Your Glide Path: Where Will You Actually Land?
Accuracy starts with one skill: knowing where your canopy is taking you. Once you can see your glide path, you stop guessing on final.
What is a glide path?
Your canopy is always moving forward and down at the same time. The line it traces through the air to the ground is your glide path.
Where that line meets the ground is where you'll land, unless something changes it.
Two things change it
Wind
Flying into the wind slows you over the ground, so your glide path gets steeper and you land shorter. Flying with the wind does the opposite.
Your inputs
What you do with your hands changes your forward speed and your descent rate. A little rear riser stretches your glide. Brakes slow you down and keep you in the air longer, so into the wind your glide gets shorter, but with the wind it can get longer, because the wind has more time to carry you.
How to see it from under your canopy
You can't see a line in the sky, but you can see its result. Fly in one direction for several seconds and look out ahead of you. One spot on the ground isn't moving up or down in your view. That spot is where your glide path meets the ground. The SIM calls it your projected landing point (PLP).
You don't have to wait until final. Start looking for it in your holding area, while you still have altitude to practice.
Everything else is moving. Spots that rise toward the horizon, you'll land short of. Spots that sink toward your feet, you'll fly past.
Try It
Pick a direction, a wind and a canopy input. Watch your glide path from the side, and how the same approach looks from under your canopy.
The spot that stays still in your view is where you'll land.
Spots that rise toward the horizon, you'll land short of. Spots that sink toward your feet, you'll fly past.
Numbers are illustrative for a typical student canopy, not a specific model. Each run covers 300 ft of altitude.
Use it on your next jump
This builds on Canopy Drill #1 from Category G of the USPA SIM, where you compare your PLP in full flight and at different amounts of brakes.
- In your holding area, fly in one direction for several seconds. Look out ahead of you, not straight down.
- Find the spot on the ground that isn't moving. That's where your glide path meets the ground.
- Turn and try it again flying into the wind and with it. Watch how much closer or farther that spot is.
- On final, compare the still spot to your target. If the target is rising, you'll land short. If it's sinking toward your feet, you'll land long.
Still a student? Talk with your instructor before using rear risers or brakes on final to adjust your landing.