Landing on Rears

[MagicGuy 0]

I've been wanting to land on my rears for a while now, both for practicing in case I lose a brake and practice for swooping later in my career. I am confident in my ability to do it, although I chickened out on it this weekend

Just looking for some tips, really. Should I try it first on a low wind day or on a windy day? Should I start my flare the same time I would if I were flaring with toggles? Any other tips or suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Oh just for the record I'll be doing it on a Triathlon 160 wearing my weights, so loading it right at 1.0.

[Spizzzarko 0]

I would suggest practicing up high first. Second of all watch you pilot chute and yank on your rears. When you see the pilot chute fly up then you have stalled the wing. Make a note of your speed by sound and do not repeat that amount of rear input near the ground at that airspeed.

Also you really need to think about why you are wanting to do this. Landing on rears on a lightly loaded seven cell is probably harder to do properly than on a highly loaded ellipticle. Just keep flying with your toggles and learn them to the best of your ability before you decide to mess around with rears. Learning rears now will hinder your skills later on in life. Many people do not understand how important it is to fly toggles well before learning to fly rears because eventually you have to transition to toggles after rear input. Many people also fly their rears way to long too.

[billvon 3,090]

>Landing on rears on a lightly loaded seven cell is probably harder to
>do properly than on a highly loaded ellipticle.

Definitely true! But landing on rears can be a good alternative to a cutaway in the case of a broken brake line.

[MagicGuy 0]

Quote

>Landing on rears on a lightly loaded seven cell is probably harder to
>do properly than on a highly loaded ellipticle.

Definitely true! But landing on rears can be a good alternative to a cutaway in the case of a broken brake line.

Exactly. I have also been told by a few select individuals that at this point in my skydiving I should be able to do it.

I was also curious about the transition. If after planing out on my rears if I should finish with my toggles. The way I land now with my toggles.. I stage at a certain point and plane out above the ground for a short distance (a sort of mini swoop, if you will) and then finish my flare accordingly. I have a feeling that with my rears it's going to be somewhat similar.

I do rear riser stalls and flares all the time under canopy. I've become quite accustomed to using my rears on this canopy to get myself back from not-so-decent spots. I wouldn't want to land on my rears if I hadn't practicied this stuff up high. I was just looking for some tips on not getting hurt while doing it to land.

[billvon 3,090]

>I was just looking for some tips on not getting hurt while doing it to land.

I think it's all mainly commonsense stuff. Learn the stall point and don't exceed it, do it on a day with moderate steady winds, choose a soft landing area, prepare to PLF. Remember your only goal is to get your vertical speed to zero or close to it; if you can do that, stop the flare and run it out or take the PLF. Of course, that's ordinarily where you would switch to toggles - but for this sort of practice I'd just go with the PLF, so you will know you can do it.

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

Quote

Landing on rears on a lightly loaded seven cell is probably harder to do properly than on a highly loaded ellipticle.

Positively not true. At least not in the "save my life" sense of having to do the job after snapping a brakeline. It's very, very easy to land big student/demo canopies on rears. Hell, I teach it in the first jump course and it's a mandatory "check" (at altitude) on the four-page ISP progression card.

Want to try to land on rears on a larger canopy? Yes, please do it on a day with a bit of wind if you want to make it easier. With wind, you can more easilly stop the forward flight of your canopy prior to stalling the wing.

If you are going to do it for training, keep your hands in the toggles unless you have truly broken a brake line. Do some practice flares at altitude prior to committing to the actual landing. Why? To find your stall point; it's quite deep on large canopies.

The smaller the canopy, the closer you have to watch out for approach stalls. It takes a bit more finesse and you definitely don't want to "yank your risers down" on ANY canopy. It's best when you are doing practice flares to do them at the same speed you would normally pull down your toggles. Start your flare about the same altitude you would with your toggles, but be prepared to slide it out or PLF on that first try. Definetely don't flare too high/too hard and stall at an altitude you can't step away from.

Again: I am talking about saving your life, not swooping.

Chuck

[MagicGuy 0]

Thanks for the tips, Chuck! Exactly what I was looking for.

[Spizzzarko 0]

"Again: I am talking about saving your life, not swooping"

I was referring to the aspect of rear riser usage to elongate the swoop.