#99 :(
Sad Days.
It was not that long ago that number 1000 was handed out on the positive side of the ledger. I was more concerned at the time on who was getting number 100. Well here we are, almost. #99 has come far too quickly.
Your thoughts have been around for a long while. The problem is that they interfere with the progress that many people desire. When those thoughts have been made public, rejection is often the response.
r..e incident analysis. I think it is VERY IMPORTANT to understand the physics AND THE PSYCHOLOGY of incidents. Why should we look at other people and what they do / have done? And more importantly, why should we allow other people to look at us? For external perspective!!!
Most of us are often so caught up in our own little worlds that we don't see the detail that may have an unwanted affect on the outcome of our actions. When we OPENLY evaluate what others have done, it gives us a physical basis to confirm or alter our actions. The psychological is VERY IMPORTANT. Much more than the physical to some extent. If we can understand why certain actions were undertaken and why some decisions were made, it allows us to control the basis of our own thoughts. We can make decisions based on prior experience instead of learning as we do.
The classic cliche's that come to mind include: "you can't live long enough to make all the mistakes", learn from other's mistakes", etc.
In reply to:
Understanding that death is a possible consequence of BASE is NOT understanding the risks involved. That's merely accepting the possible outcomes and consequences. If that's as far as you get, you shouldn't be jumping.
Thank goodness someone is listening. I've been trying to get that message across for a long while. A few things I'd like to add (again), whether people like to admit it ir not, there is a lot of detail that goes into each and every jump. This detail changes immensely depending on manouvres, techniques, personal skills/experiences/abilities, etc. The detail is also different for each jumper and each jump. The same exit point and site can present two totally different jumps in two days.
It's kind of like playing on a links (Seaside) golf course. You could play a 120m par 3 with a sand wedge in the morning and have to use a 3 wood in the afternoon. If it is a skins game and there is $1m riding on your shot, things have changed yet again. But it is the same hole!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you accept that this detail exists on each jump, you can then consciously make an effort to understand each component of the detail (i.e. reading winds at exit point, size of p/c dependant on delay, glide ratio required to make landing areas, etc). Once you start understanding each component of the jump, and then work our how to put it together in a sequential manner, you can then start placing conditions on each component of the detail (i.e if the canopy opens this way, I will/can - this is plan B stuff). Once you have worked all this out, you can actually start assessing what options are riskier than others (i.e. commencing deployment on a slider up jump 50 feet off the deck would definitely lead to a fatality, hence we need to commence higher, but we have too low airspeed, so we should pack slider up, etc).
etc.
I agree totally with one thing though - I think it is very important to understand why? Why are you jumping? Why are you doing the next jump? Why are you attempting the manouvres you have planned? Why? Your motivations may determine your outcome.
r.e. the incident analysis. I think this should be a natural thing for all intermediate and experienced jumpers. This is the feedback mechanism that tells us what we should / should not do.