Customer Reviews

Jumping Through Clouds: Surviving a Son's First-Jump Skydiving Death

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

It is a real shame that this book was written at all, or indeed had to be written.

Whilst everyone obviously feels for Mrs Melbournes loss the inacuracies and blindness in the fact of the facts make this book a waste of time and sections of it a work of fiction.

three key things.

Facts.

Facts.

Facts.

The only person to blame for this accident is, unfortunatly, her son. No-body else.

Shame but there we go.

If you have ANY interest in Skydiving, really, do yourself a favour and give this a miss.

This book is filled with inaccuracies (laughable inaccuracies to most skydivers), and she seems to not want to admit that her son was responsible for the accident that caused his death.

Some of the more choice things from the book:

- She thinks that waivers should not be allowed or mean anything.

- She thinks there is much money in skydiving instruction.

- She think the FAA "protects" skydiving.

- She thinks skydivers are egotistical because they defend skydiving.

- She mentioned that Parachutist showed pictures of skydivers "jumping barefoot, jumping without helmets, ... jumping head first". (My gosh, you mean that dangerous head-down flying!)

The front cover has a picture of a butterfly. (Yawn...)

Appendices include:

- The MSPC waiver

- The MAC/FAA report

- The statement from the MSPC staff

An excerpt from the back cover:

" A true story.... The book to read before you or someone you love tries skydiving."

I read a borrowed copy of this book and am glad that I didnt spend my money on this. It is filled with emotion and not facts. Every year there are half a million or so people who make their first skydive (tandem or otherwise) and if this sport was truly as dangerous as this book would like you to believe we would have half a million people dead every year. Seriously, spend your money elsewhere if you are looking for a fictional / emotional rendering of reality.

....they write books about it. And the whole world gets to hear about it. The author has the ever-more-popular view that if her adult son was killed while voluntarily engaging in a sport with risk, someone else must be to blame, and laws should be made restricting the sport. Maybe now we'll have a "Jim's Law."

The back cover of the book states that the author was "blinded by grief." Clearly.

Jim will always be a hero to me. I can't imagine the depth of pain, and the bravery of a mother willing and able to tell this story. How pathetic, cowardly and CRUEL people can be not to understand that. To laugh at people's pain is the height of sadism. For this reason alone, she gets 5 stars and 10 if they allowed it. I happened to have been a young friend of Jim's, and he was a golden child.. everyone loved him, he was gifted, awesome, funny and it is extremely moving to know that his mom is able to help others through this tragedy. Jim will always be in the hearts of many, many, many, many, many people. Thank you for telling this story, I salute you. Now I know where Jim learned to be so Great! :) !

Is one women's ordeal of trying to come to grips with the tragic loss of her son. The book is not a skydiver's story, it is not an adventure, but one women's odyssey through life, death and the political world while she attempts to change the way student skydivers are trained for their first jump. The story is not a technical treatise of the sport or making of a jump. But, is a story of her search for what went wrong the day her son made his first jump.

One must remember that this story is Ms Melbourne's view of skydiving. The book is a warning shot to the skydiving community that if she was someone better connected, more politically savy, these events may have changed the way things are done in the skydiving world. The book is a testament to the United States Parachute Association (USPA) and it's members ability to work with the government and to effectively lobby for change (or no change).

This is a book that should be read by anyone who is or is considering being a skydiving instructor, coach or operating a drop zone. It should be added to the curriculum for any one training to be an instructor or coach as a discussion piece so they may better understand how one event may be perceived. It is a story the illustrates politics and how lobbying can (or cannot) work.

Unfortunately the loss of life for any reason is a tragic one. It is not till the end of the book that we even get a glimpse of what happened that day - and maybe that is the point of Ms Melbourne's story.

kellytwo, your review was excellent, but the first two reviewers

who stated that Jim Craig was solely responsible for his accident

are mistaken.

Craig was in radio contact with his instructor and she told him to

turn into the wind even though he was at low altitude (below 200

feet). Professor Melbourne quotes a leading authority who wrote

"landing downwind is far less dangerous than expecting a novice

to turn accurately at low altitudes."

Drop centers and equipment manufacturers should accept some minimal

sort of accountability. As it stands now they can put a bologna

sandwich in the rig instead of a parachute and be free from any

liability! And what about that drop center owner who was convicted

or criminally negligent homicide (for using equipment recalled as

defective by its own maker) who opened up a new drop zone the day

after getting out of prison? That's unconscionable. And the

reporting of accidents, fatal and otherwise, being voluntary???

That's madness.

Some friends of mine who own a cherry orchard mentioned in their

commercial that some studies show cherries possess anti-inflamatory

properties that ease arthritis pain. Well, the FDA swooped down on

them like Ninjas and made them pull the ad because it was misleading.

I wish the FAA were as relentless in protecting consumers.

Also, veteran skydiver Tom Buchanan makes many of these same

objections in his book Jump! I was considering doing one tandem

jump next summer but I was very disillusioned by this book.

I could hardly believe it when the 'Safety Inspector' at the

school where Jim Craig died said to her, when she came out to ask

about the accident,"All the newspaper coverage has really hurt my

business; I've never seen so few people here on a weekend." Such

gall is horrifying.

As for the butterfly on the cover, that relates to an incident

shared in the book, where Melbourne found a wounded butterfly on

her porch and it comforted her. Considering the 'comfort' offered

by other humans ^ ^ ^ who can blame her for turning to insects

for solace?

Again, kellytwo, wonderful review.

"Aw, Mom, nuthin's gonna happen!"

How many mothers have heard that phrase? How many young persons have the attitude of "It won't/can't happen to me?" Nevertheless, human bodies are frail and subject to breakage, sometimes with only a minimum of force being exerted on them. And mothers continue to suffer because of this inherent frailty. The death of a child-a child at any age-is without question the highest hurdle ever presented to a parent.

One such parent is Jane Melbourne, whose son Jim was always a daredevil-type young man, until at the age of 29, he took up sky-diving. Unfortunately, his very first jump was Jim's last such adventure. His mother, in her grief, while searching for answers, found very few that made sense to her, and so she dug deeper, ever deeper. What she discovered is the basis for this book, which describes the flight and dive that took her son from her, as well as what came after.

Among her first discoveries was the fact that sky-diving was almost totally unregulated by any government agency. Jumpers were required to provide their own health insurance coverage, and to sign a tough, tight waiver that obligated the novice jumper to 100% of the risk, and the experienced trainer to no risk whatever. Jumpers were also required to swear that they were over the age of 18 years, but proof was not always required.

With the help of friends, both hers and her son's, Melbourne set out to change that oversight. To her surprise, she also discovered that there were other bereaved families out there; parents who had also lost a child on the first jump. First jumps are several times more likely to end in fatality than later jumps. But because of the lack of regulations, there was no way for these bereaved parents or siblings to find each other, except by coincidence.

The practice of 'jumping through clouds' is prohibited by common sense, because the jumper cannot see anything, anywhere, but yet that is the feeling that assailed Melbourne and the other families. Details of those fatal flights were not immediately forthcoming, and so closure was an even more difficult process than usual.

All Melbourne wanted was better and more comprehensive instruction for sky-diving students, plus some way to rate the safety of various jumping fields. The military has almost no fatalities for new jumpers, but their training is extremely extensive before ever taking to the air. Hard as it might have been for her and the other bereaved parents, at no time did she--or they--even begin to suggest banning jumping. In their generosity, all they wanted was better education for the jumper before that first jump.

Although Melbourne was successful in gathering legislative support in several states, eventually her campaign faltered and faded, faced as it was by the vast, intensive support and lobbying from the various support magazines (most notably 'Parachutist' and 'Skydiving') and various skydiving organizations.

Ten years later, she readily admits that she obsessed over the details, but she can hardly be blamed for doing so; she merely wanted to know what had happened to her son, and why. Her lament at losing a child readily explains her actions. "I didn't have a spare."

Melbourne is unflinchingly honest, displaying warts and all in her struggle to make this movement safer for everyone involved. One could wish she had been more successful in her quest. This is a book that should be required reading for anyone who even thinks of indulging in such a dangerous challenge. One can hardly call it a sport after reading this very fair, well-researched, heart-felt book.