Turbulence, lift, heavy traffic-all in one!

[LittleOne 0]

I'm posting this thread to get some feedback on my actions and share my experience for the sake of learning. The jump was a 28 way from two Otters with the balance of the planes filled with tandems, fun jumpers and a student.

My tracking line and designated opening altitude (3000) brought me back to the dz too high. From the moment I opened, I experienced strong turbulence the whole way. Since I was too high, I went as far off the line of flight as I deemed safe to lose altitude. However, this brought me further over the trees, where the turbulence was stronger so I made gentle S turns instead of spiralling because of the turbulence.

I reentered the pattern at 900 and at about 700, while still over trees, I experienced lift for the first time. I was later told by others on the jump that we hit a thermal. It was a most unusual feeling as my canopy absolutely stopped descending. If I gained altitude, it was minimal but my forward progress also slowed down dramatically. I felt like I was just hovering and experienced a true WTF moment.

With too much altitude, in the middle of the pattern and the runway rapidly approaching, I decided to take a long crosswind leg instead of crossing the runway on downwind and crossing back over on final. I did manage to note that on my long crosswind, there were no canopies very close by but I still hated to do that.

This left me in the not-so-great position of going long on final when the winds on the ground were quite strong and having to land closer to the trees than I would have preferred. As I turned onto final, my glide was exactly what I expected it to be until I was halfway across the field. At that point, I felt like I hit a wall of air that caused me to land perfectly straight down. I had never before landed completely vertically before.

I landed fine and had a nice, long walk back to hangar during which I decided that I would sit out the next jump. I have no doubt that this final decision was right for me and others on the jump since I was rattled by the experience.

I think I handled the situation reasonably but I welcome feedback on this.

[phoenixlpr 0]

A picture can tell more than 1000 words....

What have you learnt from this? What are you going to do not to face this again?

[AlRedler 0]

If you were too high when you tracked back over to the dz, why did you pull? Falling for a few seconds more would have taken you down to your intended pull height. I assume you would then have been in a safer position relative to others on the load who may have been falling through your deployment altitude.

Otrherwise, it soulnds as though your cautious flying under canopy was the right thing. I flew in to a strange wind at Perris recently, possibly a dust devil, that partially collapsed my canopy and then brought me straight down like under a round. Very spooky feeling until I caught air again and restarted flying forward.

Al

[brettski74 0]

I think the OP was saying that the planned opening height of 3000' combined with the spot, free-fall drift, track-off and canopy flight back towards the DZ put them at an altitude that is higher than made sense to enter the pattern, rather than she deployed higher than she was supposed to. At least, that's how I read it.

[mdrejhon 8]

As long as most people are jumping, I tend to be okay with a vertical or near-vertical descend as long as the winds are steady and non-turbulent (My first two or three nearly-vertical landings, including slight back-ins, was on student status -- Manta 288 on a borderline windy day that picked up). I have had to do that many times before. Or even very slight backwards too (negative groundspeed) I can collapse my canopy quickly enough not to fall over. I do still fly a slightly bigger boat of a 170 so I live with that occasionally when everyone with 135 and 150's are jumping and nobody's de-manifesting. I've witnessed a descent-arresting thermal on a student jump, and it was pretty curious, but that was a Manta 288 again. Granted I still fly a 170 - and you're a 150 - and I often jump on borderline windy days. (My first peas landing was a crabbed "back-in") That would be some scary thermal if it could keep a 150 aloft. I'd be a scared too, especially if turbulence was also involved.

Either way, if I'm seeing a full Otter load of RW jumpers when it's borderline windy, I'm probably going to go -- but I'm more likely not going to be landing in the pattern but in a different corner of the dropzone...

When I see a erratic winds, I know it's time to get the hell away from being downwind from obstacles, even if I have to land out -- I don't want to stumble my landing because of turbulence from a hangar. Land squarely in that middle of a consistent field.

Although your landing is far more unusual than my typical landing I've developed somewhat a fear of flying over transitions when I experience turbulence (i.e. from sand/asphalt to flying over foilage on a really hot day). I often experience turbulence when going through transitions - so that's the thermal effect. If staying in the pattern is remotely scary, I prefer to land crosswind in the middle of a comfortable field -- I'll tumble if I have to, but at least it's a more proportionally predictable risk. I've had enough downwind tumbles that I know what to expect based on perceived groundspeed. But some scary landings in that I've had to cope with more than expected horizontal ground speed - when everybody is landing downwind because the landing pattern happened to be set that way, I'm going to follow suit. Some exciting standups, some exciting tumbles. So I'm no longer shy of landing a comfortable crosswind standup in an out-field if I can avoid a turbulence-prone main landing area that forces me to fly over too much crap.... Sometimes I even head directly to the alternate landing area even at 2500 feet, if I see a big cluster of traffic converging in a way that I can't safely merge into the landing pattern from where I currently am (even if I could, but I know landing patterns tend to suddely become chaotic later.) I mean, I can merge, but when I'm dealing with turbulence, I'd rather concentrate on landing safely without worrying about who's behind me, above, below, and to my sides. I'm OK with lots of canopy traffic if I'm already in a favourable flight line... I've had my past violations of landing patterns for one reason or another (minor sashaying like as you describe -- being too high in a landing pattern isn't a good excuse). The scariest is when people scared to follow a mandated-downwind pattern, start landing in ALL directions in the SAME landing field -- I get totally confused. So if I sense the traffic is going to be remotely chaotic, I'm happy to land out - the truck is going to pick me up anyway...

When everyone is grounded or several people de-manifest, I take that as a cue to do the same, though... I think winds fast enough to elevator a 150 vertically, would probably ground me too, but elevators under a 170 don't generally scare me as I've had many soft elevator landings - just need to collapse the canopy fast!

The turbulence is what SCARES me though - I'd rather successfully land slowly backwards in nice brisk steady wind, than to land in turbulence at lesser moderate wind, turbulence causing unexpectedly weak flare (I've been there either way). Although I've never been dragged by a canopy or broken anything due to a downwind landing, a canopy collapse is an actual death statistic that I'd rather avoid. So key word is turbulence for me - that's the plague.

[pilot-one 0]

You keep talking about canopy size. What you mean is wing loading.

[mdrejhon 8]

Quote

You keep talking about canopy size. What you mean is wing loading.

Duh yes, correct. People weights, DO vary.