Referance viewpoint during landing?

[park1231 0]

when coming in for the final approach and time to flare is it better to look down at the ground to calculate elevation or look towards the horizon?

[AggieDave 6]

If you look down at the ground, you really chance getting ground rush and flaring too soon. The ground appears to be approaching very fast and you appear to be very low. If you look out towards the horizon, you realize that you're not going down as fast as you seem and that you're not nearly as low as you seem.

For my students, I teach that you should start your flare at about 15ft above the ground. We walk out to the landing area and pick out objects that are about 15ft off the ground (hangers, the windsock, etc). I also teach to look out at the horizon and use that as a valuable visual reference, since the trees around my DZ (seemingly on the horizon) appear level with the jumper at roughly 15ft.

If you are a student, chat with your instructors about this.

If you're not a student, please forgive me for the assumption (safer on this website to assume inexperience then to assume experience, for the safety of the person recieving advise, as well as in reference to the advice giver).

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[quade 4]

In addition to what Dave said, you also can have a much finer sense of how high you are by looking at the horizon.

Think about how long you have during your flair to gain experience in judging height and it's almost laughable that anyone can land at all!

But I have a top secret training method that I'll explain to you that can increase your ability to judge your height in the final stages of your canopy flight for FREE! It ain't gonna cost you one dime, so go ahead and try it out.

Try this as an exercise;

You'll need to find a building with some steps that over looks a fairly large flat space. If you think about the steps leading up to a house that over looks a big front yard, that's kind of what I'm talking about.

First, stand on ground level and look out toward the horizon. Take in a big look and observe where things are; trees, buildings, people. Especially people. For the most part, if you're of average height, other people's heads are going to be just about on the horizon line. Make a mental note of where the horizon line intersects everything.

Now, go up just one step and take a look at all the objects again.

You'll notice that even though you're just about 9 inches higher, the horizon line is now noticably above where it was before. Spend a few minutes observing things from this height.

Keep going up one step at a time and observing things.

If you can manage it, try some other heights as well. Maybe you can climb up on the roof of a building -- maybe 10 to 15 feet high.

I'll bet that with just a little bit of time observing things this way, you'll become very proficient at judging your height above the ground -- which I think you'll find is kind of handy during your landing.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[Samurai136 0]

Your canopy is about 15' above your head.

I don't think of it so much as looking at the horizon as looking at the vanishing point in the distance. Sort of like when you're drivingon the highway. As long as you continue to pay attension to the vanishing point straight ahead of you that's where you'll drive/ fly towards. As soon as you start looking off to the road side, you'll begin to drift in that direction.

As your skill develops this becomes a more natural reflex than a conscious calculation.

Ken

"Buttons aren't toys." - Trillian
Ken