Spizzzarko

Allright, I'm going to tell you what I'm going to tell you. Then I'm going to tell you. Then I'm going to tell you what I told you. To answer you question, no. You do not need to perform a turn to get you canopy to "Swoop". Therea re a couple of alternate techniques that you can use to get a dynamic plane out, or "Swoop", from your canopy. The first technique I'm going to explain will be the surge approach. The second technique commonly used to "Swoop" with out a "Hook Turn" is the double front riser diving approach. Let's take a little time and learn a more in-depth explanation of these two techniques. You can get a decent swoop from just full flight! Some people do a surging approach, where the fly in deep brakes and then put the canopy into full flight. Then canopy surges forward creating a pendulum effect with your body, and when your body swings back under the canopy it kind of planes out a little on it's own giving you a little more distance than just landing in full flight. You will see some tandem masters do this. However, you might want to take precations when doing this. If you use the surge technique, and surge it to low to the ground, it's the same a doing a low hookturn. Now the canopy is diving and you would need to plane the canopy out and have your body swing under the planed out canopy. Again the pendulum effect. If you hit the ground while in this pendulum your impact would equal the force of the canopy's flight plus your mass swinging forward into the ground. Kind of sucks if you knoiw what I mean. Some people will do a double front riser approach to dive their canopy towards the ground to build up speed on final approach. This is a good way to learn to swoop because you don't have to worry about a turn. Also you are flying a recognizable pattern for every one else to see. When doing this you would want to practice up high first. Some canopy's build up pressure in the wing it's self making it hard to keep the fronts pulled down (especially if you are a girlie man like TWNSND, hahahahaha). You will also hit a point where the canopy will no longer speed up no matter what imput you are giving it. When you hit this point the canopy will actually slow down because of the added drag that you are causing by the input of a controll surface. If you watch the pro-swoopers like TWNSND, you will notice that a lot of them will do their turn and then put the canopy back into full flight. This allows the canopy to accellerate after the turn because the wing is in it's cleanest configuration. I bet that just blows your mind! Now the canopy is accellerating in full flight but it too will reach a point were it will no longer go any faster, and it will want to plane out a little on it's own. Idealisticly you would want to be at your entry point in your swoop now, and using as little input as you need to keep your canopy at a certain altitude above the ground. Personally I like to keep my hips at the same altitude as if I were standing up. In this position I can bring my legs up and create less drag, or I can keep my legs down so they are at the perfect height for running. It sucks to have to step down and be running at the same time, and I don't care what any one else says, nut it's a pain in the ass to run if your really low to the ground. I have never seen anyone go very fast in the duck walk position. So let's review what I have taught you here. First of all you don't need to do a "Hook Turn" to get your canopy to "Swoop". There a several ways you can do this. The surge approach is one way, but realize it has it's limitations and can be rather dangerous if not well timed. The other common approach is using double fronts to dive your canopy down, but like the surged approach it takes practice, timing, and a certain amout of skill. As allways please be carefull out there it's not you who is going to kill yourself, but some one else doing something stupid. Don't be that person. I hope this has educated you and the rest of the reading audiance on two of the many facets of canopy flight. Thank you for your attention, and as always if you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch with me.

I really like what Ian is saying here: "Also, just like anything, it's a guide, not an absolute. You have to know the conditions for the day as well as how your canopy responds to them for an alti to be of any good anyway...same goes for the eyes though. " I used to just use my eyes only, then as of late I have been using my alti after using my eyes. I tend to use the eyes and scan every direction for traffic or other problems then I commit to the turn by checking my airspace again, the alti, procede with the turn and then use my eyes to judge how much faster or slower I need to bring the turn around to achieve the proper entry point and altitude for my swoop. That's all I have to say about that.

Good afternoon, I have spoken with some people who work for CPS and they were saying the PD factory team liked the velocity 96 loaded at 210lbs for the longest distance on their swoops. I'm debating between the 103 or the 96 for a camera canopy. I have seen some pretty amazing openings from the video of deland Majik's 4 way video dude, and I have heard some other people rave about their openings. I'm still going to keep the VX for my AFF canopy though. i really like the way it flies after it opens. Also stay tuned for a post on eloy's swoop club. I did it and really enjoyed it. That's all I have to say about that.!!!

I wouldn't say there's a point to far unless your going to fall out of it. I have heard and tried undoing the strap entirely, but I didn't care for it or find anything more benificial to it. So now I just loosen it all the way. There's only so far a canopy is going to stretch out, other than that it's just your personal comfort factor. That's all I have to say about that.

Dudes Check it, I was sitting on the toilet (thats were I get my best ideas) the other day, and was contiplating this very subject. I was thinking how sweet it would be for the combination of the two sports to merge into one beautiful union! (Sounds like a cheap chick novel... "As he thrust his purple headed warrior towards her mound of pudding love...") Anyway's I was thinking along the lines of 4 rounds, and any of these could be interchangeable with the weather conditions. Round 1: Distance As you said earlier, add the distance of the two person team together for a final score. For the Swoopers It would have to be from the gates to the first point of contact. For the Base people I would suggest using the bigger wind blades so the base canopy's can get some score. Round 2: Accuracy For the swoopers use gates and an accuracy landing area with a "No Pass Line". You would get points for possibly hitting noodles after the gates, points for landing in the accuracy landing area, and then added points for a stand up landing. You would loose points for going out of the Accuracy landing area, and would loose all of your points for going past the "No Pass Line", therefore your base buddy has to support the team because of your measley performance. Round 3: Distance / Accuracy Make this round a combination of the two rounds. The gates would have to be at realistic points for the swoopers and the base people. This round will be challenging for the swoopers for the accuracy aspect, and for the base people for the distance aspect. Round 4: Style (pronounced "Styley") This round anything goes! There would have to be a panel of "impartial" judges making the calls. Of course there would have to be rules about doing dangerous stuff, but I'm sure every one would be safe. These are just my thoughts on the entire thing. That's all I have to say about that.

Dudes Check it, I was sitting on the toilet (thats were I get my best ideas) the other day, and was contiplating this very subject. I was thinking how sweet it would be for the combination of the two sports to merge into one beautiful union! (Sounds like a cheap chick novel... "As he thrust his purple headed warrior towards her mound of pudding love...") Anyway's I was thinking along the lines of 4 rounds, and any of these could be interchangeable with the weather conditions. Round 1: Distance As you said earlier, add the distance of the two person team together for a final score. For the Swoopers It would have to be from the gates to the first point of contact. For the Base people I would suggest using the bigger wind blades so the base canopy's can get some score. Round 2: Accuracy For the swoopers use gates and an accuracy landing area with a "No Pass Line". You would get points for possibly hitting noodles after the gates, points for landing in the accuracy landing area, and then added points for a stand up landing. You would loose points for going out of the Accuracy landing area, and would loose all of your points for going past the "No Pass Line", therefore your base buddy has to support the team because of your measley performance. Round 3: Distance / Accuracy Make this round a combination of the two rounds. The gates would have to be at realistic points for the swoopers and the base people. This round will be challenging for the swoopers for the accuracy aspect, and for the base people for the distance aspect. Round 4: Style (pronounced "Styley") This round anything goes! There would have to be a panel of "impartial" judges making the calls. Of course there would have to be rules about doing dangerous stuff, but I'm sure every one would be safe. These are just my thoughts on the entire thing. That's all I have to say about that.

My 98vx packs up just a hair bigger than a stilletto 135. I'm cramming it into a JAV NJ (made for a 126R and a 120 main), and some times I get a slight pilot chute in tow when I throw out, but it clears when I give a vigorous "Check Thousand, Panick Thousand" on my opening count. We have been able to duplicate it on the ground, and it comes from everything being so tight, and when I put the pin in where it goes straight up and down and curves to the right (sounds like a bad male medical problem doesn't it?). I have actually picked the container up off the ground in that configuration, but when the container shifts slightly to one side or another it clears. No I have not yet lenghthend my closing loop, but I will do it this week, and see if that fix's the problem. That's all I have to say about that.

Yhe sigma's are pretty nice arn't they? But I still like the Icarus's. I own a 400.

Dudes, wouldn't it be crazy if icarus made a 300 vx and some one used it as a tandem main?

Make every jump a swoop training jump!!! It may behove you to land out if you are just learning. Therefore you won't have as much traffic issues to worry about. Also doing super dooper freaky hook turns in the pattern makes DZO's nervous.

ATTENTION!! ATTENTION!! ATTENTION!! ATTENTION!! I just wanted to get your attention... I'm heading down to AZ next week, and I will probably have some time on the weekends and maybee some time in the afternoons to go to Eloy. So if your going to be there let's do some swoops on their new Gryphon (gri-fon) swoop lanes together. You can recognize me with a black and white Odysee that says"Whatever" on the mud flap, and a White VX with one Black stripe and black cross braces. I'm also damn good looking... hahaha Hope to see y'all there. Also if you know of any rw teams that might need video, my sevices will be available.

Mr. Coclasure jumped out of an airplane and landed a very tiny canopy on the royal gorge bridge. If you have never seen the bridge, there are quite a few obstacles to avoid on it. IE wires, the bridge superstructure, and there was about a 10-15kts cross wind component. The pictures I have seen of his canopy on landing was quite impressive. The canopy was dipped quite a bit to one side to keep a straight swoop over the bridge. They were doing this in conjunction with the Go Fast Extreme tour or whatever they called it. There was a lot of base jumping and climbers there too. It was a pretty impressive event, but they had to shut it down a little early due to a wing suit incident. Go Fast is planning on doing it again next year I believe, so keep your ear to the ground and come out to Colorado next year for it to witness some exciting base jumping and then come to the local DZ's and give me a run for your money in swooping... Man, I sound like an advertisement, hahahaha, but I'm serious about the swooping part... I never joke about swooping. I am a Nilest, I believe in nothing (but swooping).

You really don't need an elliptical canopy to "swoop". Swooping really comes from the carry over of speed to landing. I will admit that some canopy's are better suited for swooping than others. Let's take the stilletto for example. This is what I learned on. It has a much flatter glide than some other canopy's on the market, and it will naturaly plane out pretty well compared to other canopy's. This can also be a hindrance to you. Because it has such a short recovery arc it forces you to turn a little closer to the ground, which leaves less margin for error, and in this game errors kill. You should be able to "swoop" the canopy you have now before you decide to down size or change planforms. A certian canopy doesn't guarentee a longer or better swoop. It all comes down to the pilot.

I'm pretty sure they are going to hold it until the release of a new team extreme video. From what I heard Mr. Coclasure decided it was not the safest thing he has ever done and decided not to do it again after he landed. Mr. Cani decided not to exit the plane on that jump. That's all I have to say about that.

Sucks to be them.

Nicely put. I hope this doesn't qualify us as part of the "Canopy Nazi's" that many of the people who post in this forum complain about.

Is this a person whom we both know?

I think instead of saying "Never going to Happen" , because it can and it will if people continue to break them selves, We as a community of High performance landers should take some of the responsibility upon ourselves and police our own before DZO's start making knee jerk reactions. I see this happen in the Military all the time. One person makes a mistake and injures themself, now nobody is allowed to make turns or touch fron risers below three hundred feet in our squadron. As I said in my earlier post "there's a time and place for everything". Maybee doing "high performance turns with a dynamic flare" in a busy traffic pattern is not the wise thing to do. Swooping Cars like a "jack-ass" at the NSL probably isn't the wisest thing to do (thanks Chuck). Maybee we should take it on ourselves and make a high performance landing area away from the normal landing area. Face it, we swoop for ourselves, some jack off tandem student or someone fresh off AFF doesn't know what the hell their looking at. Maybee we should all pull a little higher, and wait around in brakes untill most of the traffic is clear before we come screaming in for landing. Maybee we should take it upon our selves to educate the younger time jumpers on how not to kill themselves. What is painfully obvious for you and I may not be evidently clear for a low time jumper. Maybee we should all take a little more of a proactive approach to our younger jumpers when they are asking us about what type of gear to buy. Just because you where able to handle a VX-46 at 400 jumps doesn't mean that jumper Snuffy will beable to. If we all take some of these ideas into account then DZO's will have a harder time banning things due to a knee jerk reaction from somebody doing something stupid. Trust me, I've done stupid things and probably will continue to do so, but it's a lot cooler to hear it from you guys than from an Irate DZO who's pissed because I swooped at a goup of tandem students, who don't know wheter to stand still or haul ass because a 200lbs meat missle is heading straight for them at 60mph and laughing the whole way (these are theoritical examples I would NEVER do any of these things...) If we don't want to be regulated any more than we already are, then we all need to help each other out, before DZO's "help us all out". That's all I have to say about that.

No way, I would keep on doing what I do untill they kicked me off. It would suck for the DZ to lose a Tandem, AFF, Video, and Rigger all at once. I think it would be assinign for a DZ to do that. I'm a firm believer in the "Time and place for everything" theory, but banning something alltogether just sucks. That's all I have to say about that.

All alphas and betas and phi's aside.... Lets talk about why a canoopy swoops. If you want the simplest reason here it is. A canopy will "swoop" because of the carry over of air speed after a turn. To get the longest swoop toggles or rear risers are added to change the shape or angle of the wing to create the amount of lift needed to keep the parachutist's weight still flying.

Quiet you... TWNSND... Did you get a jump in this weekend? It was bad down here, so I just spent the weekend with the wife. It was nice to do that. Letting the chest strap out will allow the canopy to flatten out just a little. A flatter wing will create a little more lift. That's why cross bracing helps small canopy's fly "bigger". It doesn't matter what type of square canopy you have, if you are giving enough harness input, it will turn some. That's all I have to say about that.

I didn't mean to open it back up. I guess I hadn't paid attention to that debate. Sorry.

Dude's and dudette's, I agree with Ryan on this one. Check the trim on your lines. To do this, tie your three rings together, and then pull your lines tightcheck each line on the left side to make sure it's even with it's sister line on the right side. So check your inside right a line with yur inside left a line then the next inside right to the next inside left and so on and so forth. Any competent rigger can do this for you if you chjoose not to do it your self. Another thing to think about... Square parachutes have a tendancy to turn down wind. If you just let ytour parachute go in full flight it will automatically turn downwind. As long as you do not do any thing to it, no input what so ever. give it a try. It's also something to think about when your going to buy that small reserve. If your unconscience under a tiny reserve, it WILL turn downwind. this can add up to a bad sitrep. Knocked out, small reserve, down wind, probably a bad landing area, ect ect ect... So the moral of the story is... Check your line trim, untwist your brake lines, bigger canopy's turn downwind faster on their own than smaller canopy's, never stop flying your canopy untill you have packed it for the next jump, and so on and so forth... By trhe way, the key board on the pubnlick computer here at laKE WALES SUX, so do't think im drunk when I'm typing this. please donate a new one to this drop zoe.. Thast all I have to say about that

Check it again... I'm down here at lake wales filming the collegiate nationals. I'm lucky to get a few hooks in on the vx. It's so nicew to be back down here at sea level again. I have been doing the full flight approaches, and it's making a sizable difference in my swoops. I believe you get more POWER hooking it from full flight. About the gloves... I'll jump naked but I would have to wear gloves and shoes. I guess it's something ingrained from student status. It can be 120 degrees outside, but I'll still wear gloves. That's all I have to say about that.

Check it... Here's what I have learned from my li8mited experiences. A braked approach wil decrease a lot of the riser pressure and allw you to do more of a turn if you are a girlie man like me..... I have found though, that I get more power to my swoops with a 270 from full flight. I do the turn and then dive it with double fronts untill the pressure wants to pull the fronts out of my hands. I continue to let it fly in full flight. It actually speeds up in ful flight becauise there is no in-put deflecting the canopy. As it starts to plane out that's when I want to be entering my swoop. Some canopys plane out better than others so listen to your airspeed and when it starts to slow down then you have actually passed the point of the most speed. I also believe in getting small with your body. This will create less drag. Drag is not your friend, unless your a fat AFF instructor with a light student. That's all I have to sayt about that.