frenchyflyer

Yup, you're right, I am also able to swoop level with the ground with my Sabre2 150 (wl 1.2) with no input what-so-ever. With a sabre2 120 loaded at 1.5 it is a bit trickier to perform at ground level but you can also make it plane out on its own (although, as you said, getting just a little bit in the corner and barely touching the rears is easier to do consistently). This is not true with other canopies such as the Katana, Xfire2 and of course the xbraced tiny ones...

That's also my take on this: When I was on my Sabre2-150 loaded slightly over 1.2:1, when the approach was perfect I would swoop with no input at all for quite a while until the speed was too low to provide enough lift, then using the toggles or the rear risers made little to no difference as this speed was already quite low on a 1.2-loaded Sabre2... To sum up, the answer is: you do not need that trick yet, you need to make all the rest perfect first. Have fun, be safe, G. aka GoingHome -- Edited to add: the 'trick' means 'RR for HP'. Of course it's a good idea to be able to RR a straight-in approach as SkyMonkey mentionned.

That's the idea: you want to be facing the wind when going down the slope and you want steady wind (i.e. not turbulent)! It might depend on the strength of the wind, but then if they are too strong you don't even want to try flying your canopy, right? OK, I just had a look at the second picture and I was getting a wrong idea when looking at the first one. The previous piece of advice is a good one too: start quite low then work your way up. If you are afraid to overshoot, land crosswind perpendicular to the slope (but not downwind towards the ground! it sounds obvious but, well, I don't know you ). Have fun and be safe, let us know how it all went...

Just my 2 cents after looking at your picture: Make sure you have a direct line free of obstacles from the point you'll start running until the planned landing area. Chances are that you will only be running all the way down on your first attempt so you don't want to end up going full speed into the trees (or even if you take off, say, 5 feet of the ground, that will not be enough to clear the tree line). Be safe, enjoy!

I think that's the idea: Let the people fly the canopy they are currently flying (maybe have a S&T O sign them off to prove that they were allowed to fly this canopy at a given time), but enforce such a regulation for all new canopy changes. This will piss off some jumpers who wanted to downsize off the chart, but after a year or two (or 3 or 4) it will be common practice and nobody will question it. You can also allow exceptions to downsize a bit more aggressively but these exceptions need to be signed by a Canopy Instructor or a S&T O. The above is basically what was implemented starting last year in France and yes, people were very unhappy at first but things are already settling down. It is too soon to determine whether this is a coincidence or not but the number of fatalities has decreased this year AFAIK (although only years will tell whether this measure actually contributes to lower the number of fatalities - btw fatalities are not the only issue here, we may be also saving bones and lifestyles). Note: France is certainly not at a top-level in terms of HP canopy piloting, but we were basically encountering the same issues as you guys with lowtimers digging themselves in under canopies they should have been flying in the first place...

bump I'd really love to see this vid...

It looks like they decided to remove the mpg file (probably due to traffic) Can someone else provide a link elsewhere (e.g. on SkydivingMovies)? C'mon, please, I bet a bunch of you have the file on their disk right now...

A seasoned skydiver can make his/her own decision about this (and yes he will try up high what he plans to do near the ground). My point is the following: Imagine someone on a student canopy (190 or 210 for instance) whose steering lines have been set so that he cannot stall it. This person wraps it a couple of times around his hands and then tries to stall the canopy. He succeeds in stalling the canopy and stays that way a little bit too long so that the canopy collapses and then reinflates asymetrically (I had that once, my bad); the canopy will start to spin and I guess that at least one of the steering line will get tension, making it harder to release (at least harder than a command loop) if you want to cut away (ok, the above is not a reason to cut away but shit may happen and you may have a reason to cut away). That's a lot of "if" but, still, I'd not advise students to wrap lines around their hands. Even though I'm ok with seasoned skydivers doing that e.g. when using bigger parachutes than what they're used to. As a sidenote I expect that when doing CREW you did not have the lines around your hands (but only at landing time), am I wrong?

I really wouldn't advise anyone to wrap his/her hands around the line, especially to try and stall the canopy because if the stall is really successful you may collapse the canopy and it may not re-inflate correctly (at least not symetrically) and in case you need to let go of your main you probably don't want to have the steering lines wrapped a couple of times around your wrists. I don't think it is really that helpful to play with more input than what the commands have to offer, what I mean is that you'll never wrap your hands around the steering lines for a landing so what's the point of knowing how the canopy behaves in that configuration? I'd find more useful to try and stall the canopy with the rear risers (as landing with the rear is something that may happen to you someday) but there you also need to be careful to let go gently and symetrically of the rears when you have successfully stalled your canopy. When you get another canopy with a normal command setup (not tampered with to avoid stalling), then you can play and see how it stalls with the commands; it's always important to know up high how your canopy reacts to all sorts of inputs... Safe jumps, G.

Yeah Loic Jean-Albert is really amazing, he is seriously considering "landing" his wingsuit someday (well, the landing would more probably look like a snowboarder's badass fall on a steep mountain curve, but still he might be able to come out of it pretty much alive). Patrick de Gayardon was also considering landing one of his suits someday, too bad his sewing was so bad that he ended up screwing up his own gear by mistake. Look out for french skydivers!!!