On September 10, 1995, 10 skydivers, a pilot and one person on the ground died when a jump plane crashed shortly after takeoff from the West Point Airport (now called the Middle Peninsula Regional Airport) in West Point, Virginia.

From June 25-28, after months of quarantine and little to no jumping worldwide, the participants of the P3 (Perris Performance Plus) Power Play appreciated these things more than ever and promised never to take them for granted again.

Over the past six months, COVID-19 restrictions have paused the active and busy lives we lead. This, of course, has extended to skydiving.

The camaraderie, the spirit of competition and the drama keep jumpers returning to Nationals year after year, but it’s also more than that. The reasons people attend Nationals are as varied as the disciplines showcased at the event.

We’re in an unforgiving sport. We’re made aware of this each time we sign a liability waiver, every time we read an incident report.

Visualization is the ability to create clear, detailed and accurate images in your mind of something that you want to reproduce as physical reality. In essence, quality visualization is much like a very well-trained imagination.

Each year, the International Skydiving Museum inducts a select few men and women who have “defined, promoted, inspired and advanced the sport at the highest levels” into its Hall of Fame. This year marks the organization’s 11th class of honorees.

On a beautiful, cloudless Saturday afternoon last April, Team Fastrax, a professional exhibition team based at Start Skydiving in Middletown, Ohio, boarded their Caravan to make a demo like no other before.

One of USPA’s most vital functions in pursuit of its mission to “support skydiving and those who enjoy it” is safeguarding skydiving’s rightful place in the national airspace system, which includes public airports.

Risk mitigation and the decision-making process surrounding risk mitigation is an important part of the foundation of safety.

Now, following worldwide drop zone closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of skydivers all at once no longer meet the currency requirements of their licenses. The volume of jumpers who need currency training is unprecedented.

We asked 16 camera flyers—those who have consistently contributed dazzling images to this magazine over the years—to send us one photo that speaks to what skydiving means to them and that would inspire our readers upon their return to the sport they love.

Whether a fleeting thought or a serious consideration, many skydivers have entertained the idea of owning their own drop zone.

The Spring Fling at Skydive Sebastian in Florida, traditionally held each year in early March, is a big deal for both experienced and aspiring canopy formation skydivers from around the world.

In 2019, USPA saw a five-fold increase in reporting from the previous year, receiving more reports for the year than in any year in the past two decades.

As it planned for the 24th annual Safety Day, scheduled for March 14, USPA chose “Normalizing Excellence” as its theme. However, nothing was normal any longer when Safety Day rolled around and the coronavirus was relentlessly spreading across the globe.

This annual summary looks at each 2019 fatality and places it in an appropriate category.

Piloting a jump plane is among the most demanding of flying jobs, with multiple takeoffs and landings in a variety of conditions and with a variety of loads, as well as the need to refuel often throughout a day.

The USPA Board of Directors held its third meeting of the 2019-2021 term in Phoenix, Arizona, January 31-February 2. The board welcomed newly seated Central Regional Director Charles Crinklaw and elected Al King to fill the vacant national director seat.

The question of how to best manage and avoid risk is at the heart of any extreme sport. For skydivers this takes many forms: “What are the highest winds I should jump in at this location?” “Should I be jumping with a group this big?”

The 50-staters are indeed an exclusive group, and each has a unique story peppered with meeting dozens of new people while traveling thousands of miles across the continent.

Let me ask you this: When was your last aircraft emergency?

On December 16, just days before the start of the USPA National Collegiate Skydiving Championships at Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales, beloved DZ Manager Betty Hill succumbed to cancer after a battle of 20 years.

Over the last two years, the skydiving fatality rate in the U.S. has reached record low levels. Overall, skydivers across the globe are also doing a better job with safety. (Thank you all for that.) But when even one of us is lost or injured in a skydiving accident, it is one too many.

As chief judge at the 2019 USPA National Collegiate Skydiving Championships at Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales, Kirk M. Knight chose to receive USPA’s prestigious Gold Medal for Meritorious Service—bestowed on him by unanimous acclaim of the USPA Board of Directors earlier in the year—at the banquet following the event.