anyway, it took me 2 hours to walk back - because I couldn't find a place to get over the barbwire fence that would have taken me back to the dz quicker and no one saw me land off or knew I was missing. The person working manifest apologized over and over for not watching, but it all worked out fine.

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Would this piss you off?

I'd probably be a little annoyed for an hour or so. But I'd get over it.

uh' quick question.....
YOU COULDN'T GET BACK TO THE DZ IN 15 MIN FROM 13K?
I'd probably figure you just stole my gear...that's why I'd come looking for you!!!

I have to agree with Aggie. The preemie is just life ... As far as "no one" coming, yeah, I'd be pissed, but you said two came, one friend, one "coerced" How many should come?

Just curious.

Funks, why don't you tell the whole story?

I was there that day, and someone did come to get you, just like you said. Your buddy and your date went to pick you up. How many of us were supposed to come after you?

And how about your first attempt at your recurrency jump, when you gave the instructor crap about making you fly on your belly, and then didn't realize you forgot your goggles until the door opened at 13k?

And what about your general attitiude toward the whole process of recurrency? The instructor you tried to jump with first tried to get me to do your recurrecy jump with you, but after he described your attitude I said no thanks.

You are selectively leaving parts of the story out, and you still don't come off sounding too good.

- Dan G

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I was there that day, and someone did come to get you, just like you said. Your buddy and your date went to pick you up.

Which one was coerced? LOL!

Seriously, no gear check? pin ... goggles?

Generally I would only expect (hope?) for one person to come for me. Unless there is a reason to expect that there was a problem we wouldn't mobilize the forces. I'd be interested in hearing from others at the DZ. I'd ask them--

1) Did you know anyone landed off
2) Did you know that someone went to get them
3) Would you ordinarily send more than one person out to fetch off-landers?
4) what else...

I understand you may be irritated, but I'd get the story from others before I condem them.

I have to call bullshit. 45 minute canopy ride? 2 1/2 miles away? In 45 minutes you should have found the DZ and flew it home.
I cant believe it was 45 minutes.
Two people went to get you. What do you expect? The whole DZ to drop everything to go find you when you had a premature deployment that should have been prevented before exit? If your container opened at 13 grand it wasnt inspected before you exited or you struck something on the way out the door. Containers dont just "open".
Besides, the system worked. You were found. Get over it.

Yea its fairly normal on our DZ for one person to go get someone, unless we suspect a problem. I don't really see anything wrong with that.

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I've never seen anyone officially counting people on regular loads.

All dropzones I jump at count people on every load.
I think it´s good, especially at big dropzones or big events.
If there are too many people in the load for one person to count, each group can report to the person who counts if they landed well or not, to make it easier and faster.

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I jump at a larger dz and that was my first thought too. I've never seen anyone officially counting people on regular loads. We usually have 2-3 planes flying on weekends...it'd be someone's full time job!

thats one of the very few benefits of jumping at a C182 dz... if someone can count to 4, they can be our headcounter

The only 2 times I've really landed out, someone drove out and picked me up. if I land out, I would greatly appreciate having someone pick me up. As long as they knew where you landed, I personally think you only need one person to pick you up.

Avoide sll this nonsence and go jump at SDC....

"...cell phones are pretty cheap and small these days. I rarely ever have to use it, but I always carry one -- even while jumping...just in case I do have to land off or need one in an emergency."

Hello, is that the dropzone? Hi, it's Bob here, one of your students. I'm pretty much right overhead at 3000...oh, wait, I mean 2000...oh, better make that 1500 feet, and seem to have a problem with my parachute. Is there someone there that I can talk to - I can't remember what dem S's stand for...Can you please make it fast!

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I dunno about where you jump, but the only time we do head counts of people walking back in from the landing area are night jumps or if someone alerts the dz that there may be an issue.

...or on big-ways. And if you fail to check in, EVERYTHING comes to a halt until you do.

Here's another addition to the 'There I was, landing out/search and pick-up library....'

--Jumping a Goliath-378 (student gear at my DZ as I hadn't bought my own gear yet).
--~my 30th jump
--Boogie at a skydiver's farm (5 miles North of the airport)
--Winds picking up throughout the day to more than my canopy could handle (I was ignorant and didn't notice)

Last load of the day.

--Exited a 4-way Horney Gorilla just downwind of the landing area.
--Couldn't make it back....(my canopy was flying backwards!)...actually had to fly downwind to find a safe dirt-patch to land in (otherwise would have landed either in a Palm Tree Farm or a housing development).

I FULLY expected to just walk back to the farm (somewhere West of where I was was all I knew).

About 30 minutes of walking later, I was SHOCKED to have someone drive up and ID themselves that they had been looking for me. I WAS 3 MILES DOWNWIND OF THE LANDING AREA!

Sure, I was happy to have someone pick me up, but I expected "My mistake, My fix...I'll walk back". Never even occurred to me that others would take responsibility for my mistake.

Glad they came and fetched me, though...

ltdiver

What happened to skydiving being a brotherhood/sisterhood etc?? Look after your brothers and sisters. Even if it is their fault that they landed out, I struggle to see a good reason for not going to get them. And, you can take a camera and maybe get that skydiver in tree or powerlines picture that is always a classic.

What if someone Dies at your DZ that was a Visitor no Locals knew and made a Jump and went in. How do You account for that person? MIA maybe? I know its hard to keep track especially at bigger Fulltime DZ's. But maybe someone should incorporate a new method. Think about Quincy or Rantoul that really is a serious matter. Im up for Questions???

I don't see what the issue is here. He said his buddy went looking for him. It's not like the whole DZ is gonna pile in a pick-up and FOD walk the surrounding area while the plane flys low passes.

Now this may be the case if 3 yr buddy comes back empty handed, but i'm pretty sure we're making a big deal outta nothing here.

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What if someone Dies at your DZ that was a Visitor no Locals knew and made a Jump and went in. How do You account for that person? MIA maybe? I know its hard to keep track especially at bigger Fulltime DZ's. But maybe someone should incorporate a new method. Think about Quincy or Rantoul that really is a serious matter. Im up for Questions???

This happened a few years back in Australia. Visiting jumper, never jumped at that DZ before decided he would commit suicide (note found in his gear later). He didn't know a single person on the DZ and did a solo.

His body was found 7 days later by a farmer who pretty much tripped over him.

I don't blame the DZ for this - as others have said, I've never known any of the DZs I've jumped at to do a head count unless it is for night jumps or some other special jump (big-way etc). Having been Manifest Bitch at a very busy DZ, I know it would not be possible for Manifest to be responsible for keeping track of all jumpers. The 'sleeve' idea sounds pretty good though - kudos to whoever thought that one up.

Cheers,
Eiley

At my dropzone they ask that everyone check in with manifest after they land. When we manifest we usually say put me on with so and so, what's his face, and the one guy who did that thing that time. Then when we all land one of us goes and tells manifest that we are all here or hey so and so landed off. 99.9 % of the time when someone is landing off somebody catches it and whoever is standing around volunteers to go get them.(I did this for the owner's wife two weeks ago).

That said, every once in a while we miss someone and we forget to check in with manifest so no-one knows. In fact, Ohio's oldest active skydiver landed off a while ago by 2 miles and none of us noticed. (And his wife is the manifest girl!) He walked back and we all felt bad but he laughed it off.

I think you have to except that sometimes things go wiry and get over it. I mean doesn't every DZ have that sign that says "Skydiving is dangerous. You do not have to jump"? But then again I only have 31 jumps so what do I know?

In this case, someone's previous post, who was apparently there, makes this sound more like a case of "I am mad so let me blow things out of proportion."

Stepping of my soapbox now.