Hooknswoop

There are several things you can do to increase the chances of getting back to the landing area from a long spot. As soon as safely possible, turn using you rear risers to face the landing area. Don’t make a long spot worse by flying in the wrong direction while stowing your slider, loosing your chest strap, etc. Different canopies and even different wing loading react differently to techniques for increasing the glide. One method is to simply leave the brakes stowed, which allows the canopy to “float”, and steer with rear riser input or harness steer. Another is to release the brakes and pull down slightly on the rear risers, flatting the canopy and getting a longer glide. Sometimes, canopies will glide the most with the brakes set and the rear risers pulled down an inch or two. Experiment and determine what works best for your canopy and wing loading. Try to use harness steering to keep the canopy pointed back to the landing area as any toggle input adds drag and decrease you chances of making it back to the landing area. Reducing drag by pulling your legs up in front of you and collapsing your slider will help you cover more ground back to the drop zone. The faster the canopy, the more this will help. This is also where a collapsible pilot chute can help. Remember, landing at the drop zone is secondary to landing safely. If you are not absolutely sure you will make it back to the drop zone, select a safe alternate landing zone early and plan your approach. Jumpers pushing the limits of a long spot, determined to land back at the drop zone has been a factor in numerous landing injuries. When in doubt, land out. Derek

I took his question to mean "if I do everything I can to avoid turbulence while hook turning, but hit some anyway, what do you suggest?" Like I said, the best way to handle turbulence is to avoid it, but that isn't always possible. Derek

Do what you got to do. Wing loading and speed is your friend in turbulence. If you hit a rotor as you are coming off the doubles and it is dropping you in, you don't have any choice but to dig out w/ the toggles. Another reason why hooking higher is safer. My VX loaded at 3.1 had never come close to folding or bucking even a little. The Merlin I flew (Very fast twin turbo-prop w/ a very high wing loading) flys through turbulnce w/o any effect on the sirplane, that would have the Piper J3 cub I flew (85 hp single engine fabric covered very light wing loading) going all over the sky. Derek

If you get into the habit of doing it now, when and if you do downsize, you'll have it down and won't have to spend time under a faster canopy learning how to do it when you should be learning the new canopy Freeflier29- I think I misunderstood what you meant by leaning to the outside of a turn. Turning left and harness steering right is counter productive. ??? Derek

Definition: A condition of fluid flow in which the flow is not smooth. The speed and the direction of the flow changes rapidly. The best way to deal with turbulence is to avoid it. Become adept at predicting where turbulence is likely to be encountered and avoid those areas. Down wind of buildings and other obstacles is a prime area for turbulence. As the wind flows over the obstacles, it becomes turbulent, similar to water flowing over a rock. A rule of thumb is turbulence can be found up to 100 times the height of an obstacle. If you fly behind another canopy, you can encounter the wingtip vortices coming off the wing tips and he disturbed air behind it. Behind a running aircraft, the propeler(s) create a tremendous amount of turbulence. Dark areas (asphalt, or any area darker than the surrounding area) on warm days soak up the heat from the sun and release it into the atmosphere, causing up drafts. Flying over a dark area and then a light area or vice versus it is possible to encounter turbulence. Thunderstorms will bring gusty, turbulent winds with them. Before each jump, look at the landing area, check the winds and look for areas that will likely contain turbulence. Plan your approach to avoid these areas. Have a back up plan in case of traffic, long spot, etc. Be prepared to account for turbulence in a new landing approach if the wind changes. If you find yourself in turbulence on final approach, fly through it at full flight (toggles all the way up), making small toggle inputs to keep the canopy flying into the wind. The more forward speed the canopy has, the more internal ram air pressure inside the canopy. The higher the internal pressure of the canopy, the more resistant to collapse it is. If you canopy buckles or folds, use the toggles to keep it flying straight, and prepare to PLF. Don’t ever give up. Derek

Chuck- I agree- same reason I fly a VX-60. I have never landed it straight in. Derek

When you flare with the toggles, you are increasing the camber (curvature) of the canopy, which increases lift. Increasing lift in creases drag. Also by pulling th tail down, you are increasing drag. By increasing the drag of the canopy, it rocks back and the angle of attack increases. As you continue to slow down, you have to flare more to keep the canopy over your head and keep increasing the camber to produce the same amount of lift (and decreasing the stall speed) at continually slower airspeeds. So the initial part of the swoop you don't need to increase the camber of the wing by pulling down on the tail because you have so much airspeed. If you pull down on the rear risers just enough to change the angle of attack enough to plane the canopy out across the ground, it is more efficent because the canopy is still "clean", the tail isn't pulled down. The canopy will stall at a higher airspeed because the tail isn't pulled down, increasing the camber. So before it stalls, you have to transition to the toggles and the rest of the swoop is the same. A canopy will stall at the same angle of attack (unless you change the shape of the canopy w/ the toggle) regardless of airpseed. You can do a front riser turn, honk on the rear risers and stall the canopy at high speed. i think I confused myself.:-) A bit jumbled-sorry It cracks me when people say a small canopy has to be hooked to land it. If the canopy has a normal foward speed of 40 mph, and hots say 95 mph in the hook, you don't land doing 40, at some point in the swoop you slow back down to 40 on your way to a slower airspeed for landing. So why can't the same canopy fly straight in at 40 and land from that point forward identically to the one that hit 95 and slowed down from there? The canopies are at the same alititude with the same airspeed with the same amount of tail deflected to maintain altitude. My next rant will be about people that say "go to half brakes in turbulence" :-) Derek

"If the locking stows fall off, the canopy is released from the bag and will start to open before it has reached line stretch." I think that is the key line. Think of it this way: If the d-bad takes 1000 ft for all but the locking stows to come off the bag or 100ft- will the canopy open any harder or softer? No. The reason the lines should come off the d-bag one at a time, in order, is to prevent the lines from entangling. PD also says Sabres don't open hard........ Line dump is more likely to happen on large d-bag w/ Dacron lines. There can be 12-16 inches of line between the rubber bands and usually 4-8 inches outside the rubber bands. Most of the weight of the line is in the center. On deployment, if there is enough airspeed and a big enough pilot chute, the lines can come out of the stows in rare cases. On smaller d-bags and lighter lines, line dump is even more rare. Again, as long as the locking stows are in place, and the lines don't entangle, normal opening They started putting diapers on rounds for this very reason, keep the canopy from inflating until lines stretch. I am not suggesting you coil your lines in the bottom of your container, only that the stows only need to be secure enough to prevent line dump, not slow the bag down. Derek

I fly a small canopy and do hook turns.... Derek

An out of sequence deployment would be anytime the deployment steps didn't go in the exact order it was supposed to. Line dump is a specific out of sequence deployment. Derek

"Isn't this the textbook definition of Line Dump?" No, line dumb is when the D-bag is open and canopy has started to inflate before line stretch. The locking stows would have to come undone for this to happen. Reserves are packed with the lines in a pouch on the freebag and a safety stow keeping the reserve in the bag until line stretch, no line dump.

"If we had someone at every dropzone that watched landings and enforced safe canopy practices it would go a long way. This is supposed to be the job of the S&TA. The situation I see a lot today is that the S&TA is someone without any high speed landing experience and eventually just gives up." I used to be the S & TA and did exactly that. Then the regional Director felt that I was a poor exapmle to up and coming students (doing hook turns) and made someone else the S & TA. The new S & TA hooks a Jedi 136 and doesn't seem to care what people on the DZ do. Someone recently was seriously injured at that DZ that shouldn't have been dong hook turns. The old school mentality dosn't fit the current state of skydiving. Derek Derek

"All excellent suggestions. I would also add to make sure your rubber bands or tube stoes hold the lines tight. I use tube stoes on the first 2 grommets and rubber bands on the rest. I double loop the rubber bands around the lines. This will help prevent an out of sequence deployment which can cause line twists or a slammer opening. (OUCH) Bob" ___________________________________________________ I personally (and this is DEFINATELY open for discussion) believe that as long as the last stows that hold the d-bag closed are secure until line stretch, the other stows are more of a cause of line twists than they prevent them. If you were to stow only the locking stows and coil the rest of the line in the bottom of your container you woulb be less likely to have line twists. Tight line stows pull on one side of the bag, then the other which can turn the bag. Reserves are more or less packed this way. The canopy will open in less time because the bag will come open sooner, but the canopy won't open any harder. The canopy comes out of the bag at line stetch either way. If you watch a main d-bag deploy, it rocks from side to side as each stow come undone. A reserve free-bag doesn't do this, helping to prevent line twists. I make my locking stows secure and the rest of the stows small and just enough to keep the lines in the tube stows for an in-sequence deployment. Derek

A few (don't know exactly how many) of the competetitors at the swoop meet were using rear risers to plane the canopy out, and then transitioning to toggles to finish the flare. It has to be done just right, I have watched people slide on their face or land on their back from either not quite enough or a little too much rear riser input. The idea is you can get the canopy to plane out w/o having to pull the tail down with the toggles. This reduces drag and you surf farther/faster. Derek

Preventing and Curing Line Twists Line twists have gone from a common nuisance to a common malfunction requiring a cutaway. There are techniques for reducing the chances of incurring line twists and correcting them if you do get them. The first step to handling line twists is to prevent them in the first place. The looser the chest strap is the wider the 3 rings will be on deployment, which makes it harder for line twists to develop. Of course, be sure that your harness is secure enough to keep you from sliding out of it. Make sure your leg straps are even. For free flyers, a piece of bungee or elastic between your leg straps will help keep the leg straps from creeping to the back of your knees and keep the risers loaded evenly on deployment. Evenly loading the harness on deployment by keeping your hips and shoulders level with the ground will help keep the canopy opening on heading. Take care when setting the brakes of your canopy and take out any twists in the steering lines, which shorten the line. A pre-mature brake release can easily cause line twists and limits your ability to steer away from others immediately after deploying. When stowing the lines on the deployment bag, one side will have less excess in the line from bottom of reserve container to last stow on deployment bag lines than the other. If your last stow was on the left of the bag, the right side would have the least amount of excess lines in the bottom of the pack tray and vice versus. Leave 12 to 18 inches of excess line between the side with the least amount of excess and the corner of the reserve container. This will prevent the lines from hanging up on the reserve container on deployment and twisting the deployment bag as it leaves the container. A worn out pilot chute can spin on deployment, which can spin the deployment bag. Replace a pilot chute that has holes in the fabric or tears in the mesh. Re-line a canopy that is out of trim. If one end cell “A” line (the line that attaches to the nose of the canopy) has shrunk more than the opposite side, the canopy will open turning in the direction of the shorter line. Also, if one steering line has shrunk more than another, the canopy will want to turn in the direction of the shorter line on opening. Pulling the slider down to the 3 rings can prevent self-induced line twists (caused by jerking on a toggle and the canopy turning faster thant he jumper) and most importantly, smooth control inputs. Even if you take all possible precautions, line twists still happen. If you find yourself under canopy with line twists and the canopy is flying straight, simply kick out of the twists. Make sure you are kicking in the right direction. You can also twist the risers to bring the twists closer to you and reach above the twists for leverage to get yourself out of the twists. If the canopy is spinning with line twists, react quickly, look up at your links and make them even by shifting your weight in the harness. Be careful not to overdo it and cause the canopy to spin in the opposite direction. At the same time, make sure your brakes are still set. You can use any reference you want, but I’ve found using the links to make the risers even is easiest. The canopy should stop spinning and fly straight. Now kick out of the line twists. Again, make sure you are kicking in the right direction. A canopy that is spinning in line twists loses altitude rapidly, so watch your altitude. Remember under a highly loaded elliptical, you don’t have much time and you do not want the twists to include the excess cutaway cable in the back of your risers. This can make for an impossible or difficult cutaway. Derek

I intend to mainly cruise the Safety and Training, Gear and Rigging, and Swooping and canopy control forums, but felt it best to make my initial post here to reach the largest audience. I figured everyone checks this one, but less people check the others. Derek

Fred- There are student rigs w/ a cutaway handle and an SOS (and RSL). The idea is even if the student screws up and pulls the handles in the wrong order or only pulls one handle, as long as the main is out, it will release and the reserve will deploy. As far as I know, Skydive Chicago is the only DZ using this system, although i am sure others are too. Except for the addtional initial cost and having to replace the loop on each riser if the student does pull the handles correctly, there isn't a downside to the system for student use. For experienced jumpers, the system doesn't allow the possibility of getting stable (or clear of an entanglement) for the reserve deployment after cutting away (if altitude allows) and takes away the option of not cutting away from a PC in tow. also I believe the option is not offered on mini-risers because of the two groments requires to make the system work. Derek

Landing injuries and fatalities continue to happen at an incredibly high rate. Too many times I have heard “I don’t know why I did that. I knew better than to do that. That was stupid”. From new canopy pilots not understanding the basics of canopy flight, to intermediate pilots diving into small canopies because hook turns look very cool and fun, to experienced skydivers making mistakes because their canopy training never progressed beyond being able to pilot a large F-111 student canopy to the landing area under the watchful eyes of their instructor. The knowledge is available to keep these incidents from happening. Lisa has tried to advise jumpers when they have questions. She has taken the time to try and help others. Her advice generally meets with resistance because she doesn’t tell people what they want to hear. She advises caution, education, training and experience as the path to becoming a competent canopy pilot. This is not the path jumpers want to take. They are looking for the short cut, the quick fix to becoming a high-speed canopy pilot. If you ask someone for experienced advice, don’t try and tell him or her they are wrong or argue with them. She is not attacking when she says that you do not have the experience to downsize yet. It is so much easier to tell someone that they are ready for the next step than to tell them they lack the experience and/or capability to move on. Lisa is a resource that has been abused and those people that took advantage of the anoyomitity of this forum to attack her should be ashamed. I have been skydiving since 1995. I have 2735 skydives and 40 BASE jumps. I am an AFFI, SLI, TDMI, PRO, Senior Rigger, and Pilot. I have over 1000 jumps on cross-braced canopies mostly loaded at 2.6 to 3.1. I currently jump an Icarus EXTreme VX-60. I have never been injured skydiving. I am willing to help Lisa (and others) give advice on canopy control and rigging to those that want to learn. I do have several rules that I hope you can appreciate; 1. Before you ask a question, try to answer it yourself. Include what you think is the answer with your question. 2. If you disagree with my opinion (I am not always correct), e-mail me directly. We can post the final analysis of the e-mailed discussion that we both agree on. 3. No personal attacks. Keep the discussion on the topic or start a different thread.