Canopy transition for downsizing

Ericakeeley

The only thing I could do with front risers on the navigator was a pull up.

This is one of the topics you learn in a canopy course:

Go slowly into full break, then in the moment when you stop hearing the wind, quickly grab your front riser loops and pull them down.

You will change the angle of attack by pulling them down and increase your forward speed, however this means also that your decentrate is also increasing ( the trim is steeper in this moment)



Any experienced canopy pilot can correct me on this.

Ericakeeley

1) Wingloading on a 190 is 0.76, on a 170 it is 0.85
2) I think the main reason for my history of PLF's is mental. I psych myself out and PLF landings that afterwards I KNOW I could have just stood up (honestly I've been doing a lot of personal development since beginning this skydiving journey to get over a defeatist attitude) with a mix of bad flare timing.
3) Otherwise my approach and pattern have been pretty good. Learning to make adjustments by the conditions instead of relying on altitude cues only and making progress on accuracy.
4)the 190 didn't feel out of control, it was notably faster but not in a "omg I can't handle this" kind of way. I really wish I got more jumps in but the end of the season weather was not cooperative in the least.

Ok, those all sound in the 'reasonable' range.

I'm seriously opposed to radical downsizing, but I don't see what you want to do as that.

When I started, it wasn't uncommon for people with under 100 jumps to move to fully elliptical canopies, loaded well above 1:1. They were told to 'be careful', and off they went. Some (not all, not even most) got hurt. A few died.
Many later realized how foolish & dangerous their choices were. By the end of the '0s', enough people had made the statistics that USPA embarked on a campaign to encourage reasonable & responsible downsizing. I recently found the "Femur is NOT a verb' poster they put out (anyone else remember that one?).
A good friend of mine started jumping a 170 Diablo, loaded around 1.4:1 at less than 100 jumps. He had the approval of instructors & an S&TA at my old DZ to do so. He did ok on it, but went to a Crossfire2 a few years and a few hundred jumps later. The Diablo was hard to swoop, and he wanted to do that. 15 jumps on the XFire and he misjudged it, plowed into the ground. Double femur (one compound) & pelvis.

In your case, you are not using a high performance canopy. In planform or in size. Depending on a few other factors, it may be an ok move.

And when I was jumping the Manta, the only way I could get the fronts to come down at all (I could do pullups on one or both) was to do it before popping the brakes. It was part of the A-License card and that was what I was given as a suggestion to do.

If a person is doing "pull-ups" on the front risers, they are being pulled down. It may not feel like you're pulling the fronts down, but if you are going up, then so are your rear risers relative to the fronts, so the same thing happens.

At least that is how I see it, correct me if wrong.

sundevil777

If a person is doing "pull-ups" on the front risers, they are being pulled down. It may not feel like you're pulling the fronts down, but if you are going up, then so are your rear risers relative to the fronts, so the same thing happens.

At least that is how I see it, correct me if wrong.

The rears were going slack.
They weren't going up.

Try to find a female instructor or canopy coach, preferably close to your size to evaluate the situation.  A bunch of people on the internet who have never flown a canopy at close to your size do not know what it's like.  

I don't know if you're ready or not, but I do know that someone who has never skydived at under 180 lbs cannot know how docile a lightly elliptical 170 can be at a .85ish wing loading.  (Just as we cannot know what a 170 feels like at a 1.2 wing loading.)  It also can be difficult for them to truly realize the added challenges involved trying to do all things on the checklist can be when you are loading at .7, particularly when this means you are wise to stand down even (and be less current) in many conditions when it's still reasonably safe for other newbies.

Regardless, if you're going to be off for awhile, get another low bulk demo 190 to fly first so that you are current and aren't forcing yourself into a situation you aren't comfortable with.  (For example, the aerodyne pilot if you can't do another on a pulse.)  It sounded like you traveled to where the demo canopy was before, but you should be able to order one to be mailed to you when your season starts and they usually give you two weeks.