0
DJL

How do YOU demo a canopy?

Recommended Posts

I'm interested in hearing what kind of drills people put canopies through during a demo. What kind of things do you look for? Why do you look for these things?

Edit: How do you test for these things.
"I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Please expand? How do you find your stall point? How do you find out how your canopy flies in turbulence? Why does riser pressure matter? How about recovery? Flight in half brakes?
"I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Open high, about 10,000 feet at least. Take note to see if the brake lines are long enough. They should be bowed out with some slack so it won't deflect the tail during front riser input.

Just fly it around turning it and flaring it.

Hang in deep brakes, then pull the toggles down farther to stall it. To what degree you stall it is up to you. At least find that point a few times.

Then CRANK the front risers down, farther than you ever would normally, to see how it reacts. If it folds under.... bag it up and send it back. Tell everyone you know what happened. I haven't seen a canopy as of late that will react that way but you do need to know if it will.

Do hard front riser spirals
Fly around on rear risers

After all that is done, chances are it's time to set up for landing. I like to see if it surfs well. Also it's good to land it straight in with no added input. If you get to fly it enough, do a braked approach as well. That comes in handy sinking it into someones back yard.

Why do this you ask?

The first reason is pretty straight forward. You want to know if you like the way it feels.

Secondly if it reacts in an undesirable manner during hard front riser input, the canopy needs to be re-designed.

Here is the reason I test a new canopy in an overly aggresive manner.

My friend Frank was a good swooper. He flew an Excalibur until it was very worn and then started flying a Pintail. The excalibur had no odd flying traits. The Pintail did. After a 40 way skydive, he landed straight in because of traffic. He intended to build up speed by pulling down the front risers, which he did. It folded up at around 80 feet above the ground. Frank was a role model to me. His last landing, was his final lesson.


THAT is why a demo canopy should be flown and tested hard before buying it. Nova, Pintail, Conquest... and I'm sure a few others were dangerous canopies. Take the Conquest for instance, If you pull the front risers down, the results often become very undesirable.

When the Stiletto came out and I demoed one. Try as I might to fold it up, the canopy stayed inflated. It flew nice, landed well... so I bought one.
Obviously some test flights aren't going to be so aggressive due to experience levels but all the same tests should be applied.

The end result should be:
Fun factor = high
Correct size
Safe flight characteristics.
Good flare
Good floatability... (doesn't sink out in Brakes, and isn't ground hungry)
Note - often ground hungry is a desired traight so that is somewhat subjective.

I look forward to reading other suggestions as well.

K - back to work

Hope that helps.
My grammar sometimes resembles that of magnetic refrigerator poetry... Ghetto

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Did my first 4 jumps on a vengeance 120 last weekend: 3 hopnpops from 9/12k plus 1 terminal opening at 11k, did toggle turns, fr turns, rr flight, harness turns, fr dive, half brakes, braked turn, flaring, stallpoint for toggles, stallpoint for rr. Landed straight in (no swooper yet ;)).

Edited to say, And had a whole lot of fun doing it!
We had a canopy control weekend, and 2 guys with velo's were doing follow-me-doing-fr-turns excersises, and I could sorta keep up with them by cranking out the hardest toggle turns I ever did. It helped they kept going back to brakes of course, but it was FUN!

ciel bleu,
Saskia

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I saw a Heatwave fold up (nose folding under) a couple times too, at a few feet above ground. Ouch. Had to duck once because the peas were flying everywhere, the guy complained I hadn't taken any photo's afterwards :S

We have these canopy control excercises you need to do before your A and B, including 2x3 consecutive fr turns (I can't do 'em...) One guy took his new to him Conquest up for those excersises, came down white as a sheet. Instructor: you prolly did it wrong. [:/]

He actually burned the Conquest afterwards!

ciel bleu,
Saskia

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

a demo canopy should be flown and tested hard before buying it.

My friend Frank was a good swooper. He intended to build up speed by pulling down the front risers, which he did. It folded up at around 80 feet above the ground. Frank was a role model to me. His last landing, was his final lesson.

I look forward to reading other suggestions as well.



Hey Tim thanks for giving us your two cents. I couldn't agree with you more that the person demoing the canopy needs to fly the shit out of it up high. And thanks for telling us about your bud Frank. Jumpers of the more modern era like myself are servered well by the people who came before us, who paid the ultimate price so that we can jump the gear we have access to today.

I have been formely trained on how to swoop and could go through a bunch of drills for someone in that regard. But not every person wishing to demo a canopy is a swooper. But people need to not be afraid of playing with their canopies, and play with them up high. If you want to demo a canopy, dedicate some time to flying this canopy. Don't go off ordering a demo canopy and go do your normal skydiver with all that fun freefall. Instead pull high and attempt to wring it out. Be smart when it comes to your landing (chances are you don't know this canopy all that much), but as Tim mention, fly it hard up high to see if it's the canopy for you.


Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Full alti hop'n'pop and then wring the shit out of it. I'll do hard toggle turns (360's, 720's, etc.) alternating left and right, flat turns, riser turns, see how much altitude is lost in toggle/flat/riser turns, flare the canopy, stall the canopy...basically put it through everything I can think of and see what it'll do.

Why? I want to know how it will react up high before I put myself in a situation that won't turn out good.
Life is short! Break the rules! Forgive quickly! Kiss slowly! Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably. And never regret anything that made you smile.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

0