Jan 5, 2013, 2:48 AM
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Effects of leaning forward/backwards in harness
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I am interested to know the effects on the canopy, if any, of leaning forward or backwards in the harness. I understand that it can contribute to reducing form drag, but does it affect the glide ratio, flight characteristics, CoG etc?
Im asking this question more in relation to normal canopy flight, rather than swooping.....
Jan 5, 2013, 5:26 AM
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Re: [HUPRA] Effects of leaning forward/backwards in harness
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Short answer - No. From a fore/aft perspective you're hanging from a singe point, and you will always end up hanging in a balanced position due to gravity. You could try to hang more of your weight forward or back, but gravity will rotate you around that single-point (the 3-ring) and center your weight.
Long answer- do a search, this has been covered extensively in the past.
Jan 5, 2013, 3:39 PM
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Re: [davelepka] Effects of leaning forward/backwards in harness
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from the mechanics perspective, don't you think that putting pressure on the rears you start to have some sort of semi ridgit (not pinned any more) connection from statics point of view? Off course the amount of force translating by the rears to the hands and body is much less than thrugh the fronts, but still there is some changes in the statics (even slight). So it might have some influence in to the performance other than aerodynamics. regs. j.
Jan 5, 2013, 7:56 PM
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Re: [JanuszPS] Effects of leaning forward/backwards in harness
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Pushing or pulling on the rears will effect the flight of the canopy. Using the rears as a point of contact to lever yourself into position will have an effect on the flight of the canopy.
All of those things, however, are different than leaning fore or aft in the harness. Leaning fore or aft alone will not effect the flight of the canopy. Pushing, pulling, or otherwise moving the rear risers will.
Jan 8, 2013, 5:17 AM
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Re: [HUPRA] Effects of leaning forward/backwards in harness
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Run across the room and note your body position at the halfway mark. You will be leaning forward. Now run across the room leaning back, like the "keep on trucking" guy.
That is why people lean forward when landing parachutes.
Feb 8, 2013, 12:07 PM
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Re: [davelepka] Effects of leaning forward/backwards in harness
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In reply to:
and you will always end up hanging in a balanced position due to gravity
and because that is, there is a very reasonable difference between a frontriserinput alone (lets call it neutral, legs hanging) or a FR-input with your legs/knees brought up in front of you (not just due to formdrag!) in the later "version" the center of mass of the pilot is moved forward, now being somewhere between his upper body and his legs as the center of mass will place itself back "neutral" under the wing, your upperbody (= your shoulders = your risers!) will move/swing (I´d say about 10inch) backwards, replacing the center of mass back where it "belongs", under the wing (you moved the center of mass out front (of neutral) by bringing up your legs) this results in a steeper dive than frontrisers alone (we´re not talking about any kind of turn being involved here, just straightdoublefrontrisers) so the answer is yes
Feb 8, 2013, 1:28 PM
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Re: [morris] Effects of leaning forward/backwards in harness
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Quote:
so the answer is yes
In your example, you have to grab the front risers and use them to lever yourself into a different position under the wing. So what you're describing is more than just leaning fore/aft in the harness, it's a combination of actions that do add up to a change in the wing.
However, if you look at the sole action of leaning fore/aft in the harness, the answer remains 'no' that it will not effect the wing.
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