Consistent 2 meter circle landings

[theQ 1]

Hi,

I am prepping my C license and I am wondering what's the best way to land in 2 meter circle consistently with a semi elliptical canopy.

I have a Pulse loaded 1.2 and i love it but the darn thing glides and glides and when I flare it goes even further.

Do I need to adjust the pattern altitudes or need to target in front of the target ? I did fly 7 cells before and those are so much easier to land them close to the target.


I usually do the 3 leg pattern 900, 600, 300.

Drop me a note if have any tips.

[sammielu 3]

Start your pattern the same distance from the target and at the same altitude every time. Don't use your altimeter once you've started the pattern. You're training yourself to read the winds by looking at the wind flag or indicator and by feeling it out during your downwind and base legs. You're also working on that sight picture to be able to recognize where you will land once you turn on final.
Winds will be different every time, if you keep every other part of your pattern the same (canopy & entry point) the same, you can compare them. Make sure you're looking at the wind indicators several times, and for several seconds as traffic allows, to get a real read on what it's doing and how strong it is. Every time you land, look at what the wind is doing, compare it to what you thought it was doing when you turned from base to final, and go from there.

[FlyingRhenquest 1]

Practice, I reckon. I've noticed a huge improvement in my accuracy and patterns in the last 50 or 60 jumps. If your canopy is glidey, you just need to take that and wind speed into account when you start your pattern.

I'd suggest doing a bunch of hop and pops, shooting for a specific target like a cone or frisbee, and pay attention to where you start your downwind in relation to the target and how close you get each time. Beyond that, if you have a canopy coach at your dropzone, working with them would move you along better than trying to figure it out on your own.

I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

[pchapman 279]

If one can't get a lot of glide path control with a modern well-gliding canopy at different brake settings, while going in a straight line, the answer is of course to not fly straight but to fly S-turns to bleed excess altitude!

An excellent tool for accuracy, and used all the time for accuracy control in sport accuracy competition. (Where people are doing standup landings on grass with regular canopies and not accuracy canopies.)

.....But -- see another thread -- S turns are highly frowned on at most DZs in the normal pattern / in the normal landing area / on a normal load. So how you may be able to find the airspace to really shoot accuracy is another matter.

Other odds and ends tips:

Your accuracy can be better on moderate wind days. High wind days may be too variable and gusty, depending on where you are. Low wind days give you a flatter glide path which makes any miss be more of a miss, and using brakes can be complex. Adding a some brake on a low wind day can just float you further, while adding some brake on a moderate wind day can reduce the glide angle over the ground.

Yes you may need to aim a little short, anticipating a certain distance of flare over the ground (depending on winds) before touchdown.

You may want to try partial brake approaches so you have some control range either way for adjusting for error. (Subject to the issues of whether adding brakes makes you fly steeper or shallower that day.) Of course, you'll still want to reserve some altitude before landing to accelerate to a speed and steady state glide angle sufficient for a normal flared landing.

If you're going for the C license you'll presumably already know the 'accuracy trick' for seeing the spot on the ground that isn't moving, and be used to getting a feel for what your glide angle is on days with different wind conditions. Not being able to get good feedback on your flightpath or having knowledge of the canopy behaviour makes the accuracy task harder.

[DougH 270]

Fly your pattern in 1/3 brakes, if you are high in different legs of your pattern you can then use full flight to decrease glide. If you are low you can use additional brakes to increase glide.

"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

[dthames 0]

Someone has already mentioned training yourself without the altimeter. I might add to that that......

As I learned to watch my target and know when to turn to Final, I found it easier to be lower and closer to the target. I am not saying to make a "low turn" but if you are careful to keep the canopy over your head, you can safely turn a lot lower than 300 feet.

I also found it useful to turn about 75 degrees and a bit short instead of 90 degrees and save that last little turn for when you are more sure of where you will touchdown. This gives puts you almost right into the wind so you will get held back by the headwind but not totally engaged by the headwind. The last turn/adjustment to the target can then be very small and very close.

photo not exactly to scale but you can get the idea.
[inline final.png]

Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

[pchapman 279]

That's a neat one dthames, a little different but something to ponder.

To try to relate that to other methods that have been used, it is similar to the idea of modulating your turn in to final (although with the plan to have a slightly angled almost-final leg rather than an ideally straight into wind final):

a) If you think you might fall short, you turn in a little early from base to final, "cutting the corner" of the rectangular pattern.
b) If you have extra height to bleed off, you can swing a little wide, taking up more time and distance, before bringing it in onto final. Compared to a rectangular pattern, that's basically doing a mild S-turn.

[theQ 1]

Thank you all for the input...

I have to tell you that I am not new to accuracy, jumped the big 7 cells before, those you can hold vertically and still can land them softly which is a no no on the ellipticals.

I know and use the accuracy trick.

Doing the last leg at an angle, then cutting in for the target at the right altitude is not a good approach,in my opinion, unless I do hop'n'pops and there is no own above me...

I could try the no altimeter but I got an audible and that could screw my input.

I went to flight-1 classes they clearly state that you need to respect the pattern altitude and change/adjust the pattern checkpoints - it's a good idea to do it by feel (look) and not altimeter but reference points change from dz to dz.