How to flare.

[drenaline 0]

I keep reading post saying that the final flare is not pulling both toggles all the way down like they teach you in the first jump course. If that so, can you tell me how the flare must be done and can you explain how the flare turn is done and how the canopy reacts (dives, doesn't dives, it turns flat, etc.).
And if you have some advice or hints on how to fly a Spectre, I would really appreciate it.
Please make all the answer as simple as possible so I can understand them. Thanks.
"Life is full of danger, so why be afraid?"
drenaline

[SkydiveMonkey 0]

On smaller canopies with more performance, you need a "2 stage" flare. The first part is pulling the toggles down to get the canopy to "plane out" ie. eliminate the vertical descent. Then, the 2nd part of the flare is to eliminate the horizontal speed. Canopys like Mantas etc are so large they need a 1 stage flare ie. all the way down at once. Have a look at the experienced jumpers at your DZ and watch them landing (and talk to them as well).
What size canopy are you flying, and at what wingloading?
Ook Ook Ook !! - The Librarian

[cobaltdan 0]

the following is a repost from the safety forum under the thread: balance & canopy control exercises......if you find it helpful go back and read the whole thread.
sincerely,
dan
atair
"i would like to explain a simple concept for canopy control as i think it would benefit some learning jumpers:
on student gear most people are taught a 2 stage flare, when you transition to your first slightly smaller 9 cell zpo sport canopy, you may not have good luck with what you have been taught.
flaring is not something you gauge with the position of your hands !
instead understand that you are suspended under your canopy, a weight on a string somewhat like a pendulum. you can tell what you are doing by > feel <, by where you are weighted under your canopy. i.e. if you are weighted back you are diving, centered you are in level flight, etc...
up high, it is a good routine to unstow your brakes and get a feel for where you are weighted in full flight, then flare slowly until you feel yourself in level flight, then flare more and feel what it is like to over flare, swinging towards the front and stall. try the same with turns, ie. a 90 or 180 turn planeing out into level flight. this exercise is not about sight, you are trying to get a feel for what you are doing without using visual indicators. if you are in completely clear airspace and high try it with your eyes closed for several seconds.
once you understand this concept and expand your window of perception to include how your canopy feels during different flight, landings will click. you will be able to understand what you are doing right or wrong.
this last year i have given allot of canopy coaching, and most beginners and surprisingly many intermediates have not been taught the above. they believe there is a set place for your hands to be during a set timing on landing. they try to figure this out so it can be repeated on subsequent jumps. you may figure your canopy out this way but it wont help you when you land your canopy under different conditions than you are used to, or when you demo jump a different canopy. developing your awareness of balance is key to being a good canopy pilot.
i test jump a lot of prototypes and on every jump i go through a routine. loosen chest strap, stow slider, check brakes, then fly a series of maneuvers as per above to get a feel for the canopy. i want to imprint the feel of the canopy up high so that the canopy and i react the way i want on landing. (btw when i say check brakes: i like to unstow the brakes and watch the trailing edge as i slowly flare stopping at the point where the tail just starts to tension and pull under. then i look at where the toggles are in relation to the keeper. i like to know they are even (and how much slack there is in case i need to change them)).
food for thought.
sincerely,
dan
atair
www.extremefly.com"

[quade 4]

Finesse.
You probably have heard of the "2 stage" flair as opposed to just pulling the toggles all the way down.
In reality, there is a full range of toggle positions from which to choose from. A good landing consists of smoothly and appropriately transitioning from having the toggles all the way up to all the way down. I believe the concept of the 2 stage flair is to begin to get this concept into the heads of students, but it fails miserably because students focus too much on the words "2 stage".
What I'm going to suggest to you isn't all that radically different from what you've already been told about the 2 stage flair -- make a nice, stable straight in approach with the toggles all the way up and while looking at the horizon wait until you're at about 20 to 15 feet above the ground begin to put some tension on the break lines moving them to perhaps your ears.
Notice what is happening.
If your decent rate has slowed considerably and you're leveling out, then keep the toggles where they are for the moment.
If your decent rate does not appear to be slowing very much, continue to pull the toggles down to perhaps shoulder level and quickly reevaluate your decent rate.
Continue this evaluation and repositioning of the toggles downward until you eventually touch down.
At this stage in your training, your goal should be to reduce both your forward speed and decent rate as much as possible at the moment your feet touch the ground.
This requires a bit of finesse, so don't expect it to happen overnight.
Hints --
Look at the horizon. It's much easier to judge your height above the surface this way. A gross example would be that if there is a 20 foot tall building off in the distance, you'll know immediately if your above 20 feet or below 20 feet.
The power of the flair or how much lift is being created by the wing is NOT how hard it is to pull the toggles down. Feel the flair in your seat, not your hands.
Judge your height with your eyes, but especially your peripheral vision.
quade
http://futurecam.com

[cobaltdan 0]

"A good landing consists of smoothly and appropriately transitioning from having the toggles all the way up to all the way down."
you do not necessarily want to bring the toggles "all the way down".
-dan

[quade 4]

Perhaps a better phrase would have been "to the required amount to achieve the least amount of forward and downward speed, but that will almost invariably on a Spectre be very near the end of the down stroke." I believe I pretty much explain this during the rest of the post.
quade
http://futurecam.com

[drenaline 0]

Thanks for all the input on the subject, I guess I have much to learn and much to practice.
Today I tried the 2 stage flare and got it almost right (didn't biff, got a stand up), got bad coordination with my hands and pulled a toggle more than the other. I was flying really fast today and was really far from the spot so couldn't practice up high (always like to do that).
What is flare turns? and how the canopy reacts? I know how to do brake turns but not flared turns.
I jump a Spectre 150 with a wingload of 1.2 to 1.26 (depends on how many weights and if I ate breakfast and how late I ate dinner the night before). Today I was 1.26. I got heavier after I bought it, big mistake.
"Life is full of danger, so why be afraid?"
drenaline

[fred 0]

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Canopys like Mantas etc are so large they need a 1 stage flare ie. all the way down at once.

I've been told (and verified with my DZO) that a Manta will in fact have a better landing with a 2-stage flare. I have yet to actually prove the concept, but my attempts have definately yielding different landing performance. With a single "yank the shit out of those toggles" 1-stage flare, I've had many landings where I could run it out. Now that I'm following their advice, I've been going a little low, but clearly leveling out. (I've been skidding across the ground on my knees and then stopping as I complete the flair).
Based on this experience, it seems to me that a 2-stage flare is going to work very well for me on the student manta, as soon as I can start flaring just a couple feet higher. Is this all in my head?
That is, is there any point in attempting a 2-stage flare on a giant manta canopy?

[indyz 1]

Limited canopy experience speaking, but if you are flaring at the point where you have to "yank the shit out of those toggles" and run out the landing then you might be doing something wrong. I've gotten nothing but nice landings on lightly loaded Skymasters (.65:1 and .8:1 or so) with a smooth one stage flare. I may have to take a step or two in light winds but if I'm running it means I screwed something up, either by taking a downwinder (oops), flaring high and letting up on the toggles (double oops), not finishing the flare (triple oops), or flaring late and jamming the toggles.
--
Brian

[SkydiveMonkey 0]

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a Manta will in fact have a better landing with a 2-stage flare

That maybe true, especially with the newer ZP Mantas, but the ones I flew on student status were shagged out and needed a "solid" 1 stage to get a nice landing.
Ook Ook Ook !! - The Librarian

[skybytch 273]

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I jump a Spectre 150 with a wingload of 1.2 to 1.26

You're jumping that wingloading and you're asking how to flare??? At that wingloading you don't know how to turn during your flare?? I sure hope shit doesn't happen to you while you're learning how to fly that thing...
pull & flare,
lisa
"Try not. Do or do not. There is no try." - Yoda sez

[flyingferret 0]

Well drenaline,
I will attempt to answer, I am not at all a canopy expert and I usually fly at 1.1, although I have been demoing a Cobaly at 1.4. I agree with Lisa, that this seems a bit late (high in wing loading) to be learning. But since her post was totally unconstructive, I will at least attempt to tell you about 'flare turns.'
I assume when you say 'flare turns' you mean a turn that goes directly into a flare. If so, then the name is pretty explanatory. These are sometimes necessary when you find yourself in a tight place and you don't have many choice between downwinding or hooking into a splat landing. You should use a flat turn. This is done with slow, steady increase in one toggle in the direction of turn. You do not want rapid movement, since if you are using this manuveur you are too close to the ground all ready. This should allow a a turn, that is closer to a pivot than a hook, if that makes any sense. Your canopy will change heading, but not lose altitude significantly. However, remember any turn under canopy will change your aerodynamics and initiate some altitude loss. The next step is stopping the turn, leading into a flare. This is done, by slowing bringing the opposite toggle down to match the first one. Then if necessary, you will evenly continue the flare of botth toggles. So instead of returning to full flight and surging forward, you go into a flare while in a flat turn. This will stop your heading change.
I hope that all makes sense it writing, try it high, and I think you will pick it up. A few things to remember: usually if you have to do this, your landing was a close call, either due to your setup or obstacles. So, don't necessary plan on it, but I can say it helps, especially if you ever get cut off in the traffic pattern close to the ground. Secondly, don't turn too long or too fast. A nice flat turn requires slow and steady pressure on the toogle, not a quick yank. As for turning too long, take what you can get, if you are running out of altititude, don't try to make the last 20 degrees into the wind if that means landing in a turn. Remember some DZs, you can never land directly into the wind due to geography, so take what you can get, fly the best landing flare you can, and walk away.
Malachi

[billvon 3,058]

>Today I tried the 2 stage flare and got it almost right (didn't biff, got a stand up),
>got bad coordination with my hands and pulled a toggle more than the other.
You cannot land a high performance canopy by simply keeping your hands even. You _must_ fly it all the way in. Something like a "2-stage flare" might work with a 1:1 loaded canopy; but at near 1.3 to 1 you're getting above the loading where simply putting your hands in the right place will work.
Any powered plane pilot will tell you that you can't just pull the yoke back X inches and have the plane land safely. You have to coordinate your back pressure, airspeed, and altitude to bring your vertical speed to near zero at the minumum possible forward speed (and at zero altitude) to get a good landing, while keeping the wings level. Landing a high performance parachute is no different. It's a continuous process, with constant adjustment.
>What is flare turns? and how the canopy reacts? I know how to do brake
>turns but not flared turns.
A flare turn is just that - a turn in the flare. Begin the flare and turn in either direction, then level out the canopy and stop. You might use this to turn into the wind after a crosswind landing, or to avoid an obstacle. Most importantly, it demonstrates that you can control the canopy in the flare.
-bill von

[hookit 0]

Fred,
I agree with Quade in that I don't really like the term '2 stage flare'. For me as a student that term brought images of bringing the toggles down to one point to level the canopy out and holding them there for a bit and then bringing the toggles the rest of the way down to complete the flare. As if there were two distinct movements that constituted the flare.
In reality, even on a high performance canopy, the flare is a continual and gradual lowering of the toggles as the canopy is flown throughout the entire landing. And on ANY canopy it should be a smooth motion.
A canopy generates lift best when there is a smooth airflow going over the canopy. If you 'yank the shit out of the toggles' you disrupt the airflow and the canopy will become a bit unsettled and will therefore not generate as much lift as it would have if you'd smoothly brought the toggles down.
Granted we've all (unfortunately) been in the position where we flared late and we had no choice but to yank the shit out of the toggles to avoid injury (with varying degrees of success ) however you certainly should not make a habit out of it. Also, even a fairly quick movement can be done smoothly so as not to unsettle the canopy.
Whatever you do make sure you continue to seek the advice of your local jumpmasters and experienced jumpers. The only stupid question is the one you don't ask.
Blue Skies and Soft Landings!
-Trey

[drenaline 0]

Lisa am on a diet, I bought the spectre with a wingloading of 1.1 to 1.5, dunno what happened last 4 weeks that now I am in 1.2 to 1.26 give me one or two weeks to get back to my normal wingload.

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I sure hope shit doesn't happen to you while you're learning how to fly that thing...

Nothing bad has been happening to me (knock on wood, glass and every other mineral), but for that to keep happening I must have good input and info from people with more experience in canopy control (experienced people at my DZ and the DZ.com people) and I think you can be of great help to me and any new 7 cell jumper since you jump a spectre.
Thanks again all of you for the info on this.
"Life is full of danger, so why be afraid?"
drenaline

[skybytch 273]

Thanks drenaline... sorry for the harsh tone in my post earlier. It just worries me when newer jumpers fly loadings like that without having received good canopy control training... Good luck with the diet - I'm doing the same so I can downsize back to a 150 soon! pull & flare,
lisa
"Try not. Do or do not. There is no try." - Yoda sez

[drenaline 0]

Hey you can call me Gianni.
Woohoo!! just read an article that says that beer doesn't gets you fat!, its what you eat while you drink what makes you fat."Life is full of danger, so why be afraid?"
drenaline

[alan 1]

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What is flare turns? and how the canopy reacts? I know how to do brake turns but not flared turns.

From another thread in this forum.
"Don't get too caught up in the terminology of flat turn, flared/flaring turn, braked turn, etc.. Different people will give you varying definitions anyway, including me. Experiment with the various options and find out how your canopy responds under different conditions. That is one of the joys of being a canopy pilot, using each jump as a new and unique learning experience. Too many of us are content to just learn enough to survive under normal circumstances and then just do the same thing over and over. What fun it is to have a plan for each jump, one that allows us to learn and develop while exploring the parameters of our canopy's performance. And then do that with each successive canopy!
Flat turn: Short, slow, smooth, steady input of either toggle followed by similar input of the opposite toggle to maintain airspeed with minimal loss of altitude. A coordinated return to neutral will result in a canopy at full flight with little or no loss of altitude. One possible use would be when you miss judged your altitude on a smooth day and don't have the altitude for a "normal" turn onto final.
Flaring/flared turn: Short, slow, smooth, steady and even input of of both toggles at the same time, continueing into an increased input of either side that results in a shallow turn during the flare. Additional but proportionally less input of the opposite toggle can be used to maintain or gain altitude during the turn and airspeed will be lost. Bringing both toggles to the flared position will stop the turn and finish the flare. One possible use woud be avoiding another jumper on the ground who has walked into your flight path during the flare/surf part of your landing, or perhaps you are doing a crosswind landing.
Braked turn: Similar to flaring turn, but from the braked position one toggle is depressed while the opposite toggle input is reduced. Unlike the flat turn, this turn should result in an increase of airspeed during the turn, with the pilot adjusting the rate of descent/altitude loss. One possible use woud be when you have missed judged your altitude on a somewhat turbulent day and can't do a "normal" turn onto final but want a little extra speed for canopy pressurization.
There are numerous scenarios where each technique could have an application or even where you may want to transition from one into another. An example might be where you have decided a flat turn would provide a safer landing but during the execution, you realize that you have conserved enough altitude that you may over shoot your intended landing area, so you transition into a braked turn. As you can see, the possibilties are too numerous to cover in a few paragraphs. As you experiment and gain experience you will find many, many applications that will suit your flying style, skills and abilities."
alan