Instructional

Two canopies out. more »

photos by Jeff Nebelkopf

In April 2010, fundraising and outreach organization Raise the Sky organized Project XRW (which stands for “extreme relative work”) to bring together the most highly skilled athletes in canopy piloting and wingsuiting to explore the interaction between the disciplines. After experiencing a growth of knowledge and several safe projects in various locations, Project XRW kicked off an expansion phase in January against the backdrop of Skydive Sebastian’s unspoiled Florida coastline and cloudless sky. The founding team members invited select highly experienced wingsuit pilots to join the group in flying with PD Factory Team canopy pilots Ian Bobo, Jessica Edgeington and Jonathan Tagle under their Performance Designs Velocity 71 parachutes. more »

Safety & Training Advisors spend a considerable amount of time telling people they shouldn’t be loading their canopies so heavily. But 90 percent of the time, jumpers don’t listen. Skydivers can have a bit of an ego, and many simply hear, “I think you’re a crappy canopy pilot who can’t handle a smaller wing.” So they downsize anyway and break their legs, backs and pelvises with some regularity. more »

What is angle flying? Ask 10 people at your drop zone this question, and you will likely get 10 different answers. Some will call it tracking, atmonauti or flocking. Others may call it tracing, zooming or even “the stuff Europeans do.” Each of those can be considered a type of angle flying. In the broadest, simplest and—hopefully—least controversial sense, angle flying encompasses any type of flying that is neither completely flat (parallel to the ground) nor completely vertical (90 degrees to the ground). It is an area of skydiving that people around the world have been exploring for years at varying levels of complexity, but it seems to be misunderstood and underutilized at many drop zones and by a large portion of skydivers. more »