Foundations of Flight: Approach with Confidence­—Part One, Beyond Imprinting

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Wednesday, November 12, 2025

Above: Photo by Matt Jackson.

Brought to you by AXIS Flight School Instructor Niklas Daniel at Skydive Arizona in Eloy. For more skydiving educational content and professional coaching services, visit axisflightschool.com.

Experienced skydivers use a variety of tricks and techniques to help them land accurately and consistently, regardless of what the wind conditions are or what others are doing around them. Many do this intuitively, unable to fully explain how they are achieving this level of precision. While building experience is vital, jumpers can expedite the learning process when they know what to look for. This six-part series introduces a structured approach to canopy flight that builds repeatable performance and increased confidence—from navigating to and within the holding area, to building consistent landing patterns and an in-depth look at the final approach.

Definition
In skydiving, imprinting refers to flying over known landmarks at set altitudes that serve as checkpoints during a landing pattern. By knowing the relative distances between these checkpoints and the target, new or less experienced skydivers gain actionable information on whether to make corrections. This method can aid in accuracy over time, but it has its limits. New jumpers learn imprinting early on because they can’t yet judge their canopy’s glide potential or adjust to wind conditions.

Following a set pattern creates useful guardrails, but it also builds reliance on landmarks that may not exist at other drop zones. That makes the technique less transferable, especially at unfamiliar locations. Imprinting is also less reliable on night jumps, when poor lighting or limited visibility makes landmarks harder to identify. To progress, jumpers must go beyond imprinting and learn to recognize sight pictures relative to their target in flight. With practice, this skill allows accurate landings anywhere, even on a first visit.

Sight Pictures and Mental Framework
Previous installments have covered glide (Parachutist September, October and November 2022) and range potential (July 2023). To elaborate further, consider how wind affects a parachute’s glide slope from the canopy pilot’s perspective. Looking straight down past your feet represents 90 degrees, while the horizon is 0 degrees. Using that frame, the table below shows how a canopy’s trajectory changes in different wind conditions. In this example, the canopy’s lift-to-drag ratio in full flight is 2-to-1, with the glide slope set on final approach at 300 feet.

Photo by Brianne Thompson.

Ground Exercises for Viewing Angles and Ground Speed

Train yourself to identify these angles by cutting cardboard into triangles at the specified degrees. To find the proper angle to the target, hold a triangle cut to the appropriate dimension of your canopy’s glide angle. Keep the base parallel to the floor and line up the far tip with the first third of a rectangular sheet of paper placed flat on the ground.

Notice how the sheet’s shape changes with your perspective. Viewed from directly above, it looks like a rectangle. From an oblique angle, it becomes a trapezoid, with the front and back edges drawing closer together as the angle shallows. Approaching a 40-by-20-foot Pro Rating box works the same way: The box will change shape depending on your viewing angle. So will other shapes, for example, a circle appears as an ellipse. For more information on refining visual acuity in flight, see the July 2023 and April 2014 installments in Parachutist (available at parachutist.com/backissues).

Sensing ground speed works much like watching clouds. When you look up, you can usually tell which direction and how fast clouds are moving without calculating exact bearings or velocity. It’s about developing an intuitive feel. Try experimenting with different levels of focus to see what gives you the clearest sense of motion. Apply the same approach to the ground while under canopy: by scanning the terrain as you fly over it, you can better judge ground speed. Make this part of your regular scan to stay aware of your position.

Abeam
Understanding where to look ahead of you is important, but looking side to side is just as important for spatial and situational awareness. It’s similar to driving a car: Most of the time your eyes are on the road ahead, but sometimes you need to glance out the side windows. Abeam is a term used to describe the location of an external point relative to one’s parachute. It’s not a precise point, but rather a position alongside or abreast, directly to the left or right. A canopy pilot is abeam when their canopy’s span, from wingtip to wingtip, is aligned at a right angle with a reference point. This concept will be applied in future installments, particularly when discussing holding areas and landing patterns.

Bonus: Flare Timing and Glide Path
Understanding what glide path and viewing angle to expect can drastically improve flare initiation height and timing. As a general rule, when jumpers look below their glide slope, they tend to initiate the flare too early or high, while looking above it leads to flaring too late or too low. The flare should begin at the same height regardless of wind speed or direction. One common mistake happens on downwind finals. Because ground speed feels unusually fast, jumpers often apply the brakes too early or too high. In many cases, this is because they’re unintentionally looking below the glide slope. Training your eye to stay aligned with the correct sight picture helps ensure consistent, well-timed flares.

Information about AXIS’ coaching and instructional services is available at axisflightschool.com. The author intends this article to be an educational guideline. It is not a substitute for professional instruction.