Yeah....soft landings? How do you do it?

[shah269 0]

Guys/ Gals I'm hurt due to a hard landing.
But to be honest of my 8 jumps almost all but 2 were what I call hard landings.
Are there any bookfs / blogs dedicated to helping me not kill myself! I love to fly but canopies just aren't my thing....but that's due to the landings.
I'm 190lbs on a 9 cell student rig....I'll be back on a 9 cell student rig.
Can you guys help? I really would love to fly again.....but man these landing hurt!
Thanks!

Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

[AggieDave 6]

A good landing doesn't happen on final, it happens by planning your pattern before you ever get on the plane. Its ended by a good flare from neutral flight and finishing your flare.

Get with your regional canopy coach to go over the specifics, get video of your landings and good luck!

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[Sangi 0]

I just don't get it, how can you have a hard landing (in which you would hurt yourself) on big ass student canopy, unless you're weight is like 120+kg, but your isn't, so what's the problem, do you forget to flare?

"Dream as you'll live forever, live as you'll die today." James Dean

[Ronaldo 0]

Have someone to video your landings and show it to an experienced canopy pilot. You can also post a link to the video here and it will be much easier to help.
You can’t even imagine how seeing yourself on video helps. I did a canopy piloting course with Luigi Cani recently and he was able to see many things I was not aware of (such as my brake lines being slightly short for riser turns). My piloting skills improved dramatically.

Engineering Law #5: The most vital dimension on any plan drawing stands the most chance of being omitted

[monkycndo 0]

Words from an expert.

Sangi, post less, jump more.

50 donations so far. Give it a try.

You know you want to spank it
Jump an Infinity

[Sangi 0]

Seriously, hard landings on big ass student canopy? How?

Unless you're jumping during a storm or you don't know how to flare or you do some nasty low hookturns, how can you brake yourself with such canopy?

"Dream as you'll live forever, live as you'll die today." James Dean

[skybytch 259]

Quote

Seriously, hard landings on big ass student canopy? How?

Unless you're jumping during a storm or you don't know how to flare or you do some nasty low hookturns, how can you brake yourself with such canopy?

While you may have been perfect from jump one, most other people aren't.

[theonlyski 3]

Canopy and its Pilot from Brian Germain. Improved my landings quite a bit.

Actually, I did the dumbest thing, downsized first jump after a 7 month lay off (jumped my new to me gear), on my currency jump, landed in the target (that my coach missed )

Try out the 2-stage flare... ask the swoopers, they do it all the time.

Its a little tricky, but if you follow the instructions in the book to learn your sweet spot (the point in the flare where you level your flight) and level out before touching out to burn off some of that speed, makes for much nicer landings.

"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

[timmyfitz 0]

Quote

Seriously, hard landings on big ass student canopy? How?

Unless you're jumping during a storm or you don't know how to flare or you do some nasty low hookturns, how can you brake yourself with such canopy?

You don't know what you don't know. Like monkey said....post less, jump more. You may learn something.

[shah269 0]

No jumping for now, broken tib fib.
but as soon as i get better i'll hit the dz and take a class or two or three and ask for videos.

Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

[Sangi 0]

Quote

You don't know what you don't know. Like monkey said....post less, jump more. You may learn something.

Please enlighten me then.

"Dream as you'll live forever, live as you'll die today." James Dean

[matto765 0]

PA's are not permitted on this site. Cool off guys ~ Ian

[Sangi 0]

wow dude, I bet it makes you feel real good doesn't it?

"Dream as you'll live forever, live as you'll die today." James Dean

[matto765 0]

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wow dude, I bet it makes you feel real good doesn't it?

Yes, it does. By the way, nice pro-tec. You'll probably need it someday, since you obviously don't understand one thing about canopy flight, and more importantly, how people get hurt under canopy.

Edit to Add: You know what Sangi, I will actually enlighten you. Not to actually help you to prevent you from hurting yourself, but to show you how stupid you sound everytime you post something without thinking first. There are many ways to have hard landings under a student canopy. The most popular ways to do it are to put yourself in with a low toggle turn, flare too high, flare too low/no flare, and severe turbulence. If you don't believe me, go out and grab a student rig and try to do all three. If you are still around after that, let me know and I will give you a prize. It doesn't matter how big or small your canopy is. If you don't set up or flare properly, you can severly hurt yourself. But, you probably already knew that, you dumbass 100 jump wonder.

[shah269 0]

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Try out the 2-stage flare... ask the swoopers, they do it all the time.

I may have to learn how to do this so as to set myself up, take a moment to realize where I am and then commit to the final.
I'll ask the guys and gals of the local DZ when I get better.

Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

[Sangi 0]

Quote

Yes, it does. By the way, nice pro-tec. You'll probably need it someday, since you obviously don't understand one thing about canopy flight, and more importantly, how people get hurt under canopy.

Thanks, I love that helmet too. Seeing as that you know so much about how I fly in the air without ever seeing me, you must be some badass skygod oracle!

"Dream as you'll live forever, live as you'll die today." James Dean

[shah269 0]

People...less about you and how great you are and more about me and how my landings suck so much that I broke my leg on jump #8

Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

[matto765 0]

Quote

Thanks, I love that helmet too. Seeing as that you know so much about how I fly in the air without ever seeing me, you must be some badass skygod oracle!

I don't need to see you to know how you are. I believe everyone on DZ.com knows how you are by the constant flow of moronic and illogical comments that come from you on these forums. You have no fucking experience, yet you seem to feel the need to let everyone here know how it is when it comes to skydiving. Perfect example would be this thread, and how, according to you, it is apparently impossible to have a hard landing under a student canopy. Like what they said earlier: Post less, jump more. If you did, maybe you would learn a little and not post some retarded ass comments. I'm done with this thread now. We are getting to off topic.

[Sangi 0]

If you could read better, maybe then you would notice the question marks "?" at the end of my sentences, which indicate that I do not state something, but question something...

Anyway, yeah off topic stuff.

Sha, best bet I guess is to talk to your instructors about your problems.

"Dream as you'll live forever, live as you'll die today." James Dean

[Grumpy 5]

Have you seen this?
http://www.dropzone.com/content/Detailed/680.html

[Chubba 0]

I had lots of hard landings during AFF that I eventually corrected.

Some advice in the meantime.

Get some good supports for your vital joints (knee's/ankles etc.) and make sure you're jumping in really good shoes, you can't put a price on walking away from a jump.

Most importantly, drill the PLF so it's second nature. Go get a martial arts mat or something similar and bust out a few dozen every single day. Then when you come into land, feet/knees together ready for that PLF... hopefully your memory takes over, it's not pretty, but chance are you will walk away unbroken.

[shah269 0]

Quote

I had lots of hard landings during AFF that I eventually corrected.

Some advice in the meantime.

Get some good supports for your vital joints (knee's/ankles etc.) and make sure you're jumping in really good shoes, you can't put a price on walking away from a jump.

Most importantly, drill the PLF so it's second nature. Go get a martial arts mat or something similar and bust out a few dozen every single day. Then when you come into land, feet/knees together ready for that PLF... hopefully your memory takes over, it's not pretty, but chance are you will walk away unbroken.

Thank you so much, I will
What shoes and protective equipment would you recomend?

Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

[danielcroft 2]

Warning: noob advice follows.

I'm no expert & depending on what you're doing wrong (flare too high/too low, etc.), what helped me was to practice flaring up high to see where your canopy levels out when flaring. Some people use the gut, I watch the canopy above my head & see where the nose comes in line with me. I had a couple of iffy landings (not broken but got dirty) when I flew a Spectre 190 (~.9 WL) for the first time of student status. I hadn't practiced the flare properly & was screwing up the timing (had been jumping Navigators). Practicing this on each new canopy really helped me figure out when I needed to flare. Remembering of course that the speed at which you flare will affect the canopy differently. Look ahead of you and not below you. Feet & knees together - get ready for a PLF.

The best thing you can do is have someone (your instructor or other experienced jumper) watch you land and give advice. The other part of that equation is actually listening to the advice given. When an experienced jumper (i.e. not me!) gives you advice, you should listen and act on it even if it's not the advice you want to hear.

I've generally been pretty good at landings, I can't really tell you why that is but I've had a few rough ones (the one I was balanced on my head afterwards was pretty amusing for everyone apparently!) too but what I can tell you is that it's one of the most critical parts of your skydive so you may want to spend some time talking to people about it & getting advice *in person*.

[dharma1976 0]

has sussex updated their gear? Last I saw they had some spanked up stuff that flew like shit no matter what you did with it.

did you tib/fib at sussex?

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.

[davelepka 4]

Some helpful tips, for sure, but what you really need is ask your instructor.

With 8 jumps, you'll still be jumping with an instructor when you return. Be sure to mention to them that you had several hard langings, and ultimately hurt yourself on a hard landing. Let them know that you'd like to spend extra time talking about canopy control.

Without a good knowledge base to work from (you only have 7 successful landings), your best training will take place on the day of your next jump. The exact canopy you will be flying and the weather for the day of your jump will factor into the training, and what you need to plan for.

In the meantime, since you'll have some extra time on your hands, get Brian Germains book. It's really the best book out there, and well worth the price.