Unnecessary Risk

So there you are stood on the DZ, shooting the shit with your buddy, "Yeah Man, there I was... "  Suddenly you hear that rush of wind through lines, that distinctive sound. The sound that is only made by a high speed canopy. Your mouth stops moving, you and the DZ look up as one, just in time to see the tail end of the pilot's 'hook'. It's 'Rickets Power' and he is Ballistic! Toes in the grass, vapour trailing from his finger-tips he is so fast. 75 yards later Rickets applies some brake, his canopy rises four feet and stops.  He steps down, looks at you, smiles, picks up his canopy and walks away into the hangar. The Babes swoon, one of them stands up and goes after him. Close to you someone walks by with a No Fear T-shirt. On the back it says 'Pain is Temporary, Glory is Forever!'

Photo shows Olav Zipser by Stuart Meacock

The mind starts to go, "Cor, Wicked Surf....I know he has a Stiletto, it's a 107....so small must be the way....elliptical....hmmm. My PD170 is so boring now, hey man, I've got 250 jumps, it's time for a new canopy! Yeah new gear, small main, even smaller reserve, I should be able to get it in one of those new 'Tiny Teardrops'. Then I'll be able to surf like that....Glory and Babes Forever!......Where's that credit card?"

Right, let's get back to reality because that's where we ARE ladies and gentlemen, reality! The real world! We've just seen Rickets surf. Way Cool. Bastard. OK so you have guessed 'Rickets' is fictitious (based on a real person, name changed to protect the King!). Who is Rickets? He is one of the jumpers on your DZ. He's been in the sport a long time and probably works in it. He has a lot of jumps, he must have because he is jumping ALL the time. His landings are always perfect. Rickets IS the dude, the one you would like to be. Rickets has honed his landing skills over many landings on many different canopies, using skills he has developed on canopies from Pegasus through Wildfire, Excaliber, Sabre to his current Stiletto. Rickets made some bad mistakes in the first one thousand swoops. Mistakes that we ALL make, HAVE made or WILL make. He made them on canopies that are now scoffed at, no cool dude would be seen under one today, they just don't have the speed. But they were the 'cool wing' at the time. A mistake made on one of these canopies was enough to keep him from jumping for 2 or 3 days. Now he rarely makes an error, only scaring himself maybe every 250 - 500 swoops. BUT, he still makes them! He only gets scared and not hurt because he detects the error immediately and instinctively takes the necessary action. What allows him to do this? Is it luck? No, it's experience! Over one thousand swoops' worth of experience. Not 1000+ jumps, 1000+ swoops!

Photo by Patrick Passe

So why has Rickets not ended up in a wheelchair? Because he was cool and learnt his skills slowly and progressively. He knew the risks. The consequences of a mistake could range from time off jumping, injury, paralysis .....or worse. They say you can't run before you walk and Rickets has crawled. He knows that the swoop is not everything. He knows that if he has to walk a little further because he can't get back, then that's OK. He knows he can't swoop safely in congested airspace, so he doesn't. He lands safely somewhere else and walks back. He knows not to swoop hard on the first jump of the day or over a new DZ or if he is feeling shabby (hungover!), he's seen too many get carried away like this.

From opening onwards, he is setting up for his swoop. Aiming to place himself over the chosen landing place, at the right height and direction to commence his 180, 270, or whatever degree final turn to the ground. He is checking out ALL the canopies, flying on brakes to get into 'his' slot in the pattern. The lower he gets, the more focused he becomes. When he starts the swoop you can be sure he knows where ALL the canopies in the air are, their predicted flight path and landing place. He has concluded that they will not be put in jeopardy during his swoop. If someone flies into his flight path thus destroying his set up, then he will land normally rather than take an unplanned, tight swoop. Finally, he swoops because HE gets a rush from it. The rush is having his toes in the grass, canopy travelling horizontally, for the longest time. The fact that it looks good is just a bonus. He swoops for Rickets not the babes.

The general standard of canopy flying in Britain is good and landings are well controlled by drop zones. Step out of our UK rules and regulations and the game changes radically. Some of the canopy flying seen abroad really opens your eyes. At boogies, canopy pilots do anything; land with the wind, across it, downwind. All in different directions but all at the same time and of course as near to the packing area as possible. It can be and often is a ZOO on finals. Last year in the space of four days at a boogie in Northern Europe, I saw one jumper die, one get resuscitated and two more go to hospital, all because they made senseless decisions and seemed oblivious to the consequences of their actions - otherwise they would not have been flying the way they did!

Day 1
Dude on large canopy, flies over landing area at 200ft going downwind, turns 45 degrees onto short finals, forcing 2 jumpers to go onto deep brakes to let him in. The guy (I won't call him a dude any more, because he obviously wasn't!) then hooks with the left toggle the rest of the way. He hits hard at 45 degrees to the ground at the same time his canopy does. Hospital. (I'm gob smacked. 40 on a pass and they all try to land in the same tiny space, at the same time, this is the most congested airspace I've ever seen! This is CRAZY!)
Day 2
A video guy with about 250 jumps, Stiletto 120, opens on a deep spot. Runs all the way back. Makes one 180 degree toggle turn at 60 feet and hits horizontal. He's badly smashed. Hospital case. (I suppose he didn't want to walk back...)
Day 3
I see two canopies flying towards me, into wind at 200ft. Then the one behind seams to 'bounce' out and to the side of the lead parachute. He has flown into the back of it! The canopy (BT Pro) then 'flat spins' for three and a half 360's, with a serious loss of height! (I am scared! I've got one of these, but I have never seen a spin like that before.) The pilot is now spinning under the spiralling canopy and he hits the ground at speed. Nasty.
Day 4
Guy pulls in the basement, about 1,000ft (they have been doing this all boogie for no reason) and has a brake fire on his BT Pro. He does nothing and the canopy soon winds up. Easy choice; cut away or die! He chops at less than 700ft. I look up and see him at about 250ft with twists in his reserve lines. He is kicking frantically to undo them (and I bet he wished he was at two grand!), he hits hard 100 yards away. I looked at Chris (Thomas) and said "Skydiving here is in the Unnecessary Risk Category! " He replied "Damn right it is, we're not jumping here mate!" and we didn't.

So what went on here? Well it was a relatively large DZ but the 'Cool' place to land was relatively small. With 40 out on a pass from a Herc, it became very congested on finals. Lots to watch out for, many instant decisions to be made. Inexperienced handling of high performance canopies in a crowded airspace.

Photo by Wendy Smith

So you want to get a new faster canopy? Okay that's cool but you must objectively look at all the factors when making your decision. Normally Aspirated When most of us started skydiving, the only square canopies available were made of F111, ripstop nylon, let's call it normally aspirated. They were lots of fun, especially when we started on rounds. Slow flying compared to today's canopies (perhaps 20 - 24 mph), gentle turns, with predictable reactions to the pilot's commands. Even with these docile canopies, many people were badly hurt or even killed attempting 'low hook turns'. Turbo Charged A coating on the ripstop nylon was added, so that the fabric became zero porosity (ZP), ie it did not let the air through. Because of the improved fabric efficiency the aerofoil was more rigid. Radical parachutes made of this fabric started to appear around the late 80's. For example, the BT 40 series was very popular in the UK, fast through the air, turning on a sixpence with a lovely flare. Parachutes de France made the move to an elliptical shape. Performance Designs released the Sabre, a ZP version of their proven canopy design. Speed rose to 30+mph with fast turns.

But with zero porosity fabric came an increased likelihood of a hard or off-heading opening. It became more important for the jumper to be meticulous about packing and body position on deployment (See June '96 issue of SP). The parachute was less forgiving of human error - dumping in a track would almost guarantee a breathtakingly hard opening. The pilot had less time to react if he/she was under a rotating malfunction or on a collision course. We started to experience more canopy collisions. Landing speed was now very fast and 'surfing' was born. We saw an increase in the number of serious injuries and fatalities caused by radical turns close to the ground and canopy collisions on finals.

Super Charged
In the last three years, new aerofoils using ZP fabric have been brought out, giving super fast canopies which react instantly to the pilot's command. The BT Pro series and the Stiletto range are amongst the most popular. Turns are so radically fast that a hard turn can put twists into the lines, rendering the canopy out of the pilot's control. Pull on a front riser hard and they fall out of the sky at up to 80 ft a second! A skilled pilot can swoop the canopy in, level her out, and surf for 50 yards or more. The surf does not have to be straight either and it is possible to rub the end cell on the ground, and then stand it up. All of these things are possible only because of the high speeds that these canopies fly at. The manufacturers put an experience limit on these canopies when they first released them, of 500+ square flights, but this seems to have fallen by the wayside.

With every increase in performance comes a higher risk factor. For the improved surf with a Turbo or Super Charged canopy you get a higher risk of everything; Pain, Injury, Death - balanced against those long landings - if, of course, you have the skill to extract them....

Let's look at the Stiletto and Pro type canopies. They are the current 'Cutting Edge' of canopy technology and the canopy that every 'Wannabe' and his dog are buying. Zero P, elliptical platforms turn in a heartbeat and are incredibly fast through the air. These are not 'intelligent' canopies, they are stupid! They will blindly go where they are pointed, following the pilot's instructions with no thought for his safety. When the pilot depresses the toggle they turn, as far and as radically as the toggle was pushed, with NO REGARD to the consequences. These canopies require a high calibre pilot, who is on the ball, focused and thinks well ahead. To the truly cool and groovy, this canopy is a tool with which to obtain a fast, long landing. In inexperienced hands, it can become a weapon with which to KILL and MAIM themselves and others.

I see lots of people changing their mains very often. It is apparent from their landings that they do not get all the performance available from their current canopy, but still they crave the new 'Cool Wing'. They want those cool landings and they conclude that it is the canopy that delivers. Make no mistake, it is the pilot not the canopy! If you want proof then lend your kit to your local 'Rickets' and watch the surf that he obtains - if your landings are as good, then maybe it is time for a change. Probably, this exercise will demonstrate the vast amount of performance that you have yet to find with the canopy you already have.

Last year, 32% (almost one third) of USPA fatalities were due to hook turns or canopy collisions. The trend shows us that this year more of us will be killed or maimed due to accidents under canopy than ever before. Let's try to make sure that we aren't amongst them.

Changing your canopy to one with greater performance will bring with it a higher risk of the following:-

• Canopy collision
• Landing injuries

In either of the above cases the injuries sustained will be more severe due to the increase of speed. A high speed malfunction of the canopy will rotate faster and more violently. Cutting away from this may not be easy if the malfunction puts twists into the lines. It is now possible to induce your own malfunction. The higher your canopy's performance, the less time you have to react, giving less margin for error. A poorly judged landing is likely to have disastrous consequences, ones we don't even want to think about.

If you really crave more speed, are you sure you are making the most of what you have? Fitting a collapsible pilot chute and stowing your slider can give you around 10% more speed. This costs just a few pounds and will safely increase performance on a canopy you are already familiar with. Get some instruction from Rickets and explore the potential your current canopy still has. Improving your flying skills is more rewarding, safer and cheaper than buying a new, postage-stamp-sized canopy which is perhaps outside your performance range.

If you intend buying a smaller canopy, try to resist the temptation to go as small as possible. Pay attention to manufacturers' guidelines for wing loading, Why buy a canopy outside the recommended weight range? Overloading a high performance parachute will make it even more radical. If you do less than 100 jumps per year, do you really need the same canopy as the guy who does 300? Why push the limits? If you have to hook to get a good landing because the parachute is so small, is that really what you want? Or would you prefer the next size up, which you can land well every time and which won't give you severe problems in the event of a bad spot, a tight demo or a slightly misjudged approach? If you sometimes get scared on the canopy you have, are you ready to make the step to a more scary parachute?

Photo by Bruno Brokken

Risk factor is something that you MUST consider when you are looking at a new canopy. Skydiving is potentially dangerous but we reduce this risk to an acceptable level, a level we are happy with. Don't get complacent, don't kid yourself, this sport can kill you in a heart-beat. Make sure that you make decisions about a new parachute with your eyes open. Make an honest assessment of your skills, wants and needs. We skydive because it is the most fun we can have. It's a 'soft' sport. Nice DZ's, good friends, state of the art gear, lovely aircraft, soft openings and smooth landings. But, it gets HARD in a moment. When the shit goes down, it usually happens very fast and the result is often catastrophic. You MUST understand the consequences of your decision; make it, be happy making it and then go forward slowly and carefully. DON'T put yourself in the 'Unnecessary Risk Category'.

George Pilkington
george@coolngroovy.com

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