In this section we'll describe the alternative procedures offered at other parachute- training operations. We'll also give our reasons why we don't use these procedures at GBSPC.

It's not our intention to defame any other school or club's methods. All skydiving schools use techniques that have been around for quite awhile and are well tested. The instructors have all taken courses given by their national sport association and they have been deemed qualified to use their respective student-training technique.

Incidents and situations are mentioned only as a justification for why we have chosen our free-fall system for beginners as opposed to one of the other systems. We are not suggesting that our system is without its potential problems. No system is perfect. There is NO perfectly safe way to do a parachute jump. All procedures have their advantages and drawbacks.

Sport Static-Line using Ramair Canopies: Students jump from 3000-4000 feet, and their static-line activates their parachute which is a large rectangular ramair canopy. Radios are usually used to provide steering instruction. Most schools provide 4 to 6 hours of training and the jumps are done at the end of the day. Students usually go up in groups of three in the aircraft, with one instructor who supervises the exit. Many schools use this procedure; the GBSPC used it from 1982 through 1988 before switching to our freefall system. The big change that we noticed after going to our freefall system was the improvement in the openings of the parachutes. One reason is that on static- line jumps the students sometimes jumped incorrectly and then proceeded to accidentally interfere with their parachute which was attempting to "open automatically". The accompanying photo was taken at GBSPC in the late 80's and shows a first-timer who had exited wrong and fell over backwards. You can see the static line attached to a bag which contains her parachute. In spite of her proximity to the deploying lines, her parachute opened just fine. They usually do! However you can imagine that the potential is there for some form of interference as the parachute's lines slide by outstretched arms and legs.

With a freefall system such as at GBSPC now, instructors hold onto the students on exit and of course the parachute is not immediately activated. We can generally ensure that the beginner is not in a position to interfere with the opening. Parachutes are remarkable devices which open very reliably if left alone! Essentially this is why we believe our system (or any two-instructor freefall system) to be "safer" than any system where the parachute is activated immediately upon exit.

Students jumping at an operation that uses a static- line system are sometimes part of a large group of beginners and hence they don't tend to get as much individual attention. They are often supervised by the least experienced instructors at the school. It is possible to be a rated static- line instructor after only about 100 jumps and a year in the sport. By comparison, freefall instructors doing "A.F.F." or "P.F.F." are required to have done at least 600 jumps and pass a much tougher course. At the GBSPC each student is supervised by two highly experienced instructors- most have done thousands of jumps. It takes longer to do it this way and we can't handle large groups quickly but the students benefit from the individual attention.

Instructor-Assisted Deployment: The IAD system is basically the same as the above, except that instead of having a static-line attached to the aircraft which pulls the parachute out, the instructor releases a small drogue chute as the student jumps. This "pilot chute" pulls out the main parachute. Although technically different from a static-line jump, both involve the parachute being activated "automatically."

Some schools imply that IAD is superior to static-line. Although it can be argued that there are some benefits, in particular the opening of the parachute is "cleaner" than on some static-line systems, it is also possible to argue that certain types of static-line arrangements are superior to IAD when the student exits poorly.

The GBSPC doesn't use the IAD system because it has most of the problems of the static- line system and a few more which may not be obvious. Handling the pilot chute of a beginner is not an easy task. If the student exits in an unexpected manner, the instructor might release the pilot chute at a bad time. Drop zones using the IAD system have had dangerous situations develop where pilot chutes have snagged on the tail of the aircraft. Other incidents have occurred where students have managed to trap their pilot chute preventing it from deploying their parachute.

Within the last few years, several large parachuting schools have stopped doing IAD jumps completely. Some have gone to a form of static-line jump and others have implemented a "tandem"-only program.

Tandem Jumping: In this procedure the beginner is often called a "passenger" and wears a harness which is strapped to the front of the instructor's harness. They do a freefall and then the instructor deploys an extra- large ramair parachute. The student rides along and can be involved in steering. Tandem passengers usually receive a very short briefing (15 minutes seems to be typical) rather than the several hours of training with the other methods. Passengers are placing their complete trust in the instructor. Tandem jumping has become a very popular procedure at many drop zones around the world. Literally hundreds of thousands of tandem jumps have been done over the last two decades. Many dropzones use it as their only means of introducing beginners to the sport. It is attractive because of the short training time and the "security" of going with an expert. Just about anyone can do a tandem. You may have seen photos of 80 and 90-year olds doing tandems. In fact, the "record" for tandem age is held by a gentleman from B.C. who was 100 years old! Invalids, paraplegics, the blind and stroke victims have all done it. This also suggests that there really isn't that much to it (from the passenger's point of view) and they really are "passengers" going along for the ride and not really doing or accomplishing that much. You wouldn't call yourself a "pilot" just because you've flown in an airplane; you shouldn't call yourself a "parachutist" just because you've gone for a parasail ride at a beach resort and perhaps you shouldn't call yourself a "skydiver" just because you've done a tandem either.

Tandem jumping has become extremely popular at skydiving dropzones and some tourist resorts around the world. It has resulted in a lot more people being exposed to the sport of skydiving than would have been otherwise. Major parachuting dropzones that utilize larger, fast- climbing, expensive aircraft that are popular with experienced skydivers generally can only afford these aircraft because of the large number of tandems they do. Tandem jumping has a good safety record compared to IAD and static-line.

However, tandem jumping is not without its problems. Unlike the static- line or IAD systems where the students cause most of the problems, on tandem jumps the instructors can be the problem. There have been incidents where the instructor forgot to properly attach the passenger to his harness! Fatalities have occurred for various reasons. Sometimes the tandem instructor inexplicably never activated a parachute. In at least one case it appears that the panicky passenger may have prevented the instructor from activating the parachute. There was even a case where the passenger accidentally caused the main parachute to be released from the harness. Sometimes the instructor did not respond properly to an unusual situation or emergency (tandem equipment is very different from normal skydiving equipment and problems can develop which are unique). For various technical reasons, tandem parachutes seem to malfunction more frequently than normal skydiving canopies. Due to the complexity of the equipment there are more emergency situations that the instructor may face and more handles that must be pulled, in various orders, compared to "normal" skydiving gear. The unsuspecting passenger is of course unlikely to realize what is going on and will be of no help.

For the above reasons we do not offer tandems at GBSPC. We believe our system is just as safe as a tandem (for most people) and the beginner gets the satisfaction of having done the real thing.

That having been said, we realize that there are some people who probably would be better off doing a tandem than GBSPC's type of first jump. People who are getting older, or are quite overweight or out of shape and also those people who are extremely nervous about jumping from a plane would probably be more suited to a tandem jump.