Learn — canopy control inputs
Educational summaries from trusted sources (USPA SIM, Performance Designs, APF, BPA, Flight-1). This is background knowledge for reviewing your data — always train new inputs with a canopy coach, at altitude first, following your DZ and instructor guidance.
Front riser turns vs harness turns — what's the difference?
| Front riser turn | Harness turn | |
|---|---|---|
| Input | Pulling down one front riser lowers the leading edge on that side, reducing the angle of attack. | Shifting weight in the harness (lean to one side, lift the outside leg) tilts the wing without moving any lines. |
| What the wing does | The canopy dives and accelerates — you trade altitude for airspeed. Used in performance landings to build speed. | A gentle, flat-ish turn. The wing stays in more or less normal flight; slower turn rate, less altitude loss than risers. |
| Effort | Heavy at higher airspeeds (riser pressure grows with speed); can be hard to hold. | Light — body weight only. More effective on smaller, more heavily loaded canopies. |
| Typical uses (per the sources below) | Heading adjustments with speed, performance approaches trained progressively under coaching. | Small heading corrections without distorting the wing, staying in a group pattern, refining accuracy. |
| Key property | A front riser input can be released at any point and the canopy returns toward normal flight — unlike a low toggle turn, which commits you. | Minimal change to airspeed and recovery arc; the least "disturbing" input on the wing. |
Rear riser landings — what the guidance says
- What it is: flaring with the rear risers instead of toggles. Rears act on the tail section directly and stall the wing at a much shallower input than toggles.
- When it's used: primarily as an emergency option — e.g. a broken steering line or toggle discovered too low to safely cut away — and by experienced swoopers as a trained technique during the first phase of high-speed landings.
- USPA guidance: practice rear-riser flares up high on that specific canopy on a routine jump before ever needing one; stop practice by 2,000 ft to focus on the landing pattern; be ready for a PLF (parachute landing fall).
- Why caution: the rear-riser stall point comes with little warning and small input range — this is exactly the kind of skill to build with a coach, at altitude, long before it's needed.
Building canopy skills — the widely-taught progression
- Know your wing up high: practice flares, slow flight, riser and harness inputs at altitude every time you change canopy or size (USPA "four basic tools").
- Fly a consistent pattern: the data in this app (altitude gates, landing offset, final heading stability) is exactly what pattern consistency looks like in numbers.
- Compare against yourself: the Compare page scores each jump against your own baseline — steadier finals and landings closer to your usual area show up immediately.
- Structured coaching: canopy courses (e.g. Flight-1 101/102) are the standard route to performance flight — data review supports coaching, it never replaces it.
Flight-1 (PD Factory Team) — canopy tutorials
Canopy piloting — carved speed course
Competition swooping — what trained gates look like.
Safety notice: This tool is for data review only. It does not replace canopy coaching, DZ rules, traffic awareness, S&TA guidance, or manufacturer guidance.