icarusphoenix

While I don't profess to be an expert on canopy flight (only 260 jumps), I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. I've noticed that a couple posts have mentioned or implied that line tension is a contributing (if not primary) factor in initiating line twists. Would any of the experienced canopy pilots be willing to expand on this issue or post links to other threads, as I think it could be a beneficial discussion here. My line twist experience: Jump #32, rental gear (sabre2 190 loaded at 1:1). I was flying in full brakes and let up on the toggles rather quickly, causing the canopy to surge forward and release all of the tension in the lines. At the same time I initiated a turn. The canopy responded beautifully and turned just like I asked it to. Unfortunately, since there was no tension in the system connecting me to the wing, I did not turn with it and this spun me up into 7 or 8 line twists while the canopy was still obeying my command and remaining in a hard diving turn. I went to my reserve, which ended up teaching me several other valuable lessons about cut-away handle location in a high G-force spin and altitude awareness. But that's for another thread. As a side note, I did not understand why the situation had occurred until I read Brian Germain's The Canopy and It's Pilot. After reading a section on line tension, the light bulb went on in my head. This was nearly a year after the line twists/cutaway had happened. I have found this book to be extremely helpful in learning/understanding canopy flight, and highly recommend it as a learning tool, along with participating in a canopy piloting course.