Front Risers

[JayCam 0]

Hi guys. I am a RAPS student on 5 second delay and 8 jumps and I have become very interested in canopy control on my last 2 or 3 jumps. I have done spirals till I cannot take the g force and swung from side to side till I chicken out. Now I intend to work on slow flying, flare turns, turns at half brakes etc.

One thing which has caught my curiosity is the front risers. I have heard people talking about using them but i dont know what to do. I dont want to open and give them a hard tug only to find they turn the canopy inside-out or something.

What will pulling on the front risers do and where can this be used effectivly in relation to canopy control?

Also can anyone suggest something fun I can mess around with lol im getting bored of spirals!

[Spizzzarko 0]

Check it,

Front risers are a controll input like your toggles or your rear risers. They will cause your canopy to perform a diving turn. You will lose much more altitude in a front riser turn than a toggle or rear riser turn of equal degree's. Conversly, you will have a slower turn rate with a front riser turn compared to a turn of equal degrees with a toggle, or rear riser. Giving equal controll inputs to both fron risers will cause you canopy to dive straight ahead.

At your point in the game I suggest trying your front riser turns out above 2,000'. There is really no need for you to be using them below this altitude untill much later in your jumping career. Something else you may want to focus on is flying a proper pattern, and noticing how much altitude you lose in each leg. You can adjust your pattern leg lengths as need to get to where you want to be for landing (accuracy). You can do several patterns over you intended landing area prior to entering the actual pattern for landing. If you ever watch the classic accuracy guys they will perform 3-4 patterns before the enter the landing pattern. Accuracy should be a major working issue for you right now. There is plenty of time to go fast and look cool later (people who do bad patterns don't look cool anyway).

You may want to practice rear riser flares, incase you break a steering line. You don't have to land with your rears, and I suggest that you continue to land with your toggles, but it's good to know what your canopy can and cannot do. You may also want to practice flying your canopy as smooth as possible. Being jerky with your controll inputs will give you some very bad habbits, and can get you into a world of trouble down low (for example self induced line twists. I had a friend who cut away from self induced line twists very low one year ago today. He's dead.). You should also practice looking around under canopy. Many new jumpers are focused on what is right in front of them, and don't notice many of the things going on around them. The landing pattern is a very busy place, and is not the place to have tunnel vision.

I hope this helped out. Please post again soon telling me how this has worked out for you.

Grant

[JayCam 0]

Thanks, that sounds pretty cool. I have hurt myself on my last jump so I wont be up again for a few weeks but ill definately try out some front riser turns and flares with the rear risers next time I am up!