Kelly, This is my HUMBLE opinion. I am not a hooksnswoop. But this is the method I am using to learn how a canopy flies as quickly as possible. One of three jumps I make is a hop - n - pop from altitude.. Especially on a new canopy. On a new canopy my first 50 will probably be hop-n-pops. The first thing I do it pay attention to the sub-terminal opening characteristics. If I am going to open sub terminal I won't double stow the rubber bands normally as I have had a bag hang for a few seconds and scare the hell out of me.. It eventually finished its chink, chink, chink to the top and opened with 2 line twists.. But it was o.k. I practice staying evenly balanced in the leg straps on opening so the canopy has the best chance of opening correctly and on heading. After the canopy is open I do a couple of turns with the rear risers to simulate emergency maneuvers. I carefully observe the dive and the turn rate. Then with the brakes stowed still I do the accuracy trick and check the glide of the canopy. How flat can I make it fly with the breaks stowed. How slow can I make it fly approaching stall speed in brakes? You never know.. I may need to stop in an emergency with rear risers. I unstow the brakes. Letting the canopy fly while observing the glide angle at full flight.. I pull down the rear risers again and observe how much the canopy flattens out.. Trying to find the most efficient spot for a long spot. Then I start pulling the toggles down and compare to the rear risers to see what is flatter. It will be different in different wind conditions. I find the most efficient point in rear risers as far as glide angle. Now that I have an idea of the glide angle "while at the same time making sure I can make it back to the dz. Most of this should be upwind", I then check the stall speed of the canopy.. How slow will it go.. How fast does it recover. How much does it dive when it recovers. And how much energy does the canopy have to have for me to have an effective flair? Simulating having to STOP 100 feet off of the ground, letting the breaks up the canopy will go back into a dive, there will be a point where the canopy has just enough energy to flair safely. I like to know that point well. Now I let it into full flight again and flare it over and over again.. Concentrating on feel and balance in the harness and the time it takes for the canopy to go from full flight to straight and level flight bleeding off airspeed. I like to observe how much energy the canopy can maintain during that transition from down to straight forward and starting the flair. It is the rock point of the canopy. THIS IS PROBABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT THING in my opinion. Very important to know the timing of the rock point of your canopy as that is what will enable you to time your flair properly. Be as smooth as possible. The less off balance you can be in the harness and the smoother you can be with the toggles minimizing the amount of energy lost from going down to going into the flair the better "easier" flare you will have. After learning the rock point of the canopy I start into front risers. Diving the canopy and checking how fast I can bring it out of a full dive and shut it down. Staying smooth and balanced is important, as you want to conserve the energy of the canopy. It's like a stock car rounding a corner. If he takes it wide and smooth he has a minimal loss of speed and energy.. If he cuts it too sharp he loses his speed, traction and energy. Stay balanced and smooth. Again I think practice flairs are the most important. Learning everything above can take time and many jumps. It took me at least 40 hop-n-pops on my Diablo110 at 1.7 to get a pretty good grasp on the canopy. If you are loading it well stay out of the same airspace as everyone else so you don’t hurt anyone while you are concentrating on how to fly the canopy. Those 40 jumps gave me a great memory of the canopy performance and somewhat of a kinesthetic reflex if you will.. I learn most of what I do by feel. And don't forget Flat turns.. They are VERY important.. I hope this gives you an idea of how to approach your canopy learning process. It gives me a method to the madness. If you fail to plan you are planning to fail. Again all of you canopy bad asses loading at 9.2:1 this is my HUMBLE opinion. Rhino Semper Fi ..... http:// www.aahit.com
