Night swoop

[YISkyDive 0]

For those with experience -

Any comments about doing a swoop approach at night? I have 2000+ jumps with 1000+ on my velo and am thinking about doing a night jump this Friday.

Any advice? I believe there will be no light beyond natural light. I have 8 night jumps my last two have been 90s but on a 139 canopy.

I have 250 jumps this season. Please PM and considerations I should take. Much appreciated

David

[berchtoldaj 0]

I remember doing them on the pond at Z-hills a couple years ago. Pretty scary.
1)Would highly suggest getting some lights. point them in the same direction your landing, so when you get to the ground and look to the side your not blinded by looking into them.
2) Don't hit the ground. Depth perception is quite difficult at night in low light.

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Watch out for planters.

[mgattini 0]

I wouldn't go anything more than 270 ( that is if you are doing this size turn already) degrees and maybe let the canopy go just a tad early so that you have the margin of safety on your side. Use a neptune or something precise and that glows. I agree with Albert have some lights on the ground ( unless it's a full moon night- which should be plenty than). Have fun.....

[rhanold 0]

We used cars headlights parked facing upwind in the landing area for ground lighting when I did mine. (I have only done 4 night swoops so far) The lighting worked very well and I felt comfortable performing the 270s. It would have to be a very clear night with a bright moon for me to do one under natural lighting alone.

Another word of caution is when your shadow comes in view you are still on the hill and it is a dangerous time to become distracted. I have seen my shadow on previous night jumps and it did not concern me, however on swoops it comes at you quite a bit quicker and it made me flinch 2 of the 4 times.

Have fun but also know your limits and stay safe.

Blue Skies (clear nights),
Ryan

[davelepka 4]

Make sure you've got a good number of swoops in the LZ in the daytime. Get used to the sight picture, and focus on a few things that can/will be lit up during the night jumps. Use these items as references during the night jumps, i.e. the picnic tables, or the packing tent will always look the same size from 'x' feet, night or day.

Also, shoot for the type of swoop where you roll out a little high and lose a little speed on your way to the ground. You'll still get down with 75% of what you had, but it's a MUCH safer bet.

Powering down into the bottom end, and rear riser-ing out of the dive would not be cool at night.

I did see your thread about photographing a night swoop, but I did not read it. I'm guessing now that you are the subject, and you want a shot of your night swoop. Be cautious of getting target fixation on the camera. I know you want the shot, and I know you'll have the spot all picked out, but making the safe swoop is job one, and getting the pic is much further down the list.

Scope out the LZ, where you want the camera, and where you want to be. Now spend a day or two (10 to 15) jumps making that same swoop, from the same direction, landing in the same spot. This goes right back to the first piece of advice, about knwoing where you're flying into and how to do it. Practice, practice, practice.

[diablopilot 2]

It's one of the single dumbest things to do.


I did love the 450 I threw last Friday night however....

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You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[LetsGoOutside 0]

If you have to get advice on here, you probably shouldn't be attempting it.

[YISkyDive 0]

Thanks for the helpful comment. Really.

Anyway.

I did two 270s Friday night and they both worked out great. The photos failed miserably but such is life. The second 270 was pretty much balls out with a 300ft swoop after making the gates; the first one was as suggested, a little higher to get used to turning at night.

The moon was so bright that natural light and some distant hanger lights was all we used to light the swoop course.

The opening on the other hand was probably the worst experience of my life. On my second jump I dumped at 10K and had my velo spin up into +5 line twists at the last second of inflation. I was kicking till 4500ft to get out and had to pop both toggles to get the momentum going my way. I thought I was cutting away at night... not cool considering I cut away my other rig earlier in the day! That's what I got for saying out loud no high performance cutaways for the last 1,000 jumps lol.

Thanks for the helpful comments. I Did use a lot of advice I got here and it was nice to hear from experienced pilots about what to expect.

[rhanold 0]

Glad to hear it worked out well. I got in 3 on the 4th myself. It was awesome to see the fireworks from altitude. We set up the car lights as useual and I set up 450s to plain out into the light. I would have had that beer on the last one had he not flinched declairing I was going too fast. Good times.

[LetsGoOutside 0]

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Thanks for the helpful comment. Really.

Ha! Glad it worked out for you. But come on... do you really expect anyone to explain the nuances of a night swoop on a message board?

[JohnDeere 0]

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Thanks for the helpful comment. Really.

Ha! Glad it worked out for you. But come on... do you really expect anyone to explain the nuances of a night swoop on a message board?

So he comes here and ask for others opinions and you grill him?> Did you know everthing about anything before you did it? Hell no you didnt! You asked in person? OK. Im sure he did also and compared answers from here and there. Most people are smart enough to figure out if info they got is good or not. I do the same no matter who is answering my question. Ignorance is bliss!

Nothing opens like a Deere!

You ignorant fool! Checks are for workers!

[LetsGoOutside 0]

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Did you know everthing about anything before you did it? Hell no you didnt! You asked in person? OK.

Thanks for backing me up on that. ;)