{"id":44135,"date":"2023-02-22T16:02:28","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T16:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/?p=44135"},"modified":"2023-03-13T10:03:07","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T10:03:07","slug":"brian-vacher-on-canopy-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/brian-vacher-on-canopy-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian Vacher on Canopy Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Brian Vacher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Brian Vacher, National Canopy Piloting Champion, PDFT legacy member and Flight-1 Instructor, has been coaching canopy skills for twenty years. The last two decades have seen unprecedented and extreme development in wing technology. Brian, and Flight-1, have had to adapt to each new challenge with their education program. We caught up with him to ask how on earth they keep up\u2026<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Brian in action<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Brian, tell me a little bit about Flight-1 and your role<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Flight-1 is a great \u2018coming together\u2019 of original companies such as Freedom of Flight<\/em>, the PD Factory Team<\/em> and the Safe Flight School,<\/em> inspired by early canopy coaching promoters such as Scott Miller. Our professional careers as canopy instructors started in the early 2000s although officially Flight-1 is now enjoying its 17th<\/sup> year of business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am one of the owners, a sport and military instructor for Flight-1. I manage the development of the sport and military curricula, constantly developing best practice through the content each curriculum provides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why do we need formal canopy education?   <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Compared to other sports, skydiving is in its infancy. If we go back only two or three decades, truly high-performance canopies were only just starting to emerge. The crazy \u201cswooper\u201d was jumping a 190 or 170 square foot canopy. There is a divide between the speed our wings have developed and the education that is necessary to fly and land them successfully. To develop these skills, we must see ourselves as flying a wing rather than a parachute, due to the airspeeds and descent rates involved. We now need education and skill development in the same way as if we flew a fixed wing aircraft. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a divide between the speed our wings have developed and the education that is necessary to fly and land them successfully<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Landing together on an air-to-air coaching jump <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Is there a big disparity between what skydivers pay on freefall coaching compared to canopy coaching, if so, why?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Historically investment focus had mainly been on freefall skills or specialised canopy flight such as accuracy and canopy relative work. In 2003 the world canopy piloting competitions changed this, showing what was possible with \u201cmainstream\u201d canopies. The necessity to shift the focus onto canopy skills was first realised by the military, as effective canopy flight was the jump profile they needed the most. Slowly this shift is being echoed in the sport world as skydivers realise the importance of a more balanced investment across both their freefall and canopy skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the biggest misunderstanding about canopy flight? <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

There are lots of misunderstandings about the physics involved, which has led to many myths and false information to be circulated over the years. An example being that atmospheric wind causes the canopy to do something. With the exception of turbulence, the canopy behaves exactly the same in all conditions. This means the flare is the same every time, the altitude loss and recovery of an input is the same each time and most of all, the crosswind did not cause that uneven flare!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the piece of advice about canopy control that you repeat most often? <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Trust the system and trust the correct flare technique. If you ask the canopy to do something \u2013 it will do it. If you give up flying the canopy, your body will have to deal with the result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Flight-1 2022 Forum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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How many Flight-1 instructors do you have around the world and how do you ensure they teach to the same standard? <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We have around 45 active instructors around the world. The recruitment process is extensive. Aside from minimum jump numbers, there is an interview process, a requirement to demonstrate teaching skills and then an instructor course which the candidate must pass. The first live course is evaluated and only then can you start your first two years of probation as a Flight-1 instructor. The company also employs the Continuous Instructor Training Program (CITP). Each instructor (including the old guys such as myself) is evaluated on live courses each year and feedback is given openly on a regular basis between instructors working the same course. There is a strong feeling of representation and of what it means to be a part of the F1 organisation across the cadre. We adopted this approach from the top-level military units we work with. Finally, the individual curriculum each instructor is working with guides the progression with the student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you choose your Flight-1 instructors? What qualities are important to you?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We look for the complete package. The candidate needs experience, strong teaching and flying skills, honesty and integrity. Most of all they must fit within our Flight-1 five Core Values. https:\/\/flight-1.com\/about<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How have you seen canopies progress since you started jumping? <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, the development of the canopies has kept my love for the sport. Through my career as a canopy pilot, I have seen a big leap in performance every few years which has forced me to retrain and re-think. This started with my involvement in canopy piloting competitions with the first World Cup back in 2003 and the introduction of the Competition Velocity and, more recently, ultra-performance wings such as the Peregrine and the development of the Mutant harness. Exposure to the military environment where larger wings are flown (normally 300-400 square foot canopies) and their attitude and respect to smaller canopies in the 190-230 square foot range, really puts into perspective how wrong the attitude towards downsizing in the sport skydiving world can be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is canopy education keeping up?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We believe we are. We are constantly developing our curricula and constructing them so that it is easy for people to understand what their progression could and should be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did you revisit the Flight-1 series of curricula?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Our first real look at the development of formal curricula started way back in 2009. This was a rework of combining the then-current curriculums of the Safe Flight School<\/em> and the PD Factory Team<\/em>. It was an extensive amount of work. This 2012 curriculum, re-worked slightly each year, provided a framework for our instructors to use for the subsequent 8-10 years. Back in 2019, we again started a complete re-vamp and new design as we consistently asked ourselves how it could be improved. Breaking it down the development of the pilot into more manageable steps We also wanted to take advantage of new 3D modelling technology, from which Joe Jumper<\/em> was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Joe Jumper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Who or what is \u2018Joe Jumper\u2019?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Joe is a technically correct 3D model of a pilot and a nine-cell canopy. Once created, the technology allowed us to zoom in and out of the system, rotating it so it could be viewed from any aspect. We can zoom in on Joe\u2019s shoelace or line attachment point or zoom out to view the complete system from any desired angle. We can program Joe to create inputs in the exact same way as a real parachute system, showing how the canopy and pilot moves through the air. We can show the student any desired point of view of how a parachute system moves before they perform the exercises themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Joe Jumper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The new curricula is separated into four series, what is the aim of each? <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We offer several series in both military and sport parachuting. Each series contains around 3 courses. The sport series are as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n