Robert Feldman

While a student at the University of Pittsburgh, Robert Leaf Feldman (D-2673) made his first skydive on September 23, 1967, landing in a tree at the Mon-Yough Skydivers Drop Zone in Western Pennsylvania. He extracted himself, made his way back to the landing area, and never looked back. What followed was a more than five-decade commitment to the sport of skydiving, not primarily from the sky, but from the courtroom, the conference room, and the halls of government, where Feldman has served as the industry’s most dedicated and consequential legal advocate.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Feldman brought an uncommon background to his legal career. Before pursuing law, he worked as a commercial television broadcast engineer, cameraman, and video editor. He attended the University of Miami School of Law, earned his pilot’s license during that time, and built a practice that would become singular in the United States. Since 1978, he has concentrated his aviation law practice almost exclusively in parachute industry defense, representing drop zones, manufacturers, pilots, instructors, riggers, and jump aircraft operators in national and international matters. Board Certified in Aviation Law by the Florida Bar since 1996, he has handled skydiving cases in 35 states and 10 foreign countries.

Perhaps no contribution to the sport carries more weight than his role in the legal authorization of tandem skydiving in the United States. In the early 1980s, Feldman prepared and represented Uninsured Relative Workshop (now Uninsured United Parachute Technologies) in its applications for FAR exemptions to permit experimental tandem jumping, working alongside Bill Booth and Ted Strong in their effort to secure tandem authorization from the FAA in 1984. He also authored the tandem waiver that went on to protect drop zones across the country. Bill Booth, founder of Uninsured United Parachute Technologies, has stated that without Feldman’s involvement, tandem skydiving in the United States might not exist.

Beyond tandem, Feldman’s work in government relations has touched virtually every operational concern facing the modern drop zone, from skydiving accident lawsuit defense and FAA and NTSB enforcement matters to airport access disputes and aircraft import/export and sale and purchase transactions. He has worked alongside USPA leadership on regulatory matters affecting the sport and has consistently engaged government bodies on issues that affect both the safety and the economic viability of skydiving operations nationwide.

His leadership within the sport’s organizational structure has been steady and sustained. He has chaired the PIA Risk Management Committee since 2008, drafted the current PIA Code of Ethics through the PIA ad hoc ethics committee, and has spoken at every biannual PIA Symposium since 1995. He has served as a USPA Appointed Observer to the FAI International Skydiving Commission.

His approach to the practice has always extended beyond the courtroom. Feldman has developed protocols for drafting drop zone waivers, including specialized waivers for Make-A-Wish type jumps that incorporate medical diagnosis and other necessary considerations, and protocols for adults with disabilities. He has published papers on safety and risk management that have informed industry practice, and has drawn on his background as a broadcast engineer to analyze jump videos for evidentiary and accident causation purposes. He was also involved in the scripting and editing of the USPA Skydive Tandem Assumption of Risk Waiver Video currently in use.

Much of his work for the industry has been provided at reduced or no charge, and that generosity has defined the spirit of his practice as much as any credential. Robert Leaf Feldman’s induction into the International Skydiving Hall of Fame honors a career spent quietly and persistently ensuring that the sport he fell in love with in 1967 remains viable, protected, and able to grow.