Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 63; Flight Crew Total 3800; Flight Crew Type 3578
Distraction; Training / Qualification
Conflict NMAC; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Excursion Runway; Inflight Event / Encounter Bird / Animal
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Procedure; Human Factors
I was with an instrument student. We were taking off and were departing to the North. As we began our take off roll I saw there were sky divers in the area. I was not concerned as they do not cross the runway below 1;000 ft. I mentioned to my student that we had to keep an eye on the sky divers. My student had the throttle all the way in and was getting ready to rotate. I noticed a sky diver getting closer to the runway at a low altitude. The sky diver was on the southeast side of the runway. I instructed my student to not rotate. At that point the plane did lift off; so my student pushed the yoke forward to get back on the runway. We had too much momentum so to prevent any incident I took the controls and performed evasive maneuvers. We swerved over the grass to the northwest side of the runway and then climbed out safely. We were very low to the ground when I took evasive action. I would estimate below 50 ft. The sky diver landed within a few feet of the runway. The canopy was red or possibly an orange red.
Flight Instructor reported swerving off the runway onto grass while taking off to avoid a skydiver.