How did I surf?

[LittleOne 0]

During the five jumps I made this weekend, I surfed on every landing. Amazing! I never intended to do this and would like to understand how I managed to do so. They were slow, baby surfs lasting maybe all of 20 feet but for me, it was a first.

I am not a gifted canopy pilot. This was my second weekend of jumping after a five week layoff preceded by 2 months of consistently crappy landings. During my first day of jumping after the layoff, I did three high pulls and practiced flat turns, front risers and getting back from a long spot (that one wasn't practice).

On this weekend's jumps, I tried to do a few things differently. I brought my knees up instead of holding my legs in the ready-to-run position, I held the plane out until the canopy lost all forward motion and, perhaps most importantly, I was determined to be the master of my canopy instead of vice versa. Otherwise, it was a straight in approach with no attempt to induce speed. On four of the jumps, I landed without a step. On the other, where I know I shut it down a second too soon, I went surf surf knees stand up. The winds were low to none. I fly a Pilot 150 loaded at 1.08.

I don't think I did anything differently from an ordinary straight in landing ending in a stand up that I expected to have to run out given the lack of wind. Any ideas how this could have happened?

Oh and BTW, dragging my feet across the ground and ending up in the softest landings ever was really fun!

[dharma1976 0]

every landing whether a swoop or not has a stage in it where you try to let the canopy fly until it doesnt want to anymore....

trying to get the canopy to just stop as you get to the ground will result in a basic stall which will make your landings hurt

Dave

http://www.skyjunky.com

CSpenceFLY - I can't believe the number of people willing to bet their life on someone else doing the right thing.

[Cacophony 0]

When you flare you are flattening out the glide of your canopy. Depending on wing loading, forward speed...... the canopy will continue to fly level until the amount of lift generated doesn't compensate. Even big student canopies will get a little "surf" out of them if landed properly and in the right wind conditions. Personally, I think most people put their feet down too early and don't use the last bit of their flare. Sounds like you started playing with the bottom end and maximizing your flare. Any good canopy coach should be able to give you great advice after watching you land.

[DrewEckhardt 0]

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I am not a gifted canopy pilot.

I bought a Turbo Z 205 (ZP topskin but otherwise not too different from a PD 9 cell) for my first canopy, wing loading probably somewhere between .85 and .95. On jump 13, I downsized to it directly from Sky Master 295s which were my DZs only rental gear.

I started flaring like I did under the student canopy, it leveled out, I didn't know what to do, and promptly crashed. My favorite instructor told me I had to start flaring, wait, and then finish flaring. That worked a lot better.

Every other modern ZP or half-ZP canopy I've jumped has done the same thing.

Quote

I don't think I did anything differently from an ordinary straight in landing ending in a stand up that I expected to have to run out given the lack of wind. Any ideas how this could have happened?

As long as you don't have a tail wind and haven't overloaded your canopy too much, reasonable technique will let you stop it in a step or two.

When my beer belly was bigger and I lived in Colorado, I tried a Samurai 105 loaded at 1.9 pounds per square foot with a density altitude beyond 8000' and no wind. While the speed was a too much for me, it still stopped within a step. You could go a lot smaller at sea level or with a cross-braced canopy before you needed to run or slide.

People instinctually run when their feet are on the ground, and they stop flying their canopy once they're running so they need to keep moving. I sometimes do that when I get rusty; although it's definately not the preferred way to land.

Flying the canopy until it stops supporting your weight before you put your feet down will land you slower. Finishing your flare a bit more abruptly just before that happens can completely stop you but might pop you up a bit. Sinking a little in the surf so that your feet would be below ground level will mean finishing that way at ground level for the slowest, softest landing possible.