Ive seen over 2500 tandems, over 4000 jumps in my time in the sport, not me personally doing them, but been either flying or working on the ground, worst ive seen is a broken leg and sprained ankle, both from Students, i flew the ankle. I will not work around an unsafe place, but I do accept the risk when I jump, and know its there each load I fly. USPA just put out that 2009 was the safest year in a long time with close to 3 million jumps and I think 17 or 19 deaths, which is amazing, most of those where either canopy raps during CREW, ie formation flying.....and experienced jumpers doing something they should not have done. It has risks, but as we saw last year, being heads up can cut the risk down a ton!

The hardest part of flying jumper for me has been dealing with local pilots, guys that ignore a unicom and fly right through a dropzone, and other locals who can not accept jump ops and have had a twin otter bomb down on the runway in front of them. I fly a 182 I try to make everyone happy, but I have caught my share of flack from local weekend warriors. Today I had a nice incursion with a hot headed guy with an anger problem, my DZO had to call the cops to put our plane away. Got mad about a busy pattern with some ultra lights and him. If you fly jumpers you would understand this from our end. I never put myself in a situation on my descent that I could not safely make the runway. PERIOD!