My height and Flaring

[jigneshsoni 0]

I remember my last jump when I was just about to land and my instructor saying "flare, flare, flare"

I did flare, and then I heard his saying "DON'T LIFE YOUR LEG, DON'T LIFT YOUR LEG"

I later found out that he didn't wanted me to lift my leg becuase it would make my flare uncomplete.

I have been thiking about this since last few days. Can't wait to ask my insturctor about this. But would surely like to know what you guys think?

I am only 5'5 tall. I guess so as per my height, the length of my hangs would be accordingly. I belived the length of my arms would be definitely shorter then the length of somebody who is 6 feet tall by maybe atleast 6-7 inches. (not sure, just guessing)

Question: Does the length of your arms make you do a better/complete flare? Since the length of my arms is quite short, do you guys think that could be the reason of I not doing flare enough and making me land harder?

So basically, does length of hand, a person's height have anything to do with complete/enough flare?

Thanks
Jigs

[phoenixlpr 0]

Don't make it complicated. Ask your instructor.

[billvon 3,006]

>I later found out that he didn't wanted me to lift my leg becuase it
>would make my flare uncomplete.

He probably wanted you to not lift your legs so you would land on your feet and not your butt. For some reason, some students' feet come up when their hands come down. This is bad, and can lead to butt landings, which can lead to serious injury if you land hard.

[riggerrob 643]

Quote

>I later found out that he didn't wanted me to lift my leg because it
>would make my flare incomplete.

He probably wanted you to not lift your legs so you would land on your feet and not your butt. For some reason, some students' feet come up when their hands come down. This is bad, and can lead to butt landings, which can lead to serious injury if you land hard.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Take it from a grumpy old guy - with a herniated spinal disc - keep your feet underneath you so your leg muscles can absorb most of the landing shock.

[riggerrob 643]

Your short arms may make it more difficult for you to flare than tall person, but the key point is pulling the steering toggles as far down as you can before you impact the planet.

[mdrejhon 8]

Don't quote me on this.... please talk to instructor.... I'm recently off student status.... but...

There seems to be such a thing as "too little leg lift" and "too much leg lifting".

Basically, feets and knees together, knees bent.
i.e. don't reach out for the ground... but don't lift your legs up too much.

Straight legs prevent aborbing harmful shock, more risk for injury ...but at the same time...
Bent legs so bent that your arms are below your legs at full flare, more risk for injury as your arms hit the ground before your legs.

I've made both mistakes (and still do sometimes -- the "reach for the ground" part, rather than waiting for the ground to arrive to my legs)

Talk to your instructor of course, though.

[rendezvous 0]

Speak to your instructor about this. He's seen you so he knows better. That said:

You height of 5'5" is nothing unusual so you should get sufficient flare. The problem is probably in that you may not be flaring enough, and that is where your instructor comes in. He can see what you are upto so talk to him first.

Going by your previous post's and the little that I know, you seem to have been landing on your butt. Your instructor was probably trying to remind you that you need to land on your legs. Again, talk to your instructor about how deep should you take the flare stroke, and then do some drills at home that emulate flaring, to build muscle memory.

[Mr.Bill 0]

Pay attention boys and girls. I landed on my butt once back in 1988, now is spend my time sitting due to a T 12 burst fracture which went into the spinal cord. I will never walk again. DO NOT LAND ON YOUR BUTT.

[rsmn17 0]

I have the same problem. I'm a lot shorter than you (5'1). I don't really think it's the height though because when I do my controllability check after opening I have no problem flaring. I think my problem is that I'm so set on walking off the landing that I lift one leg in front of me ready to run so that when I think my flare is complete, it's really not and by the time I realize, it's too late and instead of doing a plf I put my other leg out and landed HARD on my butt. I realize that I'm very lucky I wasn't hurt seriously so next time I will concentrate more on my flare than trying to stand up my landing. I'm just a student though so ask you're instructor. Also, getting your landings on tape would help a lot because sometimes you think you did something and it's completely different than what you actually did. Your dz will probably tape your landing for free. Good luck and thanks for the post...it was helpful to me too

[AlexCrowley 0]

*Oblig Disclaimer*I have 31 jumps*Oblig Disclaimer*

In answer to the direct question asked (Does the length of your arms make you do a better/complete flare? Since the length of my arms is quite short, do you guys think that could be the reason of I not doing flare enough and making me land harder?):

I am the same height as you, I spoke to both the master rigger at my DZ and Scott Miller about this exact subject, and both felt that it had no impact once you consider that a single arm is only going to be shorter or longer by 1 or 2 inches. And that the speed of toggle input is also important in controlling the canopy. (Scott explains toggle speed/range control in his course. The first jump task list is to flare at least 5 times using varying speeds and to take note of how your canopy reacts - the course was excellent and covered a great deal of stuff that I wouldnt have run into on my A requirements and cleared up a bunch of stuff that may have caused me some retraining pains later).

My brief personal experience bears this out: I've stood up the majority of my landings, and since the Miller course 9 of my last 10 landings (a plf on my first jump on my new Spectre after inducing a mild popup and being too lazy to risk running it out)

Using newer equipment instantly illustrated the control difference between a worn out older canopy - a soon to be retired f111 Raider 220 that dumped me on my butt the first few landings til I realized that it had far less responsiveness than the DZs other student Raider 220, and then popping up my Spectre when using roughly 50% of the speed (and 25% of the toggle range initially) than required to start the Raider's flare.

Which is a really long way of saying: I'm your height and have not had issues with flaring and standing up my landings on the motley assortment of student gear available at 2 DZs, and my own canopy - which is totally stock. Friday was my first day with it and I spent the day pulling at 6k and drilling all the Miller course stuff on it. Can't wait to do more next week.


** This post is informational, does not contain any advice and I only have 31 jumps. **

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