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From: ds4a@dalton.acc.Virginia.EDU (Dale Southard)
Newsgroups: rec.skydiving
Subject: Re: Looking for recommendation.
Message-ID: <1991Apr9.223957.18533@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
Date: 9 Apr 91 22:39:57 GMT
References: <6107@male.EBay.Sun.COM>
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In article <6107@male.EBay.Sun.COM> nouveaux@poipu.EBay.Sun.COM (John J. Nouveaux, Sun Microsystems Education) writes:
>Friends,
>
>Anyone know the names of any skydiving literate attorneys (preferrably
>in the San Francisco Bay Area)?
>
>My wife was injured on her first jump last summer at a non-USPA school
>which uses (in our and a former instructor friend of mine opinions)
>several unsafe practices for first-jumpers (including not following
>several of USPA's regulations/recommendations).

John --

I would be interested in hearing an account of the incident -- e-mail
please, not the network. I am curious as how the "injury" would be
caused by the DZ -- other than extreme incompetence in training, it
is hard to cause "injury" to someone else.  Or perhaps you are 
talking about gear maintance, etc?

I should mention that "non-USPA" does not mean it is inherently
unsafe.  My old DZ was not a USPA member DZ, but that had nothing to
due with rules, just with paying the $75 a year.  All of our
instructors/Jumpmasters were USPA rated.  All the FARs & BSRs were
followed, we just weren't group members.

Also note that things have changed a LOT since '78 -- for the better.
Your training and your "former instructor friend's" training, as well
as the BSRs are very different.

There is also at least one traning system (Strong's Tandem/solo
drogue training method) that uses techniques very different from USPA
reccomended, yet is "acknowledged" by the FAA.

I am not saying that the DZ is safe, just that it is not necessarily
unsafe. Suing a safe DZ doesn't do much for the "reputation of the
sport".  (Actually, suing an unsafe one doesn't do much for it
either, but it sure is hard to feel sorry for the unsafe DZs).



-->  -->  Dale  UVa  (ds4a@virginia.edu)