Canopy Piloting Course by Ian Drennan July 10-11th

July 1st, 2010

Skydive Georgia will be hosting a Flight-1 Canopy Course for both beginners and advanced pilots. The essentials course will be held on July 10th and will be followed the Advanced course on the 11th. The essentials course is completely full and the advanced course has one slot left unless John Jordan decides to take it. He really needs some help. I mean really have you watched his landings. Can you say no form? And what is up with that tongue hanging out thing he does….

For those interested, here is a break down of the courses that will be offered:

The Essential Skills Course is a five-jump program with classroom training between each jump. During the jumps I usually stay on the ground to observe the jumpers under canopy and videotape their landings. After each jump there will be a video debrief and classroom training session for the entire group. These classroom sessions last approximately 45 minutes. Each session focuses on a different skill area, and builds on the skills discussed in previous sessions.

During the Essential Skills Course jumpers learn to have more fun under canopy while practicing important safety and survival skills. We will discuss basic aerodynamics; practice effective flaring techniques; and work to improve each jumper’s flight planning, traffic pattern, and accuracy skills. Jumpers will learn to be more aware of their surroundings and create a safer landing environment for themselves and others. They will learn more about their canopies’ performance characteristics and develop a better understanding of various flight modes, particularly low-speed flight. We will discuss problems such as bad spots and off-field landings, and learn how to deal with them more effectively.

This course can help novice jumpers develop good habits and good basic canopy skills, and can be especially useful for jumpers who are having problems with canopy control. Experienced jumpers who aren’t having any particular problems often attend these courses simply to learn more about canopy flight and sharpen their existing skills. Many coaches and instructors have attended an Essential Skills Course to improve the way they teach canopy control to their own students.

Anyone can attend an Essential Skills Course as long as they have been "cleared to self-supervise" and can jump without an instructor. This usually means the person has completed Category E of the ISP, AFF Level 7, or the "graduation jump" of an equivalent training program. This is my only requirement, although some DZ’s require participants to hold at least an “A” license. Participants must also meet USPA’s “currency” requirements: if anyone needs refresher training they should complete it before the day of the course.

Once you have completed the Essential Skills Course you can continue to develop your skills with an additional day of instruction. Like the Essential Skills Course, the Advanced Course consists of five jumps with classroom training between each jump. Depending on your current skill level and goals, you will be able to focus on one of two different skill areas:

High-Performance Landings
This course focuses on the theory and skills needed to perform consistent, controlled high-speed landing approaches. Our goal in this course is to teach you how to gain maximum performance while minimizing the risks to yourself and others.

This course can help you avoid common mistakes and develop advanced skills more quickly than the traditional "trial and femur" method that many of us endured. If you are already practicing high-performance landings, we can help you refine your technique, make more consistent approaches, and get longer, more precise swoops.

It can take hundreds or even thousands of jumps to master advanced canopy piloting techniques, but an experienced coach can help you learn more quickly and get better results from the start. All Freedom of Flight canopy coaches are experienced swoop competitors and test jumpers who have flown a variety of canopy types and sizes.

Advanced Accuracy
Not interested in swooping? No problem! Spend a day improving your accuracy instead! Building on the skills developed in the Essential Skills Course, you will learn the techniques used to perform "stand-up" or "sport" accuracy landings. How small of a target do you want to hit? The only limit is your desire to learn.