Confessions of a canopy coach - Parachutist magazine

[nigel99 144]

I am not sure who has read the article "Confessions of a canopy coach" in the latest issue of Parachutist.

The following things struck me.

1) The article opens with describing how Stu Schoenfeld loosens his chest strap, pulls his leg straps down his thighs and then releases his brakes. I don't remember the name but there was a fatality some time ago where an experienced jumper couldn't find their reserve handle and the speculation/comment was how he had already loosened his chest strap.

So question - is this canopy coach wrong? Is there a reason you can't release the brakes and do a full control check first?

2) Canopy fatalities are on the rise. The entire article is focused on Canopy coaches/pilots where the LARGEST canopy is a 101 square foot and that is into a "tight" demo area.

My view is the USPA missed an opportunity here with this article. Why not get some input that is more useful to sub 1000 jump people? Yes it was an interesting article and it was the author who chose the subject. The footnote could have provided more details on what canopy coaching can do for people, other than leaving the impression that canopy coaching is for swoopers or swooper wannabe's.

Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

[virgin-burner 1]

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...
1) The article opens with describing how Stu Schoenfeld loosens his chest strap, pulls his leg straps down his thighs and then releases his brakes. I don't remember the name but there was a fatality some time ago where an experienced jumper couldn't find their reserve handle and the speculation/comment was how he had already loosened his chest strap.
..

standard practice - nothing wrong there!

“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
"No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

[popsjumper 2]

The mag relates to all of us...or tries to. Even +1000 jump wonders need articles geared for them, too.


To my way of thinking:
Canopy control first, house-keeping later.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[nigel99 144]

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1) The article opens with describing how Stu Schoenfeld loosens his chest strap, pulls his leg straps down his thighs and then releases his brakes. I don't remember the name but there was a fatality some time ago where an experienced jumper couldn't find their reserve handle and the speculation/comment was how he had already loosened his chest strap.
..

standard practice - nothing wrong there!

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3246379#3246379

This incident/discussion is what made me question what he does.

Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

[nigel99 144]

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The mag relates to all of us...or tries to. Even +1000 jump wonders need articles geared for them, too.


To my way of thinking:
Canopy control first, house-keeping later.

You do know that I am on the market for a good used 190 main don't you?

So you could be really helpful and start learning to swoop. All you need to do is take up yoga, and read the article on what not to do

Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

[DaVinciflies 0]

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Is there a reason you can't release the brakes and do a full control check first?

No there is not - I do exactly that for exactly the reason you mention.

[DaVinciflies 0]

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standard practice - nothing wrong there!

I agree that it is common practice but you might want to rethink the second part of your statement.

There have been problems with this method and it's not hard to pop the brakes and do a full control check before you start loosening the harness.

[davelepka 4]

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Is there a reason you can't release the brakes and do a full control check first?

No, but sort of. First off, let's remember that loosening the chest strap, goofing with your legstraps, and unstowing your brakes all come after dealing with your slider. If that means collapsing and pulling down a standard slider, or removing an RDS slider, either way it involves direct interaction with that area of your rig, and it's a prime time to do a visual inspection of your brakes, brake settings and extra brake line. 'Most' of the time if these look good, they are good, and will release with no problem.

Another aspect is that aside from a hung brake or tangled extra brake line, there are really no malfunctions that would be 'hidden' by stowed brakes on a small, highly loaded canopy. It's very clear when there is a problem, and very clear when there is not.

The reason for that 'order or operations' is that an x-braced canopy is very ground hungry in full flight. If you blow your brakes and then drop the toggle to work with your harness, etc, you're going to be falling out of the sky at high speed. Even with the brakes stowed, those canopies will descend faster than most other traffic, it's not until you unstow the brakes and get into 1/2 (or more) brakes, or rear risers, that the descent rate is tamed and becomes more 'normal'.

Some people have caught on that you can unstow your barkes, and loosen your chest strap with the toggle in your hands, and this is true. On a highly loaded canopy, it can produce some wild rocking motions as you move your hands independently, so most swoopers will not go that way. For newer jumpers on bigger canopies, it is absolutely a good idea.

Much like many areas of skydiving, there are suttle changes that go along with changes in equipment or the intent of your jump, and this is one of those areas.

In reference to the incident that was linked, the core idea there is not to unstow your brakes before loosening your chest strap, the idea is to unstow your brakes above your descision altitude, and to make sure your descision altitude is one that allows ample time for you to cutaway and pull your reserve with a comfortable margin for error. I hear people who claim they would cutaway at 700 or 800ft if there was a problem, and while that technically might be enough time to get a reserve open, it is not enough time to miss a grab for a handle, or possibly get your brakes unstowed and flare for landing.

The idea to keep in mind when setting a hard deck is that you only need your hard deck when things are already going wrong, so planning on everything going right when you need to cutaway is just plain dumb.

[nigel99 144]

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No, but sort of. First off, let's remember that loosening the chest strap, goofing with your legstraps, and unstowing your brakes all come after dealing with your slider. If that means collapsing and pulling down a standard slider, or removing an RDS slider, either way it involves direct interaction with that area of your rig, and it's a prime time to do a visual inspection of your brakes, brake settings and extra brake line. 'Most' of the time if these look good, they are good, and will release with no problem.

Thanks for the informative post Dave. I can see that why you may not want to release brakes to early on an HP canopy.

For what it is worth the full sequence that is detailed in the article is Chest strap, leg straps, then RDS then brakes.

Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

[davelepka 4]

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For what it is worth the full sequence that is detailed in the article is Chest strap, leg straps, then RDS then brakes

The only one that really makes a significant difference is the brakes, so the order for the rest of it is just personal preference. I do my slider first because otherwise it's just up there making noise. Also, I don't make any adjustments to my legstraps, so for me that one is a non-issue.

I don't jump an RDS so there might be a reason they want to do unhook that last, but I don't think so.

Another note on descent rates with the brakes stowed, not 'all' HP canopies fall out of the sky with the brakes stowed. The Stiletto for examlpe has a very flat trim and a deeper brake setting, so it actualyl floats with the brakes stowed, even at WL approaching 2.0. The controlling factor is how steep the trim is, and how deep the brake setting. One of the things that lets a Velo dive so far is that the trim is fairly steep to start with. It's 'natural state' is falling out of the sky, so when you roll it into a turn is falls even faster.

[DSE 3]

please note the incident you refer to involves camera wings, which aren't part of a normal swooping regimen.

[skybytch 259]

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camera wings, which aren't part of a normal swooping regimen.

Competitive swooping perhaps, but for the average swooper at the average dz on an average day? Most of them are wearing camera wings because the only way they can get 10 swoops a day in for free is to film tandumbs...

[DaVinciflies 0]

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please note the incident you refer to involves camera wings, which aren't part of a normal swooping regimen.

I am pretty sure there was another one where a guy went in (no RSL or AAD) after cutting away with a loose chest-strap and was seen in what people initially thought was a track, but it turned out he was trying to find his reserve handle. If I remember correctly it was a guy whose Cypres was out that week for it's 4-year check.

Another point is that many of the people who are swooping and loosening their chest-straps will have a longer than stock chest-strap which compounds the issue.

In reply to davelepka's post above about ground-hungry canopies, surely the answer is to pull higher to allow time for house-keeping. In my opinion, jumping a highly loaded elliptical or x-braced canopy should imply a higher pull altitude (to allow time to deal with the violent, fall-like-an-anvil mals that can occur) and if there is house-keeping to be done then even more so.

[voilsb 1]

You can also do practice touches after house keeping, before unstowing your brakes. I've done it a number of times. Yes, my handles move to my armpits, but they're still easy to find.

Brian

[AggieDave 6]

The friend of mine that was referenced as the fatality in this thread didn't happen quite like is implied.

He was jumping with an exceptionally loose chest strap and had a violent spinning malfunction due to a mis-rigged RDS.

I jump with a chest strap extension, but I don't extend everything out until after the RDS has been removed and rolled up. Then I extend my chest strap extension and stow the RDS between my rig and my back. Due to the extreme decent rate in full flight, that is all done with the brakes stowed. A visual inspection is done of my brakes before all of this happens, to see if there is a routing issue.

Stu is a very experienced canopy pilot and a good canopy coach.

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

[nigel99 144]

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The friend of mine that was referenced as the fatality in this thread didn't happen quite like is implied.

He was jumping with an exceptionally loose chest strap and had a violent spinning malfunction due to a mis-rigged RDS.

I jump with a chest strap extension, but I don't extend everything out until after the RDS has been removed and rolled up. Then I extend my chest strap extension and stow the RDS between my rig and my back. Due to the extreme decent rate in full flight, that is all done with the brakes stowed. A visual inspection is done of my brakes before all of this happens, to see if there is a routing issue.

Stu is a very experienced canopy pilot and a good canopy coach.

Dave had explained about the high rate of descent further up the thread. I now understand why you would want to not be in full flight too early.

Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

[bluetwo 0]

I liked the article. I was really curious going into it, to see whether it would discuss people who have done stupid, careless things that came really close to being a lot worse too but it I didn't know how much craziness to expect.

I guess I could've just kept going and going, reading stories and learning from other peoples experiences. I wonder if there's a good thread like that.... one that doesn't go into psychotic rants and raves I mean.

_______________________________________

[nigel99 144]

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I liked the article. I was really curious going into it, to see whether it would discuss people who have done stupid, careless things that came really close to being a lot worse too but it I didn't know how much craziness to expect.

I guess I could've just kept going and going, reading stories and learning from other peoples experiences. I wonder if there's a good thread like that.... one that doesn't go into psychotic rants and raves I mean.

Two very good threads for that

Stupid things I have done - by Ron
Crazy stories from the old days - can't remember who started the thread.

Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

[hokierower 0]

I liked the article a lot. As someone who wants to eventually get into canopy piloting (way down the road) I try and read/watch whatever I can to get more information. The biggest thing that I took away from the article was that, similar to riding a motorcycle, something WILL happen and most time it's a swooper's experience which will determine the outcome. I.e. there are two types of swoopers, those who have had something happen and those who haven't YET had something happen.