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The United States Parachute Association announced that their overall safety rate that has been improving year over year has again beat the previous year, with 10 civilian skydiving deaths throughout 2021. The downswing began in 2018, when deaths dropped to 13, bringing the fatality index to 0.39 out of every 100,000 jumps. The year after saw a rise to 15, until 2020's drop in overall skydiving activity brought the index to mirror to its 2018 record. Frasca International has been sold to FlightSafety International, marking the end of 6 decades as a family-owned company based out of the appropriately named Frasca Field in Urbana, Illinois. Frasca president J
Board of Directors Project Covid Surge in February, Decide Against Gathering
The Soaring Society of America has canceled its annual convention, believing that the late winter period will not see measureable pandemic recovery amid increasing cases from state to state. In an email to attendees, executive director of the association, Denise Layton, described the board's thought process. "Sometimes hard decisions have to be made for the safety and welfare of our members, and this is one such time. After many weeks gathering data and careful consideration, the Board feels with the COVID pandemic, and numbers expected to rise in mid-February, it is not wise to have a large gathering at this time. We are working to postpone the convention to a date
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Pilots Observed The Accident Airplane’s Left Wing Contact The Edge Of The Canyon
On December 8, 2021, about 1013 mountain standard time, a Vans RV-4 airplane, N456MC, sustained substantial damage when it was involved in an accident near Walsenburg, Colorado. The pilot sustained fatal injuries. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. According to two other pilots involved in the flight, the accident flight was a three-airplane formation flight with position changes planned during the course of the flight. The three airplanes departed the Meadow Lake Airport (FLY), Colorado Springs, Colorado, and headed south with the accident airplane as the lead airplane.
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"Sometimes hard decisions have to be made for the safety and welfare of our members, and this is one such time. After many weeks gathering data and careful consideration, the Board feels with the COVID pandemic, and numbers expected to rise in mid-February, it is not wise to have a large gathering at this time. We are working to postpone the convention to a date this fall, or early next year when we feel it will be safer to gather."
Source: Soaring Society of America executive director, Denise Layton, describing the SSA board's thought process as they canceled their 2022 annual convention.
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