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adventurechick

How low is too low?

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I keep on hearing from everyone... don't turn low. What is a low turn? I do my landing pattern and turn at 500 and again at 250. So is a low turn 250 or lower... or is it 200 and lower... or are we talking 50 feet.



My instructor says do not make any hard turns under 200 feet. Very slight adjustments under 200 feet. But, that's for students. :S Not the answer for your question, but information that can be useful.

Those swoopers pull out crazily late while turning..

-=+ Skyliber, Disynthegrate, & Nucleaire +=-

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I think, if you have your wings level and flare to a stand up landing when you touch down, you were not too low...

If the canopy is still diving and crash into the ground you are too low...:P

But seriously - a flat/brake turn can be used by a novice to turn "very low" while not crashing the canopy into the ground.

I think there is the happy spot between not being scared to turn enough to avoid an obstacle - and panicking and whipping a diving toggle turn into the ground...

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You have to have you canopy over your head and it has to fly as close to the full speed as possible before landing. The slower you go, the harder you land.

Lift is coming from you energy you store in your system: your body + your wing.

With a toggle turn, you break the canopy and deflate it too.

Some canopies recover faster , some canopies recover slower and if you release your breaks too low you might broke your leg like I did.

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What is a low turn?



There are lots of answers to this!

One of these (I am sure you will get plenty of others) is that if you have to use your toggles to pull you back under the canopy at the end of a turn in order to land with the canopy above your head, you were too low.

You should be able to have your toggles all the way up for 7-10 secs prior to landing, giving you max speed (and power/lift) for your flare.

Try it up high - find out how much altitude you lose on your canopy at your wingloading in 7-10 secs without pulling the toggles at all. Obviously don't crash into anyone while doing this!

The best answer is to go on a canopy coaching course where all this stuff is covered but I accept that may not be an option for you right now.
***************

Not one shred of evidence supports the theory that life is serious - look at the platypus.

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I keep on hearing from everyone... don't turn low. What is a low turn? I do my landing pattern and turn at 500 and again at 250. So is a low turn 250 or lower... or is it 200 and lower... or are we talking 50 feet.



this is too low ;) http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=4030



Yeeeeeesh.

Advertisio Rodriguez / Sky

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there is no hard definition of this, there are different canopies...

for your experience however there is a rule of thumb...

dont make anything but minor adjustments on final.

read that book I told you to buy...

listen to brian Germain on skydive radio old episodes.

He talks about this here

http://archive-b02.libsyn.com/andueMh2bXaWeZR2l3mdqJelZXKX/podcasts/skydiveradio/sr14_11_08_05s.mp3

Cheers

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.

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>or is it 200 and lower . . .

I tell my students no turns below 200 feet other than minor corrections to account for winds. But really, it's whatever you are comfortable doing. If you have any doubts about your ability to turn at low altitudes I _strongly_ recommend learning to flat turn. That will improve your survivability by many times.

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