No s**t , there we were, thought we were gonna die. Fortunately, after 45 years of skydiving, I only have a few stories that begin like this.

On the morning of September 2, 9-year-old Dessa Blaine looked up above the small town of Page, Arizona, and saw her father, David, become a tiny dot in the sky.

I've insured skydiving airplanes for 25 years. In that time, I've paid for about 50 heavily damaged or totaled turbine skydiving aircraft. That's a lot of bent iron … unnecessarily bent iron. If you wonder why your insurance costs are so high, let me say it again: 50 heavily damaged or destroyed airplanes! There seems to be an insidious common thread in 85 percent of these accidents, and that’s the lack of following a checklist.

Liam Wertheimer runs out his landing at Skydive Spaceland–Clewiston in Florida.

Wingsuit flyer Craig Lambton carves around skysurfer Kyle Batchelor during Shredfest at Cleveland Skydiving Center in Garrettsville, Ohio.

Different line types create confusion among skydivers of all experience levels. What are the different types of lines? What are the pros and cons of each? Which size line is best for you?

On Saturday, August 15, more than 40 military veterans around the country took to the air on tandem skydives during the 6th Annual Freedom Freefall event.

So, you’ve been jumping for a few years and you’ve decided it’s time to work on earning a tandem instructor rating.

Dynamic warm-ups are a perfect way to get ready for a day of jumping. They increase your core temperature, and the increased blood flow enhances your nerve impulses and reaction time.

Half-braked canopy flight is a useful and life-saving skill, but recent incident reports (including the non-fatal incident reports in this issue of Parachutist) show that it is highly underutilized.

Instructors have been performing a lot of currency training lately and overall have been doing a great job. However, our recent incident reports show that one area of emergency-procedure training could use more emphasis: low-altitude emergencies under canopy.

Now that many drop zones have re-opened, most with face-mask requirements in place to help control the spread of the coronavirus, lens fogging has become a common issue.

Reports in this column have been compiled by the USPA Safety & Training Department from information received from the field and are the most accurate reports possible through such input. They are printed in Parachutist for their educational value.

Ben Renze (green shoes) celebrates his 100th jump with a hybrid skydive at Chicagoland Skydiving Center in Rochelle, Illinois.

On August 14, the Women’s Skydiving Network launched the Project 19 skydiving app to provide educational tools and resources to those training for large head-down formations, particularly the Project 19 women’s head-down record.

Nineteen jumpers do one last jump with their friend, Ray Capa, C-17275, releasing his ashes over the skies of Chicagoland Skydiving Center in Rochelle, Illinois.

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced closure of the many DZs located at the Aeroporto de Boituva in Brazil, approximately 50 parachute packers found themselves out of work.

Claude Gillard, an inductee to the International Skydiving Hall of Fame in 2012, passed away in his native Australia on August 3 at age 92.

Will Kitto, D-33634, is a highly accomplished skydiver in two diverse disciplines: canopy formation (aka canopy relative work or CRW) and wingsuit flying.