lucky woman survives skydiving harness fail

jrh, I jumped at Eloy and Lodi last month. The bad reputation I think has more to do with politics than safety. People used seatbelts (which were in good repair) and wore helmets for takeoff. Aircraft seemed well maintained. The whole facility is spartan compared to some (like Skydance, Perris, or Elsinore) but the DZO was there being cranky and making sure that jumpers followed traffic recommendations and FAA stuff. Also, $650 gets you 50 tickets to 13k. At Eloy it cost me one thousand.

Boris, there is very little that a camera jumper could do in this situation, and the more time he spent close to this mess really only put everyone in greater risk. Tandem video jumpers need to be very current and competent jumpers and need to stay close enough to get the shots without risking interfering with the tandem instructor and student.
 
jergar999 said:
jrh, I jumped at Eloy and Lodi last month. The bad reputation I think has more to do with politics than safety. People used seatbelts (which were in good repair) and wore helmets for takeoff. Aircraft seemed well maintained. The whole facility is spartan compared to some (like Skydance, Perris, or Elsinore) but the DZO was there being cranky and making sure that jumpers followed traffic recommendations and FAA stuff. Also, $650 gets you 50 tickets to 13k. At Eloy it cost me one thousand.
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I have no doubt politics play a part in the reputation. Jumping is no different than flying. Lots of Type A personalities as leaders, and people pick fights with each other over stupid issues sometimes.

Still, there are some SERIOUS issues that can't be ignored. The FAA fine for disregarding maintenance inspections is a huge red flag. The feds don't go around handing out fines like that over petty, disputable issues. They have to be darn sure a significant safety hazard was created before dropping the hammer the way they did. Frankly, I trust the feds more than a questionable DZO any day of the week.

This video is another issue. Pretty much every instructor who's seen it says this TI's conduct was absurdly outside of accepted safety practices. This wasn't an issue of a minor slip in judgement, not being quite seasoned enough, or cutting one little corner. This was appallingly sloppy work that nearly resulted in a fatality. Thing is, nobody operates in a bubble at a DZ. I hold many others indirectly responsible for his conduct. What kind of safety culture by the DZO and other professional jumpers allows a TI like this to slip through the cracks and cause an incident like this? Who trained the TI? Who hired him? Who sat next to him on the load and didn't say anything about the student's harness fit? It's total BS and never should have even come close to happening.

As for your experience at Lodi, I'm glad to hear they wore belts and helmets for takeoff, but I'd hardly judge a DZ as "safe" because they do those things. I've seen plenty of scary things happen to jumpers who wore belts for takeoff. Or did somebody accuse Lodi of having issues with belts and helmets not being worn?

And finally, I'd use your example of price as evidence against Lodi, not for it. One of the many things I've learned in flying says, "When it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." Industry standard rates right now are $20-$30/13K out of an Otter. That's what I've paid at Elsinore, Pepperell, Deland, and many boogies (using Skydive Arizona aircraft), and other DZs using Caravans. There is no way a DZ can be selling tickets for $13 without cutting corners on SOMETHING. I don't know what that something is exactly, but I'm sure it's more than just the facilities.

The reason I feel so strongly about these things is because I'm afraid the few DZs out there like Lodi are going to ruin this amazing sport for the rest of us. As you're probably well aware, jumping is a very self-regulated activity, at least compared to flying. A quick way to get rid of our freedom would be to have a few plane crashes because of shoddy maintenance, followed by a few fatalities from tandem students falling out of their harnesses. It's absolute BS that should never happen.
 
I totally agree that if there was maintenance being ignored that FAA enforcement needs to happen. I'm not really sure that was the case after a long talk with the dropzone operator, pilots, and mechanics involved. It sounds to me more like a paperwork issue, although the DZO is probably not an unbiased source.

Bill (the DZO) has more or less gone rogue when it comes to the USPA which is where I think a lot of the firestorm stems from. Despite having been a USPA board member for many years, he will not inforce USPA membership in order to jump at Lodi. He is also the crankiest person I have ever encountered in the sport. The dropzone has also come under fire for not enforcing seat belt usage, and I believe TSO tags on the belts were a part of the FAA enforcement action.

Having heard concerns, I showed up at Lodi very skeptical and took a good look around and had a long talk with the staff before deciding to jump there. Thier aircraft at least looked good (better than any of the Otters I jumped in Eloy) seat belts were in place and usage enforced, hook turns have been banned until forther notice, and canopy traffic was established, briefed, and enforced.

Lodi is definitely a no frills load factory, but I didn't find anything unsafe. I could be wrong however, it's been known to happen.

As far as the actual jump goes, this video is well over a year old. I can't tell if it's a Sigma or Strong rig, but if it's a Strong and the harness Y-mod wasn't done then that's a AD violation. In that case I would venture a guess that the TI is an independent contractor with his own rig and will be held responsible.
 
jergar999 said:
Bill (the DZO) has more or less gone rogue when it comes to the USPA which is where I think a lot of the firestorm stems from. Despite having been a USPA board member for many years, he will not inforce USPA membership in order to jump at Lodi.
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You're probably right about what started the firestorm.

But to that, I'd say, "rightly so." Creating a DZ where nobody cares about the USPA is about as smart as creating a flight school/pilot community where nobody cares about the FAA.

I'm not saying the USPA is perfect, but they are the governing body for the sport. If people are allowed to make up rules and run around doing whatever they want, safety WILL decrease, incidents will happen, then somebody like the FAA will step in to put a stop to the chaos. I can't imagine an outcome good for anybody.
 
jergar999 said:
I totally agree that if there was maintenance being ignored that FAA enforcement needs to happen. I'm not really sure that was the case after a long talk with the dropzone operator, pilots, and mechanics involved. It sounds to me more like a paperwork issue, although the DZO is probably not an unbiased source.
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I talked to a friend of mine about an issue similar to this that he ran into at his shop. After getting the real scoop, my opinion is that often what management calls merely a paperwork violation is often a symptom of very real underlying problems. Put it another way, if they can't even be bothered to cover their tracks well by making the paperwork look good, can you imagine how shoddy the actual maintenance is? As jrh pointed out the FAA doesn't hand out violations and 6 digit fines like candy, at least not in the FSDOs I'm familiar with.
 
Roger Roger said:
I talked to a friend of mine about an issue similar to this that he ran into at his shop. After getting the real scoop, my opinion is that often what management calls merely a paperwork violation is often a symptom of very real underlying problems. Put it another way, if they can't even be bothered to cover their tracks well by making the paperwork look good, can you imagine how shoddy the actual maintenance is? As jrh pointed out the FAA doesn't hand out violations and 6 digit fines like candy, at least not in the FSDOs I'm familiar with.
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+1. At my former flying school, they acquired a Cessna from a competitor from across the airport. They took it to a mechanic to have the whole thing examined and found lots bad/non-compliant maintenance. The FSDO fined the school that sold the Cessna several thousand dollars, and it was only 5 digits.
 
I just went through this with the FAA. There was a pending enforcement action and huge fine for failure to comply with a penetrant dye mandatory service bulletin on a torque link on the nose gear of a Pilatus PC12/45. I was one of six listed pilots who had flown the aircraft past the inspection tolerance. The company, pilots, DOM, and local mechanic were told to expect certificate action from the local CHDO.

We recently switched to a maintenance system that tracks individual life limited components and their associated inspection tolerances by individual part serial numbers. Knowing that the dye testing was coming due and looking at the cost of testing versus replacing the part with a newer one (not subject to the SB) from the manufacturer our mechanic simply ordered the new part and replaced it hundreds of hours before the mandatory service bulletin was due. Several months down the road a clerk in records was using aircraft logbooks to update part numbers in the system, missed the new part number, and started the • storm. It took a long time to get out from under a simple clerical error, and at no time was the aircraft maintained or flown contrary to 14 CFR or our AAIP.

I'm not saying that something similar happened in Lodi, and I don't know the details. Maybe there have been some changes recently. All I do know is that when I physically went there, spoke with pilots, looked at aircraft status sheets, and jumped that none of the internet rumors proved to be true.

As to the lift ticket prices, bear in mind that a King Air 200 will frequently haul the same number of jumpers to the same altitude as a Twin Otter in less time, using considerably less fuel, at a similar maintenance cost (cheaper engines versus retractable gear) and with cheaper insurance in most cases. Tires are cheaper, brakes cost less, parts in general are much cheaper and more readily available. I can see how they charge 25% less than many places.
 
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