October 2011

Brought to you by Brianne Thompson of AXIS Flight School at Skydive Arizona in Eloy with Thomas Hughes of Arizona Airspeed. Photos by Niklas Daniel. more »

Q:

What is the purpose of a cross-braced canopy design, and should I consider buying one? more »

An open canopy is a tempting target for many wingsuit flyers. But any buzzing attempt gone awry would spell disaster for the wingsuiter and the canopy pilot. And it doesn’t take a Rhodes Scholar to figure out that a collision between a wingsuiter and a tandem pair under canopy could easily up the fatality count to three. more »

*High-resolution files of the picture below are now available for download within the article.*

In this composite photo, a student experiences a rough landing after flaring too high and too quickly. This is one of the more common landing errors that students and newly licensed jumpers make. Once a jumper realizes that he has begun his flare too high, he should stop the flare and hold the toggles where they are (or, if he is at full arm extension, he can let up on the toggles slightly). He should then finish his flare at the correct altitude and perform a parachute landing fall. A jumper can best judge when to flare by focusing on a point on the ground midway toward the horizon, rather than a point directly below. more »

Until recently, skydiving’s medal-winning competitors received accolades within the pages of Parachutist and from friends and family but earned little other attention. Two years ago, USPA initiated a campaign to notify local and regional hometown media—including newspapers, radio and TV—that their hometown man or woman was a national champion, or in the case of world meets, an international champion. The effort was an astounding success, creating local celebrities and generating countless pages, video and airtime of positive skydiving coverage. The medalist’s DZ often gained positive media attention, too. more »