Basejumper.com - archive

Hey, while we know a lot about fatality reasons, we have less informations about the equipment involved. As fatalities in BASE increased the last years, I'm just interested in how the equipment may corelate to this or if it's just randomly equal (like Velcrorigs vs. Pinrigs / Classic Canopies vs. Upgrated New Style Canopies)
So question: Who knows more about the fatalities of the last 5 years?

Example: Fatality # xx used a 2 Pin Rig with an 240 blabla, 48" F-111 PC (of course all other details can be found on "the list").

Maybe we find new things in such a view. I'm somehow curious.

Anyway, I don't want to offend anybody among us. Not even the dead ones.

If somebody out there already worked on this, please PM me.

Mahle
German BASE Association

Such data would be impossible to interpret without a parallel survey of what types of rigs people are jumping, and perhaps how frequently they jump. Not only that, but the numbers -- particularly if one is looking for information on newer gear configurations -- are so low (despite being tragically high) that I expect any interpretation of trends within them would be dubious at best.

If you could quantify injury rates, you might have something more valuable...

Up until the early 1990s, gear could play a significant factor in death and injuries. What amazes me now are the vented pilot chutes and the bottom skin inlets on square canopies. Thanks Space for educating the community on the importance of the orbiting pilot chute! I've seen some carnage footage showing people flying into cliffs with vented canopies. Almost everyone of them survives. Being around long enough, I was completely shocked when I saw these jumpers slide down the wall a bit, turn it around, and land relatively unscathed. I suspect body armor was also key here. My training was that a cliff strike (if the cliff had any significant texture) meant automatic death, even with some armor. The standardization of the gear was key to the success of BASE jumping. Fine tuning a Pegasus, Cruiselite, or Raven could be a harrowing process and we don't all have access to easy drop points like some of the current BASE manufacturers. I see no significant correlation between the jumpers' deaths and their gear in the post-2000 era. I would surmise that a majority of the recent deaths are from pilot error. On another note, by having such 'reliable' gear, jumpers are now doing jumps that were previously unheard of. In addition, most jumpers are not in the jump technique mindset of having a 180 on every other jump. This mindset dictated the approach to jumping in past years for the old school jumpers.

I use that as one of my safety strategies. I expect a 180 every time I jump a solid object. I think about it before I jump and again when I pitch.

A lot of insight there... I have been thinking the same thing, but as you, I have no empirical data to support my thoughts. The ratio of survived incidents to deaths tells us one thing, but not everything. As does the number of jumps to incidents.

I think the safety has gone way up exponentially in comparison to the number of incidents. In correlation to this I believe the number of jumps and probably jumpers have gone way up in relative respect. I relaize we had a record number of deaths last year, I feel for each and every one, but we probably had a recor number of jumps last year at a very disproportionate rate.

I accept this is only a feeling I haver and may not be the feeling of the majority, but that is what I think.

I'm sure everybody is right by regarding things thru his own eyes. And there are some good points out already.

But what about the question?

M.

I don't believe the data is easily availabe.

after my 3rd jump (1st hand held. first 2 jumps were PCA sub 300) i made a comment to a friend of mine (very experienced jumper) that after I opened I felt 'dazed' and kinda like 'oh yeah, gotta fly this thing'....his response "we have all been there, but eventually it will turn from 'oh yeah gotta fly this thing' to 'oh shit..it actually worked!'" he then explained how he as well expects a 180 every jump and when it opens on heading it's relief. From that point - instead of praying for an on heading opening, i began expecting a 180. i think that kept me alive on jump 5 (when i had my first 180 off a tower (1 sec delay - damn that A looked scary from 20 feet away)