Basejumper.com - archive

so after reading a few repetitive posts lately about a lot of simple rigging tweaks, i thought i would post one of my theories on control lines in case it might help one person.

i was actually talking with a fellow jumper about this recently concerning overall line length (affecting flare performance).

when setting up a new canopy, and dialing in your landings and flares... there are some things to think about.

first off, if you are a shitty canopy pilot and have no self control, you probably shouldn't even be BASE jumping and should definitely not even read this.

but, having said that. it is my SOP to tie my toggles, right off the bat, about 6 inches shorter than where the factory mark is on the line-set. (then if necessary i can tweak again from there to my liking)

why? because i have short arms? no, in fact i have long ass monkey arms, but that would probably be another good reason if i did.

i do it because:

1. if you're ever in the corner, you'll have a lot more power to dig yourself out when you need it.

2. i use front riser input when able for setting up landings. higher speed = higher input before stall = more flare power.

3. the more yonkel you can yank, the faster you will turn... period. i think most will agree that being able to turn fast is important. so far (knock on wood) i've never hit an object.

4. above all, i'd rather have too much input at my disposal than not enough. you just have to be careful not to be a "panic full flare" type of person too high above the ground, or you'll get the same result as someone who flares with rear risers like they do with toggles.

so again, this may not be for everyone... but hey! it's the internet and i can say whatever i want!

hope it helps someone though... seriously.

Could you define what you mean by "fast" in this context?

Is that;

a) most degrees turned per second of time
b) most degrees turned per foot of forward travel
c) most degrees turned per foot of altitude lost
d) something else?

Thanks.

all of the above... of course that's looking at it simply... but if you are not getting a full control stroke, you will surely not turn fast by any measure.

Logical question for ya my old friend, how would this effect my brake settings and opening factors if I gave it a whirl? What has your experience been?

Slider up and down.

It would have no effect on the brake setting or opening as he was talking about shortening the line below the brake setting.

Sorry, I may be confused, so if you shorten the lines that much, 6 inches, your nearly at your shallow setting already? No adjustments to the brakes at all?

I am asking all this because I am pleased with my brake settings, but have always been a bit disappointed in the amount of input needed for turning/flaring, this is a remedy I never considered before.

correct. no difference to brake settings. this is only shortening the control stroke, which is effectively the portion of line between your shallow brake setting and the end of the line. just move the knot up the line towards the canopy. i would suggest maybe just moving the knot about two inches at a time if you are unsure.

again, this is just MY M.O. but it works well for me.

He is referring to shortening the length of the control line below the brake setting. This will not effect the deep or shallow brakes in any way. What it does is allow you to get more performance out of the canopy once the toggles are in your hands.

Haven't changed my brake settings from factory.
Slider down I pop the brakes and take a wrap, slider up I don't wrap. I find the toggle input and flare on landing is same for both configurations.
I have short ass arms and my (total) stall point is at straight arms i.e. past my waist.

I don't really jump sites that require a good yanking though, so maybe that's something to consider.

that is actually one of the major things i try to avoid.

i feel taking a wrap is one of the worst techniques for BASE jumping you can develop.

if you need to take a wrap, your line is too long.

try and take a wrap jumping half the stuff i'm on, and you'll have already hit the ground.

Use longer risers. You can move the physical brake setting higher on the line while maintaining the same tail deflection, which will allow you to use the same break setting with a deeper toggle setting.

It can, if your brakes are already close to the toggles. You may find yourself wanting to choke the toggles up _past_ the brake setting.

The solution is to use a longer riser, moving the 'same' brake setting (i.e. same tail deflection) further up the line to make room for the toggle.

I bought some new risers for my old Blackjack, and they were 1" longer than the originals. I thought this wouldn't matter and carried on, but eventually the nagging doubt made me start thinking about shit I don't understand, so I emailed my rigger mate to ask if it would change anything. His reply:

"Very important - remember to flare 1 inch higher off the ground"

It's possible to make the riser longer and leave the brake attachment at the same point (by lengthening the riser above, rather than below, the loop/ring setting point). But why would you do that?

This is actually flat out wrong. You can only pull a control line so far before the canopy will stall. Shorter control lines won't add any more power to anything, it will however allow you to reach your stall point a lot faster.
I hear most of what you are saying but think most of it is misleading. If some one can already utilize 100% of their canopies control range then shortening the control lines wont be of any real benefit at all. The only thing you will achieve is to raise the control stroke ie. you wont need to flare past your waist to complete the flare any more. Having a short control stroke may be your preference but it will by no means add any speed or power to anything. Total control is total control no matter how far you have to move your arms to achieve it.

Interesting point of view. I assume from your other comments that many of your jumps are slider down?

If you have the shorter line slider up, you are potentially preventing the canopy from getting full flight as there will always be some brake applied.

This can be bad in high winds (unless you like landing in reverse), and as you already pointed out a canopy not in full flight has less flare power so it's not great in nil wind either.

not necessarily. if you have increased airspeed, you will temporarily have more usable input until either you exceed it's critical AoA or slow down back to it's normal stall speed.

now, this all may be negligible and therefore i don't advise others to just blindly shorten their brake lines because some idiot said it was a good idea on the internet.

the main point to take away is that if you cannot stall your canopy, you are not getting a full control stroke and therefore should shorten accordingly.

nothing makes me smile more than squeezing every bit of lift out of a wing before landing.

also, i think i was just stressing the point, but 6" is pretty extreme. i have adjusted that much before, but in the end most of my canopies are about 2-3" shorter.

absolutely correct. there is definitely a fine line there and you must be careful to not make the line too short to cause tail deflection in "full flight".

yet another thing i had failed to mention. thanks.

How does this affect your 'full flight'?

it doesn't.

If you can still access full flight and full stall, then you're good to go, and adjusting the toggles setting is just about finding the control stroke positioning you are comfortable with. Some people like it higher and some like it lower, but they are all going to get the same response from the canopy.

If you can't get full stall out of the canopy, you should definitely shorten the toggle settings. I usually shorten mine quite a lot from the factory marks, especially on CR and Atair canopies.

If you can't get full drive out of the canopy, you should lengthen the toggles.

If you have to choose one or the other (you can't get both full flight and full stall out of the same control stroke), you should look into adding a 5th control line (which compresses the control stroke with all else equal). If you already have that, you need to look into a smaller canopy (and possibly a diet to go with it ).