Skydive #172 - Accuracy Canopy
Subtitled: It's what you don't know that hurts you... All the old timers have stories, right? Tales of friends they used to have, objects that were nearly their demise, equipment malfunctions, etc. Well, all of these things can also happen as you are working to get into the sport. I'm no expert here, far from it, but what happened over the weekend is a cautionary tale that hopefully resonates with others trying to get into this sport.
Background: I come from the Hang-Gliding world with 5 years experience. There is a great deal of crossover between hang-glding, skydiving, paragliding, and BASE here in the bay area. There is an annual film festival, we end up drinking and socalizing at each others houses, you get the idea. I ended up at a really good place in life and went to some BASE friends to get me started in skydiving. They sent me to one of their BASE friends for tunnel time, and another BASE friend to take my AFF. Great folks all around and I have learned a great deal over the last 9-10 months jumping my Sabre2.
The choice: In my day to day jumping I made friends with a Style and Accuracy guy at the local DZ. Looking for a way to continue learning new skills I borrowed a Foil 280 accuracy canopy from him and asked him to help me learn about the accuracy discipline. P.S. (local rigger extrordinare) hooked it all up but cautioned me that jumping the canopy is not a great idea. <--Always listen to your rigger... The Style and Accuracy guy, took me under his wing as it were and talked me through the basics of how to land the canopy, showed me how to flat pack the monster into my existing d-bag and I was off. Jump #170 (first jump on this canopy) went pretty well. I opened at ~8k so I would have lots of time to play and get familiar with the canopy. 10 minutes later (no kidding) I set up my approach with 0 to 1/4 brakes and took a firm yet reasonable PLF into the low grass. Jump #171 went ok as well. I set up a bit late, but again a fairly reasonble PLF from a light to mid braked setting to end it. Still not feeling confident with the canopy (2 PLF's in a row is not confidence inspiring) but neither one was very rough and doing 5-6 of them in a day isn't that big a deal. Jump #172, the one you are all waiting for...The canopy opened in line twist at 5k which was an easy correction. I set up in my traditonal approach and everything was looking great, no other traffic, lots of room, right on target to hit the peas from 1/2 brakes, focused, everything felt right. I'm something like 10-15 feet from the ground when I realize that the ground is coming up faster than expected. Natural instinct to flare makes things worse, although I'm not sure by much. Whack.
The result: I'm going to call it a severly sprained left ankle. No broken bones (whew), several hours of very intense pain (thanks P.S. for bringing ice), and a horrible drive home since I have a stick shift.
Talk about Accuracy Canopies: I guess the best way I can explain it is by thinking about the angle of attack of the canopy in normal flight. A "regular" canopy like my Sabre 2 is either neutral or pitched tail down relative to the wind. When you flare this canopy goes more tail down and nose up which results if done properly in a soft landing. An Accuracy canopy is different. The nose is for all intents and purposes pointed flat or downward at trim. As you apply brakes the tail comes in and your trajectory becomes more parabolically downward. If you watch closely the accuracy folks when they are coming in on the tuffet are almost straight down and accelerating. Remove tuffet...you now have an object (you) accelerating towards the ground in an increasingly vertical position. This feature if you will of an accuracy canopy means more brakes leads to a progressively harder landing. This all may be a bit of an oversimplification, but it should serve to give a way to think about how accuracy canopies are distinctly different than regular skydiving canopies and also BASE canopies.
Lessons learned:
1. The accuracy canopy in DBS would actually fall backwards in a reasonably controlled manner. Just before that point the canopy would descend vertically and 1/4 inch past would back up very, very slowly. I now "get" the benefits of adjusting your brake settings in BASE and learned a ton about canopy behavior.
2. GET A MENTOR - I probably have 10+ acquaintances/friends who are into BASE, but that is not the same as having a dedicated mentor watching out for you and helping you progress the right way.
3. Listen to your rigger. Most have been around a while and know a great deal more about your equipment than you do.
4. Some decisions should require unanimous consent as opposed to majority opinion. Example: If 4 out of 5 people think you are ready for a wingsuit, and 1 out of 5 thinks you are not...then you are not ready. Counter Example: If 4 out of 5 people recomend a particular canopy (a Seven for example) and 1 out of 5 thinks you should get a different canopy (an Ace for example) the difference is unlikely to get you hurt. The key is being able to distinguish between which situation you are looking at.
5. Being aware of "intermediate syndrome" does not make you immune to it.
6. We are all creatures of habit. If you have learned how to do something a particular way in the past you are likely to learn a new thing the same way. If in the past you learned how to rock climb or paraglide and had bad experiences as a beginner or intermediate you are likely to have similar experiences at the same point of progression in other sports. Did you switch to a faster motorcycle as an early intermediate and get in a wreck? The same thing is likely to happen in your BASE-Skydive progression. My tip: Try to make the majority of your mistakes in as forgiving environment as possible. My bad landing here for example was in the daytime, close to a hospital if necessary, lots of witnesses, good cell service, ice machine, etc. It would have been a really rough hike out of the back country.
6. Slow down. When you actually ready others already in the sport will seek you out.
7. Did I mention get a mentor???
Wasn't it just a partial stall from too much brakes and too low wing loading?? 
You can also accelerate with front risers to get a lot of speed before flaring hard. So the canopy slows down while you are still going, and the pendulum effect will throw the canopy nose upwards, reducing vertical speed I guess