Whats the best method for getting back from afar

[yarak 0]

If you get out on a long spot you should skydive as normal. Then once you open you should search for a house with pool and a nice landing area. Thats where you should land and hope for hot chicks that are sunbathing. Then tell them you are a spy and after a long day of barely espcaping death and saving the world from evil assholes that you would enjoy a nice cold beer and some friendly company.

I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll burn your fucking packing tent down.

[WeakMindedFool 0]

hummm.... On sober reflection, what you're saying makes sense. Guess I'll have to stay sober now.
Damn....

Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.
-Eric Hoffer -
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[mdrejhon 8]

Regardless of what you do, check wind direction from where you are. Different parachutes fly better in different configurations into or away from wind. This detail confuses the heck out of so many jumpers.

For example, flying downwind, crosswind, zero wind, or very light upwind works best in varying amounts of brakes on my canopy (usually deep brakes, declining depending of amount of crab away/into wind), but flying against strong upwind works best on my canopy at full glide or even when I pull down my front risers a little (Useful when I am over a treeline and I want to pull in front of the treeline. And this technique is NOT recommended at low altitudes for new jumpers).

I can cover huge amounts of distance flying downwind in medium-to-deep brakes, chest strap loosened, and legs up to reduce my body footprint to air drag. Make my parachute BIG (loosened chest strap) but body SMALL (lift knees into my chest).

[shropshire 0]

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Regardless of what you do, check wind direction from where you are. Different parachutes fly better in different configurations into or away from wind. This detail confuses the heck out of so many jumpers.

Well it confiuses me because I don;t think that it's right. It does not know if it is flying into or with the meteo wind. Your canopy only knows about relative wind[full stop].

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[jakee 1,254]

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Regardless of what you do, check wind direction from where you are. Different parachutes fly better in different configurations into or away from wind. This detail confuses the heck out of so many jumpers.

Well it confiuses me because I don;t think that it's right. It does not know if it is flying into or with the meteo wind. Your canopy only knows about relative wind[full stop].

Getting back from a long spot has to do with your glide ratio relative to the ground not the airmass, so in that sense your parachute very much does know what the air is doing. You wouldn't go to deep brakes trying to penetrate into wind, but you might if you needed to get back running with the wind.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[DJL 232]

Wow, this thread is a huge case of "dangers of advice from the internet". Yes, I realize the irony of of stating this via the internet.

Glad some talent finally chimed in.

"I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher

[matthewcline 0]

To make this work you'll need your local rigger to attach a few ROL's. In one a couple of beer coozies, in the other a jar of olives and tooth picks. If they offer you a Martini you need to be ready! The beer coozies are so you leave behind no finger prints, your a spy after all.

Matt

An Instructors first concern is student safety.
So, start being safe, first!!!

[billvon 2,400]

>It does not know if it is flying into or with the meteo wind. Your canopy
>only knows about relative wind[full stop].

You are correct. Your parachute will do the same thing with respect to the air around it no matter what the winds are doing. However, different flight modes will allow you to cover more or less ground, given a certain wind.

[shropshire 0]

I agree 100% with that. Cheers Bill.

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[yarak 0]

good call! Matt

That will definately help legitimize the spy story. And the jar of olives....nice touch. Nothing says classy spy like being prepared for a martini. When your buddies from the DZ come looking for you it will help your story. tell the girls that they are KGB and you need them to be patriotic and save your life by allowing you to hide in their bikinis.

Hope this answers your question about getting back from a long spot. If you need any other advice feel free to ask............I pretty much know it all

I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll burn your fucking packing tent down.

[mdrejhon 8]

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Well it confiuses me because I don;t think that it's right. It does not know if it is flying into or with the meteo wind. Your canopy only knows about relative wind[full stop].

Didn't your AFFI teach you how to do a "wind direction" check under canopy, by watching the ground drift as you test-fly in various directions?

That's what I meant, I should have said "wind direction check". It's a basic skill to have, especially when you land out, especially in strong winds in hazardous terrain.

The wind direction check allows you to determine whether you need to go into deep brakes or not, because it's often a bad idea (on most canopies) to go into deep brakes flying INTO heavy wind. The reason is deep brakes can cause your canopy to fly slower, which means you won't go forward as much into the wind. A little brakes may help, you just have to find how much. There's a sweet spot of brakes -- too little, too much, you need to watch the ground as you test brakes -- ala Scott Miller course.

The reason why there's no exact standard is simply different canopies fly differently. One example of many is some canopies will fly fast forward with slow descent, while others will fly slowly forward with slow descent. These two different canopy will require different brake settings for optimal penetration into a specific wind speed.

In some winds, arresting the speed of descent may be more important than the forward speed. That's why flying downwind, the dominant method of getting back is often making your descent as slow as possible. That way, you're letting the strong wind blow you back to the dropzone, by slowing your descent as much as possible. Thus, the deep brake setting on my canopy.

However, when flying INTO the wind (upwind), the forward speed may become more important than the descent speed, which means you may want to forget about deep brakes and fly in full glide, because the faster forward speed gives you better penetration into the wind. Going into deep brakes sometimes makes my canopy fly slower than the wind (if it's a strong wind) which means I'm drifting backwards -- but if I go into full brakes, I start slowly drifting forward -- the kind of strong winds where you're barely moving forward. That's the kind of wind that it's a bad idea to fly upwind in deep brakes in.

Scott Miller and Brian Germain teaches this.

Now, to further top this off...

It's not a sudden black-and-white switch somewhere between the 180 degrees. For a specific wind where flying downwind worked best deep brakes and flying upwind the same wind, worked best flying with no brakes.... there's a continuous spectrum of brake settings at every degree of turn in the 180 degrees. (Basically, half brakes while crabbing sideways, might give the most penetration, given this specific wind scenario for the specific canopy).

Obviously, in zero wind, you want the flattest glide you can get, which may happen at a specific brake setting (such as three quarters brake), doesn't matter which direction you're going.

In light wind, there are situations on my canopy where I get best results doing 1/3 brakes flying upwind, and doing 2/3 brakes flying downwind.

So it's not always an easy thing to understand at first. The simplest solution is just to do penetration tests, even repeated on every jump that looks like it might be an 'out' landing.

All you need to do is add penetration tests to the good old fashioned wind-direction check. Play with the brake settings until you see the most penetration, using accuracy technique (the point where the ground is not moving away from the center of vision)

It's just that many jumpers go into deep brakes no matter which direction the wind is -- when deep brakes often only work best when flying downwind rather than upwind on most canopies. A detail that confuses the heck out of many jumpers.

[kallend 1,623]

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>I guess I was being blown strongly crosswind and I just kept applying input
>to get where I wanted.

Crosswinds blow you sideways but they don't turn you.

But if you just take aim at the DZ instead of figuring out the appropriate x-wind correction, you have to keep turning. The old piloting problem of flying towards an NDB in a crosswind, solved by VORs.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[mdrejhon 8]

Corrections of two of my own errors, typed while I was tired. The rest is accurate to canopy coach teachings.

For flying downwind part I wrote:

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That way, you're letting the strong wind blow you back to the dropzone, by slowing your descent as much as possible.

I meant "if you intentionally slow your rate of descent as much as possible." since one is responsible for adjusting rate of descent, not the wind.

For flying upwind part I wrote:

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Going into deep brakes sometimes makes my canopy fly slower than the wind (if it's a strong wind) which means I'm drifting backwards [in groundspeed] -- but if I go into full brakes, I start slowly drifting forward

Ooops. I meant "but if I go into full glide, I start slowly drifting forward"

[mdrejhon 8]

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But if you just take aim at the DZ instead of figuring out the appropriate x-wind correction, you have to keep turning. The old piloting problem of flying towards an NDB in a crosswind, solved by VORs.

This is when the accuracy technique of finding the non-moving spot, helps. It's very universal: Helps you figure out the amount of brake correction and crosswind correction for crabbing with the most wind penetration.