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davelepka

Intro to Swooping - lesson 1

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BMFin is absolute right in this..

Think about two different scenarios.
In both scenarios the swooper is starting the recovery arc from full dive on heading with the course, let's say 4 seconds before hitting the gates, and the distance measured on the ground he is behind the gates is 50 meters in no wind conditions.
1. Downwind 5 meters/second:
The altitude starting the recovery is the same, the time to recover is the same, BUT, the distance covered on the ground in recovery is about 50m+5meters/second x 4 seconds = 70 meters.
2. Headwind 5 meters/second:
Altitude, time etc. once again the same but the distance covered on the ground before hitting the gates/levelling out is 50m-20m=30meters.

Now I feel concerned if someone doesn't realise the difference in the visual sight you get when you cover 30m vs. 70m during the recovery. Looking completery different to me, although the flight angle of the canopy when compared to the ground level still looks the same if you for example take a still picture. But when in motion, the sight is different.

What BMFin means is that if you always train headwind, you get used to that during a normal recorevy you cover for example 30 meters. Then during a downwind landing it looks like you're levelling out faster, and it may make you try to dive more, even though the actual flight path inside the moving airmass is still the same. This is why I think there's an additional risk involved if you're don't know about the difference and haven't trained downwind swoops.

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..and in addition in competition swoopers who haven't trained downwind swoops to the gates very often start their turns a way too close to the gates, which makes them to try to dive more to hit the gates up to the point where the canopy doesn't have time to recover anymore - i.e. target fixation.

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I think if we remove the target fixation I mean language barrier most of you said the same thing...

canopy does the same thing but looks different due to ground speed, some pilots get freaked out some don't. In the end working out a wind speed formula is a good way to circumvent this IE setting up a certain distance from the gates up the wind line in order to compensate before one turns to alleviate any of these silly symptoms of crashing into things at high speeds....

D
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.

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Target fixation is a good and bad thing. It can be used to hit a target that you want to hit or it can cause people to hit what they don't want to hit.

Target fixation is going where you look. It shouldn't have a negative connotation because it depends on how you use it.

Yes, I expect to be ignored because I don't swoop & haven't got a load of jumps. I've been riding motorcycles for a while and one of the core principals is to use target fixation to your advantage.

I'll go back to reading quietly in my corner now.

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Quote

..and in addition in competition swoopers who haven't trained downwind swoops to the gates very often start their turns a way too close to the gates, which makes them to try to dive more to hit the gates up to the point where the canopy doesn't have time to recover anymore - i.e. target fixation.



Bingo. I couldn't have said it better myself. You have to start a long way from the entry gate when going downwind, and remember to account for the very slow progress in heading upwind to the initiation point. Practice makes perfect, and focusing only on the center-line for starters will help prevent the "Entry Gate Trap".
Instructional Videos:www.AdventureWisdom.com
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