- Hey, in this video let's talk about five ways
for you to use your steering toggles or brakes
the right way.
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Hey there, this is Catherine Bernier
from Skydive Vibes sharing the passion of skydiving
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So, not long ago I was reminded about five ways really
we can use our toggles whether for steering or braking,
but by knowing those we get safer piloting our canopy.
So, I wanted to share those five ways with you.
The first one, simple is to turn.
So, those toggles are also of course our steering toggles.
So, this is how you'll be able to do your turns
in the sky and control your canopy.
Now the amount of force that you pull your toggles with
will have an impact on how fast you are going to turn
but also how much altitude you're gonna lose
because the more you pull, the more altitude you lose.
The second way is flat turns.
Now, those are very important on the safety side
because like I said when you pull hard on the toggle
you end up losing a lot of altitude while turning fast.
So, if you want to remain safe,
especially under 2,500 feet, we want to make sure
that our turns are conservative so that
we're not losing as much altitude.
So, flat turns is simply using your toggles to turn
but you pull it gently so that your turns
are not making you lose too much altitude.
The third way to use your toggles is for flaring.
So, as they are helping you to steer in the sky
they are also helping you to slow down your canopy
enough when it's time for you to land.
So, this is called flaring and when we're landing
we want to coordinate that flare to a perfect timing
to reach the ground softly.
As we use flaring to land softly, you can reuse
the same technique but up in the sky
and that's what we call stalling your canopy.
And that's an exercise you should do to get to know
your canopy better.
So, it's simply that you're gonna do a full flare
in the sky above 2,500 feet of course to be safe.
So, we're doing it, a full flare and you stay there
fully-extended until your canopy stalls.
And what will happen is that your canopy
will most likely fold in half and you're gonna lose
all the pressure in it and so you're gonna feel
yourself go backward and this is explained
by the fact that your canopy is not supporting you
anymore so you're getting back into free fall a little bit.
You want to make sure to release your toggles slowly
even though you're stressed and your heart squeezes
for your canopy to regain its pressure and speed.
If you're releasing your toggle to fast,
you might end up with line twists
and put yourself in a situation that
you don't necessarily want to be.
So, stalling your canopy above 2,500 feet
is a good way for you to get to know your stalling point
because you don't want to reach it while you're landing.
So, make sure to know where it stands
with your canopy and your weight and this way
you'll be safer in your landings as well.
If you're a newer skydiver jumping a very large canopy
for your weight, you might have some hard time
to stall your canopy in the air and the reason is
you're not loading it enough.
If you end up not being able to stall your canopy
you might want to turn your brake lines
a turn or two to repeat the procedure
in order to see if at that point you can stall your canopy.
If you need to roll your lines around your hands
it means that your stalling point is late enough
for you to land safely every time,
but the optimum stalling point will be
right after your landing.
Now, let me know in the comments below,
what is your experience stalling your canopy?
Were you able to recover slowly,
not having any line twist or maybe it was very shaky
when you recovered?
Let me know below.
The fourth way for you to use your toggles
is to slow down your decent rate,
especially when you're preparing to enter
in your landing pattern, you might see other canopies
that are faster and losing more altitude while flying,
so you might want to let them go before you
in the landing pattern.
So, to do that you simply need to pull your brakes
a little bit, maybe halfway to slow down your decent rate.
This way those faster canopy can get into the pattern
earlier and you will be able after that to be alone
or almost alone in your landing pattern.
This is a great way to focus on your landing
and avoid any possible intersection or collisions
in the landing pattern.
Finally, the fifth way for you to use your toggle
is also the best way to do your landing pattern
and it's half break.
This is the best position you can be
in your landing pattern before your final leg.
And the reason is that at that point you can always
either go faster or slower.
So, if you need to do modification to your flight path
in order to reach your target.
Well, you can always adjust your decent brake
with your toggles.
So, flying half break is the best way to fly
in your landing pattern in your first and second leg,
but in final what you want to do is always
go all the way up until you're ready to flare
because you want to disrupt your canopy flight
the less possible in final.
This is how you're gonna get your best landings.
So, let it fly, hands up all the way up
and simply start your flare at the right time.
And at that point when you enter your final leg
you always need to already know where you're gonna land.
So, all the adjustments you need to do to reach your target
should be done prior to this moment.
And if at the end you need minor correction,
you might consider using your harness to correct
the path of your flight a little bit
but always keep your hands up.
This is not the best time to use your toggle.
Now, if you'd like to get some tips on how to improve
your landings specifically, you can click here
and watch the video about five tips
to improve your landing skills.
All right, so I hope our liked this video.
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And on that, be safe out there.
Keep jumping of course and blue skies.