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skybytch

Basic Canopy Skills Courses - Have you taught one?

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Using the course outline in section 6-11 of the SIM, my s/o (5k jumps, swooper, crw dog, AFFI) and I (1k jumps, ultra conservative, AFFI) put on a basic canopy skills course at our home dz last month. We had a total of 10 jumpers, ranging from fresh ink on the A license to 500+ jumps and 20+ years in experience. We have another course scheduled for next month.

Based on the feedback we got from the people who took it we know we did a good job of getting the basics across, but we also know there is room for improvement.

If you've run basic canopy skills courses at your home dz, how do you structure it? We followed the outliine in the SIM (which is essentially Scott Miller's course - 5 hop and pops), but we omitted the stalls jump to save some time (they'd already paid for the jump so we gave them the ground training and left it up to them to go do the drills).

What lecture and training aids have you found to be useful? I'm working on putting some video of "good" and "bad" flare technique together, and I'm considering doing a Powerpoint presentation (mostly graphics).

We handed out copies of the USPA canopy proficiency card (it's in the back of the SIM) at the end of the day. For the next class I'm going to put together a handout packet that also includes Brian Germain's wingloading chart, billvon's downsizing checklist and possibly some selections from the BPA canopy manual. What other printed material have you found useful in getting the concepts across?

And finally, if you're an AFFI and haven't run a basic canopy skills course at your home dz yet, WHY NOT?!? ;)

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How about a video review of each landing? This would serve to id thingies that are sometimes hard to pinpoint to the pilot... uneven flares, too early/late flares, unfinished flares, minor toggle input/corrections, etc...
Randomly f'n thingies up since before I was born...

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This year and last I've been running a canopy flight skills seminar at a local DZ or two in Ontario. The target audience seems to be from 'A' license on up to 500 jumps or so.

The idea is to provide an alternative somewhere in between the well known professional courses, and nothing at all. The professional courses can have high minimum number of participants and be quite costly.

I get the impression there's a lack of courses "in between".

I only do classroom work, not jumping, to keep time and cost down. People are welcome to bring in their own landing videos, but that doesn't often happen. So I use some pics and videos from off the web and shot around the DZ in general, for use in critiquing landings.

As background reading material I put together a bunch of 30+ written documents for anyone at the DZs to read over at:
Education for Canopy Flight Skills

The docs all in one big zip file, but there's also a separate summary document that gives a brief overview of all the other documents -- you might find that useful to get ideas.

Most docs are collected from all over the web, plus a couple things I wrote. I annotated a few of the documents to note some information that is getting older or which is more disputed.

(Even for educational things there is the issue of the author's rights -- at least I encourage people to go back to the original web sites if people like what they read and want to learn more. That's also why there's one big inconvenient zip file, rather than replicating others' web pages. There's everything in there from the classic Brian G. wing loading chart to the BPA canopy flight documents to the USPA SIM -- hence the bulky file size.)

The idea was to collect a lot of the good stuff out there in one place, rather than just telling jumpers that "it's all out there on the web".

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I don't want to turn this into a sales pitch, but Flight-1 courses (offered by the PD Factory Team) really do cater from a-z. The course curriculum for essentials is what most people are familiar with Scott Miller teaching, as well as advanced, High Performance and 1on1 curriculums.

All instructors are good teachers, and knowledgable pilots, so instructors could probably learn a lot about teaching, and materials, from attending these classes.

Blues,
Ian
Performance Designs Factory Team

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All instructors are good teachers, and knowledgable pilots, so instructors could probably learn a lot about teaching, and materials, from attending these classes.



An excellent point. I took Scott's basic class (same as Flight-1's I think) a few years ago; it'd be a good investment for any instructor even if you don't want to run canopy courses yourself. Wish you guys would come out to NorCal for awhile, I'd love to take it again.

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Yes, I have taught a number courses. I've done more 1on1 coaching then courses, catering to that jumper's individual needs, although, we do still cover everything in my foundations course. Its also done on the super cheap so more people can partake and learn. I have a good job, its not skydiving related, so for me its more about getting the information out there to those who need it and want it, then charging "enough" money.
--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

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As a life-long professional instructor, I have always taught canopy piloting to the absolute limit of my knowledge. What that means is that I have, as a PRO rated pilot, and a professional canopy pilot (ECPA, PPPB, PST), I have always made sure that my basic students checked the blocks on their four-page card (since October 1st 2001) before their got their A-stamp. It also means that I have ALWAYS offered free canopy coaching to those people in my charge (as a three-turbine school manager and current S&TA) who want to downsize. When my contemporaries felt comfortable regurgitating and charging people for the teachings of Brian Burke, I thought it prudent to just add it to our basic sylabus. While I do not have a problem with people making money teaching these skills, I DO wish they would not act like they are doing anything original.

If you are not getting the canopy skills you think you need from basic instructors, then feel free to come to Z-Hills and ask for me.

Chuck Blue, D-12501
AFF-I, SL-I, TM-I, PRO, S&TA
Performance Skydiving

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As a life-long professional instructor, I have always taught canopy piloting to the absolute limit of my knowledge. What that means is that I have, as a PRO rated pilot, and a professional canopy pilot (ECPA, PPPB, PST), I have always made sure that my basic students checked the blocks on their four-page card (since October 1st 2001) before their got their A-stamp. It also means that I have ALWAYS offered free canopy coaching to those people in my charge (as a three-turbine school manager and current S&TA) who want to downsize. When my contemporaries felt comfortable regurgitating and charging people for the teachings of Brian Burke, I thought it prudent to just add it to our basic sylabus. While I do not have a problem with people making money teaching these skills, I DO wish they would not act like they are doing anything original.

If you are not getting the canopy skills you think you need from basic instructors, then feel free to come to Z-Hills and ask for me.

Chuck Blue, D-12501
AFF-I, SL-I, TM-I, PRO, S&TA
Performance Skydiving



I would dearly love to learn and pass on some BASIC canopy skills...

will I have to scale a large cliff and sacrifice a virgin to do so??


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I DO wish they would not act like they are doing anything original.



Its really cool to see a linear progression of canopy coaches to students who become canopy coaches and how the information and training evolves with each step and time. A very large number of regional canopy courses are teaching "Scott Miller type" courses and the instructors aren't embarrassed to say that. Scott Miller was quick to say who he patterned his courses after as well.

With each generation of canopy pilots and instructors, things continue to evolve and grow. Think where the information and training will be in 10 years and another generation of instructors from now!
--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

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As a life-long professional instructor, I have always taught canopy piloting to the absolute limit of my knowledge. What that means is that I have, as a PRO rated pilot, and a professional canopy pilot (ECPA, PPPB, PST), I have always made sure that my basic students checked the blocks on their four-page card (since October 1st 2001) before their got their A-stamp. It also means that I have ALWAYS offered free canopy coaching to those people in my charge (as a three-turbine school manager and current S&TA) who want to downsize. When my contemporaries felt comfortable regurgitating and charging people for the teachings of Brian Burke, I thought it prudent to just add it to our basic sylabus. While I do not have a problem with people making money teaching these skills, I DO wish they would not act like they are doing anything original.

If you are not getting the canopy skills you think you need from basic instructors, then feel free to come to Z-Hills and ask for me.

Chuck Blue, D-12501
AFF-I, SL-I, TM-I, PRO, S&TA
Performance Skydiving



Ditto, Kudos, and many thanks.:)
----------------------------------------------
You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

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I've been conducting canopy courses since '02. My son and I wrote a curicullum after having Scott at our DZ. At the time Scott did not have his in document form so we took the following winter and wrote our own. I'm happy to say it is very thorough.

It too invloves 5 jumps with 2 angles of video for a very intense debrief of everyone's landings.

In my humble opinion I believe one of the most important jumps is the "stalls".

I've discovered most average jumpers are scared to death of stalling their canopy and often won't finish the landing flare because of it.

Once they know how their canopy stalls and recovers they realize how to recognize when they are near a stall. I also make them land once while flying in half brakes.

I use the fly to survive DVD for excellent examples of all the different landing modes it has some great side shots of finishing and not finishing the flare.

I have the exact footage marked in my manual so I don't waste time looking for it during the class. If anyone is interested I can post the time codes.

I charge $25.00 per person in advance for the course. It takes all day and into the evening. I can only handle 8 people and charging something helps limit the no shows which I have not had.

I always have a waiting list to get into the class.
Be the canopy pilot you want that other guy to be.

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It's great to hear people advocating and running canopy piloting courses based on local skill. Sure, professional instructors have a lot to offer, but it's nice to see people putting effort into organizing and improving local coaching talent. Now if only we could get hop and pops cheaper...
A dolor netus non dui aliquet, sagittis felis sodales, dolor sociis mauris, vel eu libero cras. Interdum at. Eget habitasse elementum est.

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I just thought I would add that our DZO, TK Hayes, runs his free accuracy seminar at least once a month and definitely at every boogie we have here at Skydive City. Good stuff and, again, free to anyone willing to sit still and listen to a Canadian.



There's always a catch...
:D:P

TK kicks ass even if he is from up yonder.
My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

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I taught the Flight-1 Essential Skills class at Elsinore for about a year and most of the students were afraid to stall the canopy (as are most fixed wing pilots) and only did so because it was part of the curriculum and was going to be debriefed afterwards. If not part of the class, I suspect most students will miss that learning opportunity. Also, the newest jumpers progressed much faster than the experienced jumpers. Conversely, the people with the most jumps were hardest to reach. The contrast was striking and I believe it is because the newbies were more willing to trust the instruction - as opposed to their own instincts - and had not yet developed bad habits.

Good luck. There is a tremendous need for this and the sooner a jumper receives the instruction the better.

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What is most strikng to me is that back in the late 1980's and early 1990's when we ALL jumped larger, square parachutes it was VERY common to teach students how to fly and land on rear risers prior to the A-license (at least in Alabama and North Carolina where I jumped and instructed). Now, it seems almost alien to other instructors when I teach youngh jumpers how to fly, flare, and land on rears.

My student rig has a 240 zero-p nine-cell in it and it's effortless to perform the A-license tasks under it. It is also very, very easy to land on rears only. Therefore, if I have a student who if cat F or G flying my rig and the winds are between 10 and 14, I will often ask them to do some practice flares up top and, if they are comfortable, try and flare the "real" landing. Again, this used to be very, very common. What fascinates me most is that most students nowadays don't ever even get instructed at all on how to deal with rear riser flying. This is, of course, a common task skill when you teach the four-page ISP card.


Chuck

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I too teach rear riser flight including rear riser stalls.

In addition, I teach what I call a CAT maneuver which stands for Collision Avoidance Turn.

During opening instead of looking up at the canopy, which can cause asymetrical openings, I have them look out at and scan the horizon. While scanning they grab the rear risers and do an immediate 90 degree turn as if to avoid an oncoming canopy.

I have them do this on all openings in the class.

Last year one of my students came to me and thanked me for teaching this. They were at a boogie and used the CAT maneuver to avoid what they said would have been a certain collision. They also told me that the other person was looking up at their canopy the whole time and did not even know how close they came to a collision.
Be the canopy pilot you want that other guy to be.

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What is most striking to me is that back in the late 1980's and early 1990's when we ALL jumped larger, square parachutes it was VERY common to teach students how to fly and land on rear risers...



I learned in the 80's and I was told by my main mentor. Maybe others were not so lucky. I don't remember performing any specific maneuvers, but I played around with rear risers enough to know I could flare a canopy with them if I had to.

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What fascinates me most is that most students nowadays don't ever even get instructed at all on how to deal with rear riser flying. This is, of course, a common task skill when you teach the four-page ISP card.



There is an item on the 2 page "A" License Proficiency Card too.


So what can we conclude from what you are telling us? There are items on both cards, so students should be at the very least, steering with rear risers on at least one jump. Maybe not well, maybe not doing a rear riser stall, but doing something.

So does this mean many instructors are telling their students not to bother trying, and signing their cards anyway?

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I've discovered most average jumpers are scared to death of stalling their canopy and often won't finish the landing flare because of it.



How sure are you of this? Is anyone telling you this? And more importantly, where are they getting this from?

I can sort of understand them not wanting to "do a stall" at altitude, but do they honestly think their canopy is going to suddenly dump them on their back at 5 feet with no warning?

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reply * How sure are you of this? Is anyone telling you this? And more importantly, where are they getting this from?


I am very sure. I didn't just make it up to boost my post.

Yes, people are telling me this. And I don't think they are getting it from their FJC training. Most of the people in my courses have more than a hundred jumps and come from several DZs.

I can't definitively say where they are getting it. But for some reason many people have the fear of stalling their canopy on landing.

Why would I make this up?
Be the canopy pilot you want that other guy to be.

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Yes, people are telling me this. And I don't think they are getting it from their FJC training. Most of the people in my courses have more than a hundred jumps and come from several DZs. I can't definitively say where they are getting it. But for some reason many people have the fear of stalling their canopy on landing. Why would I make this up?



Sandy, no, no, no, of course I don't think you are making it up! It is so incredibly hard for me to think that there are that many people that are afraid of their canopy.

Who knows, they might be getting that from their FJC. Please ask some people when you get the chance.

If there is that much wrong information being spread, we as a sport need to figure out where it is coming from.

Does anyone reading this have any ideas where this is coming from?

FJC?
Instructors saying things in passing?
Unknowledgeable other jumpers?

Or is the word "stall" so pejorative that it invokes fear in any skydiver?

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OK, I finally edited some of the video I did to provide some instructional related videos. You can tell what they are from the file names. http://www.skydivestlouisarea.com/instruction/

There is a video of my radically stalling my Stiletto (which is supposed to be one of those scary canopies that won't recover from a stall.)

Anyone who wants to use it in their canopy course may do so. Hopefully it will help you convince people that stalling a "regular" canopy is not so scary.

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