What gets you better glide?

[ccowden 0]

Ok, I see what he is saying in THAT scenerio, but I was under the impression that we weren't really talking about conditions where you are stuck downwind and the wind speed is so much that it cancels your canopy's forward speed. Sure, in that case, I would agree that full flight is best.

I was only talking about "normal" conditions where you have plenty of forward speed into or against the wind.

[crazydiver 0]

Front risers really aren't going to get you hardly an penetration for the altitude you will sacrifice. I've seen this method taught before and its ludacris. The only time front risers would be beneficial is to bring yourself down quicker provided you are above a safe landing site. Because using other inputs would only set you back further down the windline.

Cheers,
Travis

[BMFin 0]

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Front risers really aren't going to get you hardly an penetration for the altitude you will sacrifice. I've seen this method taught before and its ludacris. The only time front risers would be beneficial is to bring yourself down quicker provided you are above a safe landing site. Because using other inputs would only set you back further down the windline.

Exactly. Isnt that what I said ?

"if you have a slow canopy and its a strong upwind it might be more efficient to use frontrisers for a better penetration"

[BMFin 0]

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Ok, I see what he is saying in THAT scenerio, but I was under the impression that we weren't really talking about conditions where you are stuck downwind and the wind speed is so much that it cancels your canopy's forward speed.

Also applies to wind conditons wich are not as radical as in my example.

Only the amount of imput for the sweet spot is different.

[BMFin 0]

I did a search and I came up with this :

http://www.afn.org/skydive/sta/cancontrol.html

It pretty much goes together with what I said earlier...

Im sorry if I "failed to explain myself correctly"

Chris .. I´ll be coming to NYC next week saturday. If your in town, lets go for a beer and talk more about this...

[ccowden 0]

I live aout 4 hours from NYC, so I doubt that will be a possibility.

[321Cya 0]

I noticed that nobody has mentioned the position of the legs. Pulling them up underneath your ass makes a significant difference, especially with wider/freefly pants or jumpsuits. Just having the legs 'hang' creates a fair amount of drag... Doing this on long spots could give you the extra bit of distance you need!

...just my 2 cents!

J.

www.vandrunen.ch

[ccowden 0]

From my first post:

"Personally, for me, on my Velocity 96 loaded at about 2.2, I like to get my profile down by tucking my knees up and together, slider pulled down and chest strap wide like always, and use the half brakes range. I vary the input from there depending on conditions and how it feels. I like to watch the ground below me to see how fast I am making progress while watching other canopies to compare rate of descent as well as horizontal speed."

[321Cya 0]

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I like to get my profile down by tucking my knees up

...missed that one...

J.

www.vandrunen.ch

[raymod2 1]

Quote

Quote

Front risers really aren't going to get you hardly an penetration for the altitude you will sacrifice. I've seen this method taught before and its ludacris. The only time front risers would be beneficial is to bring yourself down quicker provided you are above a safe landing site. Because using other inputs would only set you back further down the windline.

Exactly. Isnt that what I said ?

"if you have a slow canopy and its a strong upwind it might be more efficient to use frontrisers for a better penetration"

I agree with the first post and no, that is not what you said. In my experience you don't get "better penetration" on front risers. If you are downwind of your target and full glide won't get you there then front risers won't get you there either. It will only make you lander shorter. If you are actually backing up at full glide then front risers may get you down faster so you don't get blown back as much.

[BMFin 0]

As I said earlier. Fronts only when upwind (a hard upwind)

Please read my post again..

• Quote

[alan 1]

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If you have a Neptune, you can watch the descent rate in feet per second I believe.

Before it was watch how fast you are going. Now its watch your rate of descent. You don't really seem to have a clue, yet you post advice here. I guess that's one way to learn, post poor or wrong "information" then hope someone corrects it.

Tell me which is giving you a better glide, 15 ft/sec rate of descent or 10 ft/sec rate of descent?

Hmmmm......10ft/sec. I'm at 3000' descending at 10ft/sec in fairly high head winds, say about 20 mph from 3000' to the surface. I use brakes, risers, what ever to stay aloft for 300 sec or 5 min. My air speed in this configuration is also about 20 mph. How far do I glide? Zero. Notta. Nothing. Zip. Zilch. I descend straight down, even tough I'm in the air for 5 min from 3000' and only coming down at 10 measly feet per second.


Now......I'm descending 33% faster at 15ft/sec from 3000' with 20 mph head winds from 3000' to the surface. Again I use brakes, risers, whatever to stay aloft for 200 sec or 3 min 33 sec. My air speed in this configuration is faster at about 25 mph and with the 20 mph headwind speed, I now have a ground speed of at the very minimum of 5 mph. Now my glide, even with the faster rate of descent is .29'
Gee, a 33% increase in rate of descent and virtually no change in glide.

Try again...........I'm descending at 15ft/sec from 3000' with 20 mph tail winds from 3000' to the surface. Again I use brakes, risers, whatever to stay aloft for 200 sec or 3 min 33 sec. My air speed in this configuration is faster at about 25 mph and coupled with the faster 20 mph headwind speed, I now have a ground speed of at the very minimum of 45 mph. Now my glide, even with the faster rate of descent is about 2.7 miles.

Butttt....I'm descending at 10ft/sec from 3000' with 10 mph tail winds from 3000' to the surface. Again I use brakes, risers, whatever to stay aloft for 300 sec or 5 min. My air speed in this configuration is slower at about 20 mph and coupled with the 10 mph tail wind speed, I now have a ground speed of at the very minimum of 30 mph. Now my glide, even with the faster rate of descent is about 1.8 miles.

Well gee, I guess rate of descent all by itself is pretty useless. You have to be aware of your airspeed, the windspeed, your ground speed , and rate of descent to even begin to figure this out. Then you need to know your canopy, what various brake or riser inputs will produce a known airspeed and descent rate.

alan

[BMFin 0]

Im a little bit amazed how some people with instructor ratings and lots of jumps havent given any thought to this matter.

This is basic stuff. According to my memory in Finland this issue is taught to a student before they are off student status..

Here is a good link to this subject also:


http://www.bpa.org.uk/...99/canopycontrol.htm


And


http://www.bpa.org.uk/...%20your%20Canopy.doc

Especially under "optimizing glide"