Holy Crap...I figured it out!!!

[freeflir29 0]

Finally....I've had some trouble learning to bring my Stilletto in using front risers. I kept trying to fly it like my square canopy and it just wasn't working. On the square I was used to hauling down on the left front riser at about 500-600 ft and then diving it in double fronts. Well....that seems damn near impossible on this Stilletto. The riser pressure builds really fast and you just can't hang on to it. Quite by accident today I figured out how to carve it and keep the riser pressure low. Prior to this I kept coming out of turns and dives way too high because I couldn't hold the risers down long enough. So....I'm coming in today and I'm thinking to myself that I want to use the risers to come in but I'm pretty low so I better not dig it too hard. I put in a light riser and carve around 90 degrees. Oh look at that, I'm still kind of high so I do a little double front and then let up. I surfed 60 ft or more into a pretty stiff head wind. I was thrilled......I was getting kind of worried that the only way to use the risers were fairly low hooks that you have to have completely dialed in. So...almost by accident I learned just how low you have to turn a Stilletto and that it can be done safely and easily. I love it! Of course the day I fly some other kind of canopy I'll probably riser myself into the ground....."It's all about the BOOBIES!"

[RozeAY 0]

Congrats Clay. And what a beautiful landing it was too. :-)

[diverdriver 7]

Clay,
Are you pulling hard on the front riser and snapping the turn over the top and then gliding through or using the double fronts to keep the dive going? I wouldn't recommend that if that is in fact what you are doing. The best way to build speed and keep it is to do a long carving, high arcing turn. It keeps the front riser pressure from building up tremendously. I am certainly no swoop expert. I haven't won any swoop contest. But, I have learned from quit a few jumpers I feel are aware and safe in what they do. Jaimie Paul and Rook Nelson. To start my turn I set up between 200-300 feet and well off the the side of where I want to land. I never fly directly over where I want to swoop. This allows me to carve longer and pull out of that turn should I decide I am too low to continue the turn. I have held that ONE front riser until I let it up to start my plane out. It maintained the highest speed to the lowest altitude and in an ATTITUDE that was fairly flat.
So, I hope I am just reading your post incorrectly. Swoop safe.
Chris

[freeflir29 0]

Quote

And what a beautiful landing it was too.

Why thank you Allsion! Nope...not snapping it around at all. It's a carving turn but at this loading there is no way I could lose 200-300 Ft. I'm losing 100 Ft or so in 90 Degrees. That damn Stilletto just has such a flat glide that it's hard to really dump a lot of altitude. Thats why this was so hard for me to get the hang of. Starting turns at 100 Ft was not something I pictured myself doing on an elliptical canopy. I always had the impression that it would kill you. Come to find out thats the only way to make it work. *shrug*
"It's all about the BOOBIES!"

[aufreefly 0]

I think that I might have the Cobalt almost figured out too. After several weeks of sucking finally a good swoop. Joe Reger...who has a very cool website www.joereger.com...posted my swoop
cobalt 135 at 1.6
michael hunt (yes, that is my real name...and i've heard them all)

[MrHixxx 0]

Great to hear your doing it all with riser input!
-Hixxx
"Sous ma tub, Dr. Suess ma tub"

[freeflir29 0]

Quote

After several weeks of sucking finally a good swoop

Nice one!!! I'll have to start experimenting with carves bigger than 90 this weekend. "It's all about the BOOBIES!"

[AggieDave 6]

Well, I know its probably been said, but be careful man!
A human cannonball, I rise above it all
Up higher then a trapeze, I can fly