Flat turns on ellipticals?

[scott2002 0]

The first part of this post is just sharing my very limited experiences with elliptical canopies. I'm currently making the big transition from square to elliptical. I just thought I would share it with those thinking about doing the same. My question regarding flat turns is at the bottom.

I've made three hop-n-pops from altitude on a demo Crossfire 149 loaded at about 1.1. First off, I would like to say I LOVE this canopy so far. Even at my conservative (matter of perspective probably) wing loading, the canopy is VERY responsive to toggle and riser inputs. More surprisingly though is how much the canopy responses to shifting your weight in the harness. WOW!!! I could get a pretty fast turn going by just doing that alone. The openings on the other hand are quite squirly but very soft (use to jumping Sabres snivel...snivel...BLAM!!!). Each time I jumped it I had a different person pack it too. You definitely have to watch it on opening! It likes to hunt for a heading and sometimes surprise you by all of a sudden diving off into a turn. This is contradictory of what I've heard from other Crossfire pilots but this behavior is most likely do to my higher field elevation (faster terminal velocity).
Well, the first time I jumped it I made the mistake of trying to fly it like a Sabre 150. The control range is TOTALLY different and MUCH more sensitive. I finally understand what people mean by "more responsive". It literally only takes an inch or two of toggle in the control range to make the canopy turn. Ellipticals also have an interesting trait that I didn't know about before I jumped it. They like to "amplify" your control inputs. Example: I started a right turn by pulling the toggle down a little bit and holding it there. I would have expected the canopy to start banking and stop at a certain point like most of the canopies I've jumped do. But instead the Crossfire started to bank and continued to do so until the canopy began to dive. All the while the turn is growing in speed quickly. I found this to be true with ALL control inputs.
One of the coolest new things you can do has got to be shifting your weight in the harness. This technique can complement every other control input you give. When I did an aggressive toggle turn and shifted my weight in the direction of the turn, it was WAY faster for example. Also while doing 360s I could speed up or slow down the turn by doing this. I'll tell you one thing, doing these turns reset my perspective of speed both during and after the turn!!! This thing is EXTREMELY fun to fly up high.
The rear riser pressure was really light but the front riser pressure was a lot higher by way of comparison. This is most likely do to my light wing loading though. My landings have been good but I have to work on getting the flare speed down. Even though I stood up my landings in no winds, I knew I was flaring too fast and not as efficiently as possible (I'm using a two stage flare). But that just takes time to develop along with everything else. Did I mention the Crossfire has tons of lift?
Okay, I'll shutup now and get on with my question. While doing flat turns at about half brakes, I noticed the canopy was banked quite a bit more than what I'm used to on squares. So to try and remedy this, I would bring the lower toggle up a little bit. This would make the canopy bank a lot less but the turn became too slow. I was wondering what experienced elliptical pilots do to fix this? Or is this just normal for a canopy of this type to bank that much?

[billvon 2,434]

>This would make the canopy bank a lot less but the turn became too slow. I
>was wondering what experienced elliptical pilots do to fix this?
Smaller canopies cannot be turned both as quickly and as flat as larger canopies - you have more forward speed, so you need more time to turn the canopy a given amount at a fixed amount of bank. The good news is that you have more lift to help you out, so you can "flare" to reduce your sink rate even at higher angles of bank. This is really hard to see when you're high in the air, but you can feel it - as you're turning, bring in a little flare to flatten the turn and you will feel the lift. This is is a more dynamic manuever than a simple braked turn, and is similar to how a "flare turn" works during the flare.
-bill von

[skycat 0]

Quote

The openings on the other hand are quite squirly but very soft (use to jumping Sabres snivel...snivel...BLAM!!!). Each time I jumped it I had a different person pack it too. You definitely have to watch it on opening! It likes to hunt for a heading and sometimes surprise you by all of a sudden diving off into a turn. This is contradictory of what I've heard from other Crossfire pilots but this behavior is most likely do to my higher field elevation (faster terminal velocity).

Yep more than likely it's the altitude, I noticed a HUGE change in the opening characteristics between Denver and Houston. Here in Denver it really wants to dance around and likes to dive off heading on opening. Actually in Houston I could be pretty sloppy during the opening and it wouldn't spin up, 1st jump in Denver.....Spinning line twists. Got out of them with no problem and have since started concentrating on my openings again. The elevation really does make a big difference.