Help on crash landings?

[Ketia0 0]

i did my STP 7 8 and 9 jumps.

i did alright in free fall..

my landings SUCKED!!!!!!!!!


there was NO wind, and i totally crashed on my landings! i didnt PLF and i flared late!


my instructor yelled at me for a bit.. i deserved it. i was pretty mad at myself for the rest of the day.

actually. all three of my landings SUCKED!!

my leg was kinda sore and my head and hand hurt... pride was hurt the most though. my other landings were all stand up perfect landings.. the last 4 had no radio assistance at all!!!

there was no wind, and i was coming in way to fast. i was flying a 230.

next time theres no wind im going up to a 260 at least.

any advice on better canopy skills in no/ low wind???

i am 170 with 30 pound canopy. wingloading with 230 was .86



p.s... backflips are FREAKING AWESOME!!!!

"In this game you can't predict the future. You just have to play the odds. "-JohnMitchell

[Sangi 0]

Quote

any advice on better canopy skills in no/ low wind???

Learn to feel when to flare? If you had good landings, then try do as you did them...

"Dream as you'll live forever, live as you'll die today." James Dean

[JohanW 0]

Hm.

First, your landings were fine for your experience level. No wind landings are more difficult (or at least different), you could have done better but you walked away. Any landing you walk away from is a good landing. Any landing you limp away from, you've survived. I hate to second-guess your instructor, but had I been him (probably not her - guessing here), I would have tried not to yell. (Maybe you scared him. He's human too.
Second, you were not coming in too fast. You were coming in full speed, and you should. More airspeed, more flare; speed is lift, lift is good. But in no wind conditions, with full airspeed comes more groundspeed. That's new, that's different, and that's difficult for you right now, especially between the ears. Your reflexes are actually wrong, you will have to learn new ones. (Jolly, man was not made to fly? Who woulda thunk it?
Actual advice: talk to an instructor, IRL. Maybe a different one than the one that yelled at you, unless you feel it was what you needed. Go over PLFs again; I have this conviction that a halfway decent PLF is inevitable if you assume the correct body position long enough before impact. Upsizing to suit conditions may help or may hinder; I'm not going to judge you over the Internet, discuss this with an instructor. And discuss flaring, and flare height, and judging that. Another learned skill; it'll come with experience, but some coaching helps you learn it sooner rather than later.

And, if you can, let go of your pride for now. You are doing something very new and rather unnatural. You will make mistakes. Your reflexes will have to be adapted. You will learn. Pride can get in the way of learning. You'll get it back soon enough.

And yes, backflips rule.

Johan.
I am. I think.

[aresye 0]

While I absolutely have no problem with a student feeling uncomfortable, and therefore upsizing their canopy, I'd just like to add that my landings didn't get better until:

1. I switched from full F-111 to ZP.
2. I went down from a 260 - 230 - 220 Hybrid, and then to a 190 ZP.

If you stood up a few of your landings, I would keep the canopy size, and work on light/no wind landings when you can. Upsizing may make your landings worse during no wind conditions, as the canopy doesn't have as much airspeed.

Skydiving: You either learn from other's mistakes, or they'll learn from yours.

[fasted3 0]

Here is the line in your post that hit me:
"pride was hurt the most though"
I crashed probably 100 times out of my first 150 jumps. Really. But I didn't get hurt. I had no shame, any you shouldn't either. Concentrate on not getting hurt and don't worry about anything else. You will get it sooner or later, if you last long enough.
A good PLF will make up for a pretty bad landing. Get good at that. Any landing you walk away from is a good one!
Next, the flair is really important. You have to do it, all the way and at the right time. Your instructor will help with that; listen to him. Get video of your landings as much as possible. That makes it easy to see where you go wrong and you can work on it from there.
Hang in there. One day someone told me that I have such nice landings. I thought, if you only knew.

But what do I know?

[ryanbac 0]

I only have 20 jumps, in no way am I an expert but here is what my instructor recommended to me when I was having similar difficulties - the tips worked for me.

1. Look at the horizon when coming in... Altitude is easier to judge when looking straight rather then down.

2. Keep trees, buildings, and other structures in your peripheral vision - it will help you time your flares.

Happy Landings!
Ryan

[mdrejhon 8]

One idea is, is to request a canopy course, after your freefall progression is completed, or ask for a couple of "I'd love to practice my landings in zero wind more" repeat student jumps.

Although nobody except the instructors/witnesses can say what went wrong -- one can bring up that historically there is often a huge temptation to touch feet down before the flare's completed. One aims to flare so that you fly level with the ground; often a very slightly harder flare is necessary on certain larger canopies on zero-wind days to plane it out (flat horizontal glide) above the ground long enough to coast horizontally until it's slow enough for you to run out. It's always fast at the beginning of the glide but slows down as you glide some more over ground. This technique, may not necessarily apply to your canopy (especially if it's F111) and actually be dangerous, so hear your instructors out before you try anything new. Different gear (ZP versis F111) also makes it easier, but you did stand up your landings earlier, which means it should be possible to stand up a zero wind, the flare timing is just simply trickier for a new jumper. The point remains, is that flaring timing and length with the same gear is often different depending on wind and atmospheric conditions and it can often be confusing at first until you nail it.

[humanflite 0]

Quote

I only have 20 jumps, in no way am I an expert but here is what my instructor recommended to me when I was having similar difficulties - the tips worked for me.

1. Look at the horizon when coming in... Altitude is easier to judge when looking straight rather then down.

2. Keep trees, buildings, and other structures in your peripheral vision - it will help you time your flares.

Happy Landings!
Ryan

Correction

1// Dont look at the horizon, this is a relic from the days of round parachutes..

Dont look down directly underneath you.

instead, as Brian Germain says.... look where you are going!

[darrenspooner 0]

Firstly, give yourself a break. All newbies crash. It would embarrass everyone else if they didn't.

Secondly, attack the ground.

Thirdly, sit down with your instructor and ask them how to land. AFF doesn't always do this well. They rely on talking you down on the radio and pay less attention to teaching students how to do it themselves.

Fourthly, on no wind days the more you try to slow yout approach the more you will hurt yourself. You need full glide to flare. Come in on brakes and you'll bang your nose on your knees.

Finally, if your instructor says its okay, spend some time learning how your canopy responds to inputs up high. See what happens if you pull the brakes down to your shoulders, chest, waist etc

[fasted3 0]

I am a huge fan of the canopy course.
But is this jumper ready for that, and/or fooling around up high?
Yes, with A license, No with 10 jumps.
Update your profile Ketia, to get the best advice.

But what do I know?