A basic belly jump with inexperienced skydivers just wouldn't be complete without catching a few burbles... or a human meat missile nearly hitting you head-on. As the group hit break-off altitude, two of the jumpers waved off and turned to track away, but the jumper who was furthest away decides to start tracking... right at the cameraman! He turned into a meat missile with very little control, closed the distance, and came very close to hitting not one, but two jumpers. Fortunately, he didn't actually make contact, but our cameraman had a one-finger salute for the unnecessary close call.
We don't know much about the jumpers in this video. However, based on the inability of the jumper who turned into a meat missile to stay close to the other jumpers, this is probably an inexperienced group. Belly jumps like this are pretty basic and not being able to get into the group is a sign that he probably had pretty low jump numbers. Further, the two who did get together didn't seem to really pay attention to where everyone else was and didn't appear to make any efforts at moving towards the rest of the group — another sign that these were probably newer jumpers.
It's really exciting to get your license, and the second you can start jumping with your friends you obviously want to start getting into the air with everyone! Bad idea! When you're a newer jumper, you're typically going to be a bit of a liability to everyone around you. That danger can be mitigated by keeping beginner groups small. By only having one or two inexperienced jumpers on any given jump, everyone in the air will be able to stay aware of everyone else and will be able to move the group towards one another.
We really don't know what that meat missile was thinking, but we're guessing that his audible went off and he just wanted to start tracking like crazy. Yes, at break off altitude, the idea is to get away from everyone else and ensure that you have room to safely deploy your canopy. However, before you start tracking you should check to see where everyone is and turn away from them first!
A basic belly jump with inexperienced skydivers just wouldn't be complete without catching a few burbles... or a human meat missile nearly hitting you head-on. As the group hit break-off altitude, two of the jumpers waved off and turned to track away, but the jumper who was furthest away decides to start tracking... right at the cameraman! He turned into a meat missile with very little control, closed the distance, and came very close to hitting not one, but two jumpers. Fortunately, he didn't actually make contact, but our cameraman had a one-finger salute for the unnecessary close call.
We don't know much about the jumpers in this video. However, based on the inability of the jumper who turned into a meat missile to stay close to the other jumpers, this is probably an inexperienced group. Belly jumps like this are pretty basic and not being able to get into the group is a sign that he probably had pretty low jump numbers. Further, the two who did get together didn't seem to really pay attention to where everyone else was and didn't appear to make any efforts at moving towards the rest of the group — another sign that these were probably newer jumpers.
It's really exciting to get your license, and the second you can start jumping with your friends you obviously want to start getting into the air with everyone! Bad idea! When you're a newer jumper, you're typically going to be a bit of a liability to everyone around you. That danger can be mitigated by keeping beginner groups small. By only having one or two inexperienced jumpers on any given jump, everyone in the air will be able to stay aware of everyone else and will be able to move the group towards one another.
We really don't know what that meat missile was thinking, but we're guessing that his audible went off and he just wanted to start tracking like crazy. Yes, at break off altitude, the idea is to get away from everyone else and ensure that you have room to safely deploy your canopy. However, before you start tracking you should check to see where everyone is and turn away from them first!
