Basics of Canopy Contorl

[jigneshsoni 0]

I know, I know, there are tons of thread on this. I have read a lot of them, but still a bit confused on what exactly are the physcis of Canopy.

I am looking for explanation on how does canopy react depending how you apply stuff to it? I am looking for answers on how each of the below actions change the movement of the canopy with respect to forward movement and descent.

I am looking for a basic chart on which how does a canopy fly on different scenerios:

1) When you do quarter flare
2) When you apply half flare
3) When you complee flare
4) when you pull both front risers
5) When you pull left frong riser
6) when you pull right front riser
7) when you pull both back riser
8) when you pull left back riser
9) when you pull right back riser.

I am looking for the above answers assuming the following pre-conditions:

a) You are moving upwind
b) You are moving downwind.

Can we make some kind of a chart. I am sure this will be very helpful to me and for future sky divers who might be looking for this.

Thanks in advance
Jignesh

[marks 0]

I am usre someone will spend the time on this one that can explain things alot better than me. but I would like to point this out.

Quote

a) You are moving upwind
b) You are moving downwind.

It does not matter if your downwind into wind, cross wind. your canopy is still only flying forward into the "relative" wind. so nothing changes.

[billvon 2,997]

>1) When you do quarter flare\

Canopy "floats" a little more. Forward motion slows; descent rate slows. Often glide gets slightly better.

>2) When you apply half flare

Canopy floats a bit more. Depending on design, it may start getting _worse_ glide.

>3) When you complee flare

Descent stops (or nearly so) and forward speed decreases. A lot depends on what you were doing _before_ you flare. If you were in half brakes, not much is going to change.

Eventually the canopy may stall, which will result in a rapid increase in downward speed.

>4) when you pull both front risers

Forward speed increases slightly; downward speed increases a lot.

>5) When you pull left frong riser

Diving left turn. Descent speed increases a great deal.

>7) when you pull both back riser

Glide flattens; descent rate decreases and forward speed decreases slightly. Too much and the canopy stalls.

>8) when you pull left back riser

Similar to a toggle turn, but more likely to cause a stall.

Into the wind/away from the wind doesn't matter.

Now the caveats.

1) You cannot learn canopy flight from the internet or a chart. As always, get an instructor/canopy coach when it comes to questions about how to fly your canopy.

2) The above answers depend on the canopy, the loading, what you did just before the manuever etc. If you just stalled the canopy, for example, flaring is not going to do much. Trying to get one answer to the above questions is like asking "what happens to your car when you turn your steering wheel six inches? Will you turn? Will you skid? Will you slow down? Will you hit someone else?" Depends on a lot of things, not just the position of your steering wheel.

[jakee 1,498]

As well as billvons response above, bear in mind that there is a difference between the immediate reaction of the canopy to a control input and what happens if you maintain that control input. The rate at which you increase/ decrease the amount of input will also have an effect on the reaction.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[tdog 0]

Hey,

I learned so much from Brian Germain (Big Air Sportz).

I use a lot of what I learned from him when I teach the FJC. I know not to overwhelm brand new skydivers, but some of his examples and methods of describing canopy flight allows me to convey information that is very complex in a simple way. We keep it pretty basic, but a graduate from my FJC should be able to tell you how and why the flare turns speed into lift, and how to recover from mis-flares in a way to maintain flight. It is from Brian's radio shows that I learned how to teach this, and a lot of the stuff I needed to know myself. Once you understand fully how it works, you will be able to guess how changing any one variable could be good or bad for the situation at hand.


So, how do you learn from Brian? Well, he has classes and posts here every once in a while. I have NOT done these, but if you are the instant gratification type like me...

So, goto http://www.skydiveradio.com/shows.htm and download the Brian Germain shows, starting with the oldest and moving up the list. Play them a few times.

Once you are done with Brian, I like Bill Booth's shows too, but a lot of others are good.

Or of course you can buy Brian's book, but I read it cover to cover and still got more from the free radio show.

[dharma1976 0]

I will always reccomend one of brians courses...

Dave

http://www.skyjunky.com

CSpenceFLY - I can't believe the number of people willing to bet their life on someone else doing the right thing.

[sparkie 0]

Quote

I know, I know, there are tons of thread on this. I have read a lot of them, but still a bit confused on what exactly are the physcis of Canopy.

I am looking for explanation on how does canopy react depending how you apply stuff to it? I am looking for answers on how each of the below actions change the movement of the canopy with respect to forward movement and descent.

I am looking for a basic chart on which how does a canopy fly on different scenerios:

1) When you do quarter flare
2) When you apply half flare
3) When you complee flare
4) when you pull both front risers
5) When you pull left frong riser
6) when you pull right front riser
7) when you pull both back riser
8) when you pull left back riser
9) when you pull right back riser.

I am looking for the above answers assuming the following pre-conditions:

a) You are moving upwind
b) You are moving downwind.

Can we make some kind of a chart. I am sure this will be very helpful to me and for future sky divers who might be looking for this.

Thanks in advance
Jignesh

Understanding "why" something happens if you do "this" is always good, but instead of a chart I would suggest you just try it out. That way you get a feel for it. A lot of this is A licence stuff so you might as weel get that ticked off at the same time ;P. Just ask an instructor for instruction before.

This part of the A licence reqs I found very usefull btw. A lot is about survival skills, like braked (flat) turns (avoiding stuff at low alti) or the rear riser turns (avoiding stuff right after or even during opening)