There have been huge advances in canopy performance in recent years, both in terms of canopy design and piloting skills.
This can be a fun and exciting aspect of our sport. Sadly, there are still far too many landing accidents, proving that canopy piloting skills need improving at all levels.
It would be easy to blame the canopy's performance, but that is a lame excuse, like blaming guns instead of the people who pull the triggers. It's time to work on the people pulling the toggles.
The aim of this article is to encourage the development of canopy flying skills in a safe manner. It discusses how to build canopy awareness and improve pilot ability through practice and experimentation.
Before we start with the flight exercises, I offer a few words of advice about the end of a canopy flight. These are your landing priorities.
1. Into a hazard-free area.
2. With the canopy above you, not in a turn.
3. Into the wind.
All three should assist in obtaining safe landings, but if your options are running out, stick to this order.
When I first wrote them down I had numbers one and two reversed because way too many people have been hurt, and worse, landing partway through a turn. They are of equal importance but setting them in the above order allows for small toggle input to maintain level flight throughout the landing flare - or a carve for the more advanced canopy pilot.

1. Into a Hazard-Free Area

Landing into a clear area is really just a case of making a flight plan, as early as possible, while you have plenty of altitude. You should have a general plan before you board the aircraft.
If you think there's even a slight possibility that you won't make it back to the DZ once you're under canopy, pick out alternate landing areas and mentally file a flight plan and landing approach for each one.

2. With the Canopy Above You

The importance of landing with the canopy above you should be obvious.
Basically, if you are turning, your descent rate will be higher than if you were directly below the canopy with wings level. Landing in a turn usually makes for a rough landing, or worse. We'll go into more detail on this in a moment.

3. Into the Wind

Landing into the wind is preferable because it's more predictable as part of a landing pattern. Landing into the wind will minimize ground speed and is the easiest landing to control.
But jumpers sometimes give into-the-wind landings too high a priority. Turning into the wind at too low an altitude doesn't give the canopy enough time to level out again for a good flare. (This goes back to Landing Rule #2: With the canopy above you.)
A controlled downwind landing might not be graceful and may even put a few holes in your jumpsuit, but you probably won't get hurt.

Before You Begin

Before attempting the exercises below, review them with an experienced and skilled canopy pilot. Go over things such as the type of canopy you're jumping, how it will react and, if you have a new canopy, what type canopy you were jumping before.
You may find it useful to go through some of these exercises in a hanging harness, with an assistant to swing you as necessary to increase the effectiveness.
Regardless of your experience, also talk to a local instructor or qualified DZ staff member. This discussion should include spotting, exit order, opening height, a "hard deck" for stopping each exercise, local conditions and restrictions.
Let the pilot know if you are going to open higher than usual.
Plan your flight to include your normal flight drills. And before every exercise, make sure you do an "airspace, altimeter and drop zone" check, or A-A-D.
Airspace: This is a continuous check all the way down and the most important skill for a canopy pilot. Ask yourself: "Do I have enough clear airspace to complete this exercise? Am I going to interfere with anyone else's flight plan?"
Altimeter: "Do I have enough height to complete the exercise safely or should I leave it for the next jump?"
Drop Zone: "Will this exercise affect my chances of getting back to the landing area safely?"

Improving Your Landings

Practice makes perfect. You don't have to limit your landing-flare practice to one per jump, i.e., when you land. You can improve your landings by making practice flares all the way down, from locating the DZ and making a flight plan to the start of your downwind leg.
When practicing the flare, fly the canopy at full drive (toggles all the way up), then bring the toggles down evenly, stopping at approximately full brakes. The speed that you move the toggles will vary from canopy to canopy, so get some advice from someone who knows the type of canopy you are jumping. You may find it beneficial to vary the speed of toggle movement throughout the flare; smooth but quick at the beginning to plane out, then slower as the airspeed decreases to maintain glide. Find out what works for you and your canopy by experimenting.
Repeat this exercise as much as possible, giving consideration to the A-A-D check. Your aim is to leam or get a feel for when the canopy's forward speed is converted to lift (so the descent rate is reduced to a minimum for as long as possible while you keep the canopy flying on heading).
The lift generated by flaring the canopy is only temporary. If you keep the toggles down at full brakes the lift will eventually bleed off and you will start to descend again, although it will be slower than at full drive.
Once you have the feel for the flare, all you have to do to improve your landings is time it correctly in relation to the ground. This might take some time, but the learning process can be aided by expanding your peripheral vision to take in as much information as possible. Avoid staring straight ahead or getting tunnel vision. Take quick glimpses to the side during your final approach to help you keep your vision wide.
In between jumps get out onto the landing area to watch others on similar canopies and look for any possible height references like windsocks or flagpoles. If you are really having trouble judging the height and you know impaired vision is not a factor, use a student radio and get someone with experience to help you from the ground.
This goes for your reserve as well. After the excitement of a cutaway and reserve pull, it is easy to forget that you are now under an unfamiliar canopy. If you have enough altitude, practice the flare on your reserve canopy.

Finding the Stall Point

The stall is that point when you apply enough brakes to the canopy that it loses forward speed, stops flying, and starts to collapse, resulting in a sudden increase in descent rate. It is very important, therefore, that this practice stall is never performed close to the ground.
It makes sense then that you know at what point your canopy stalls and how to make it recover. You don't have to fully collapse the canopy to find the stall point, just touching the stall is enough. Recovering is easy, by smoothly raising the toggles a few inches.
Altitude is also important here. Going from the stall point to full flight will make the canopy surge forward initially, until it has a chance to plane out.
Having completed an A-A-D check, smoothly bring both toggles down while watching the canopy. As you go through full brakes into the stall, the canopy will soften in shape because the angle of attack is changing to nose high and tail low, so the air literally falls out of the cells. To recover, let up on the toggles smoothly.
Now repeat the exercise (after another A-A-D check), this time looking straight ahead so you feel the stall, rather than see it.
If you keep the toggles held down, the stall will become more radical and your descent rate will continue to increase. Seven-cell canopies tend to maintain their shape and fly backwards. Nine-cell canopies tend to distort into a horseshoe shape, lose their heading, and can be a lot more "lively" during the recovery, sometimes resulting in line twists. It's possible that you may have to pump open an end cell or two, but unlikely due to cross-port venting. (Make sure you end this exercise above your hard-deck, the minimum altitude where you would still feel comfortable initiating your emergency procedures.)
You can also experiment with the speed that you raise the toggles to make the recovery. The more quickly the toggles are raised, the more dynamic the recovery, resulting in more dive before returning to normal flight.
Most (but not all) student canopies have a long enough control range so that even when pulling the toggles all the way down, the canopy will not stall. For this reason it’s very important to realize that the flare used on most student canopies (toggles all the way down) could stall a more “tuned” canopy and the flare will need to be adjusted accordingly.

Control In Deep Brakes

Flying the canopy in deep brakes has many uses, like when you want to make a turn without losing too much height, a "shuffle turn," or to keep you upright throughout the landing flare.
Accidentally going over sideways during the landing is initially caused by flaring unevenly, or reaching for the ground with a leg, or not being square into the wind as you flare. These situations are made worse by the body’s natural reaction to reach down with the lower arm and raise the higher arm for balance, tipping the canopy over even more and resulting in one of those funny side-stepping landings.
If the flare is too high, the canopy has more time to respond to these incorrect inputs, which could put you in a bad situation.
Canopy pilots need to train the correct response for leveling the canopy out and maintaining the flare. Not reaching down when going over sideways feels a bit strange at first, so don't wait till the ground is really close to try it for the first time.
As always, it is best to practice above your hard deck until you are comfortable with it.
The idea is to recover from an intentional "uneven" practice flare.
After completing an A-A-D check, flare the canopy unevenly so it turns and banks over. Then bring it back to straight flight by leveling the toggles. Experiment with both directions, be smooth, start small, just a few degrees, and increase with more practice.
To practice the "shuffle turn," flare the canopy and keep the toggles held down. After flying straight for a short while (seven to 10 seconds should be enough), practice changing your heading by slightly raising the opposite toggle to the direction you want to turn. After about 10 degrees of turn bring the toggle back down and level with the other to fly straight.
Providing you're still okay with your A-A-D check, try the same thing in the other direction.
When you feel confident with this skill in both directions develop it further by increasing the amount of rotation. See how far round you can go.
When doing larger turns in deep brakes, I've found that the side of the canopy on the inside of the turn wants to stall. This is due to the decrease in airspeed, so you must continually adjust the amount of toggle input to keep the canopy flying. I, therefore, recommend plenty of altitude for this exercise.
And remember, when you recover to full drive, the canopy will dive before returning to normal flight. This is important to consider if you ever use the shuffle turn to turn onto your final approach. Make sure that you have enough altitude so the canopy can plane out again.

Rear Riser Control

Many experienced pilots use the rear risers to bring the slider down the lines and inflate end cells (if necessary) as well as guiding the canopy on to a desired heading just after opening. This technique has the advantage of leaving the toggles stowed so the canopy does not zoom around while the pilot collapses and stows the slider. It is also much easier to bring the slider down the risers over stowed toggles as opposed to released ones.
If you plan on using this technique, you must release the brakes by a safe altitude, before your cutaway hard deck, just in case there's a problem with one of the toggles or brake lines.
You can use the rear risers to steer and flare a canopy if, for instance, you suffered a broken control line, but only if both brakes have been released and only if you know what you are doing.
This is a very important decision to make as the canopy will handle differently - where there is no support for the tail if the control line is broken, as opposed to practicing on rear risers when the control lines are in place.
This is another aspect of canopy piloting that is worth training before you have to use it. And it's good to think of it as training - training to asses whether your canopy can be landed safely on rear risers, in the event of a broken control line, or whether you should cut away and pull your reserve.
When practicing this technique, keep hold of the toggles and grasp hold of the rear risers at about the place where the toggles sit when stowed. Steering with the rear risers works just like the toggles: left to go left and right to go right. But you will notice much more pressure because you are pulling down on a quarter of the canopy as opposed to a small section of the trailing edge. Flaring using the rear risers only takes a fraction of the movement compared to a toggle flare and too much will result in a very sudden stall, so go easy.

Recovery From a Dive or Turn

Even if you never plan to do hook turns or swoop landings, it is a really good idea to know how long your canopy takes to recover from a turn or pull out of a dive, the "natural" recovery.
More important is how to make it recover quickly in the event that you have to make an avoiding turn on your final approach or you've simply turned too low to the ground. I call this the "urgent" recovery.
Be aware that an urgent recovery still requires enough altitude to work.
This next exercise will involve sharp turns, rapid loss of altitude and requires plenty of space as well as altitude, so it is crucial that you do the A-A-D check before the drill and do so periodically throughout the maneuver.
Make a turn, let the toggle up, and assess the time it takes for the canopy to return to normal flight. It will be difficult to measure exactly how much height you've lost; it's much more of a feeling. You may find repeating the word "dive" or counting while the canopy is diving a useful method of measuring the time.
Experiment with different amounts of rotation to increase your awareness of how the canopy handles.
When you've done this enough to get a feeling for the canopy's natural recovery, you're ready to practice the urgent recovery. Depending on your altitude, this may or may not be done on the same dive.
Make a turn, let the toggle up, and immediately flare with both toggles. As the canopy quickly recovers you should get a temporary feeling of being very heavy in your harness as your body continues to drop but your canopy is pulling out of the dive and generating lots of lift. At high diving speeds, it can take quite a bit of effort on the toggles to really discover how much "urgent recovery" power your canopy has.

When to Start

As with any type of training program, the sooner it's commenced the sooner improvements will be realized, regardless of experience level.
The exercises can be worked on from very early in a skydiver's career. Some exercises are already being incorporated into student training, but could be covered in more depth and repeated more often.
The practice flares, for example, should be encouraged (as many as is safely possible) from jump number one. They can be coached very easily via the student's radio, with an instructor pointing out any necessary corrections to toggle movement speed and heading control as part of a normal talk-down.
Control in deep brakes can also be coached in a similar manner, after a suitable briefing on the ground; and so can an urgent dive recovery, a possible life saver.
Encouragement for the continued improvement of canopy awareness and pilot ability can only help everyone in our sport. And it's never too late to learn more about your canopy.
This is not the final word on drills for improving canopy piloting skills. There is always more to be discovered and enjoyed, so ask experienced, skilled and safe canopy pilots for more testing ideas and get a full brief before trying any of them.
Remember to do the three checks (air-space, altimeter and drop zone) before starting any exercises and respect all other canopy flyers.

(Chris Lynch has 8,300 jumps. He is an AFF and tandem instructor, camera flyer, RW coach, and is currently coaching freeflying at the Freefly Training Center in Sebastian, Fla. You can reach him at chrislynchxl ©CompuServe.com.)

Swoop Landings