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DubJump

Wing Loading?

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Total weight of you and all your gear in (pounds) divided by the square footage of your canopy.

Eg. You weigh 190lbs and all you gear (including clothes and your rig with canopies) weighs 30lbs and you jump a 220 square foot canopy - your wing loading is 220/220 - 1lb/sq ft

It is an indicator of how your canopy will perform.

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It is not the whole story in determining how the canopy will fly (design, shape etc all have a part to play in that), but generally a lower wingloaded canopy will behave in a more docile manner than the same canopy loaded higher.

Examples of exact what more docile means include:

- less forward speed
- less sink (ie. downward speed)
- less responsive to control inputs
- loses less altitude in a given turn
- recovers faster to full flight after a given turn

In general terms, higher WL means higher performance (until you exceed the max WL for that canopy design) but it also means less margin for error and more risk.

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As my subject line suggests, what is it?



It is how heavily your wing is loaded. (Duh) :P

It is usually expressed as a ratio of pounds per square foot. The weight is the entire weight of the jumper and all the gear. The square footage is that of the canopy. Although the measuring systems differ and some canopy manufacturers are more accurate than others, the size of the canopy is it's square footage. As a student you are likely jumping a 230 or something similarly large. If you (and all the gear) weigh 180 lbs, you are at a loading of about 0.78 lbs/sf.

Wingloading is one measure of performance. The higher the wingloading, the higher the performance. All else being equal, a heavier jumper will have faster forward speed and a higher descent rate than a lighter jumper. Also, 2 differently weighted jumpers would experience simlar (but not identical) performance if they had canopies sized to give them equal wingloading.
"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

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