How To Avoid A Skydiver Accident

Learning how to avoid a skydiver accident should be priority number one when going skydiving, as throwing yourself out of a plane at 8 to 10,000 feet is clearly not the safest idea. Following specific protocols are necessary for not only protecting your own safety when skydiving but protecting others who may be skydiving with you, so that a tragedy doesn't occur on what is supposed to be a simple afternoon fix of near-death adrenaline. The better you get at doing these things, the more you'll be able to cheat death by skydiving on a regular basis.

To Avoid a Skydiver Accident, you will need:

• A parachute
• A safety parachute
• A pack for these parachutes
• A Knife
• Goggles
• Helmet
• Warm Clothing

1. Carefully pack your chutes. These chutes will need to be folded and rolled up exactly right, so that they will open out of the pack correctly and not become tangled. If there is any concern about how you folded and rolled-up your chute, unroll it and unfold it and do it again.
2. Wear the proper clothing. It's cold high up in the air and it can cause your extremities, like your hands which will be needed to yank the chute open, to grow cold and useless. Wear long sleeves and pants so that you are also comfortable when you are free falling at terminal velocity.
3. Wear the proper safety gear. While there is nothing that will protect you if your chute doesn't open correctly, preventing a skydiver accident is the key here. Goggles will keep debris in the air that you may fall through from blinding you, causing you to make a mistake and not pull your chute in time. A helmet will keep your head from hitting a bird or another object in the air that could knock you unconscious and keep you from pulling your chute.
4. Learn how to Skydive. If you have never gone before, you will want to go tandem, meaning an experienced instructor hooks on to you and uses a bigger chute to ensure you won't kill yourself trying to open the chute. You will also need to learn how to fall, with your arms out to the side, your chest out and your head back.
5. Bring a knife. If your chute gets tangled for some reason and won't open entirely, you may need to cut it and use your back-up chute. A knife will allow you to do this to avoid a common skydiver accident.
6. Warnings. Only skydive if you are properly trained and have gone tandem on other skydiving jumps a few times already.