Category G: Group Skills

Category G is where you start learning to jump with other people. In skydiving, that's called relative work (RW). It isn't just about flying your own body anymore. Now you have to fly relative to someone else, and do it safely.

You'll make three coached jumps in this category. Each one builds on the last.

Section 1: Exit and Freefall

Floater Exits

On a floater exit, you climb out of the airplane and set up outside before you leave. Groups use floater exits so everyone can leave together.

The Three Coached Jumps

• G1: Rear float and forward movement. You'll exit from the rear float position, then move forward in freefall to a soft, controlled dock on your coach.
• G2: Front float and fall rate. You'll exit from the front float position and practice speeding up and slowing down your fall rate. That's how you match the level of the people you're jumping with.
• G3: Putting it together. You'll choose the exit you need more practice on, front or rear float. Then you'll adjust your fall rate to get level and move forward to dock. This jump combines everything from G1 and G2.

Group Exits

For a clean group exit:

• Rear floaters leave "lazy," staying close to the fuselage.
• Front floaters push away from the fuselage to give everyone clear air.
• Everyone goes on a clear, even exit count.
• Your first flyaway is toward the line of flight, so you stay clear of the aircraft and other groups.

Every group exit has the same three parts as a solo exit:

• Setup: Know your exit position, including where your hands and feet go. Present your body to the relative wind in a neutral position, with or without grips.
• Launch: Go on the count. Leave in a neutral body position, facing the relative wind.
• Flyaway: Look across the center of the group at the other jumpers. Keeping eye contact keeps you close and stable, and it helps prevent funnels.

Forward Movement to Dock

Moving forward uses the same start-coast-stop idea you learned for turns in Category D.

• Start: Extend both legs. You'll tilt slightly head-low and start moving forward. Your legs do the work here, and your arms stay neutral. Small arm or leg adjustments keep you on heading.
• Coast: Return to neutral before you reach your coach. Your momentum keeps carrying you forward, like a car rolling after you take your foot off the gas. While you coast, watch your speed and distance so you know when to stop.
• Stop: Briefly extend both arms and push down slightly. Keep your legs neutral. Aim to stay level all the way to the grip. If you stop short, extend your legs a little to close the gap.

Docking means taking a grip, and on these jumps you'll take it on your coach's wrist. Once you have it, bring your elbows back to neutral, extend your feet slightly to keep a little forward pressure, and check your altitude. When there's no tension on the grip, loosen your hand and keep a soft connection.

Fall Rate and Getting Level

Your fall rate is how fast you're falling. On G2, you'll practice going up and down to match your coach. With a group, you have to be level with the formation before you dock. If you're not, you can't approach smoothly, and you risk running into someone from above or below.

Getting level uses start-coast-stop too:

• To go down: arch harder.
• To go up: flatten out like a plank.

With other people, you'll usually combine the two: get level first, then move forward into your slot (your spot in the formation), then dock.

Breakoff

Breakoff is when you turn and track away from your group so everyone has clear air to open. It happens on every group jump, at an altitude you plan before you board.

• Plan breakoff at least 1,500 feet (457 meters) above your planned deployment altitude.
• At breakoff, turn 180 degrees away from the center of the group, track, stop, and deploy. From the start of your turn to your pull should take about 8 seconds.
• Wave off and deploy at your planned altitude, even if the turn or the track didn't go well. Your pull priorities still come first. Breaking off and opening on time is always your job, with your coach now and with other jumpers after you're licensed.

Section 2: Canopy Control

Extending Your Glide

Extending your glide lets you cover more ground than full flight. You'll use it when you open far from the dropzone on a long spot.

Brakes and rear risers can both extend your glide. Wind strength, wind direction, and your canopy's design and size all change your glide path too. In this category, you'll practice with your toggles. (Rear risers come later, in your B-license canopy training.)

To find your projected landing point:

1. Pick a spot on the ground about 45 degrees in front of you and fly toward it for several seconds.
2. If the spot moves toward your toes, you'll fly past it.
3. If it rises toward your head, you won't make it there.
4. If it stays still in your view, that's your projected landing point. That's where you'll land.

To change your glide path:

1. Find your projected landing point in full flight.
2. Pull your toggles down a little and find your new projected landing point.
3. If the new point rises or moves farther away compared to the first one, your glide flattened and you'll cover more ground. If not, your glide got steeper and you'll cover less.

Turn Reversals with Max Rate of Turn

A turn reversal is a toggle turn one way, followed right away by a turn the other way, while keeping line tension and staying stable under the canopy. It's a canopy emergency procedure for avoiding a collision.

• The risk: If you switch directions too hard or too fast, you can put yourself in line twists. Practicing shows you how far and how fast you can go without that happening.
• Why it matters: If a collision is about to happen, you want to turn hard without twisting your lines. Collisions can happen anywhere in your canopy flight, but the risk goes up in the holding area and the pattern, where other jumpers are often watching the target instead of traffic.
• Altitude: Line twists at pattern altitude may not leave you time to fix them before you land, especially at a higher wing loading. So practice turn reversals above your decision altitude.

To practice: Make a smooth, deep turn of at least 90 degrees to the left. Then switch toggles smoothly but quickly into a 180-degree turn to the right. Only turn as fast as the canopy can stay balanced with tension on the lines. Surging, lurching, or line twists mean you went too fast. Expect the canopy to dive after a hard turn.

Accuracy

Pick a target in the landing area before you board, every jump. That way every landing is accuracy practice.

Section 3: Emergency Review

Rear-Riser Steering

Know where the jumpers near you are when you open, and use your rear risers to steer away from them. If you're headed straight at another canopy, both of you turn right. For more on collision avoidance, see the USPA procedures in Chapter 4-1 of the Skydiver's Information Manual (SIM).

Tree Landings

Your coach or instructor will ask you to walk through the tree-landing procedure you learned in your Category A first jump course.

Section 4: Equipment

Packing Your Main

By the end of this category, you should be able to pack at least one main without help.

Inspecting Your Gear

You should be able to look over your gear and spot the places that wear out. If you find something that needs work, tell your coach or instructor. Many repairs can only be done by an FAA rigger.

What to inspect:

• Pilot chute, bridle, and deployment handle
  • Broken stitching around the apex and where the pilot chute's fabric meets the mesh.
  • A secure bridle attachment point.
  • Damage to the fabric and mesh.
• Deployment bag
  • Distorted grommets, especially at the bridle, and fabric damage around them.
  • The loops that hold the line-stow rubber bands.
• Closing pin
  • Nicks or corrosion.
• Pilot-chute attachment
  • Wear where the bridle attaches to the canopy.
  • Broken stitching where the canopy is reinforced for the bridle attachment loop or ring.
• Parachute fabric
  • Small holes in the top skin where the bridle attaches.
  • Wear on the top skin and end cells from sharp objects or chemicals.
  • Wear around the stabilizer reinforcements that hold the slider stops.
  • Broken or missing stitching along the seams.
• Slider
  • Nicks or sharp edges in the grommets, and fabric pulling out of them.
  • Fabric damage.
• Lines
  • Wear anywhere, but especially where the slider grommets hit the metal connector links.
  • Shrinkage that makes lines different lengths.
• Slider bumpers and links
  • Damaged bumpers.
  • Bumpers tight on the link or tacked, so they can't slide up the lines and stop the slider.
  • Nicks and sharp edges on links you can reach, and links closed and tight.
  • Wear on soft links.
• Brake system
  • Wear on the lower steering lines.
  • Damage or wear on the toggle locking loops.
  • Toggle keepers and brake-line excess keepers in good shape.
  • Toggle keepers holding the toggles securely.
• Three-ring release system
  • Wear in the loops that hold the rings, and in the white retaining loop.
  • Wear or damage on the cutaway-cable housings, and broken or loose tacking.
  • Kinks in the cutaway cable where it goes through the white retaining loop.
  • Fraying or warping on the front and back of the riser webbing around the grommets.
  • Riser-housing inserts secure, and extra cutaway cable stowed in the riser housing.
• Riser covers
  • Tuck tabs fit and stay in their pockets.
  • The stiffener in the tuck tab isn't cracked or bent.
• Main-container closing grommets
  • Distortion, sharp edges, nicks, and fabric damage around the edges.
  • Badly distorted or broken plastic stiffener inside the fabric around the grommet.
• Main and reserve pin covers
  • Distorted plastic stiffeners.
• Reserve loop and pin
  • No fraying on the reserve loop.
  • The seal thread isn't broken.
  • Good condition on the reserve pin and grommet.

Storing Your Gear

Store your parachute somewhere cool, dry, and dark.

• Cars get too hot in the summer. Heat weakens AAD batteries and rubber bands.
• Sunlight breaks down nylon.
• Moisture corrodes hardware, and rust weakens nylon. Moisture also causes mildew, which damages nylon too.
• Many chemicals and acids damage parachute materials.

Section 5: Standard Operating Procedures

Rigger Maintenance

Only an FAA Senior or Master Rigger can maintain and repair a parachute system, and only a Master Rigger can do major repairs and alterations (FAR 65.125).

AAD Maintenance

If you have an AAD, it must be maintained according to the manufacturer's instructions (FAR 105.43.c).

Weather

Know the weather patterns where you jump. Dust devils and thunderstorms are especially dangerous for skydivers, and approaching fronts and storms can change wind speed and direction quickly.