What Is Safety Day?
Launched by the USPA in 1997, every year, as the skies begin to clear and the jump season kicks into gear, skydiving drop zones across the country take part in Skydiving Safety Day—an annual event organized by the United States Parachute Association (USPA). Drop zones worldwide participate by hosting seminars, hands-on gear checks, emergency procedure drills, and discussions on best practices for incident prevention. It’s an opportunity for skydivers to shake off the winter rust, reinforce good habits, and engage with their local jumper community before the busy season begins.
Airborne Petawawa Safety Day 2025
📅 Date: Saturday, April 12th
🕛 Time: 12:00 PM
📍 Location: Main Terminal, Pembroke & Area Airport
WHY IS SAFETY DAY IMPORTANT?
Other than the obvious: because it helps us to be safer skydivers, there are specific reasons why each and every skydiver should participate.
Skydiving is an exhilarating sport, but it comes with inherent risks. Safety Day helps mitigate these risks by focusing on critical areas such as:
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Gear Check and Review: Jumpers inspect their rigs with a rigger, checking closing loops and flaps, pilot chute snugness and condition, Velcro, three-ring condition, RSL routing, and AAD compliance with battery and factory checks.
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Skydiving Emergency Review and Drills: Emergency drills focus on the important canopy skills jumpers need to practice to stay proficient.
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Canopy Flight and Landing Patterns: Aerial photos are used to show acceptable and unacceptable landing areas, review hazards, establish or review landing patterns, and discuss canopy handling to prevent low-turn accidents using this year's current statistics relating to incidents in the sport.
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Aircraft Procedures and Emergencies: Reviewing exit order, loading procedures, seat belt and weight-and-balance concerns, spotting procedures, visibility minimums, cloud clearances, air traffic control requirements, and aircraft emergency scenarios ensures jumpers are well-prepared.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
Everyone! Not only is it incredibly informative and a great way to get the brain back into skydiving mode after winter hibernation, but it's also a fun and social event—designed to be engaging, not just a dry learning session.
That means everyone in the sport should attend—from AFF students and licensed jumpers to instructors, tandem masters, and riggers. Even those with thousands of jumps can benefit from a refresher—after all, safety and skydiving go hand in hand. You don’t get to 10,000 skydives without understanding risk management in a high-risk environment. I know I didn’t (I only have about 3,500 jumps, but you get the idea!).
How to Make the Most of Safety Day
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Get Involved: Participate in hands-on drills and ask questions.
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Inspect Your Gear: Take advantage of professional riggers being on-site.
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Refresh Your Knowledge: Stay updated on new safety trends and equipment advancements.
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Engage with the Community: Skydiving is a team effort, and Safety Day is a great way to connect with fellow jumpers.
SAFETY DAY: WHAT'S IN STORE?
For Safety Day 2025, we have some exciting things planned to get everyone stoked for another amazing skydiving season! This year, we’re taking things indoors—our event will be hosted inside the Main Terminal at the Pembroke & Area Airport for an engaging, informative, and social gathering.
📅 Date: Saturday, April 12th
🕛 Time: 12:00 PM
📍 Location: Main Terminal, Pembroke & Area Airport
We’ll be covering essential safety presentations, including emergency reviews, the latest statistics, and best practices to keep us all sharp and prepared.
But wait—there’s more! We’re serving up food and drinks (can you say free lunch?!), and we’ll be showcasing malfunction videos as teaching aids. It’s going to be a fun and interactive way to learn while catching up with the community.
Oh, and don’t forget—this is also a perfect chance to sign your 2025 waiver. That way, when the first jump day of the season arrives, you won’t be stuck indoors initialing 45 times while your friends are already launching 4-ways from the strut of the Cessna. Priorities, people!
Interested in attending Skydiving Safety Day 2025 with Airborne Petawawa? Let us know here.
SAFETY AS A MINDSET AND CULTURE
At Airborne Petawawa, safety isn’t just something we practice—it’s ingrained in our culture. We live and breathe skydiving, and that means we take every jump seriously. Whether it’s a student’s first tandem or a seasoned pro logging their 10,000th jump, we are dedicated to maintaining the highest safety standards. It’s what allows us to push the limits of human flight while making sure everyone lands safely at the end of the day. Skydiving is all about calculated risk—our job is to stack the odds in our favor every time we exit that plane.