Question about Swoop Article

[sigma40sw 0]

I was reading the article titled, "The Fine Art of Swoop Survival" in June's parachutist, and I came across a paragraph that raised some questions? I'm sure 99% percent of you have read that article so i'm not going to rewrite it verbatim. They wrote about practicing front riser turns and counting the seconds until the building pressure on the front riser, forces you to let up on the riser. Then they gave an example of 4 seconds. In the next paragraph they say that a 4 second 90 degree turn, will lose as much altitude as a 4 second 180, 270, 360, etc. Is this true? I'm not saying it isn't, but can someone explain to me how that works. It seems to me if you are making a 360 in 4 seconds the canopy will be in much more of a dive for those 4 seconds than on a 4 sec. 90 or a 180. Also, if the 4 sec. is based upon the time it takes for the riser pressure to become too great, how do you make a 90 last 4 seconds and build up that same amount of riser pressure, without over turning? I'm a beginner in the sport so I'm not familiar with any of this. I won't be able to jump for about another 2 months, so I can't go out and try it this weekend. This is probably a "try it and you'll see" situation, but if anyone can explain more in depth how it works, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

[eames 0]

First of all, it's not an exact science. The point is that you can get the most out of a given turn by using a certain rate of turn. I've found that the smaller the turn, the slower the rate of turn has to be to build up the most speed (and front riser pressure). For example, if I'm doing a 90, I feel like I need to do it very slowly to get the most out of it; I'll start it in double front risers and keep the turn rate slow by using both throughout the turn. With a 360, I can build the same amount of speed with a higher turn rate and a steeper dive, but it takes about the same amount of time (probably a little longer with smaller turns since it's harder to build speed because the turn isn't as steep). However, I've found that the starting altitudes are not quite the same, but they're very close. I'll lose more altitude doing a 360 than a 270 or a 180, 90, etc.. But I won't do a 180 in exactly half the altitude that I would do a 360, because that wouldn't leave me enough time to build up speed. So I'll stretch the 180 across maybe 3/4 the altitude required for a 360, so I'll have more time to build speed. The same would go for a 270, except I'd stretch that over more like 7/8 of the altitude required for a 360.
Does this make sense?
Jason