? on wingloading

[guest]

I have been in, and heard a lot of discussion about flying a canopy on risers vs. toggles immediately following opening shock.

My question is; what effect does the wing loading have on these two approaches? At what point does a canopy become unresponsive when flown with the breaks stowed? How about in deep vs. shallow breaks?

Obviously there is no "set in stone" approach to this but I would to hear what people have to say.

joe c

[Tom B]

In my opinion:

If you have to use your toggles on opening shock (pre-pressurisation) because you claim that you are not getting any response from your risers you could have one of several problems:
- you brakes are set too deep.
- you are not giving an adequate input (pilot error).
- your canopy is NOT being pressurised properly or rapidly -> hence you are not getting any response from riser input as you wing has not been formed or is poorly formed. The second comment could be due to underloading your canopy, OR a poorly designed aerofoil, OR line trim problems (out of spec due to stretching or poor initial design or manufacture), OR fabric degradation, OR it could be due to localised wind conditions at opening height, etc.

I recommend riser input until you have a fully pressurised canopy flying away from the object you jumped from, then toggle input. WHY???? If you get to jump underhung objects on a regular basis you will appreciate the extra 0.25 seconds of time that you WILL waste going for your toggles.