bleeding off altitude on final leg?

[daveom 0]

How about this? I started doing this to determine how far downwind to fly before turning onto base then final.

At, say, 1500ft. turn into wind. Look DIRECTLY down between your feet. This will allow you to see exactly how fast you are travelling over the ground. Low/no wind, you'll be travelling quite fast over the ground. With greater windspeed, you will not be moving forward over the ground as fast. If your canopy's forward speed matches the current windspeed, you will not move at all over the ground, and you'll effectively be coming 'straight down'.

This only takes a second, and of course, windspeed can vary up high vs. down low. Early on, though, it helped me estimate how far downwind to run before turning back into wind.

Comments?

Dave

[rigging65 0]

It's always a great idea to know what kind of penetration you're getting, and like you said, it can vary depending on altitude. It's also important, like you said, to look directly between your feet when determining penetration, else you'll end up with a false reading. All this will certainly help you set up your approach.

Of course, you won't always have this opportunity, so being heads-up on the ground before you get on the plane and checking wind speed and direction is always a good idea as well. While it can change whilst in the plane, it's generally a pretty good guide to start with.

The only caution I would lend to this practice of pre-determining penetration is not to become dependent on it. There will be landings where you simply don't have the time/altitude/whatever to make this work. When that happens, you want to be able to move on without needing penetration information and be comfortable enough without it not to waste the time trying to get it when in a pinch.

"...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward.
For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

[andy2 0]

hey, you know no one has ever explained it that simply. Something you said made something "click" up there...

*bangs head repeatedly for lesson to sink in*

---------------------------------------------
let my inspiration flow,
in token rhyme suggesting rhythm...

[skymama 37]

Quote

That also increases your forward speed (as you mentioned) and will increase landing distance. If you are already tight on space you may not have enough ground in front of you to glide/run/surf off all that extra speed.

I was taking a canopy class with Scott Miller from PD one day, and was working very hard on my accuracy. I was so intent on trying to hit the peas, that I messed with my brakes too long. When I let my toggles all the way up, I surged forward, went way over the peas, didn't have anything left to flare and finally skidded on my ass on the runway and tore the seat off my pants! It was quite embarrassing, but I got a really good lesson from Scott with pictures drawn and everything about what happened. So far, I haven't made that mistake again!

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon