Braked approach on final

[Katinka 0]

To complete my A license requires a braked approach and landing, but I've been told over and over to keep my hands up and canopy in full flight on final by instructors.

A Crew guy just suggested to brake a bit (shoulder?) until I feel it, slowing down approach to better judge when to flare. I have been having problems with my last few landings, so I'm looking for opinions. I do plan to take a canopy course, but right now I'm uncurrent from fear of landing!

[deadbug 0]

Take a canopy class and talk to your local instructors.

[Guest]

Hey!

Yea, this was a tricky subject for me getting my A too. My instructors said usually when someone does this, they are going to eat dirt, and it may be somewhat of a really hard landing because when you are in brakes (depending on how deep), your flare power decreases usually I think.

Talk to your instructors and see how that would reccommend going about doing it.

[yardhippie 0]

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Take a canopy class and talk to your local instructors.

Agreed. The skill of slow flight is required for you A, because it may save your life one day.
Slow flight, braked turns, etc are maneuvers used to prevent collisions, turn away from obsticals, etc.
If your instructors are telling you that 'if' you have a braked approach youre going to have a bad landing, I would tend to disagree.
I have landed my Velo at half brakes and had a perfect stand up landing.

Keep in mind: These skills should be practiced at a safe altitude away from other canopies before attempting them on the ground. Additionally, seeking canopy training and working with a qualified canopy coach (could be someone at your DZ) will help you fulfill your requirments and make you a safe and skilled canopy pilot.

Goddam dirty hippies piss me off! ~GFD
"What do I get for closing your rig?" ~ me
"Anything you want." ~ female skydiver
Mohoso Rodriguez #865

[lekstrom10k 0]

I want you to think about this who is taking who for a ride you or your parachute. Keep your toggles full up right into a building or tree because your instructor says so. If you cant land your canopy were you want to you will never be able to land it where you want to when you have to . Off airport landings or reserve landings . If you turn final and find you have more drive than expected, check around you. Because you are asking I assume you are a low timer. Put on some brakes to see where you stop forward travel until you feel comfortable your not blowing over let up until your scared and do it again. The main thing to remember is not going from deep brakes full toggles up to flare low because of the pendulum affect, Hurts like hell to be on the down swing which is what you instructers are trying to avoid.

[sundevil777 93]

The following is just my opinion, but it should give you some more info to confirm the intent of your instructors...

I think the term 'braked approach' is being confused with an 'accuracy approach'.

An accuracy approach is one where you sacrifice the flare entirely in order to be more accurate. The approach can be adjusted as you get closer depending on whether you are short or long, but an accuracy landing has no flare at the end.

I think that a braked approach, for the purposes of student training, should mean that you set up your final to be short, and fly in 1/2 to 3/4 brakes for a few hundred feet (which allows adjustments when you see you will be short or long), but you still go to a full flight toggles up condition for the last 100-200 feet or so. This will allow greater accuracy than a traditional full flight, normal pattern approach, but you still get a normal flare at the end.

The canopy will surge forward and dive for a little bit when you let the toggles up, so be very careful to not do this too low, you must get used to how much altitude your canopy needs to recover. The surge can also be a method of getting extra airspeed for a more powerful flare, but that requires doing it lower than your experience should allow.

If the canopy you are using is suitable for an accuracy approach (large, lightly loaded, small aspect ratio) then practicing an accuracy approach is probably OK to do, but be very careful and PLF.

The ability to do an accuracy approach is a vital survival skill, in my opinion, just not appropriate to practice at your experience level. If you find yourself needing to land in a very small area, it is what you need to do to get there, even if your canopy isn't large, etc.

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[DougH 270]

My braked approach for my A license card was from half brakes. I didn't let up for the flare because I didn't want the surge, and I still had enough left for a decent landing.

I guess it was more of an accuracy landing according to the above description?

"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

[sundevil777 93]

I agree.

I should have recognized that there is a middle ground, as you said, flaring with what is left from a half braked condition.

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[Katinka 0]

"I think that a braked approach, for the purposes of student training, should mean that you set up your final to be short, and fly in 1/2 to 3/4 brakes for a few hundred feet (which allows adjustments when you see you will be short or long), but you still go to a full flight toggles up condition for the last 100-200 feet or so."

So, on cross, do a braked turn to final and then keep toggles 1/4 or so down ( I usually do a very conservative turn with toggles about to my ears) and that should keep enough drive to flare on landing?

[sundevil777 93]

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So, on cross, do a braked turn to final and then keep toggles 1/4 or so down ( I usually do a very conservative turn with toggles about to my ears) and that should keep enough drive to flare on landing?

Whether you hold partial brakes down on the downwind and crosswind leg doesn't matter much, but it does allow for adjustments either way (to go faster or slower). If you actually find yourself having to land in some small backyard, for instance, you will probably want things to happen slowly and have more time and the ability to adjust.

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[Reginald 0]

Please, please talk to your instructors about this. The braked approach and landing is meant to teach you some very specific things. I will not let a student do this without a through briefing before hand. Also, I prefer to have students do this on a day with some wind as it can result in some interesting landings on a no wind day. This is one you need help on before trying it!

Please, please, please, talk to your instructors about this one as I personally think the internet is a bad place to get info on this topic.

"We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

[riggerrob 558]

The hard-core, competition, accuracy approach really only works with large, lightly-loaded, specialized accuracy canopies (i.e. Para-Foil or Eiff Challenger Classic).
Furthermore, lanidng in a deep stall really only works if you land in the pea gravel or tuffet.

Fortunately, you can fly a similar - braked - approach with most sport canopies, just remember to raise your toggles to full-flight while you are still 100 - 200 feet above landing.
There are some subtlties of braked approaches that are best discussed with a local instructor or canopy coach.

[riggerrob 558]

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To complete my A license requires a braked approach and landing, but I've been told over and over to keep my hands up and canopy in full flight on final by instructors.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

We tend to dumb-down canopy control for first-timers, but if you are following the ISP, then you should be practicing other canopy skills (front riser turns, rear riser turns, rear riser flares, half-braked turns, etc.) by the time you complete the freefall skills for your A license.
Start by reading up on braked approaches in the USPA SIM, then review the technique with a local instructor before trying it in the air.

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[DrewEckhardt 0]

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To complete my A license requires a braked approach and landing, but I've been told over and over to keep my hands up and canopy in full flight on final by instructors.

Full-flight approaches make it easier to get an acceptable landing but aren't necessary under ram air parachutes (my personal experience here spans 105 - 295 square feet, elliptical and square, F111 and ZP) unless you're jumping a worn-out F111 canopy from last century.

Since eventually you'll find yourself in a situation where you want a slower approach that makes it easier to avoid obstacles (landing out or next to the beer for hit-n-chug) or are stuck with one because you were going slow close to the ground (for similar reasons) and don't have enough altitude to return to full-flight prior to your flare (canopies surge and dive when you let off the brakes) you must practice braked approaches.

Flaring converts the canopy's speed into acceleration away from the ground. Your vertical touch down speed is initial vertical speed plus the product of acceleration from flaring and time spent flaring. Vertical speed aproaching zero is required for a soft touch down.

Since more speed gives you more acceleration to work with, a full-flight approach lets you waste more of your flare power (say by starting too soon) and still have enough acceleration to get to 0 vertical speed.

With less speed you need to flare faster and not start too high.

At the other extreme when you approach at faster than full-flight speeds (turning and symetric front riser approaches), you'll have enough acceleration to reach 0 speed and climb back up.

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A Crew guy just suggested to brake a bit (shoulder?) until I feel it, slowing down approach to better judge when to flare. I have been having problems with my last few landings, so I'm looking for opinions. I do plan to take a canopy course, but right now I'm uncurrent from fear of landing!

Have your landings videoed and get some one who understands both flying parachutes and teaching to look at the tape. This may not be the best swooper (who doesn't need to know how to teach) or your AFF instructor (I've known some who did not consistantly stand up landings).

A canopy class would be best.

You don't stop your car at traffic lights by waiting until you're on the next guy's bumper and shouldn't expect to land a canopy that way. You kill most of your speed some distance out and just finish as you get within a few feet. Landing parachutes (especially modern ZP designs) works best the same way. Flare to kill most of your speed by the time you've gotten within a few feet of the ground, and slowly finish adjusting the timing so that you have 0 altitude and minimum forward speed when you finish. If the ground is getting close and you still have too much forward speed flare more and harder. If the ground is staying the same distanance away or getting farther and you have too much forward speed just wait a while. If your forward speed is almost gone finish flaring. Etc.

This is often described as a two stage flare although I'd consider it an interactive approach.

[phoenixlpr 0]

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The canopy will surge forward and dive for a little bit when you let the toggles up, so be very careful to not do this too low

Been therem done that, got my (medical)steel medal.

[jheadley 0]

I've been experimenting with braked landings recently. I've got a Sabre 2 150 loaded at about 1.4. I can hold half brakes all the way to ~10 feet, and then finish the rest of the flare in a quick stroke and still have a relatively soft stand up landing. I was really surprised when I did it at how much flare the canopy still has. I like this and plan to practice it more since there is no "swoop" to the landing like at full glide. Also, if flying in brakes into a moderate to strong wind, it'll reduce your relative glide, allowing for a steeper approach into a tight landing area.

Both these things, a steeper relative glide, and no plane out, will help a lot when landing off in a tight spot. You can swoop 200 feet across the ground and stomp a disk as you go by, and call it "accurate", but that's not going to help you when you have to land in a back yard that's surrounded by 50 foot tall trees.

All of this is my opinion from personal experience. I do not know if it'd be any easier or harder under a different canopy.