Stall point/brake line length

[flyngsquirrl 0]

I have a question about brake lines. I just lengthened my lowers so I can get on my front risers without deflecting the tail, and I absolutely love the way it flies now. However, on no-wind days when I'm really trying to get that last ounce of lift out of my canopy (a Stiletto), I find that I almost have to slump my shoulders and turn the toggles upside down to get it to the static stall point. This made me curious about how swooping canopies are set up. Is there an acceptable amount of tail deflection (due to shorter brake lines) so that the pilot can still bring the canopy to its stall point as they touch down? Is the additional speed gained by being able to dive harder with the front risers more important than flying all the way to the point of shutdown (due to longer brake lines)? Or do the smaller, twitcher canopies have a shorter control range so no compromise is necessary? Thanks for satisfying my curiosity.

[Widgeon 0]

Why would you want to get all the way to the "static stall point" on landing anyway? You wouldn't want to accidentally stall it. Maybe you let out a little too much because the sweet spot of the flare on the stiletto isn't supposed to be much lower than your chest strap, maybe down around your handles at the most. Get some video of your landings, you might see you're getting on your brakes a little too high and you're just running out of flare power just as you touch down.

I set the brakes on my crossfire so that I'm about an inch away from my stall point when the toggles are down as far as I can push them. I can get my risers down a pretty good ways without any tail deflection at all.

[Hooknswoop 19]

As long as you are getting the full flare out of the canopy, they aren't too long. If you have too, pulling down the tail a little in the front risers is better than not being to flare all the way. On smaller canopies, the control range is smaller so you can have long lowers without running out of flare.

Derek

[headoverheels 333]

The Stiletto has a short control range, so I'm surprised that you cannot stall it, unless you really added too much slack to the lower control lines.

How long are your risers? If you can easily reach your slider, you could probably use risers 2 inches longer, which will give you another 2 inches of range to flare deeper.

[marks 0]

if you like the way it is not pulling the tail down, and you want to be able to have a longer flare range. get longer risers.

[andyflylife 0]

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I just lengthened my lowers so I can get on my front risers without deflecting the tail, and I absolutely love the way it flies now.
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Ive just done exactly the same to my Sabre 135 for the same reason. I had the shrunk lines lengthened (at the bottom) to bring it back to PD factory settings. A whole 6 inches different!!
The canopy flies and turns with front risers great but i find that on nil wind days unless i 'performance land' it i have a job shutting it down to a stop!
I was considering taking an inch back out but then someone suggested that in another 80-100 jumps the shrinkage would compensate for it!

I might just.. Hook it and see

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[ntacfreefly 0]

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The canopy flies and turns with front risers great but i find that on nil wind days unless i 'performance land' it i have a job shutting it down to a stop!

If you can 'performance land' it - you can straight in land it.

To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. ~ Lao-Tzu

It's all good, they're my brothers ~ Mariann Kramer

[Hooknswoop 19]

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The canopy flies and turns with front risers great but i find that on nil wind days unless i 'performance land' it i have a job shutting it down to a stop!

The canopy flys exactly the same on windy days as it does on no wind days. The difference is your ground speed.

Derek

[raymod2 1]

That's a good question. Unfortunately nobody has given you a very good answer. I can tell you this: I fly a Velocity 103 at 1.9 lbs/sq.ft and I am using the stock brake settings. I use the full range of my toggle stroke. If they were any longer then I would not be able to finish my flare. So to say that small canopies have a short toggle stroke is just plain wrong.

[bob.dino 1]

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I fly a Velocity 103 at 1.9 lbs/sq.ft and I am using the stock brake settings. I use the full range of my toggle stroke. If they were any longer then I would not be able to finish my flare.

Just out of curiosity: how long are your risers?

[raymod2 1]

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I fly a Velocity 103 at 1.9 lbs/sq.ft and I am using the stock brake settings. I use the full range of my toggle stroke. If they were any longer then I would not be able to finish my flare.

Just out of curiosity: how long are your risers?

They are the standard size. I ordered them directly from Sunpath when I bought the Velocity.

[grega 0]

huh, well my advice is lenghten the brake lines so much that when your arms are all the way down or an inch less, you stall the canopy. that's the limit of how much you can leghten the brake lines.
if you have longer risers you can lengthen them more. simillar if you have long arms,...

But i think it's more important that you can stall the canopy (meaning that you can use "all flare power") than to have few % more speed...

at least that's what works for me

p.s.:besides how will you do a "stall backturn - helicopter" or land with a 180turn at the end if you can't stall the canopy...

"George just lucky i guess!"

[AcePilot 0]

I Had 2 Stilettos (150 and 135) and both of them had the same problem:
Brake lines were too short. If you pull front riser – tail is affected.
Canopy doesn’t like it and you can feel. It can cause end cells collapse.
Not the best experience close to the ground!
I’d better go with the longer brake lines but make them just long enough to fix the problem.
May be you’ll need several adjustments to get it just right.

Lines are getting shorter with time and number of jumps on them.
To fix it you can just try to stretch your brake lines. (Brian Germain’s advice)
Attach your toggle to something and pull your brake line as much as you can.
Don’t worry you won’t brake it. Or just ask your rigger to make it longer.

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