Parachutists outside drop zones?
Hello
On a recent hour building flight I had a somewhat nasty surprise at 3000 feet.
After a zone transit N-S through the Brize CTR as an exercise, I turned north-east and at about nine miles east of Oxford Kidlington AD I look up and see a parachutist very close and off to my 1 o'clock. It's very difficult to judge (and recall) the exact distance, but I think it was in the region of about 200m as he/she was descending through my level.
I'd deliberately spent ages planning my route to steer well clear of any drop zones (getting the transit through Brize CTR made that easier on this particular route), and double checked my map and local features to ensure I hadn't drifted unexpectedly into a drop zone. I also called Brize Zone who I was still in touch with and asked them for a fix to make sure I hadn't made an error in nav. Further, I checked my Skydemon GPS log when I got home to see if an infringement had taken place, and the closest I'd gotten to a drop zone was about 4 miles (Weston-on-the-Green). So the parachutist was well outside of any notified drop zones (either established or by NOTAM).
I've tried looking online in official sources (UK AIP) and through my air law PPL and ATPL manuals, but can't find anything that states whether or not drops are permitted outside of designated drop zones.
I appreciate it's Class G and basically a free-for-all (and that I should keep a correspondingly appropriate lookout), but didn't realise this also applied to people jumping out of aeroplanes.
Any ideas?