Nathan_123

Awesome! Way to go trunk!

Too aggressively. I started at the typical student sizes. I made the mistake of 'I can swoop' at jump 400ish. Apparently you cant recognize when you come in too fast on a smaller parachute as the loss of altitude is not linear to your wingloading.

That would be awesome! I go to Arizona quite often but don't like getting sand blasted or shocked in the tunnel at the drop zone. Anyone know what size it will be?

In general wind speed does not affect canopy flight (unless you are really close to the ground such as landing). Think of it this way: if your in a swimming pool that has a glass bottom will you interact any differently with the water if the pool is on the ground or suspended 100 ft up in the air? How your body interacts with the water would stay the same if you do the same movement. The fluid dynamic stays the same as air is a fluid and its affects are the same, just harder to see. Wind affects ground speed but its a constant as far as the air flowing into your parachute at any given time as long as your in full flight. The only that would change the pressure inside the parachute (the fluid pouring into it) would be if you hit turbulence as that's like hitting an air bubble in the pool. Strong winds can have an effect of you are flying sideways to the wind and its strong enough to push on one side of your parachute because that can affect the shape of the wing. The change in shape is what would affect the flight, not the wind. If you are landing then the air can be turbulent causing constant little changes in inflation pressure, causing potentially less lift. The other affect can be if you are flying near a hill or mountain. As the air cools near the mountain is tends to 'slip' downhill because the air further away from the hill is warmer. Since cool air drops (or warm air rises) this affect can push you down more. This affect also affects BASE wingsuiters. Atmospheric pressure will cause a lot larger changes in canopy rate of descent when compared to wind.