Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to look over your shoulder and keep your shoulders level at the same time. Even if years have passed since they transitioned to a hand-deployed pilot chute, many experienced jumpers still have the habit of looking for their pilot chutes as they reach for them and checking over one shoulder after they throw them. Most licensed jumpers use hand-deployed main pilot chutes, and these are becoming the standard for student training as well. Looking over your shoulder changes the airflow over your back and helps clear pilot chute hesitations, which are common when using a spring-loaded main pilot chute. We were also taught to look over one shoulder and "check" after pulling the ripcord. Those of us who were trained using this type of system were taught to look for the ripcord handle before grabbing it. Even in the late 1990's this type of system was still used on most student rigs. Older skydiving rigs used spring-loaded main pilot chutes activated by a ripcord. What do you see in the video as you pull? Are you looking up at the horizon, or down at the ground below you? Do you look back toward your pilot chute handle as you reach for it? Do you look over your shoulder after you pull? If you jump with a video camera, look at some of your openings on tape. Take a moment to notice where you are looking while you reach for your pilot chute. If done correctly this doesn't take a significant amount of time and becomes a natural part of your wave off. As you finish your wave-off and start to pull, relax back into a normal arch. Keep your arms and legs spread out and maintain a slight de-arch while you wave off, remembering to look around for other jumpers. This will help bleed off any excess speed. To flare out of a track, spread your arms and legs and de-arch slightly for a second as shown in. Even if you don't freefly, simply tracking at the end of a belly-to-earth jump can significantly increase your airspeed, and you may still find it helpful to "flare out" of the track and slow down before you deploy. Both beginners and experienced freeflyers should keep this in mind when planning their dives. This extra speed makes flattening out and slowing down before you pull particularly important. Vertical or "freefly" body positions like head-down or sit-flying allow you to reach much higher airspeeds than "flat" body positions. Slowing down can be especially helpful if your openings are frequently or even just occasionally faster than you like them to be. Slowing down before you deploy can provide a greater "margin of error" and reduce the effects that other variables have on your openings. If you rush your pack job one time and let things get a little sloppy, or if your canopy is starting to go out of trim, extra airspeed could make the difference between an opening that is slightly abrupt and one that really hurts. Higher airspeeds might not cause a canopy to open hard as long as everything else is just right, but small variables tend to have greater effects at higher airspeeds. This is not something you should take for granted, though. Some jumpers even find that their canopies open better when they are falling a bit faster. Many of today's canopies are designed for relatively slow openings, and some will not be affected greatly by a little extra speed at deployment time. As your airspeed increases, these forces also increase. The speed at which you are falling when you deploy your canopy can have a large effect on the forces generated during the opening. He or she may want you to focus on more important skills, like altitude awareness and basic stability, rather than adding anything new to your pull sequence. If you are not a licensed skydiver yet, or have just recently earned your license, you should discuss this article with your instructor before trying anything you read here. You might even want to make a solo jump and try some practice pulls using these techniques before it's actually time to deploy. It might be a good idea to practice these techniques on the ground before trying them in the air. This article is about deploying a parachute, one of the most important things you do on every skydive. Unfortunately, we sometimes develop a few bad habits that have a negative effect on our openings.Įven after making thousands of jumps, people have been surprised to find that a few small adjustments to their body position during deployment can significantly improve their openings. We learn to deploy our canopies in a basic, stable position as students, and many of us don't give this skill much more thought after that. The design of the canopy and the way it is packed are two important factors, but body position also plays a major role. Many factors determine the way your canopy opens.
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