Safety Check

It Takes Two to Tangle
It takes two canopy pilots to create a canopy collision, but only one to avoid it. While canopy collisions are nothing new to the sport, busy skies and faster parachutes have combined to increase the number of collisions reported over the past few years.

Collisions usually occur near the beginning or the end of the canopy flight. Lack of sufficient breakoff separation at the end of a freefall can cause a collision during or just after opening. And lack of awareness prior to landing can cause a collision at the end of the canopy descent.

Thankfully, many jumpers are already aware of these hazards and have adopted simple procedures that greatly reduce the chance of a canopy collision. The challenge for most is sticking with those procedures on every jump. Murphy’s Law is always waiting for the one time a jumper skimps on his procedures. There are a number of ways to help avoid collisions:

For groups of five or less, Skydiver’s Information Manual Section 6-1 recommends breakoff altitudes 1,500 feet above the highest planned deployment altitude, or at least 2,000 feet above for groups of six or more. Jumpers should increase these altitudes for freeflying, faster parachutes and jumps with toys or other special considerations. This allows plenty of altitude to gain enough separation from other jumpers yet still deploy at a reasonable altitude.

Different canopy sizes, designs, wing loadings and landing approaches can create a chaotic environment at landing-pattern altitudes. Drop zones usually declare a left-hand or right-hand landing pattern rule to keep traffic flowing smoothly. Let’s face it—watch 20 jumpers on the same load land, and probably the only thing they will have in common is landing in the same area as close to the packing mat as possible. Some will follow a standard square landing pattern; others might zing in with 360-degree front-riser turns followed by double front risers and carving swoops the length of a football field. The rest will fall somewhere in between.

There is no easy solution to the traffic problem. What works for one scenario may cause problems in another. For drop zones that have the space, separate landing areas for students, performance approaches, etc., can help reduce traffic problems. Other DZs have banned hook turns altogether. While it is easy to blame high-performance parachutes and hook turns, the statistics indicate that most collisions have resulted from an aggressive S-turn during an otherwise straight-in final approach.

The real key to avoiding a collision is planning and preparation combined with defensive canopy flight. Plan your descent before you get on the airplane. This includes normal descent strategies and alternate plans. You may have a bad spot, or traffic may require a different pattern in the main landing area. Look before you turn! This simple rule can prevent most canopy collisions. Look behind and below in the direction you are turning, which is where your canopy will end up. Additionally, if you avoid flying your parachute directly beside, below or behind another canopy, it makes it pretty hard for anyone to inadvertently sashay or spiral into you.

Whether you attend a professional canopy piloting school, train with a knowledgeable local jumper or learn to dock with another parachute on purpose with some canopy formation training, improving your skills and awareness will help keep everyone safer during the second half of the skydive.—Jim Crouch

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