Skydiving Landing: How It Works
Table of Contents
- What Is A Flare?
- What Does A Skydiving Landing Feel Like?
- What Is A Landing Pattern?
- How Does Wing Loading Affect Landing?
- Where Do You Land When You Go Skydiving?
In Summary
Skydiving landings are executed with precision using advanced parachutes, making them generally smooth and not physically taxing, often feeling like stepping off a curb or sliding feet-first. A landing is conducted by flaring – pulling the toggles to decrease forward speed and descent – to come to a stop at a designated area.
A skydiving landing isn’t as intimidating as many people make it out to be in their minds! When you see the mechanics behind it, you’ll no longer wonder about how skydivers jump multiple times per day, or if a skydive landing takes a major toll on the body. Skydiver landings are done with intentionality and precision (and really good parachutes). Let’s take a deeper dive into how skydiving landings work.
What Is A Flare?
When we land a parachute, we do something called flaring. This is when the steering toggles are pulled down, causing the steering lines to pull the back (or tail) of the parachute slightly down and slow the forward speed and descent rate of the parachute.
To envision this, think of a parachute like a bicycle. When you use the rear brakes on a bicycle, you can feel the rear wheel slow down significantly and eventually come to a complete stop, while the front wheel still has some momentum, similar to the nose of the parachute.
What Does A Skydiving Landing Feel Like?
Does it hurt when you land after skydiving? Typically, no! Of course, mistakes can be made and injuries can happen – after all, skydiving is an extreme sport with inherent risk. We’re just diligent in mitigating those risks wherever possible.
A typical skydiving landing has the potential to feel like a few different things, depending on the type of jump you make:
- Tandem & Solo Skydivers
Hopping off a curb and taking a few steps. Sometimes, tandem skydiving pairs stand up their landings! These landings entail taking a few awkward steps (there are four legs working at once!) and coming to a stop.
Sliding – feet first. Sliding in is the most common way to land a tandem skydive, as it’s generally the easiest. Think: a really docile baseball slide.
How are you supposed to land when skydiving tandem? It depends on a few factors, such as wind speed and the ability of the tandem student. For example, tandem students who don’t have the ability to lift their legs to slide in may be asked to stand up on landing. Tandem students have one priority while landing: Listen to your instructor.
- Solo or Experienced Skydivers
Running. Many experienced skydivers choose to stand up or run out their landings. Depending on how fast they’re going when landing, they will either take a step or two, or go into an all out sprint!
Tucking and rolling. When skydivers are learning how to skydive solo, they’re figuring out the timing of their flare. Solo skydiving courses account for this learning curve by teaching skydiving how to land safely without the finesse someone has with hundreds of jumps. They do this with something called a Parachute Landing Fall (PLF).
A PLF is a technique that distributes the force of a rougher landing across stronger parts of the body. It is conducted by keeping your keet and knees together, your knees bent, and rolling over your shoulder and to your back with momentum from when your feet touch the ground.
Geez Louise … how hard do you hit the ground when skydiving? On a normal skydiving landing, not very hard at all! But, if a student hasn’t figured out their flare timing, they may feel like they’re jumping from a chair or countertop, rather than a curb, which would result in performing a PLF!
What Is A Landing Pattern?
A landing pattern is the pattern flown by a canopy pilot (a skydiver under their parachute) before they land. Similar to airplane pilots, skydivers fly a downwind, base, and final leg to landing. Why? Predictability! Flying this pattern makes you a predictable skydiver, which is critical for the other people landing at the same time as you. Here’s a deeper look into each leg of the landing pattern:
- Downwind. Although experienced skydivers may make adjustments to the altitudes associated with their landing pattern, the downwind leg is started right around 1,000 feet.
- Base. Skydivers will make a 90 degree right or left hand turn onto their base leg around 600 feet.
- Final. From the base leg, skydivers will make another 90 degree turn onto their final leg around 300 feet. They will use this remaining time to suss out exactly where they’re going to land, and they will eventually reach an altitude of about 10 feet to start their flare to land!
Throughout the entire landing pattern, skydivers are keeping their eyes on where they intend to land, other canopies in the sky, and their altitude. Their heads are always on a swivel!
As a solo skydiver, if you find yourself landing with the wind instead of against it, what should you do? Just land as you normally would! Your landing will be a bit faster, but remember your landing priorities!
- Land with the wing level.
- Land in a clear area.
- Flare symmetrically to at least half brakes.
- Land into the wind.
How Does Wing Loading Affect Landing?
Different canopies at different wing loadings will have different flight cycles. Whoa, what? Let’s break it down.
- Canopy. Not all parachutes are created equal. Some are designed to fly aggressively and with a steep dive, while others are more docile.
- Wing loading. The ratio of the weight of the jumper plus the weight of their gear compared to the size of their canopy. A higher wing loading results in a quicker descent rate.
- Flight cycle. A flight cycle is the act of a parachute going from full flight to a full flare, and then back to full flight. When a flare is released (when the toggles are returned to their neutral position and the skydivers arms are extended upward) the canopy will go into a slight dive as it refills with air – think of it like the flare making the canopy want to gasp for air and diving head first into the sky to do so. This all happens in a few seconds, and after the canopy is happy again, the flight cycle is over.
If a skydiver is loading their canopy highly, the flight cycle may produce a steeper dive or a quicker loss of altitude than a lesser wing loading. This is why people increase their wing loading as they gain experience and expertise in the sport and not when they’re first starting out.
Where Do You Land When You Go Skydiving?
Skydivers land at the landing area, which is usually back at the dropzone (where they took off from)! Modern-day canopies are easy to guide around the sky and make where we land easily predicted.
What if you exit the airplane too far away? Ah, the long spot! Because parachutes are so advanced, they’re designed to be able to be responsive to the skydiver’s inputs. For example, if the skydiver wants the canopy to stay afloat as long as possible, they can do so. And, if they want to get to the ground as quickly as possible, they can make that happen!
If a skydiver exits the airplane far away from the landing area, they’ll maneuver their canopy in specific ways to make it back. These ways vary depending on if they’re upwind or downwind from where they want to land.
If a skydiver is going toward the landing area with the wind (they are upwind), they’ll go into half brakes. This means that they will pull their steering toggles midway down (not all the way – that would be a flare!) and coast with the wind back to the landing area. A canopy in half brakes going with the wind will have more lift than a canopy flying at full flight.
Contrarily, a skydiver who is going toward the landing area against the wind (they are downwind) will initiate rear riser input to maneuver their canopy in a way that gets the most efficient forward movement and the least amount of descent.
Ready to come see what a skydive landing is all about? Book your skydive today!
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