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skyjules

newbie on sabre

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The other day, I didn't land so good. It was a high wind day, I slipped from under my feet and came down hard on my ass. I felt it in my stomach. Some were telling me I flared to early, some said too late. Now i'm confused. I'm not shure how I should be changing my landing according to a high wind day.

I did a second jump that day, the winds were still high. My landing was good because I staged the flare.

I guess what i'm wondering is if there's really a difference in your flare according to the ground winds. How do you change your landing.

***Free bird Forever

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Bear in mind that I don't know you and didn't see you land, also I'm no instructor...

From what I've seen, a common lowbies mistake is kinda flaring the same regardless of the wind, so that in high winds you flare as usual, making the canopy break more then is necessary to get your groundspeed to near-zero. That can make you fall backwards.
Not the timing of the flare, but the amount of flare is what causes this.

Of course you could just have the timing wrong ;)

ciel bleu,
Saskia

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I guess what i'm wondering is if there's really a difference in your flare according to the ground winds. How do you change your landing.



You start the same and stop before you start flying backwards.

The problems are that

1. You don't see things the same in windy conditions because your forward ground speed is lower for a given vertical speed. You might think you're coming down slower than you really are and flare slower than you need to.

2. You have less ground speed and therefore time to reduce your altitude and vertical speed to zero before you run out of forward speed, making things more difficult. This relates to my first point - it's possible to end up with zero forward speed, substantial vertical speed, and have a hard landing.

As a student you get taught to flare fully at X feet off the ground, which only works when X hasn't changed due to being under a different canopy or density altitude variations. You also have to get X right, which is harder when your speeds are different due to winds or induced speed (intentional or accidental - say from the surge following a braked approach).

It's better to interact with the situation, adding toggle as necessary to control your vertical speed. You start with some assertiveness to slow your vertical descent, stop yourself vertically slightly below ground level, and then add enough to come back up as the canopy is running out of lift or your ground speed nears zero. Slower canopies require less precesion to get a comfortable landing and the sink/pop-back-up part can be elliminated (you level out at or slightly above ground level). On mushy lightly loaded canopies it gets compressed into one motion. Works great on everything from F111 seven cells loaded at .7 up to cross-braced tri-cells at 1.9 in any wind conditions (upwind, downwind, crosswind).

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My chute is a sabre 135, with 9 cells, 0 perosity.

From the responses to this forum and the mojority of responses from the drop zone. I guess the best way to land my parrachute in high winds is to stage my flarring but not to flare all the way. Is that right for the most part? I mean I know that it's never going to be the same, but I was getting clashing answers about this, so I just want to get a better understanding.

***Free bird Forever

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My chute is a sabre 135, with 9 cells, 0 perosity.

From the responses to this forum and the mojority of responses from the drop zone. I guess the best way to land my parrachute in high winds is to stage my flarring but not to flare all the way. Is that right for the most part? I mean I know that it's never going to be the same, but I was getting clashing answers about this, so I just want to get a better understanding.



Fly your canopy all the way to the ground, and along the ground as long as possible, to the point where your ground speed reaches zero or your canopy can no longer suspend your weight and forces you to put your feet on the ground.

By flying your canopy I mean putting in just enough input to keep your "surfing" along the ground. When you start to decend or "drop" increase your input so that you maintain level flight for as long as it's appropriate. Regardless of the wind, you want to get your ground speed to as close to zero as possible before touch down. In no wind conditions this isn't possible (but usually so slow only 1 step is needed) but in higher winds it's quite possible to get the ground speed to zero.

In other words don't put your feet down until it's absolutely necessary.

edit: No matter how light you are, a 135 is extremely aggressive for your jump numbers. Tread cautiously. You should solidify the concepts of canopy flight on a canopy that is more forgiving of your inevitable errors.

Blues,
Ian
Performance Designs Factory Team

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It sounds like you may have started your flare on time, but you finished too far down for the windconditions. When it's windy, you don't need a deep flare, that's what caused your feet to come out from under you. Stage the flare and try to keep the forward speed, or if you're coming straight down, don't flare so much that you back up.

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