PLF

[blackout 0]

Was just curious on how often everyone does a PLF. I wanted to gauge my progress as I am on my 9th jump with 3 out of 6 jumps PLF and the other 3 a nice stand up landing. Hopefully i can manage a good landing for my graduation landing. only time will tell!

[jojo69 0]

I PLF all the time. I am always excited to land on my feet. I can have difficulty landing on no wind days and were I jump it is usually a no wind day.

[jtval 0]

I'm not a student any more but when I was I probably did it three times.

I was also under a 260/280 for most of my jumps and weighed 170.

Even if I didn't flare properly I would still land softly.

JCeman gave me my first bit of excellent landing advice some time around jump 12.
Since then, it all worked out,

My last plf was probably on (or around) Jump #150.
I had a pinched nerve when I got in the plane and under canopy my leg went numb so I plfed instead of trying to stand.

the good thing is, the roll actually put my back back "IN WHACK"

My photos

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[lilchief 1]

if you work on your flare, then you won't do PLF except for those times when you really screw up and you need to do a plf.

see if you get yourself a copy of the parachute and it's pilot by Brian Germain and attend to one of his courses. It's not the bible, but it helps a bunch.

"Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you long to return." - Da Vinci
www.lilchief.no

[squarecanopy 0]

I broke my leg on jump 9 or 10 of my student progression ( I was a slow learner) because I didn't PLF. Since coming back, after a 15 month layoff, I found myself PLFing alot as I was bailing out rather than risking more busted bones. I then upsized my canopy 30 sq. ft. and took a canopy course, and I PLF infrequently these days but am not too proud to do it if the stand up landing ain't goin to happen. PLF is a tool for you to use if needed no matter how many jumps you have. The best landing is the one that lets you make more jumps that day...

Just burning a hole in the sky.....

[JustaBill 0]

I don't do them often, but a good PLF saved my bacon a few weekends ago. I'm always ready to do one, and only make the decision to stand it up at the last second when I see how everything is working out. It's a lot easier to prepare to PLF and stand up, then to prepare to stand up and have to do a PLF.

------------------------------------------------
I've done so much, with so little, for so long
I'm now expected to do everything with nothing forever

[kelpdiver 2]

Quote

if you work on your flare, then you won't do PLF except for those times when you really screw up and you need to do a plf.

PLFs are not just for when you screw up. That's exactly the wrong mentality for the new jumper to take.

[AFFI 0]

Here is lots of reading on the PLF:

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=search_results&search_forum=all&search_string=PLF&sb=score&mh=25

Mykel AFF-I10
Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

[skr 1]

> how often everyone does a PLF

Not too often. I don't jump in difficult conditions
anymore, at least not on purpose, so I can mostly
stand up.

But I'm really good at it, and over the years I've
made it through a lot of mistakes and foolishness
with a good PLF.

I would find an ex Airborne person that you feel
comfortable with, and learn the proper form,
and then practice on a mattress or the peas or
something soft about 9,000 times so you have
it at your finger tips when you need it.

With today's gear you could probably get by
with just front PLFs.

Skr

[wmw999 2,377]

What he said. I do PLF with some regularity; I don't consider it screwing up at all, just choosing to take the more certain path.

Learn it well. It might just save your bacon someday.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[Cashmanimal 0]

I have not PLF'd in a long time, and I credit that to 1) I (tend to) land very conservatively due to camera equipment and 2)I have only jumped this canopy for the last 200 jumps and know it very well.

The last time I went for a roll was coming in for a beautiful landing smack-dab on the center of the target, and I saw that there were some people out of the hangar taking pictures of me landing. I decided to make it look pretty, and after the first stage of my flare, dropped a toggle. Yup, I hooked it in from about 3 feet off the ground.

I have not only never felt like a such a public dumbass, but have since made sure I have more than two or three fingers in my toggle with a good grip. I would sure hate to have that happen 10-200 feet off the ground

As some have stated before, doing a PLF doesn't mean you've screwed anything up. I see more situations of people NOT PLF'ing when they very much should have than the other way around. Worst-case scenario, you have to do laundry. And since you are using student gear/jumpsuits, worst case scenario is somebody ELSE has to do laundry (which they won't).

It's all fun and until someone loses an eye... then it's just a game to find the eye

[auburnguy 0]

I havent plf'd in at least 5 jumps. maybe one day you can aspire to have my kind of experience, until then hang in there champ. (that was supposed to be sarcastic)

"If you don't like your job, you don't strike! You just go in every day, and do it really half assed. That's the American way."
- Homer Simpson

[peckerhead 0]

If you don't know how to do a PLF...

Then you have no business jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.

This is a life skill.

OMG!

[Baksteen 84]

I currently have 40-50 jumps on my (rented) Navigator 240, and haven't jumped anything else in the meantime, so I am confident that I can land it reasonably well.

Yet when I am planning to go jumping I intend to do a PLF, especially when, say, the winds are different from the last few times I jumped.
Only in the split-second when I get the "feel"of the flare I just did, I may decide to stand it up after all.

It's a bit hard to find the right words to explain what I mean, but anyways, this method seems to work for me. I have about ten to twenty (conservative estimate) PLFs in about 95 jumps.

"That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport."
~mom

[in2jumping 0]

I have only had to PLF once. It was around jump 50 and my 3rd jump on my new TurboZ 205. Flared at about 15' to 20' on a hot zero wind day, knew right away that it was going to be ugly and continued the flare and did "the best PLF" my rigger and STA ever seen.

[bomber 0]

Wow, I'm amazed at how often you all say you do PLFs. I'm definitely not the best canopy pilot around, but not managing a stand up landing on every jump seems really odd.
The last time I did a PLF (well, sort of, I could use some practice ) was after flying into some nasty air currents 15 ft off the ground and having my canopy fold up.
Barring situations like that, after even a couple of rough landings I really try to figure out what I'm doing wrong, or just decide I'm having an off day and it's time to grab a beer.

[wmw999 2,377]

If you consider a PLF to be a normal landing mode instead of a failure, then it's just how you handle landing when the situation is less than ideal. I almost never "manage" a standup; if I have to "manage" it, I'll PLF, get up, and walk back in happily to make another jump.

For me, a PLF is not a failure. I can't emphasize that enough, because I see too many people trying to pull off standups that look like they're on the edge of causing injury, just to avoid PLFs.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[grannyinthesky 0]

Thanks for your posts on this subject. Your attitude is what I plan on using. My fist (and only so far) landing left a lot to be desired because I didn't PLF. Bounce/splat doesn't feel the best in the world. I wasn't trying to stand up,I just wasn't planning how to land at all really. I am now regularly visualizing doing a PLF when I land next time, hopefully this coming weekend. I figure the landings I will be able to stand up aren't going to be a problem. It's the ones that I won't that I want to be sure I am prepared for.

"safety first... and What the hell.....
safety second, Too!!! " ~~jmy

POPS #10490

[psipike02 0]

On my very first AFF jump, I forgot to flare when i came in to land, but I PLF'ed and my AFFI's came running over because they thought I had at least broken one leg or something.

I got up, brushed myself off and said "son of a bitch, I forgot to flare didnt I...", laughed and then walked to the trailer as they stood there and looked and couldn't help but laugh too..

I def. used it after that, not too many times, but it definitely comes in handy when things don't pan it the way you intend them to upon landing

Puttin' some stank on it.

----Hellfish #707----

[grannyinthesky 0]

I didn't exactly forget to flare. I just quit flaring about shoulder height. Needless to say, I came in a little fast.

"safety first... and What the hell.....
safety second, Too!!! " ~~jmy

POPS #10490

[blackout 0]

Hmm forgot to flare on my 2nd student jump too, was flying a 200 and I only weigh 140 out the door so it was still a relatively light PLF

[Programmer 0]

The goal is not to stand up the landing. The goal is to walk back to the hanger.

[shropshire 0]

100% correct

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

[azureriders 0]

plan to PLF on every jump, stand up only if you HAVE to. That was advice given to me and it worked so well that I pass it along every chance I get, so there you go.

[popsjumper 2]

IMHO, your post points at a very common reason why sprain and break numbers on landings are as high as they are.

(Note: Butt-slide landings are a horse of a different color...mostly black)

The "gotta stand it up" mentality.
The "stand-up is cool, the PLF is not" mentality.
The "if you had to PLF, you screwed up" mentality.

When my students PLF, they get a pat on the back, a job-well-done and some more canopy control information.

One of my favorite lines for students is, "See the old guy do the PLF? That's why he's jumping instead of recuperating."
(I really just now made that up, but it sounds usable, doesn't it?)

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239