For tandem instructors, a periodic visit to their aviation medical examiners (AMEs) to renew their Federal Aviation Administration Third-Class Medical Certificates is a ritual that goes hand and hand with the privilege of taking tandem students on skydives.

In the days of belly-mounted reserves, baggy mustard-colored jumpsuits and scuffed white plastic helmets, jumpers dreamed only of flying relative to one another.

Low-altitude emergencies—emergencies that occur under canopy below 1,000 feet—continue to plague our community.